Odysee, a decentralised YouTube alternative focused on free speech, is officially ending the serving of ads on the platform, starting today. The post:

"Dear friends of Odysee, Starting today, we’re removing all ads. We don’t need ads to make money as a platform and we are confident in the development of our own new monetisation programs that will help creators earn a living and at the same time keep Odysee alive. Ultimately, sacrificing the overall user experience to make a few bucks isn’t worth it to us and nor is it even sustainable for a platform that wishes to make something truly open and creatively free.

As we take this decision, one thing is certain to us, media platforms (even ones that market themselves as ‘free-speech’) typically devolve into advertising companies and end up becoming beholden to their paymasters. It’s been that way for centuries and is never going to change.

As we see YouTube become more aggressive with their ad deployment and ‘Free Speech’ platforms try to build their own ad businesses it’s apparent to us that we’re building a model for Odysee that will keep it sustainable not only financially, but in its ability to provide an incorruptible user experience.

Our approach may be considered niche or unconventional, that’s fine by us. Odysee will be used by the world on terms that are agreeable to its users, and we know our users don’t like ads.

Best, Founder & Creator, Chief Executive Officer. Julian Chandra"

    • DreitonLullabyOP
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      4 months ago

      Good on you. I plan to pay for Mullvad VPN too when I can afford it again; with Monero too. Didn’t know it had an internal ad-blocker for mobile though, that’s awesome.

      • bruhduh@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        If you connect with openvpn you can add their custom adblocking dns to config and block everything on pc too, better yet, install openwrt on your router and install mullvad on it though openvpn with their custom dns server, they have in app adblocker too, if you use mullvad app

        • DreitonLullabyOP
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          4 months ago

          I had plans to use Quad9 on my router when I get home WiFi back, and using Mullvad DNS on my Android phone, which Mullvad also blocks app trackers.

          With the setup you’re suggesting, does this make the VPN be “built-in” to the router and extend the VPN service to all devices connected to it?

          • bruhduh@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Yes, you can install vpn to router however, i did not tried yet, I’ve tried to share calyx vpn and it refused to, but i think with mullvad it’s going to be okay since they have official guides how to https://mullvad.net/en/help/openwrt-routers-and-mullvad-vpn , I’m in the process of modding my router right now so it’s going to take some time before i can test it, it have 18.04 version of openwrt and but compiled recent version, also ram and rom chips got to be upgraded to use it properly, today i upgraded ram, but for rom chip, i gotta read memory dump and write it to new chip so I’ll do that later

            • DreitonLullabyOP
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              4 months ago

              Thanks for all your suggestions mate. I’m going to favourite your comment so I can come back to it at some point to remind myself to look into them.

              Edit: Hold on, why did you delete your comment that I replied “Good on you” to? I can’t remember what it said now. All I know about it is that you said you pay for Mullvad VPN with Monero, and that that it had an adblocker.

              • bruhduh@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                It got downvoted to hell for some reason, in that comment i wrote, yes, that i bought mullvad with monero and it has internal adblocker, their internal dns to be precise. Edit: i can send you dm about my progress with router modding when it’ll be done if you’re interested

                • DreitonLullabyOP
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                  4 months ago

                  Thanks. It was probably because you said you used a cryptocurrency, and “You use crypto; crypto bad”. I got a down-vote too, probably for the same reason of saying I wanted to pay with Monero.

                  • bruhduh@lemmy.world
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                    4 months ago

                    Yeah probably, thank you for replying,i flashed openwrt to one of my routers today, in this weekend I’m gonna install mullvad on it, will send you pm about how it worked out