Youtube does a ton of evil stuff, but this one is more tame. I suspect the VPN was used to bot and got banned, so the sign-in is required to better target where the traffic is allowed to go, instead of blanket banning everybody using the service.
It’s not just you. I’m tired of the whole team of people who are always standing by to bring out similar excuses any time someone decides that in their quest to stop invidious from existing — or whatever google is actually aiming at — it’s acceptable to just mass-block all the VPN users as collateral damage.
It’s not an excuse though. It’s right there in the error message.
Where are people getting the impression I think google is some kind of saint who can do no wrong? I don’t even see the “proof” that is being used to say I’m coming to google’s defense. Just a few anecdotal theories… just like I provided.
Ah, so it’s not you coming up with the stupid excuse that they have legit reasons to think the user might be a nefarious “bot”, you’re just passing along the stupid excuse as you interpret it from the meaningless message direct from Google. That explains where you got the idea that “viewbots” had anything to do with it, I guess.
Yikes. I’m here for a civil discussion, so if you don’t want to discuss this with me and instead just want to attack me because you think I’m on the opposing team… well, I guess that’s what the block list is for.
Bot can automate views. It’s why Youtube keeps trying to move towards “engagement”. Comments, likes, etc, all require an account, which is an extra hurdle for bots.
Third party app without an account maybe? Freetube on the desktop and newpipe on the phone is what I like to use. There’s stuff like grayjay, tubearchivist, and pinchflat as well. Or just go straight yt-dlp.
You’re on Android use NewPipe and it’s forks, personally I prefer Tubular and PipePipe.
Periodically YouTube will break, but both of those forks, as well as new pipe prime, update fairly quickly.
GrayJay it’s interesting. It has different feel and feature set than newpipe, but it’s worth using. I will say I get more login errors with GrayJay, but closing the app and reopening it resolves it.
All the piped apps will be in f-droid/droidify, you can download GrayJay directly, or just scan the QR to add the repo to a FOSS repo manager.
YouTube doesn’t like VPNs. Harder to track you (and sell/monetize your data) if they can’t tell who you are.
I desperately want a viable alternative to come along. There’s a lot of great content on YouTube, but the platform is increasingly being enshitified.
Pornhub.
They have the technology and many of the features in place.
Now if only you could hide the pornographic stuff to not accidentally see disgusting nudity.
There’s nothing “disgusting” about nudity. You should shake off those preconceived cultural biases, you’ll be a better person.
It’s a gigantic money sink, it’s going to be extremely hard to come up with a profitable (or break even) alternative.
I agree. We just haven’t gotten to the point quite yet. Where the creators revolt. But that stage should appear somewhat shortly.
Youtube does a ton of evil stuff, but this one is more tame. I suspect the VPN was used to bot and got banned, so the sign-in is required to better target where the traffic is allowed to go, instead of blanket banning everybody using the service.
There are plenty of sources, including even in this thread, indicating that that this is not the problem. Quit making excuses for them.
uhhh… what?
It’s not just you. I’m tired of the whole team of people who are always standing by to bring out similar excuses any time someone decides that in their quest to stop invidious from existing — or whatever google is actually aiming at — it’s acceptable to just mass-block all the VPN users as collateral damage.
It’s not an excuse though. It’s right there in the error message.
Where are people getting the impression I think google is some kind of saint who can do no wrong? I don’t even see the “proof” that is being used to say I’m coming to google’s defense. Just a few anecdotal theories… just like I provided.
Ah, so it’s not you coming up with the stupid excuse that they have legit reasons to think the user might be a nefarious “bot”, you’re just passing along the stupid excuse as you interpret it from the meaningless message direct from Google. That explains where you got the idea that “viewbots” had anything to do with it, I guess.
Yikes. I’m here for a civil discussion, so if you don’t want to discuss this with me and instead just want to attack me because you think I’m on the opposing team… well, I guess that’s what the block list is for.
I wish you luck in life.
So what they can bot with VPN without signing in?
Bot can automate views. It’s why Youtube keeps trying to move towards “engagement”. Comments, likes, etc, all require an account, which is an extra hurdle for bots.
Third party app without an account maybe? Freetube on the desktop and newpipe on the phone is what I like to use. There’s stuff like grayjay, tubearchivist, and pinchflat as well. Or just go straight yt-dlp.
You’re on Android use NewPipe and it’s forks, personally I prefer Tubular and PipePipe.
Periodically YouTube will break, but both of those forks, as well as new pipe prime, update fairly quickly.
GrayJay it’s interesting. It has different feel and feature set than newpipe, but it’s worth using. I will say I get more login errors with GrayJay, but closing the app and reopening it resolves it.
All the piped apps will be in f-droid/droidify, you can download GrayJay directly, or just scan the QR to add the repo to a FOSS repo manager.