#blocktube

[3liza]

speaking of youtube the beloved extension i was using to totally block individual videos and channels permanently broke a few weeks ago and the github dev is AWOL. im going to kill myself

[iamafanofcartoons]

Curate your YouTube search and recommendations

Tell me if you've had this problem before. You click on some video, any video, looking at something positive. And all of a sudden, you're spammed with dozens of negative videos in your recommendations. And no matter how many “Not interested” or “Don't recommend channel” that you click, YouTube still forces them on you. Or maybe you're looking for something in YouTube search, but you get too much clickbait videos, or hate-watch videos? And you have to scroll through everything?

Or maybe people have used different tags to force them into your search options, giving you tons of options that aren't related to what you are searching for. Wouldn't it be nice if you could block these channels and videos the same way you block people on social media?

Unfortunately, YouTube's existence relies on Ad revenue exclusively, hence why their channel blockers won't work, and reporting channels or videos won't accomplish anything if those channels and videos don't harm YouTube's reputation or ad revenue.

The larger a channel gets, the less chance of YouTube taking action against them. Hence why very large hate-channels and videos will swarm into searches.

Fortunately, there are tools called Browser Extensions or Add-Ons that allow you to have your browsers be able to add that specific block button option.

But...wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to look for those tools? Why do we need such an option? Why can't YouTube give us that option in the first place?

In any case, the resources DO exist. You just have to look for them on Google Search. Blocktube is one such tool, and you can look it up on Google Search to confirm what I have shown here.

I know that for Phones you’ll need something called Youtube Vanced, also researchable on Google.

Credit goes to https://www.tumblr.com/rwby-cinder-blog/620199907993714688 

I’m just sick and tired of YouTube not doing a thing about a glaring problem on its increasingly problematic platform.

Edit: Dear people who are upset with hogwarts legacy? These tools are for you.

[dat-physics-gal]

I know lots of people probably already know about it, but the blocktube extension is a fucking godsent.

You can block channels entirely, from appearing anywhere. In your feed, on comment sections, anywhere.

Finally, inner peace, i can just block toxic assholes that flood my recommended just because i watched one video slightly related to their target audience.

[iamafanofcartoons]

By far the most ignorant RWBY "criticism" I've ever seen is Judgemental Critter saying that Vacuans throwing rocks at the Mantle orphans was "cartoon villainy" and "bad writing". You see, I live in a part of the Midwest where the military is idolized, so during my highschool years (2010-2014) recruiters from the different branches of the military would regularly visit the campus to see if any seniors wanted to enlist. During my senior year (2013-2014), one of my senior English classmates decided to join the army. After he got out of basic training, he was sent on two deployments to Afghanistan (it was the height of that conflict back then), and the second deployment had him serving as a guard at a refugee camp that housed refugees from northwestern Asia (mostly Syria, as it was the height of that conflict too). The camp was within walking distance of an Afghan village, and the Afghanis living there were entitled to the point that they thought every last bit of food, water, and medical care that the aid workers were giving to the refugees should've gone to them instead. In fact, the Afgahnis were so angry at the refugees for "eating our food, drinking our water, and making us sick" (their words, not mine, I'm not a xenophobe), that they decided to harass the refugees (mostly the children and elderly, because they were too weak to fight back) by pelting them with rotten fruits and vegetables while calling them racial slurs. My friend and the other soldiers stationed there actually had to escort the Afghanis back to their village at gunpoint to make them stop. Locals harassing refugees is nothing new, and Critter and her supporters are beyond ignorant for thinking that it could never happen.

Sorry for the novel, but RWBY's "critics" frustrate me with their ignorance and lack of empathy, so I had to vent.

@monkey-60-t , I love you man, but you can't keep doing this to yourself.

PLEASE, use blocktube and block that TERF out of your life.

If you're still upset with the negativity, why not build a youtube channel and start making positivity posts instead?

I have a feeling a lot of people will still embrace positivity and respectful information over that TERF's misinformation and confirmation bias platform.

you can't fire with fire when it comes to anger nd hate.

Show this fandom love , and will come to you.

[iamafanofcartoons]

New to the FNDM: could you explain who the hell this Dex character thinks he is? What is his deal?

His flair on R/RWBY is "Grand Corruptor of R/RWBY" on Reddit

He basically spams one topic after another in R/RWBY insulting the show, the female characters, the writers, and the fandom.

He also is the sole moderator of R/RWBYCritics.

Basically his subreddit is for people who wish for the show to die, and for people to promote negativity against the show.

You defend RWBY or talk positive about it? Their subreddit immediately gets furious and dextixer takes advantage to spam hate on the subreddit.

This would be fine if the moderators of R/RWBY kept dextixer in check, but whenever somebody tries to promote a post defending RWBY and the the writers? Dextixer has the mods of R/RWBY shut down the posts and ban the people promoting positivity. Defenders of RWBY are now called "Toxic positivity" and anyone who so much as defends the show is accused as being unable to take criticism.

