Extensions and custom buttons for UXP browsers - Corrections, modifications, adjustments, and special recommendations

[AstroSkipper]

3 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

I even tried several lists that AstroSkipper swore up and down to.  They apparently worked for him and his geolocation

Yep! And they still work with my mod uBlock Origin Legacy.

3 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

That extension is found here  --  version 5.22.0

Why do you post an ad blocker for Chrome in a thread about legacy extensions for UXP browsers?

3 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

What I am using NOW (as of just a few days ago) is this.

Same applies to this extension. Not compatible with UXP browsers. Such recommendations should be done in corresponding threads. Otherwise it would be misleading.

4 hours ago, UCyborg said:

So this is what some YouTube users have been seeing, second time I witnessed it, previous was yesterday when I didn't think to make a screenshot and this tab has been opened since Wednesday evening, with computer asleep when I was at work or sleeping. uBO's counter disappeared with detaching the tab to its own window to make a screenshot with less baggage, it counted over 4000 blocked requests.

I wonder if upstream, much more sophisticated version of uBO can prevent it and what part of it (or filter) does. This popup pauses playback, you can close it and resume.

On an unrelated note, bug (or feature?) of the browser, it closes dev tools window when you detach the tab, so you lose whatever temporary data was logged, set in there.

TBH, I have never seen such a message. I tried to reproduce your issue but I failed,. It doesn't seem directly related to the video in your screenshot. Here is my screenshot with your video in New Moon 28:



No problem to play this video apart from the unfortunate fact that the music is terrible, which is of course always a question of taste.
 

Edited August 31, 2024 by AstroSkipper

[NotHereToPlayGames]

25 minutes ago, AstroSkipper said:

TBH, I have never seen such a message. I tried to reproduce your issue but I failed,. It doesn't seem directly related to the video in your screenshot.

That particular popup has nothing to do with the video.

Before I started using the extensions that I do not track if they have Firefox versions, Edge versions, Chrome versions, or UXP versions, where was I, oh, way back when I did witness those overlay popups, they had nothing to do with the video being played, rather, they would pop up once an hour or so or after every 6th music video or so.  The actual video was not the trigger that presented the popup.  It's the length of time that YouTube knows you didn't click on anything, the number of videos played back to back, et cetera.  The video itself is irrelevant.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

Here and here are the playlists where I first encountered this overlay popup.

A list of 502 music videos from the 80s.  And 12 videos of 7yr old Japanese drummer Yoyoka.

It was "religiously" after every EIGHTH video that this overlay popup used to pause my playlist.  Refreshing the page and clicking the NINTH video would get me back to work.

And when I was experimenting with AstroSkipper's uBO lists and with various adblockers, it was my experience at the time that you did not have to listen to the videos all they way through.

Let the first five to ten seconds or so play, click on the progress bar to start playing from five to ten seconds from the END of the video, let the playlist start the next song, let the first five to ten seconds play, click the progress bar at five to ten from the END.

Keep repeating that and for me it was every EIGHTH video that popped up that popup.

What I did not track is if it started at every EIGHTH but turned into every TENTH or TWELTH or if it turned into every FOURTH or SIXTH.

My OCD Mind just remembers very distinctly that it was always always always right after Dirty Dancing and right before Billie Jean (when performing adblock/lists testing from an empty cache).

Edited August 31, 2024 by NotHereToPlayGames

[AstroSkipper]

14 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

Here and here are the playlists where I first encountered this overlay popup.

A list of 502 music videos from the 80s.  And 12 videos of 7yr old Japanese drummer Yoyoka.

It was "religiously" after every EIGHTH video that this overlay popup used to pause my playlist.  Refreshing the page and clicking the NINTH video would get me back to work.

And when I was experimenting with AstroSkipper's uBO lists and with various adblockers, it was my experience at the time that you did not have to listen to the videos all they way through.

Let the first five to ten seconds or so play, click on the progress bar to start playing from five to ten seconds from the END of the video, let the playlist start the next song, let the first five to ten seconds play, click the progress bar at five to ten from the END.

Keep repeating that and for me it was every EIGHTH video that popped up that popup.

