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submitted 8 months ago by LemmeAtEm@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

Are comments no longer visible for anyone else using the youtube frontends? I can no longer see comments with either invidious, piped, or viewtube, and I've tried several instances of each. With invidious there's just nothing there below the video description. With viewtube I get an error message. And with piped I see placeholder text "Avatar, null, -1 replies" in place of every comment. The last one is kind of funny actually, and better than most comments anyway.

I'm assuming youtube/google did something fucky again to try to dissuade people from doing what they can to escape their bullshit and hopefully viewing the comments on videos will be back to normal when the frontend devs make it work again in a couple days. But I figured it would be worth checking here to make sure it's not just on my end. Then again, it will probably be better for my sanity and my struggle not to descend into sheer misanthropic hatred if I just never read youtube comments again.

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[-] ULS@lemmy.ml 66 points 8 months ago

That's a feature to improve your mental health.

[-] merde@sh.itjust.works 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

the first thing i do with any yT frontend is disabling comments. When i was on linux desktop i used to zap them with uBlock. Why would anybody want to read them?🤷

sethMeyers started torturing himself with yT comments during covid lockdowns in Corrections. It's fun to see somebody ridiculously engaging with that cesspool 🤣

[-] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 22 points 8 months ago

There are channels that have good, constructive comments

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 4 points 8 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Corrections

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[-] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 37 points 8 months ago

True that. Google are starting the big crack down.

I personally feel these are the end days of what's left of the freedom internet.

Until platforms like Lemmy and mastadon and tools like blender, godot, etc etc, take over every aspect of the commercial systems, then we're beholden to the corporates.

We need to evolve, and move on.

[-] LemmeAtEm@lemmy.ml 17 points 8 months ago

I personally feel these are the end days of what’s left of the freedom internet.

I hope you're wrong. I guess that should go without saying. But I don't know, it seems like they've been trying to crack down and been consistently failing at it, which is hopeful. Like youtube's attempt to make adblockers not work anymore ending up just strengthening uBlock Origin and making it work even better than it did before. lol.

Obviously, google et al have all the power, but even so, they mostly keep losing battles, which is both hilarious and hopeful. I agree that we're seeing the further enshitification of all the big social media giants and they're corralling and enclosing the commons more all the time. But I haven't given up on all the little things that spring up to address that enshitification, like the frontends, like searx, and hell, even lemmy. You were 100% right, we need to evolve, but I would say these things are good mutations that are part of the process of that necessary evolution.

I don't know, I'm too high rn not to go off on tangents.

[-] muhyb@programming.dev 12 points 8 months ago

Yeah, doesn't work on NewPipe for like a week.

[-] grrk@lemmy.ml 9 points 8 months ago

I use Firefox + ublock and noticed the youtube comments dissappearing as well.

Im not knowledgeable enough to really understand what I'm actually doing when i use this "fix" but - i noticed if i disable cosmetic filtering in Ublock, comments reappear, but they dissappear again when enabling cosmetic filtering again.

Not sure if that'll apply to you but that's about all i know.

[-] lemmyreader@lemmy.ml 7 points 8 months ago

And with piped I see placeholder text “Avatar, null, -1 replies” in place of every comment.

Yes. Seen that with some videos since weeks with Piped.video.

[-] B1naryB0t@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 8 months ago

Evem on the youtube site with just sponsorblock and strict UBlockOrigin the comments don't work

[-] hellfire103@lemmy.ca 5 points 8 months ago

Yep, I've noticed that too.

[-] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

I've seen that happen, too, and sure enough, on my LibreTube app, which pulls from piped, I can't see any comments right now. For whatever reason, videos aren't actually playing, either, but there might just be something weird going on with the app.

[-] QuazarOmega@lemy.lol 3 points 8 months ago

Bro said The last one is kind of funny actually, and better than most comments anyway. 💀

[-] red@sopuli.xyz 3 points 8 months ago

Working fine for me on Revanced

[-] Humorless4483@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Revanced is the stock YouTube client, it doesn’t use an alternative backend

[-] red@sopuli.xyz 3 points 8 months ago

The thread stated frontends, though 🤔

[-] schwim@lemm.ee 2 points 8 months ago

Still working for me on Freetube.

[-] Nima@leminal.space 3 points 8 months ago

my comments work on freetube, but not immediately. I gotta ask it to load comments a couple of times before it stops spazzin and shows them.

[-] jaykay@lemmy.zip 2 points 8 months ago

Not for me anymore :/

[-] TurtleTourParty@midwest.social 2 points 8 months ago

Libretube works sometimes, but I often have to press load several times.

[-] shrugal@lemm.ee 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

It's a known issue and should be fixed in the most recent version of Piped (and probably everything that depends on NewPipe). I updated mine yesterday and it looks like all video comments work again.

[-] Lemongrab@lemmy.one 2 points 8 months ago

Still works on Clipious in my experience. Clipious is invidious on mobile and has a clean UI.

this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2024
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