YouTube Ads: I swear YouTube ads are getting longer. It's not unusual to have a 20-second ad before a video starts. When anything over ten seconds appears, I click on Back and try...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I swear YouTube ads are getting longer. It's not unusual to have a 20-second ad before a video starts. When anything over ten seconds appears, I click on Back and try again until I get 5-seconds or no ad at all. They're doing something else, though. If the timer shows that I can Skip in five seconds, that doesn't always work. I'll click when the time get to zero, and another ad appears.

It's one thing to get, and work around, a long introductory ad, but it's even worse to have a long ad in the middle of a video. Seeing that will often get me to leave the video.

Despite all this, I find lots of educational videos about cameras and computers.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

If it's a hassle to view, I simply leave. ESPECIALLY if site wants my email address or sign-up to view.
Nothing there is THAT important......

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Longshadow wrote:

If it's a hassle to view, I simply leave. ESPECIALLY if site wants my email address or sign-up to view.
Nothing there is THAT important......

MrBossHK Loc: The West Valley of Phoenix metro area

Longshadow wrote:

If it's a hassle to view, I simply leave. ESPECIALLY if site wants my email address or sign-up to view.
Nothing there is THAT important......

Create a "Burner" email address that is used for nothing else but signing up for those types of demanding sites. There would be no compelling reason to monitor the 'junk box' email address, only login occasionally to delete the inbox items and empty the trash if the trash does not get automatically deleted after 30 days.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

MrBossHK wrote:

Create a "Burner" email address that is used for nothing else but signing up for those types of demanding sites. There would be no compelling reason to monitor the 'junk box' email address, only login occasionally to delete the inbox items and empty the trash if the trash does not get automatically deleted after 30 days.

Here's another good idea from an online computer guy. Buy a pre-paid credit card when making certain online purchases. He bought fifteen keys to Win11 online, from $2.02 to $20, using a prepaid credit card. Not all of the keys were for Win11. Some were for XP and Vista, and not one was for the Retail version of Windows. The moral of this story: Spend real money to get the real thing.

In case you didn't know, you can install Windows without registering it. There are some downsides, but nothing critical.

https://softwarekeep.com/blogs/news/what-happens-if-you-don-t-activate-windows-10
https://www.minitool.com/data-recovery/disadvantages-of-not-activating-windows-11-10.html

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

MrBossHK wrote:

Create a "Burner" email address that is used for nothing else but signing up for those types of demanding sites. There would be no compelling reason to monitor the 'junk box' email address, only login occasionally to delete the inbox items and empty the trash if the trash does not get automatically deleted after 30 days.

I could, but I don't do those sites. Not THAT interested in them.
Not worth the hassle.
Besides, I use filters to dump junk mail directly to the bit bucket (delete them).

therwol Loc: USA

jerryc41 wrote:

I swear YouTube ads are getting longer. It's not ... (show quote)

I've used this for a long time. It's a Chrome extension. It obviously only works on a computer. You can also download videos from YouTube and watch them offline. You don't get the commercials when you do this. I do this a lot if I want to save them. I use third party software (VideoProc Converter AI), which isn't free. I believe there are free options.

If you're watching on a TV, I can't help you.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

therwol wrote:

I've used this for a long time. It's a Chrome extension. It obviously only works on a computer. You can also download videos from YouTube and watch them offline. You don't get the commercials when you do this. I do this a lot if I want to save them. I use third party software (VideoProc Converter AI), which isn't free. I believe there are free options.

If you're watching on a TV, I can't help you.

Thanks for that. I'll use that when watching on my computer. I also click on Save" occasionally and watch the videos later. I've never downloaded them, though, but I should. I have a couple of programs that can record off the computer monitor.