What I did not track is if it started at every EIGHTH but turned into every TENTH or TWELTH or if it turned into every FOURTH or SIXTH.

My OCD Mind just remembers very distinctly that it was always always always right after Dirty Dancing and right before Billie Jean (when performing adblock/lists testing from an empty cache).

I tried your first playlist in the most recent version of New Moon 28 using the legacy extension uTube and my mod uBlock Origin Legacy with several filter lists enabled. No such overlay popup after playing 8 and more music videos. 

Edited September 1, 2024 by AstroSkipper

[NotHereToPlayGames]

It's very possible that you will have to play at least FIVE HOURS.  I really did not isolate the "exact trigger".  My adblock/lists tests were targeting this overlay and ads.

UCyborg even mentioned that the tab was open since Wednesday.  That may be key also, my YouTube here at work is always a background tab.

I do know for a FACT that uBO did not block these FOR ME.

Maybe it would further the cause if you posted EXACTLY what your "several lists" are.  If I recall, the last time all you did is direct me to a web site and I tried everything that pertained with no success.

At any rate, I have solved this on MY END.  I'll leave it between you and UCyborg at this point.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

AstroSkipper  --  we're smarter than this!

We both know that your legacy uTube and your mod'd uBO Legacy have not been demonstrated to prevent the overlay popup UNTIL YOU FIRST DISABLE YOUR LISTS AND WITNESS THE OVERLAY POPUP TO BEGIN WITH.

As is, we have not even demonstrated that this overlay popup is ever being SENT TO YOU.  You cannot prevent what you are not even being sent.  

[NotHereToPlayGames]

ie, we MUST first isolate a repeatable set of steps that cause this overlay popup to begin with.

I have Serpent 52 running my 80s list right now.  With your uBO Legacy installed BUT WITHOUT ANY LISTS.

I have not been able to reproduce the overlay popup.  NO LISTS, just uBO Legacy installed.  More importantly, NO OVERLAY POPUP EITHER.

[AstroSkipper]

15 minutes ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

It's very possible that you will have to play at least FIVE HOURS.

You didn't say that in this post. You only talked about a certain number of videos. Now suddenly, it's the duration. Somehow I get the feeling that these are just unsubstantiated theories and nothing more. But YouTube is a crappy interface and no option for browsers on my system. I use YouTube itself only on my Android tablet. Anyway! Opening videos via the legacy extension uTube is much, much, much better than the original YouTube interface. So, I am not interested in investigating the YouTube interface in UXP browsers.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

At any rate, I've tried three different "ad blockers" in UXP and I cannot for the life of me reproduce this overlay popup.

So none of us had to do anything to block it, we just had to wait a couple days for it to "fix itself", lol.

It would be nice if SOMEBODY could REPRODUCE this overlay popup.  But I'm not holding my breath.  

[AstroSkipper]

But now that various theories have been put forward about YouTube and overlay pop-ups with warnings to the user, I am happy to put forward my theory, which I will not verify or prove in any way. Google, and therefore YouTube, wants to make money. If users use the service over a long period of time without being a premium customer and yet without getting and watching any adverts, then this will certainly be registered by YouTube and therefore by Google in whatever way. These users must then have been using an adblocker the whole time and will eventually receive this overlay pop-up warning. 

Edited September 1, 2024 by AstroSkipper
Update of content

[NotHereToPlayGames]

AGREED!

But, um, I/we could say the same for MSFN.

How many of us block MSFN's adverts?

As my old boss used to say, "I cannot confirm nor deny" whether I myself block adverts here at MSFN.  

Irony there is that I have seen members post screencaps and citing the "blank space" left behind when their ad-blocker blocks the ad but not the ad's "container".

