YouTube Ads

[Moonchild]

Having said that, if you want to point me to the section of the forum to voluntarily unsubscribe (I haven't found it).
I will be happy to cancel my presence from this forum.

Let me take care of that for you.

[Anon27]

If your lists are lacking, try these rules:

Code: Select all

! Block youtube ads
=adunit&$domain=youtube.com
log_event?$domain=youtube.com
/pagead/lvz?$domain=youtube.com
||gstatic.com/youtube/img/promos/*$domain=youtube.com
||accounts.google.com*$script,domain=youtube.com
||tpc.googlesyndication.com^$domain=youtube.com
||youtube.com/get_midroll_
||youtube.com/api/stats/atr
||youtube.com/api/stats/qoe?
||youtube.com/pagead/*
||youtube.com/ptracking
youtube.com###masthead-ad
youtube.com##.ytd-promoted-sparkles-web-renderer.style-scope
youtube.com##+js(set-constant, playerResponse.adPlacements, undefined)
youtube.com##+js(set-constant, ytInitialPlayerResponse.adPlacements, undefined)
youtube.com##+js(json-prune, [].playerResponse.adPlacements [].playerResponse.playerAds playerResponse.adPlacements playerResponse.playerAds adPlacements playerAds)
youtube.com##ytd-companion-slot-renderer.ytd-player-legacy-desktop-watch-ads-renderer.style-scope

Didn't work, but thanx anyway.

BTW, I'm not sure if this has already been reported, but the problem I'm having is not exclusive to Pale Moon and other Firefox-family browsers. My Google Chrome 87.0.4280.66 with AdBlock 4.24.1 is having the exact same problem.

[Kasane]

I'm going to give my two cents about the problem while ignoring the unrelated drama about Windows and similar crap.

PM 28.16 for macOS + uBO Legacy + all of the filters available enable work perfectly fine on my end. Played VEVO videos with millions of views, no-name videos with only 100 views, 3 hour long videos about different stuff and even the test videos posted here, and no ad appeared on any of them. So whatever you're experiencing is a matter of updating your ad filters and maybe even adding new ones. On uBO's settings panel go to your filters lists tab and clear the cache, then select all filter lists except for the country-specific ones (or include them as well, it doesn't really matter) and press refresh. Now go to PM's settings panel > Privacy and clear all cookies related to Youtube and Google. If this doesn't work, enable uBO's advanced mode, open a video with ads and use its matrix to block any domain that looks suspicious (googletagmanager, syndication, adsense and similar stuff) until the ads disappear. Don't forget to press the lock icon after finishing so the changes are saved.

For the people using Adblock, Adblock Plus and similar stuff, I suggest you to replace these extensions with uBlock Origin (https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock-for-firefox-legacy/releases). It has superior blocking features, and most importantly, it doesn't allow "acceptable ads" from companies that bribed their way into being part of that list, something Adblock and Adblock Plus do. AB/ABP users should look in their settings if these ad blockers aren't whitelisting Google/Youtube's ads, and then either change it so they get blocked or move to uBO.

Anyways, regardless of what you do I recommend to drop Youtube's site and use a different front end like Invidious (check invidio.us for a list of instances) or Freetube (an open source desktop client for Youtube) since Youtube perform poorly on Pale Moon (at least on my end) "thanks" to their use of Webcomponents and similar stuff. Another alternative is streaming videos on media players like VLC and MPC.

[Kasane]

My Google Chrome 87.0.4280.66 with AdBlock 4.24.1 is having the exact same problem.

Disable or remove AdBlock and install uBlock Origin and then try again with and without the filters suggested.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Funny how I don't get ads on ABPrime currently.

[Isengrim]

For the people using Adblock, Adblock Plus and similar stuff, I suggest you to replace these extensions with uBlock Origin (https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock-for-firefox-legacy/releases). It has superior blocking features, and most importantly, it doesn't allow "acceptable ads" from companies that bribed their way into being part of that list, something Adblock and Adblock Plus do.

It's important to note that the Pale Moon-specific derivatives of AdBlock Plus, namely ABL and ABPrime, do not engage in this behavior.

