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Comment by Havoc | Hacker News Reader

It's not the short themselves but youtube's clumsy attempt to ram them down everyone's throat that's the issue.

It's a bit like news is now often luck of the draw as to whether you're getting an article, an audio clip or a video. It's jarring.

If there was a simple toggle button between videos/short/both all this wouldn't be an issue.

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We can't ignore the fact that shorts - as a format - promote distinctly different content quality. It's a much more compressed, less thoughtful, more manipulative (have to keep only the most attention grabbing parts) video format.

Perhaps I am in a tiny minority, but the introduction of shorts has completely changed how I use YouTube. I have blocked all modules on the homepage, YouTube recommendation modules on other pages, secondary navigation, etc with uBO. Have only watched maybe 5 shorts in total, and even then only by accident when clicking links on other domains.

Seriously. I can’t imagine how trivial it would be to just add a flag to my YouTube account permanently disabling shorts but they’d rather make it per device, per 30 days. Forget what we want to watch, we will use YouTube they way their PMs want.

in ublock origin I have:

  www.youtube.com##ytd-guide-renderer a.yt-simple-endpoint path[d^="M10 14.65v-5.3L15 12l-5 2.65zm7.77-4.33"]:upward(ytd-guide-entry-renderer)
  www.youtube.com##ytd-mini-guide-renderer a.yt-simple-endpoint path[d^="M10 14.65v-5.3L15 12l-5 2.65zm7.77-4.33"]:upward(ytd-mini-guide-entry-renderer)
  www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype="home"] .ytd-thumbnail[href^="/shorts/"]:upward(ytd-rich-item-renderer)
  www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype="subscriptions"] .ytd-thumbnail[href^="/shorts/"]:upward(ytd-grid-video-renderer,ytd-rich-item-renderer)
  www.youtube.com##ytd-search .ytd-thumbnail[href^="/shorts/"]:upward(ytd-video-renderer)
  www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype="subscriptions"] ytd-video-renderer .ytd-thumbnail[href^="/shorts/"]:upward(ytd-item-section-renderer)
  www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype="trending"] .ytd-thumbnail[href^="/shorts/"]:upward(ytd-video-renderer)
  www.youtube.com##ytd-search .ytd-thumbnail[href^="/shorts/"]:upward(ytd-video-renderer)
  www.youtube.com##ytd-rich-shelf-renderer[is-shorts]
  www.youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer
  m.youtube.com##ytm-reel-shelf-renderer
  m.youtube.com##ytm-pivot-bar-renderer div.pivot-shorts:upward(ytm-pivot-bar-item-renderer)
  m.youtube.com##ytm-browse ytm-item-section-renderer ytm-thumbnail-overlay-time-status-renderer[data-style="SHORTS"]:upward(ytm-video-with-context-renderer)
  m.youtube.com##ytm-browse ytm-item-section-renderer ytm-thumbnail-overlay-time-status-renderer[data-style="SHORTS"]:upward(ytm-compact-video-renderer)
  m.youtube.com##ytm-search ytm-thumbnail-overlay-time-status-renderer[data-style="SHORTS"]:upward(ytm-compact-video-renderer,ytm-video-with-context-renderer)
  m.youtube.com##ytm-single-column-watch-next-results-renderer ytm-thumbnail-overlay-time-status-renderer span:has-text(/^(0:\d\d|1:0\d)$/):upward(ytm-video-with-context-renderer)
  youtube.com##ytd-rich-grid-row, #contents.ytd-rich-grid-row:style(display:contents !important;)

which works a treat (for now, but sure will remain possible)

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