[UCyborg]

I disabled my version of uBO that I normally use, closed the browser, cleared uBO's SQLite database using Clear-Content cmdlet from PowerShell, opened the browser again, installed @AstroSkipper's version 1.16.4.35, updated lists, left everything at factory defaults. Opened the first playlist @NotHereToPlayGames linked in a private window, selected the option to reject cookies on cookie popup, got a video ad on the second video:

I'm now repeating the test with my version, but left at factory defaults, my usual config blocks more. I'll just let it run for few hours, at 7th video now, no video ads so far, the popup may appear or it may not, who knows, my past experience shows it may be rare for my usage patterns. But there's also another unique fact about that session I had opened since Wednesday, YouTube's JavaScript was crapping out in the browser on some pages with critical errors in console, eg. it would happen that I'd only get the video screen with nothing on the right and below. This crapping out could theoretically prevent popup if it was going to show, but it doesn't matter as it probably wasn't in the crapped up state when it did show up, though that's just optimistic guess, with UXP you never really know since its state is so easily messed up to require browser restart to clean up.

Also the following user scripts are always active here:

• Simple YouTube Age Restriction Bypass
• Youtube polymer engine fixes
• Return YouTube Dislike

Edited September 1, 2024 by UCyborg

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, UCyborg said:

I disabled my version of uBO that I normally use, closed the browser, cleared uBO's SQLite database using Clear-Content cmdlet from PowerShell, opened the browser again, installed @AstroSkipper's version 1.16.4.35, updated lists, left everything at factory defaults. Opened the first playlist @NotHereToPlayGames linked in a private window, selected the option to reject cookies on cookie popup, got a video ad on the second video:

I'm now repeating the test with my version, but left at factory defaults, my usual config blocks more. I'll just let it run for few hours, at 7th video now, no video ads so far, the popup may appear or it may not, who knows, my past experience shows it may be rare for my usage patterns. But there's also another unique fact about that session I had opened since Wednesday, YouTube's JavaScript was crapping out in the browser on some pages with critical errors in console, eg. it would happen that I'd only get the video screen with nothing on the right and below. This crapping out could theoretically prevent popup if it was going to show, but it doesn't matter as it probably wasn't in the crapped up state when it did show up, though that's just optimistic guess, with UXP you never really know since its state is so easily messed up to require browser restart to clean up.

Also the following user scripts are always active here:

• Simple YouTube Age Restriction Bypass
• Youtube polymer engine fixes
• Return YouTube Dislike

Hello,
You may want to try using UBO at least as an advanced user.
Also try checking with these rules updated 4 days ago (which I personally do not use):

https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/wiki/solutions/youtube/

Edited September 1, 2024 by Sampei.Nihira

[AstroSkipper]

45 minutes ago, UCyborg said:

installed @AstroSkipper's version 1.16.4.35, updated lists, left everything at factory defaults. Opened the first playlist @NotHereToPlayGames linked in a private window, selected the option to reject cookies on cookie popup, got a video ad on the second video

It should be mentioned at this point that I do not use uBO Legacy 1.16.4.35 at factory defaults. I use a different set of filter lists than the default one. Furthermore, I use additional lists, own rules and scripts. The initial, default setting is only a basic one and is not YouTube related. And I didn't get a video ad on the second video.

Edited September 1, 2024 by AstroSkipper
Update of content

[Guest]

@UCyborg

 

It could also be a scriptlets blocking issue (just a guess in the absence of more info).
Only Adguard and uBlock Origin have advanced blocking of these kinds of ads.

In my opinion it is better in AdGuard but uBlock origin is catching up.

At the link below a description understandable to all:

https://github.com/yokoffing/filterlists

Quote

 

Modern websites often have ads, cookie banners, newsletter pop-ups, social media icons, or any combination of these annoyances. Cosmetic filters hide visual nuisances from the page that can't be blocked with network filters. But there is also a third category.

Unique to uBlock Origin and AdGuard are a method of filtering called scriplets. They are small scripts that allow the content blocker to perform customized actions on websites, beyond just blocking elements. Scripts are small code snippets written in JavaScript, which perform certain functions.

This is where a powerful ad blocker like uBO or AdGuard shines, as they can block pop-ups on videos when you click them and other instrusive ads, whereas basic ad blockers only support the bare minimum of network and cosmetic filtering. 

 

Obviously if you use an extension not updated to the latest version you miss many fixes...........

And YT is famous for always finding new ways to counter adblockers.

 

 

Edited September 1, 2024 by Sampei.Nihira