[ron_1]

Was there anything wrong with the filter rules Sampei Nihira supplied? Also is there more here to the story? He asked to have his forum account canceled, but got banned instead. Just wondering.

[Sessh]

Just for another data point, I use uBo and eMatrix and never see ads on Youtube. I've not had to monkey around with adding filters or anything to achieve that. Have used both in tandem for years.

[Goodydino]

Those filter lines did help with the speed of YouTube access, especially with SeaMonkey. Pale Moon with YouTube has gotten slow enough to be frustrating.

[moonbat]

He asked to have his forum account canceled, but got banned instead. Just wondering.

It's probably the same thing where phpBB is concerned, since his comments remain where they are.

[Anon27]

Funny how I don't get ads on ABPrime currently.

It's important to note that the Pale Moon-specific derivatives of AdBlock Plus, namely ABL and ABPrime, do not engage in this behavior.

Should I replace AdBlock Latitude with ABPrime?

Was there anything wrong with the filter rules Sampei Nihira supplied? Also is there more here to the story? He asked to have his forum account canceled, but got banned instead. Just wondering.

@ron-1, you were one of the people reporting the same problem as I am having, only you reported that many months (and PM iterations) ago. Are you still seeing the absence of an ad (or sometimes the absence of two ads) before the videos? If not, how did you overcome this problem?

To answer your question, as far as my limited knowledge goes, there is nothing wrong with these filter rules, they simply didn't resolve my problem =/

PM 28.16 for macOS + uBO Legacy + all of the filters available enable work perfectly fine on my end. Played VEVO videos with millions of views, no-name videos with only 100 views, 3 hour long videos about different stuff and even the test videos posted here, and no ad appeared on any of them. So whatever you're experiencing is a matter of updating your ad filters and maybe even adding new ones. On uBO's settings panel go to your filters lists tab and clear the cache, then select all filter lists except for the country-specific ones (or include them as well, it doesn't really matter) and press refresh. Now go to PM's settings panel > Privacy and clear all cookies related to Youtube and Google. If this doesn't work, enable uBO's advanced mode, open a video with ads and use its matrix to block any domain that looks suspicious (googletagmanager, syndication, adsense and similar stuff) until the ads disappear. Don't forget to press the lock icon after finishing so the changes are saved.


For the people using Adblock, Adblock Plus and similar stuff, I suggest you to replace these extensions with uBlock Origin (https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock-for-firefox-legacy/releases). It has superior blocking features, and most importantly, it doesn't allow "acceptable ads" from companies that bribed their way into being part of that list, something Adblock and Adblock Plus do. AB/ABP users should look in their settings if these ad blockers aren't whitelisting Google/Youtube's ads, and then either change it so they get blocked or move to uBO.

I asked @moonbat why uBlock Origin is better than ABP family, but I never got an answer on that other than "uBlock doesn't incur a startup delay for the browser since it is a bootstrapped extension", which I did not understand since I never experienced any apparent startup delay with ABP/ABL and I'm told ABL 4+ is also a bootstrapped extension (though I don't know what that means either). If you have any other arguments for why uBO is the superior adblocker I am keen to hearing them, although, if I am allowed to refute the one argument you did provide without sounding offensive or bellicose (I assure you I mean no disrespect), AB original and ABP have always provided a simple and easy way to opt out of their non-invasive ads whitelist, whereas in ABL, as noted by @Isengrim, you would have to opt into such whitelist (and do so manually, since it is not even on the "add a different subscription" list offered by the UI).

Anyways, regardless of what you do I recommend to drop Youtube's site and use a different front end like Invidious (check invidio.us for a list of instances) or Freetube (an open source desktop client for Youtube) since Youtube perform poorly on Pale Moon (at least on my end) "thanks" to their use of Webcomponents and similar stuff. Another alternative is streaming videos on media players like VLC and MPC.

Invidious has been discontinued, but thanx for the tip. I don't have any complaints regarding YouTube's performance on my PM 28.16.0 x64 (OS Win7), and I actually like my YT cookies, though I totally get why most people don't.

