It’s even worse than that:

21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024. 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level).

So 1/5 can’t read at all, and over HALF can’t read better than an 11 year old.

I have all 3 D:

Facebook doesn’t make phones.

https://mythresults.com/hidden-nasties

Many objects that people touch every day are dirtier than a toilet seat.

I’d surely hope those tests were done with actually in-use toilets, lol. The toilet seat would be sprayed with the lid down, so it’s a good indicator?

And here is the toothbrush one https://mythresults.com/episode12 (on the bottom). Maybe you can find the full TV episode, right now I can’t.

Either way, as long as you don’t have a vacuum toilet that sucks everything down you won’t escape. I just rinse my toothbrush with water every time before I use it, which seems to be good enough so far.

I’ve never in my 33 years in life dropped something in an open toilet bowl. My toothbrush is above the sink, not the toilet. The only thing I store above the toilet is a spare roll of toilet paper.

Ah, it had no lid, and unfortunately that part of the end-scene is cut off on YouTube. It was this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb-_KRh8asM

The control toothbrushes outside the bathroom had the same amount of fecal coliformes on them. That stuff is everywhere, it doesn’t matter if you flush lid open or closed.

Ah, it had no lid, and unfortunately that part of the end-scene is cut off on YouTube. It was this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb-_KRh8asM

The control toothbrushes outside the bathroom had the same amount of fecal coliformes on them. That stuff is everywhere, it doesn’t matter if you flush lid open or closed.

Ah, it had no lid, and unfortunately that part of the end-scene is cut off on YouTube. It was this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb-_KRh8asM

The control toothbrushes outside the bathroom had the same amount of fecal coliformes on them. That stuff is everywhere, it doesn’t matter if you flush lid open or closed.

That was tested with Mythbusters. When your toothbrush is nearby there was hardly a difference if you flush open or closed, sorry :)

That was tested with Mythbusters. When your toothbrush is nearby there was hardly a difference if you flush open or closed, sorry :)

Counter point: I know plenty of people who close the lid and then flush, then leave. So when you open the toilet you’re greeted by a floater or shit streaks over the bowl.

I flush with it open, check if it’s clean (otherwise use the brush and flush again) then leave.

If you want to close the lid you’d have to close it, flush, open it and check, clean, close it again. Are you doing that?

It already reduced the services severely. The included Amazon Music sucks if you don’t pay extra. The included Amazon Video has ads now. And Prime gaming has reduced the offers.

While YouTube premium gives you full access to YouTube music and 1080p Enhanced Bitrate video quality. I only got it for the music, no ads on TVs is a bonus (Already had an adblocker for phone/PC).

Amazon has around 310 million active users. Amazon has 230 million Prime subscribers, even though it costs up to $15 a month. Yes, those include cheaper student subscriptions of course, but still.

Of course 30% is optimistic, but the average people I know happily watch those fucking ads. And don’t even complain about unskipable double ads. They don’t like them, they’re still too lazy to install an ad blocker as long as they get their content. Each one of them would absolutely shell out 5 bucks to continue watching (it’s less than a single beer when you go out).

You underestimate how addicted people are to YouTube. There is no alternative to it.

Twitch is streaming focused, the vods absolutely suck. Kick? Same.

What else is there? TikTok? Instagram? Neither of which provide long high quality videos.

After all we are talking about YouTube literally blocking everyone and putting up a banner: $5 a month or you’re out of luck. If someone already happily pays $18 a month for Netflix, what is 5 bucks?

It would be a huge gamble, but it could pay off. Seriously, how many people are watching YouTube every day? Hours of their favorite content creators.

Imagine a rug pull, YouTube is now a pay only service. No ads, but everyone has to pay $5 a month to access. I’d bet with you that a surprising amount of people would just pay that to continue using it.

How many? Nobody knows, but it would certainly be 30% or higher. Now imagine 30% of users paying just $5 a month how much money that would be.

It can be done, YouTube just doesn’t do it right now as they still earn plenty with ads. If suddenly everyone started to use an ad blocker then things would change very quickly.

Collapse what exactly? It would actually reduce strain on their servers and provide a better experience for paying users. Obviously they won’t do it because there’s a ton of users who watch ads (think of the average guy who plays YouTube on their phone or TV, with zero adblocking).

Just the way I described, I’m a software developer, it would be easy as hell.

Your browser requests the video, YouTube decides you have to watch an ad. The ad has 15 seconds unskipable. So the easiest thing they could do is not send you video data for 14 seconds (add a spare second for buffering to not piss off users who do watch ads).

Doesn’t matter if you call some endpoint, load the ad data, whatever. You’re not receiving any video for a while, which would piss people off enough to leave.

I still hold the opinion that they could absolutely block you out. I use uBlock Origin and there was actually a time where I got blocked/warnings every day. Even with upgrading my plugin / refreshing all block lists.

At some point I finally gave in and grabbed YouTube Premium, not because of the ads (I’d rather stop watching than watch with ads), but because I needed their music service (Used Amazon Music before, the app sucked. Music quality was the highest out there though. Also cancelled Prime for a double whammy).

For example the moment an ad gets triggered they could just refuse to send you video data. And if the ad is an unskipable 15 seconds, block playback for 15 seconds. Done. Even if you block this, you get 15 seconds of nothing and will soon be pissed off enough to either start watching ads, buy Premium or leave (no longer costing them bandwidth).

Totally fine by me! But by your logic you can’t get mad at them if they block you from watching due to using an ad blocker. Which brings us back to square one?

That’s a weird way to look at it, obviously you’re watching the content.

I’d rather see it like this:

• Free tier with ads

• Subscription without ads (and better quality)

You are currently on the free tier. Yes, you can block ads (just like you can pirate movies), but that’s not the deal you were offered. I’m using an ad blocker myself, but I can understand the corporate side too.

They absolutely could add a hard paywall, but why should they if there are plenty of users who want to watch for free by paying with ads?