I, for one, will not be using YouTube again. I plan to tell the few channels I subscribe to that, if they want to keep me as a subscriber, they will have to pick a different distribution mechanism for their videos.
Actually, this move may well be not so much stupid, as political. Perhaps YouTube are seeking to discard those vloggers, who attract the attention of those of us who detect, and reject, propaganda.
1Blocker seems to work fine here.
This may even be co-ordinated. I switched my view of Dr John Campbell’s channel from YouTube to Rumble. An hour ago, I could see the comments on his videos there. Now, I’m told I have to sign in to see comments. Which I can’t do, because I don’t have a Rumble account.
It looks as if YouTube have since pulled back from their worst excesses. Today, the ads start and run for a few seconds, sometimes with sound and sometimes without. I’m told their action violates EU data protection laws, so this could become interesting.
For some reason, I have a free account that truncates advertisements after about a second.