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If you see a new youTube channel with a plain sounding name like "NatureView" or "BrightScience" etc. and there is what looks like a tempting video on a specific education topic "Most Active Volcanoes" or "Incredible Carnivorous Plants"
There is a 50/50 chance it will be a generated voice with stock footage and a script written by GPT.
I am now avoiding videos if I don't recognize the creator, or don't see signs it was made by a person.
So much spam!
@futurebird and YouTube expects me to sit through ads with these types of videos too. Yeah no thank you.
I switched to firefox to get away from googles ads. They have broken Chrome to their own advantage and I hope more people bail from Chrome over this.
By the way Firefox made the switch over a sheer joy. Smoothest app transition I've ever had. I was worried about losing bookmarks and logins and such and everything just copied over perfectly. Five stars!
Granted now I have two browsers open at once all the time... but it just makes me feel fancy. (I need Chrome for work... can't be fixed. )
@futurebird @Iamgroot11
See if you can switch to @brave. It's based on the same browser engine as Chrome and will block ads and trackers out of the box (still requires hardening, though).
@drakenblackknight @futurebird @Iamgroot11 @brave
The brave browser sold data to AI and the company is run by Brendan Eich, a pretty vile human apparently based on his stance about same sex marriage and then comments on COVID in 2020. You might want to check out who you are trusting with your data. They do block ads exceptionally well though right out the box.
Also if you are using duck duck go as your internet search engine , to get away from Google, know that it has AI that is on my default. You can go into the browser settings and go into the AI tab to turn it off.
@Weanerdog @futurebird @Iamgroot11 @brave
Yes, everybody who knows about Brave knows how much Brendan Eich sucks. Eich is not the only developer of Brave, however, and disavowing an entire project just because of the views, no matter how reprehensible, of one man is just poor form. I mean, Brave is nothing like GrapheneOS where the lead/sole dev, Daniel Micay, built a cult of personality around him and attacks anyone who DARES critique any part of the project.
@Weanerdog @futurebird @Iamgroot11 @brave
I should also point out Brave is 100% open source. If Eich included malicious code in the browser someone would have found it by now (such as the xz-utils backdoor).
@drakenblackknight @futurebird @Iamgroot11 @brave
I was merely pointing out some reports about the company and the CEO. I am not telling anyone to use or not use it. I just want people to have access to info so they can make that choice for themselves. They need to go and search those things and see if the evidence supports the "news" on the internet.
As I said brave is good and blocks everything out the box.
There are billionaires and companies everywhere who do shitty things. I just think you should know what those things are before supporting them or not.
You know informed consent.
@drakenblackknight @futurebird @Iamgroot11 brave is a crypto scam and data harvesting sotware made by Brendan Eich who's openly homophobic (he briefly worked for Mozilla, but had to leave because of this). Mozilla may have some problems, but definitely don't support brave instead.
@sam @futurebird @Iamgroot11
1) You can disable all the crypto shit.
2) See my reply to the earlier comment about Eich's mental problems.
@drakenblackknight @futurebird @Iamgroot11 don't care, the fact that it's there at all is a huge red flag. Also they still vacuumed up data for a while, etc. If he has some mental health issues, that's unfortunate, but it doesn't excuse all his comments for all time, his donations, etc.
@sam @futurebird @Iamgroot11
Again, read my reply to the earlier comment.
@drakenblackknight @futurebird @Iamgroot11 Link? I don't see it (or am just scrolling past it, there are a lot of comments)
@drakenblackknight @futurebird @Iamgroot11 oh, nevermind, they blocked me, so I can't see any of their comments. That's why. Anyways, maybe I'm wrong (but I don't think I am), please don't support Brave instead of Mozilla.
@futurebird @Iamgroot11 I actually have three of them now: one for personal stuff, one for work stuff, and one for the howling nonsense that I try to keep locked down in a box so that it doesn’t escape.
@goob @futurebird @Iamgroot11 Have you considered "Multi-Account Containers" with Firefox?
@futurebird I didn’t know Firefox blocked ads, I’ve been using brave browser strictly for YouTube
It's more that the standard ad-blocking extensions still work on Firefox, while they longer work on Chrome.
About three months ago they did something to Chrome and to youTube that made all of the ad-blockers stop working.
If I can't block the ads? I just won't watch anymore. It's that simple for me.
@futurebird @Iamgroot11
I made the switch a few months ago, and the only thing that really annoys me is the lack of tab groups.
The way I can watch youtube in peace without ads is soooooooo good.
Ⓥ
(he/him) @Gurre @futurebird @Iamgroot11 Funnily enough, Firefox pioneered that feature, Chrome stole it, and then Firefox deprecated it /sigh (basic support is built in, but the interface was shunted out to extensions).
Look into the Simple Tab Groups extension or similar for some comparable features. Or, find more extensions here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?q=tab%20groups
Tab groups will come very soon (if you're willing to install an extension, they already are there and have been for a while).
Regarding YouTube, I love that on my mobile, I can let Firefox playing just the audio, whilst the screen is locked. With the App, that wasn't possible.
@Gurre @futurebird @Iamgroot11 Would a combination of Multi-Account Containers and Tab Stash help to replace tab groups?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/
@jochie @futurebird @Iamgroot11
Looks too complex. It's the ease of use that's the point.
And according to another reply it's coming back soon anyway :)
@Gurre @futurebird @Iamgroot11 Ah, the incomplete reply/thread view strikes again! Fair enough, and looking forward to seeing how that feature looks when it returns. 
@Gurre @futurebird @Iamgroot11 the battery life of a laptop should also improve when you move away# from Chrome and chromium browsers.
@futurebird @Iamgroot11 now you're on ff it's worth taking a look at the Container Tabs and Temporary Container plugins. they're really handy for isolation of accounts and for privacy
@futurebird @Iamgroot11 did you install uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger?
@futurebird @Iamgroot11 I'm a life time FF user, however recently had to drop it from my mobile due to power usage.
Currently on a 2 month cycle trip and phone used for navigation.
I'm looking forward to reinstalling it on my return.
Plugins I don't see otherwise mentioned but highly recommend:
* ClearURLs
* Cookie AutoDelete
* Decentraleyes
* Facebook Container
* Google Container (may break using your Google credentials to login to other sites if you use that)
* NoScript (takes a fair bit of setup and breaks some sites, but will protect you from most JavaScript nonsense)
* Unhook - Remove YouTube Recommended & Shorts