The below remark is unrelated to the main topic of this thread.

Why would you even watch a YouTube video with ads?

There are ad blockers, sponsor segment blockers, etc. If you use them, it will block almost every kind of YouTube ad.

all the ad blockers I used to use stop working, and it became an annoying game of cat and mouse that I didn't have time for. Luckily, most of the time I can "skip" the ad in like five seconds, and it gives me a moment to catch up on incoming Slack messages.

The only ad blocker I have used for the past couple of years has been uBlock Origin, more recently combined with SponsorBlock.

There has been two or three instances that I can remember when it did not block YouTube ads correctly for a couple of days. But those were quickly patched and it started to work again.

When has ublock origin browser extension ever stopped working? On a locked down mobile OS like iOS you can use the Brave browser. No cat and mouse game.

There are ad extensions that just turn those 5 second ads into like 200 ms ads. They just speed them up, it's great. Looks like a random flicker.

Not safe, before even knowing if a site has the content you want you can be redirected to malware through ad networks

not even joking

On an up to date Safari on Mac, not a realistic concern, and if it were, I’d use security software, not an ad blocker.

0 days exist and they are exploited in the wild sometimes

An ad-blocker /is/ security software. You don’t have to take it from me, you can read from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

> AT-A-GLANCE RECOMMENDATIONS

> Standardize and Secure Web Browsers

> Deploy Advertisement Blocking Software

> Isolate Web Browsers from Operating Systems

> Implement Protective Domain Name System Technologies

Literally their second recommendation on this pamphlet about securing web browsers: https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Capaci...

Moreover you don’t even need a 0-day to fall for phishing. All you need is to be a little tired or somehow not paying attention (inb4 “it will never happen to ME, I am too smart for that”)

At $JOB IT actually bundles uBlock in all the browsers available to us, as per CIA (or one of those 3-letter agencies, might've even been the NSA) guidelines it's a very important security tool. I work in banking.

Modern advertisement is malware.

Do you not might ad companies tracking everything you do?

> If a site has content worth paying for, I pay.

I do that as well. For me it is almost exclusively the case with the news sites.

> If it is a horrible ad-infested hole, I don't visit it at all.

Same.

> Otherwise, I load ads.

There is no "otherwise" for me. I simply do not want to load any kind of ads or "sponsored" content. I see no reason, either moral, ethical or other, to ever do that.

They have insane marketing push, across HN and reddit too btw.

NFT moment :) Where did it end btw?

I can. I use brave