Not to be rude, but I'm struggling to believe half the comments in this thread are legit. Do you really mean to tell me that Lemmy, a platform notoriously populated almost exclusively by anti-corporate tech people that really value FOSS and privacy –hence the reason why all of us are here instead of Reddit– has this many users thinking it is a remotely acceptable idea to pay for a Premium service for one of the most invasive companies online?

I think most of us understand the many underhanded techniques used by Google to achieve an almost monopolistic control of some aspects of the internet, but when talking about YouTube, suddenly all the logic is reduced to "if you use a service, pay for it, or else let them show you ads"?? what????? Also, what's with comparing adblocking to stealing????

My own answer to the topic of this thread is that no, I won't be paying for YouTube Premium anytime soon, possibly ever. Google has betrayed my trust many times in the past, and on top of that I don't consider adverts as a legitimate source of income, so I will block any and all ads everywhere without paying an extra cent.

"But if you keep using their service, so you need to give them some form of revenue! Otherwise you just want free stuff!" I only keep using their service because Google has spent many years dumping on other platforms so that YouTube is –almost– the only platform that still exists where all the good creators are, so I will begrudgingly watch them on YouTube because there aren't any options. But I will resist Google's many insidious attempts to monetize me to the best of my ability while doing so.

That said, it's really dishonest to claim that people who block ads on YouTube just want free stuff and don't understand that services have a cost. Personally, I pay for Nebula because I do support the project and the creators involved. But YouTube won't see a cent from me, not with my consent at least.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 33 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Not everyone is on Lemmy because they're anti-corporate, FOSS enthusiasts. For example, I came here because Reddit became a dumpster fire of unreasonable policies and very restrictive accessibility to the site. I simply will not install their app. Everything I've seen and heard about it is revolting. I'm certain I will hate it and I'm not going to bother trying at this point. Since a nontrivial amount of my time on Reddit was via an app, and that app no longer works, I'm just not going to use the service.

I like FOSS, and I support FOSS whenever I can, but I'm hardly anti corporate. The big G has tried and failed at getting monopoly status for most things. Arguably their most successful services are search, mail and YouTube.

Me, personally, I pay for Google's services and share those benefits with my family. We have extra Google drive storage, YouTube music/YouTube premium, and all the benefits that come with that (I don't recall all of them right now). One payment takes care of my entire household. So for less than $20/month we all enjoy all the benefits of those subscriptions. It comes out to less than $5/person/month.

I don't blame anyone for not wanting those services. I certainly don't hold that against them. I completely understand the viewpoint. YouTube is very aggressive about everyone having premium. I see ads on YouTube when I'm using it on my work PC for music or to look something up on there; because my personal Google account is not and will never be associated to my work PC. I see what it's like "on the other side" so to speak. I can see how aggro their efforts are to get people to subscribe to premium. How invasive the ads have become, and how annoying it is to deal with all that. I get it.

I also don't really hate Google for it. They want people to buy their premium service and they have taken steps to try to encourage that. I understand, but I don't necessarily agree with their choices.

In my mind they're not the most egregious offender for being anti consumer in their methodology. Good examples of anti-consumer behaviour is Netflix trying to put an end to account sharing, or Reddit's API changes that basically kicked out a nontrivial number of its users for seemingly no good reason. There's plenty more anti consumer actions from other companies that I can point to that are far worse than what YouTube is doing.

In my mind, Google has supported FOSS more than most big tech companies. Android, at it's core is FOSS, built on Linux. Chrome is based on chromium, which is FOSS as well. There's numerous other examples of Google supporting FOSS. Sure, they have their own versions of that integrate Google services into the products and provide extra features on top of what the FOSS versions do. But I can't think of any company that even comes close to the support of FOSS that Google has. In my mind they're simply not the worst offender. They're not innocent, but not the worst.

That's my opinion though and it's just one of many possible opinions. Far be it for me to impose my opinion on anyone else. If you want to distrust Google and use FOSS things instead, that's fine. It's your choice. If you agree but still don't want to pay them for premium, that's okay too. Or if you want to drink the Kool-aid and pay for all of their services, that's also your choice.

Have a great day.

[–] ThePac@lemmy.ml 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

I'm only here 'cause it was the first lemmy instance I joined after the reddit bullshit.

I pay for YT Premium.

I'm also back on reddit arguing with people.

So, yeah... I'm everything this place hates.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago

I don't hate you. I'm sure there are plenty more that feel similarly.

I also feel like there is a nontrivial number of people who could not possibly care less; and as always, a silent majority of people who are simply lurking, who express their voice through voting only. (Special shout out to all the lurkers. You're awesome)

It's all personal choice and the opinion expressed in the OP is just that, an opinion. Same as me. I can only express my opinion. If that upsets people, then I'm sorry for that. I'm not going to change my opinion to gratify someone else in their opinion or position. If anyone wishes to have a discussion about why they think my position is not properly informed or wrong in their eyes, then that's fine. I can engage in conversation about it, but at the end of the day, I make my choices, you make yours, and everyone else makes theirs. My decision to pay for YT premium doesn't really affect anyone but me, and Google.

[–] anarchy79@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

We don't hate here. Except capitalism. We hate that.

[–] wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No one hates you, some people just think youre an idiot for still using reddit after leaving it

[–] ThePac@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)