cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/14579120

YouTube is currently experimenting with server-side ad injection. This means that the ad is being added directly into the video stream.

This breaks sponsorblock since now all timestamps are offset by the ad times.

For now, I set up the server to detect when someone is submitting from a browser with this happening and rejecting the submission to prevent the database from getting filled with incorrect submissions.

  • @onlinepersona
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    13 days ago

    I bet the majority will continue watching YouTube and accept the ads. But I do wonder if yt-dlp and other downloaders will still cut into their ad revenue. All those injected add won’t ever be clicked on, or the clients will change to automatically click them thus rendering the ads meaningless.

    Anti Commercial-AI license

    • @[email protected]
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      13 days ago

      It’ll probably be done with an overlay/prompt for the user to click on (Unless the advertiser is paying for exposure and not direct traffic idk). But such a popup would provide a hook for a patched version of yt-dl to detect the ad and trim it out of the final video.

      Also, shouldn’t a forum signature at all should be enough to screw with AI scrapers? No need to link to anything specific