Just for another data point, I use uBo and eMatrix and never see ads on Youtube. I've not had to monkey around with adding filters or anything to achieve that. Have used both in tandem for years.

I emerged from my previous conversation with @moonbat under the impression that eMatrix is more trouble than it's worth for my user profile, though that was admittedly a very brief conversation and I would be interested in hearing more about it (esp since you seem to be implying it is actually easy to use). Honestly, I don't want to block everything that is not first party (in part because I'm still in the dark as to what the problem with CDNs is, and in part because a lot of what ABL recognises as third-party is actually first party, so I dread eMatrix would do the same), I just want to block things that actually inconvenience me. One of this things is what I'm referring to as the absence of an ad, which I've started seeing before YouTube videos; it's not an ad, so updating the filters does not work — no suspicious script is passing through, it is something within the YT code, it displays the insertion where an ad should be even though there is no ad. I've tried manually blocking each script and XML requisition in the page and reloading it, but when the page reloaded, if it was not broken, the absence of an ad would still appear; maybe I'd have to block more than one script at once, or maybe it's just something beyond my very limited capacity, but I'm quite positive it's not something third party, and I know for a fact it's not something that can be resolved by updating my filters. If I were to migrate from ABL to uBO, would I loose all my filter preferences and custom filters and filter history? From what I'm told, if I were to migrate to ABPrime instead, it seems that I wouldn't.

[Kasane]

I asked @moonbat why uBlock Origin is better than ABP family, but I never got an answer on that other than "uBlock doesn't incur a startup delay for the browser since it is a bootstrapped extension", which I did not understand since I never experienced any apparent startup delay with ABP/ABL and I'm told ABL 4+ is also a bootstrapped extension (though I don't know what that means either). If you have any other arguments for why uBO is the superior adblocker I am keen to hearing them, although, if I am allowed to refute the one argument you did provide without sounding offensive or bellicose (I assure you I mean no disrespect), AB original and ABP have always provided a simple and easy way to opt out of their non-invasive ads whitelist, whereas in ABL, as noted by @Isengrim, you would have to opt into such whitelist (and do so manually, since it is not even on the "add a different subscription" list offered by the UI).

For starters, uBO doesn't have any kind of whitelist for "acceptable ads". Is the user who can choose to allow or block ads as much as they want.
Additionally, uBO is capable of blocking way more elements than just ads. You can block any visible part of a website using its element picker, block scripts from being loaded (or disable javascript on the site with one click), block media like videos and images, block connections to individual domains, and more, all with a simple grid-like UI. It's a really advanced tool that gives you a lot of power over how sites load, and if this sounds too much to you its basic mode (enabled by default) is enough to block 95% of the ads, more than what other add-ons do by default.

Invidious has been discontinued, but thanx for the tip. I don't have any complaints regarding YouTube's performance on my PM 28.16.0 x64 (OS Win7), and I actually like my YT cookies, though I totally get why most people don't.

Only the main instance (invidio.us) was discontinued, and now it displays a list of alternative working instances. I personally use Yewtu.be and Invidious.tube.

[Sessh]

I emerged from my previous conversation with @moonbat under the impression that eMatrix is more trouble than it's worth for my user profile, though that was admittedly a very brief conversation and I would be interested in hearing more about it (esp since you seem to be implying it is actually easy to use).

It's an advanced tool and it's not really easy to use for a novice. By default, it allows all first party scripts while blocking all second and third party scripts by default. It will almost certainly break most websites you visit the first time (to varying degrees) and it requires you to "train" it by tinkering with enabling second party scripts to get the site working well enough to be usable. Once you get it right, you can click the padlock icon to save the changes which will be remembered automatically every subsequent time you visit that site. In other words, you only have to do this once for each site you visit provided you save the changes afterwards.

