Youtube vs. Adblockers
Copy and pasting from Reddit user Mike J Smith on the Reddit page for ublock origin, an adblocker extension:
Condensed Update for Newcomers:
- YT is making a concerted anti-adblock push via a tattler script tied to a "3 strikes and you're out" style warning message.
- Each time you click on a video that WOULD have shown you ads, the tattler script detects that you blocked it and you're given a warning popup. This can be X'ed out of quickly, it's just a warning.
- After 3 warnings on a given account, it no longer allows you to close the warning popup, thus acting as a soft block on that YT account until YT's tattler script no longer detects ad-block running. As of right now, it does not lock your other Google services and it does not count as a traditional account ban.
- To protect the new tattler script from our jamming efforts, YT is also updating it at least once a day and sometimes multiple times, basically trying to force us into a war of attrition in coding hours. This naturally has put a MASSIVE strain on the volunteer team and will probably result in extended outages on YT as they try to keep up. They are holding their own, but just barely.
- None of the uBO team are paid for this, they are volunteers with day jobs. The success of their efforts will depend largely on what YouTube decides to do next, because fighting their legions of paid coders off indefinitely would be impossible. If YouTube wants to kill adblock forever with sheer force, it's within their power - we are all hoping they're just "shaking the tree" to see what falls out and they'll stop once their accountants are satisfied.
- The soft block is only tied to the individual account, not the IP. Thus, FreeTube still works fine and you can still view videos logged out. If you export your history, subs and playlists to Freetube, the only thing you've really lost is your ability to comment. I miss it, but not enough to give $20 a month to a pack of scavenging vultures.
So What Do I Do Now???
Look at the original post in the original thread, find the bold headline midway down that says "I followed the 4 steps, but I'm still experiencing issues". Directly below that is a line that says "The latest fix for anti-adblock was made on [date] and currently corresponds to ID [xxxxxxx]".
The ID refers to the version of YouTube's tattler script that it is capable of defeating. Compare that number to the bottom line on this list: https://pastefy.app/G1Txv5su/raw. The listings look like: "https://www.youtube.com/s/desktop/ea2534f4/jsbin/desktop_polymer_css_polymer_serving_disabled.vflset/desktop_polymer_css_polymer_serving_disabled.js". The bolded portion is the ID number you want to compare it to.
If the numbers are the same, then the tattler has been temporarily neutralized by the volunteer team. Once you purge and update your caches, soft locked accounts will be open again and no warnings will be issued. Use it while you can. Don't forget to purge & update or it won't work.
If the numbers don't match, the volunteer team hasn't caught up yet and the tattler script is still active. You will still be warned and soft-blocked. Give them 4-5 hours to catch up.
