So I am wondering how to be bad at using websites such as YouTube. For example, currently I do most of my youtube viewing on a Ruko Tv, where I never sign it, never comment, and never subscribe. When I select a video and an advertisement that is longer than 5 seconds shows up I will hit the back button and select the video again. I repeat this process till I get a the 5 sec ad or the video starts.
I assume this is not how google (or YouTubers) wish me to access their platform, but is there anyway I could be more disruptive to the business model?
I self-host an invidious instance and combine that with sponsorblock. I only ever see the videos from channels I am subscribed to unless I explicitly search for something.
yt-dlp is a good tool for downloading youtube, and there are several GUI frontends built around that
Me similar. I do not use Invidious anymore (and it was not self hosted anyway), because YouTube often breaks it. But I use FreeTube a local account only (no Google) and it comes with SponsorBlock builtin. And I also mostly watch videos I am subscribed to. And I have my own CLI frontend in the terminal for yt-dlp: yt-dlp-lemon, which makes it a bit easier to use the features I care about. (Sorry for the shameless plug.)
to put the “youtube often breaks it” into perspective. In the last 6 months, I’ve lost access to youtube for a total of 8 days, with the longest continuous downtime being 3 days. selfhosting it works fine, for the most part.
You mean YouTube does not break self hosted Invidious? So they break the public most used ones then I guess. Right?
That is correct. The public ones get blacklisted by youtube.