YouTube Shorts - for those of us who don't want TikTok

YouTube Shorts - You’re mildly infuriating!

Ever since I was forced to update YouTube on my devices, I got really annoyed with YouTube Shorts. At first, they were easily turned off. Then the option to turn them off disappeared from Settings - General. So I installed apps that allowed to skip out on Shorts. Then just a few days ago I could no longer have Youtube Vanced installed.

I’ve since learned do deal with this annoyance, but do I really have to mark “Not Interested” from channels I don’t subscribe to or “Hide” from my subscribed channels? On my Linux- and Windows PC’s I have regular blockers. But I mainly watch content on devices hooked up as small entertainment screens in the kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms. And those are iOS or Android.

All I want are steady streams of content from my favourite relaxing subjects and channels. Without shorts or AI-derived “Hey, this video from a channel featuring a redneck with 15 AR-15’s shooting coyotes in the desert might be your thing!” inserted into my playlists or streams. But the AI-derived autoplay content is beside the point.

YouTube Shorts - You’re mildly infuriating!

woelkchen,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

In case someone likes the content of YT shorts but can’t stand the web player: greasyfork.org/…/439993-youtube-shorts-redirect

Turns shorts into “normal” videos. Still the same orientation but at least a player that doesn’t loop and even applies SponsorBlock rules if there are any.

pimpelmees,

Shorts are mostly just disappointing. Sometimes I don’t notice that I’m clicking a short because the title seemed interesting. Then after 30 seconds it’s already done, and all those times the content wasn’t even that good! You would think that maybe they could condense the best parts of a long video into a shorter one, but instead they just lack any depth and information.

In the same vein, the way Instagram is pushing their (autoplaying) Reels is even worse.

dan,
@dan@upvote.au avatar

You would think that maybe they could condense the best parts of a long video into a shorter one

Some channels do this, and I think it’s a really good use for the platform. Nerdforge is one channel that comes to mind - she has a few videos that are a 1 minute short (e.g. youtu.be/5QNIgDFq-vw) summarizing a 20 minute video (youtu.be/ZVqa7j6jG0Q)

Monologue,
@Monologue@lemmy.zip avatar

youtube revanced allows you to disable it, i strongly recommend patching the app yourself

if you are interested here is the github link

gingersneak,

I can second this enthusiastically, especially since it also blocks ads and sponsored segments, customizes the UI, allows background playback, allows downloads, and more stuff too.

Monologue,
@Monologue@lemmy.zip avatar

yup it blows my mind that this is a much better experience than youtube premium not to mention you get it for free

woelkchen,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

yup it blows my mind that this is a much better experience than youtube premium not to mention you get it for free

Pretty much sums up all forms of piracy these days, given how bad the official media landscape became.

Monologue,
@Monologue@lemmy.zip avatar

or in some cases prices are simply outrageous, i can not afford to pay that much for a medical textbook i will just sail the high seas and repay my debt by saving lives

woelkchen,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

or in some cases prices are simply outrageous

Even if individual prices aren’t: no person with somewhat normal amount of income can pay for everything they’re interested in (unless the scope of interests is very narrow). Streaming services here, “Patreon exclusives” there. It adds up. I miss the time where all professional content was just on Netflix instead of spread over 30 services.

vicfic,
@vicfic@iusearchlinux.fyi avatar

Just use new pipe, The home page is just videos from your subscribed channels and there is no one click way to see an endless stream of shorts. You can still see them if you search them. Bonus: no ads.

couragethebravedog,

What about revanced ?

SouthernCross,

Revanced is the shit. Everyone should use Revanced.

thomas_shone,
@thomas_shone@fosstodon.org avatar

@Regna I ended up running Youtube in Firefox on my mobile device. That way I get to keep all the adblocking abilities as well.

downpunxx,

This thread made me look up Google Chrome Youtube Short Block Extension, installed, working, easy peasy lemon squeezy

Regna,
@Regna@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, on my Linux and PC units I have good Chrome extensions. Still helpful, thanks!

Kinglink,

What pisses me off the most is channels I used to like, stuff like Scam Nation who now repackages all their old content as shorts. And so I unsubscribe because I don’t want that level of spam.

Youtube Shorts sounds like an interesting idea, that has all the problems of Tiktok, and then clutters up Youtube. It would be SO easy for people to be able to opt out of Shorts, but that’s not how it works, and Youtube’s UI keeps pushing them to the point where I stop looking at my notifications.

Great work Google.

Regna,
@Regna@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, the easiest option for Google/YT would be to keep Shorts to the Shorts category only/mainly, and keep the ability for users to opt out of Shorts in the platform’s players. That way, creators who want to push 5 to 30 second videos instead of 10 - 200 minutes would still get their 15 minutes seconds of fame.

But now, they aren’t just pushing Shorts on us viewers, they are forcing channels to do Shorts to get better visibility.

saplyng,
@saplyng@kbin.social avatar

Revanced Manager has a patch option to hide shorts from the feed, it's not much but it is something!

rideranton,
@rideranton@kbin.social avatar

YouTube Revanced is a replacement for the Vanced app that is less likely to get taken down since it doesn't distribute YouTube assets

https://web.archive.org/web/20230616120327/https://old.reddit.com/r/revancedapp/comments/xlcny9/revanced_manager_guide_for_dummies/

Waker, (edited )

I do actually find some interesting shorts every now and then after avoiding them for years. However it completely fucks up my recommendations and you can’t remove them from the watch list as easily…

So if I watch a couple I’ll be suggested shorts for a week or so…

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