bVork

The release of Kingdom Hearts 3 has hammered home an increasing problem on Youtube: spoilers. Youtube's algorithm's are based on engagement. Negative engagement is still engagement. Getting upset about a video spoiling something for you keeps you emotionally invested in their platform. Naturally, there are no proper built-in blocking tools for Youtube. Why would Google want you to control your experience?

Thankfully, there are browser extensions that will let you prevent channels and videos from appearing on Youtube without your consent. By using these extensions, you will no longer see videos from your blocked channels on Youtube's front page, search results, or recommendations. If you click directly through to a channel or video from a link on an external site, however, they will not be blocked, so be careful.

To block channels, you'll need an extension. Here's the one I recommend and use in this guide: Channel Blocker for Mozilla Firefox Channel Blocker for Google Chrome (and derivatives like Vivaldi)

To add a channel to the extension, paste or type the name of the channel in the “Input” field and then left-click “add input as blocked user/channel.”

Here's a (by no means all-inclusive) list of channels that regularly post spoiler videos:

• ProsafiaGaming
• Shirrako
• Boss Fight Database
• Zanar Aesthetics
• Downward Thrust
• Sirloin
• Sirloin PlayBox
• CGInfernoBlast
• Ancient Kingdom
• GamePlayHK
• Seraph Gaming
• oGVexx

You can also enable advanced mode and add regular expressions, at the risk of blocking a lot of videos that may not have spoilers. You could even block the title of the game that you don't want to be spoiled! Here are some suggestions:

• “kills”
• “boss”
• “s death”
• “final”
• “all bosses”

Optionally, you can also add this filter to uBlock Origin. This will remove the screen at the end of a video with tiles of other videos. Copy and paste this filter on a new line in the “My filters” tab within uBlock Origin: www.youtube.com##.ytp-show-tiles.videowall-endscreen.ytp-player-content.html5-endscreen

(If you don't have uBlock Origin, you can get it for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. It's an essential extension. There are so many malicious ads on the Internet that blocking advertisements is one of the most important things you can do to keep you and your data safe.)

I hope this guide helps you avoid spoilers on Youtube. If you have any comments or questions, chat with me on Mastodon: https://niu.moe/@bVork