IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

uBlock filter list to hide all YouTube Shorts

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Shorts are an addictive, intrusive UI that many users hate

“I hate it so much that I couldn’t even see the content hiding behind it” – 7734128
“I prefer to hide them entirely… I use YouTube Tweaks” – StrangeSound

2. The only way to tame YouTube is with extensions, filters, or custom scripts

“I use Brave to watch YouTube… blocking shorts is one of them” – jbjbjbjb
“Unhook lets you independently toggle visibility of the home feed, the rec sidebar, end‑screen recs, comments, shorts, and the unrelated BS they ad to search results” – Blocktube/Unhook discussion

3. YouTube’s recommendation engine feels like a dark‑pattern, user‑hostile system

“YouTube is a content delivery platform that has social media features… they want to choose what you see because it lets them keep you on the platform longer” – mostlysimilar
“They’re shoving a bajillion AI tools down creator’s throats and even editing videos after they’ve been uploaded” – doctor_blood

4. Paying for YouTube (Premium, ad‑free, etc.) does not solve the problem and many question the value

“I pay for YouTube, but not being able to disable shorts made me use ReVanced” – jbaiter
“I’m paying over $40 a month for YouTube but it doesn’t allow me to choose almost anything of what I see” – phero_cnstrcts
“I don’t want to pay for goods and services” – raw_anon_1111 (in the context of YouTube)

These four themes capture the bulk of the discussion: the frustration with Shorts, the reliance on tech work‑arounds, the perception of YouTube’s algorithm as manipulative, and the debate over whether a paid subscription actually improves the experience.

🚀 Project Ideas

YouTube Shorts Redirector Extension

Summary

  • Automatically rewrites any youtube.com/shorts/* URL to the standard watch?v= format.
  • Removes Shorts UI elements (infinite scroll, end‑screen recommendations, autoplay) on all devices.
  • Gives users a single toggle to enable/disable the redirect and UI cleanup.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience YouTube users who dislike Shorts and want a distraction‑free experience.
Core Feature URL rewriting + CSS/JS injection to strip Shorts UI.
Tech Stack WebExtension API, JavaScript, CSS, Manifest V3.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • “I wish it would all automatically apply the 'videos' filter as well.” – papichulo2023
  • “If you do want to watch one for whatever reason you can open it in the standard interface.” – fc417fc802
  • Provides a clean, single‑page view that many commenters already build manually with user scripts.

YouTube Channel RSS Aggregator with Shorts & AI Filter

Summary

  • Pulls RSS feeds from any YouTube channel, automatically excludes Shorts and AI‑generated content.
  • Allows keyword/regex blocking, auto‑sorting by upload date, and optional “high‑quality” tagging.
  • Syncs with popular RSS readers or offers a lightweight web UI.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Power users, educators, researchers who consume channel content without Shorts.
Core Feature RSS feed extraction + content filtering + user‑defined blocklists.
Tech Stack Python (feedparser), Flask/React, SQLite, Docker.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue‑ready: subscription for premium filters.

Notes

  • “I use Invidious but it was breaking… I just open YouTube in a private window.” – notpushkin
  • “I want to get the feed for updates instead of the flaky subscriptions page.” – drnick1
  • Solves the frustration of “shorts shoved in every possible page” and “AI slop” complaints.

Minimal YouTube Player App (Desktop & Mobile)

Summary

  • A standalone app that loads YouTube videos in a minimal player: no recommendations, no autoplay, no Shorts, full scrub/skip controls.
  • Offers a “watch history off” mode and a “focus mode” that blocks all UI clutter.
  • Supports offline download via yt‑dlp integration for later viewing.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Users who want a distraction‑free YouTube experience on any device.
Core Feature Custom player with full playback controls, UI stripping, history toggle.
Tech Stack Electron (desktop), React Native (mobile), yt‑dlp, Node.js.
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue‑ready: one‑time purchase or subscription for premium features.

Notes

  • “There are no play controls to back, forward or scrub.” – Brian_K_White
  • “I want to pause at a particular spot to show my wife.” – Brian_K_White
  • Addresses the “addiction‑design” and “no controls” pain points.

Community‑Driven Video Quality Rating Extension

Summary

  • Adds a “Quality” badge and up/down vote buttons next to every YouTube video.
  • Uses crowd‑sourced votes to hide or dim low‑quality, AI‑generated, or clickbait videos.
  • Syncs with a backend that aggregates votes and updates a local cache for fast filtering.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience YouTube users tired of AI slop and clickbait.
Core Feature Real‑time quality voting + automatic filtering.
Tech Stack Chrome/Firefox Extension, WebSocket backend, PostgreSQL, Docker.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby (open‑source) or Revenue‑ready: optional premium analytics.

Notes

  • “I find those crappy videos worse than the ads and the shorts.” – venusenvy47
  • “A kind of HTML shadow banning?” – Ylpertnodi
  • Provides a scalable, community‑driven solution to the “AI generated slop” frustration.

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