For example, Youtube:

Untitled.jpg

..where the green boxes are things I enabled. Googlevideo is second party and must be enabled for YT videos to load and be played and gstatic must be enabled for YT to function properly as well on some of it's pages. CSS and Image are enabled by default for 2nd party, but nothing else. Both googlevideo and gstatic are second party which, when enabled, are then treated like first party scripts. The isolated google.com green boxes need to be allowed for log in to be successful.

mlb.com

Untitled 2.jpg

Untitled 3.jpg

.. where you see the things I had to green light to make the site work and all the other things that didn't. Of course, you can also click the power button at the top to turn it off completely which will cause the site to load as normal which is sometimes necessary to make everything appear that you need to allow. It comes with a steep learning curve, but it's very effective if you can get through that. Some sites are way more complicated than those two.

uBo does a lot of the same things, but I like being able to "zap" problematic elements on pages sometimes. For example, a popup window appears telling me to sign up to a site in the middle of reading the page. With uBo, I can block that element permanently or temporarily on an individual basis. I find they both work well together, but I wouldn't call it "easy" especially with eMatrix.

[moonbat]

uBO is more honest by being entirely supported by its author and not accepting any monetary contributions, let alone acceptable ads. Forgot to mention this (it was the reason I switched from ABL years ago when they first introduced acceptable ads).

One of this things is what I'm referring to as the absence of an ad, which I've started seeing before YouTube videos;

That's the empty space on the page where an ad would've been before it was blocked. AFAIK, ABL doesn't support removing the HTML used to render the ad itself (as opposed to simply blocking retrieval of the ad image/script). uBO does this using element hiding rules, and has plenty of subscriptions for these as well on Filterlists.

I asked @moonbat why uBlock Origin is better than ABP family, but I never got an answer on that other than "uBlock doesn't incur a startup delay for the browser since it is a bootstrapped extension", which I did not understand since I never experienced any apparent startup delay with ABP/ABL and I'm told ABL 4+ is also a bootstrapped extension (though I don't know what that means either).

The more lists and filters you have, the more it increases startup delay for the other adblockers. Other than this, uBO has the smallest memory footprint/resource usage compared to the rest.

If I were to migrate from ABL to uBO, would I loose all my filter preferences and custom filters and filter history? From what I'm told, if I were to migrate to ABPrime instead, it seems that I wouldn't.

Correct. The popular filter lists like EasyList are available for all adblockers but you'd have to maybe recreate your filters in uBO. ABPrime is mentioned as a drop in replacement for ABL and will retain all the settings.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Uhh moronbat, neither Adblock Latitude nor ABPrime have the Acceptable Ads bullshit. It was literally the first thing I removed when I created ABL 3.0 and ABPrime (as ABL 3.5).

https://repo.palemoon.org/Moonchild/adblock-latitude/commit/ca2e5c05d502495da672705321512a88247f6ed6
https://repo.palemoon.org/Moonchild/adblock-latitude/commit/fa64b3b7da11f2a8375d437be1fad2e9280fdae8

https://repo.palemoon.org/binaryoutcast/adblocker/commit/f0ef49c3596984d142eab0da0ff29ac495bb4bec

So why are you clearly lying your ass off? For fuck sakes ABL's tagline is "Acceptable Ads are Yesterday".

Your other claims about element hiding shit is also just that a load of Gorhill bullshit lies. As well as the other technical details you are obviously completely ignorant on.

If I have told you once, I have screamed at you a dozen times, DON'T POST SHIT YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT.

[moonbat]

Uhh moronbat, neither Adblock Latitude nor ABPrime have the Acceptable Ads bullshit. It was literally the first thing I removed when I created ABL 3.0 and ABPrime (as ABL 3.5).

Calm your tits, I was referring to the original ABL Firefox extension that I switched away from even before I started using Pale Moon, not the fork.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

I created Adblock Latitude specifically for Pale Moon it didn't exist before that. The fuck are you talking about?

[Moonchild]

I guess he meant ABP not ABL. The risk of using (and misremembering) acronyms.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Well he should have said Adblock Plus then, eh? After five years you'd think I'd be over this shit. But I'm not.

The Eyeball Pear is NOT amused.

[moonbat]

Right - I meant Plus, not Latitude, my bad. Haven't gone back to that whole set of extensions in years, until very recently installing ABPrime on Borealis. And ABP required a separate 'element hider' extension to hide page content, hence the further confusion.