People should just post YT links instead of whatever obscure frontend they decide is better

For one, even if I wanted to use it, piped never works for me.

Second, on mobile, my alternative of choice doesn't recognize everyone's non-yt links, so it removes my choice in the matter.

Third, I have no reason to trust the weird-ass domains I see, and to un-fuck the url takes much more time then just handing out the original YT links and letting people choose for themselves how they view the video.

22 comments

Agree totally. Any YT link can be turned easily into an alternate frontend link, so leave it up to the clients to rewrite those as they want (either via browser extension or UI feature).

Granted, it's just as easy to turn an alternate frontend link into a YT or other alternative link, but then the client would have to know of every random Invidious/Piped instance, so it's much less practical.
Most people post YouTube links, which are replaced by bots to privacy respecting front ends.

This is because the mods understand YouTube is a blood sucking vampire.
- I think these bots clutter the threads. I wish there was a cleaner method.
  
  Automatic footnotes would be great. Toggleable but enabled by default.
  
  Could expand it to tons of services: https://farside.link
- It's fine to have frontend bots. I post youtube links and let people decide where they want to watch it. For me I click on the YouTube link but it opens up in libretube, which uses youtube piped frontends.
- If that is the case, I wonder if the script is jacked up because as I mentioned in my top level comment, links to sites like piped never seem to work, even though if I navigate to the video manually it's fine.
fourth, if i share a video URL it’s likely a creator who i like and support and depriving them of their ad revenue might not be what i want
I'm with you 100%.

I would also argue we should use a shorter version like: https://youtu.be/Co_tVd9gA2I

Instead of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co_tVd9gA2I
- Dammit, I was expecting a Rick roll.
  
  Hahah, I just linked the video I had open (and find very insightful).
  
  Is it a Rick Roll if you expect it?
- The second, longer URL doesn’t bother me.
  
  But the tracking parameter usually found after? Can’t stand it. Manually remove it every time.
  
  Should I be replying to everyone with a “link with tracking removed”? :-/ Or maybe see if the Piped bot could offer the service.
- Why? Just because it's shorter?
  
  Yeah
I'm not sure this is really an unpopular opinion. Controversial? Yes. Unpopular? Probably not.

In a lot of places people link unusual frontends, you'll see at least 1 or 2 people chastising them for it.

That aside, I agree.
Y'know I downvoted you at first, but fuck it, you're right
- I downvoted because I completely agree with them. The point of unpopular opinion is to see opinions that are unpopular, no?
  
  Fuck, forgot where I was
- Wouldn’t that mean it’s a popular opinion and the downvote was warranted?
Interesting, I’ve seen Piped/Invidious given as the only link… twice I think. Perhaps you’re in privacy-oriented communities more than me.

I do post a tracking-parameter-free YT URL + “(Piped mirror)” when I share :)
Ok so this is the weird thing: Piped works; it's just that links to the video directly don't.

I can go to the main site and find the video and play it fine, but if I click a link directly to the video from Lemmy, it never loads.
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