It has led to a lot of people leaving R/RWBY due to the increased negativity and hate.

Dextixer and R/RWBYCritics basically have promoted a "nobody hates RWBY like RWBY Fans" image but it is actually the silencing of anyone defending RWBY in order to promote a one-sided negative view.

You'll notice if you type "RWBY" into youtube, that there's nothing but hate?

Videos like these by @dangerouslydangerousgalaxy are rather hard to come by, due to RWBY being a punching bag.

My advice is to keep up positivity and also make generous use of the block button.

You do not need negativity in your life. If somebody tells you not to enjoy a show, you don't need to deal with them.

Also, if you don't want to deal with hate videos, look into youtube channel blockers on google search or youtube search

[iamafanofcartoons]

The Positive Feedback Loop, and why it is the Bane of Youtube Users dealing with unnecessary Recommendations

The reason Youtube is bad: positive feedback loops. not positive as in good, but positive as in they grow larger over time. Youtube's recommendation algorithm is partially based off of what it learns from users.

It takes in all kinds of data on what users watch--the uploader, the title, the tags, the thumbnail, the description, anything it can glean from the audio and visuals, whatever. you name it, google's probably holding it. They dont have yottabytes upon yottabytes of data for nothing. Importantly, though, is that they also keep track of what the user watches Next. 

See, google (as with most social media that uses an ad revenue model) will run studies, where they try out different experimental algorithms created from viewership data on different users and see what is more likely to get users to click through. How they create these experiments is pretty complicated, and i'll save you the technogore. Think of it as making tons of algorithms that each think different combinations of aforementioned viewership data at different amounts are the reason why that viewer made their choice, then projecting that onto all users to inform future suggestions. 

Trust me, that's the easy way to think about it. What makes it a positive feedback loop? Well, recall that i said the algorithms are created on viewership data. The successful one(s) is/are then used to inform future recommendations. That data is then used to further experimentally tweak the algorithm. The choices user make influence the algorithm. What influences the choices users make? The algorithm. As time moves on, the algorithm becomes more and more biased until youtube decides to make more dramatic changes to influence things in a different direction (remember the change to favor runtime? Then to favor watch-through?) And here lies the biggest problem. Youtube isn't fixing shit about this system.  Why would they? People are clicking through recommendations at insane rates! They're watching more videos! And sure, a general societal right-wing bias might have positive feedback looped into turning the website into a facism pipeline, but google is making so much fucking money from gathering an insane amount of information from users that can be used in ad targeting the whole time. Even if youtube itself struggles with profitability, even if people like. kind of say stuff about the problem but never really do anything about it at a large scale, even if people are being red-pilled, Why should google care when they make more money than anyone could even comprehend? Until capitalism is overthrown, there will be a shit algorithm. Blocking channels is a start, but there will always be more shitty things to block Apps that bypass youtube accounts and privacy loss (youtube vanced and newpipe and blocktube and channel blocker) Are privacy tools first, kind of hit or miss when it comes to the algorithm.

Never looked into the source code of them, but, if you ask me, it's either some amalgamation of everyone's recommendations who use those apps, a "default" algorithm, or one that's kind of tailored to you as youtube slowly worms its way into identifying you by your device and ip address. Point is, dont hold your breath waiting. Keep looking for tools, keep spreading the word, keep finding ways to support content you like so the artist isnt reliant on ad revenue.

[iamafanofcartoons]

Hi, my friend just finished RWBY (she loved it) and i'd like to warn her about the HTDM.

Do you know some of the worst RWDE youtubers so I can tell her to avoid them?

Judgmental Critter, Twiins Iink , Vexed Viewer, Adel Aka, Hero Hei, The Floof Artist...Oh! And Eruption Fang.

Basically, anyone who is using disrespectful language towards a show in the video title.

Just for the record? This doesn't just apply to the RWBY Fandom.

If somebody's video says "this is stupid" or "what made me hate this episode" or "hate" "dumb" "main characters are villain?" Or a clickbait title/thumbnail?

That's a HTDM, and not just for RWBY. Many others shows and video games suffer this.

Here's what you and your friend can do.

Youtube refused to make an effective block-button, but the IT Community decided they'd do it themselves.

This here works for the browsers...its a browser add-on/extension that will block youtube channels in a similar manner to how you block a page on social media. Think of it as filtering your newsfeed.

If your friends using her phone, I would recommend Youtube Vanced. Supposedly there's a newer version called Revanced.

I haven't tried it yet, but apparently there's also a browser extension/add-on called Channel Blocker.

I prefer Blocktube because its user-friendly.

If it works for the two of you, please share the resources, so that others may benefit. I do hope I was able to help you both, have a great evening.

[human-collector]

the greatest thing about Blocktube the firefox extension is if you block the annoying mid-tier video essay youtube channel (that is the entry point) and therefore dont go in the rabbit hole you won't get annoying mid-to-bad tiered videos on your starting page ever. you'll just get things from your likes.