Hide YouTube users on the video hosting website

The video hosting website YouTube back in December 2012 changed the layout of its start page. It mixed contents that you were subscribed to with recommendations and links to YouTube videos that contacts on Google+ posted. This was a nightmare for some users of the site as they did not want to recommendations or the social posts to clutter their frontpage. I reviewed a blacklist extension for Firefox back then that enabled you to block specific video authors so that their videos would not show up anymore in the recommendations or suggestions.

The userscript Hide annoying youtubers from your YouTube! does the same thing basically, but removes blacklisted video uploaders from other areas of the website as well.

The script removes YouTube users from appearing in the following sections of the site:

• From the recommended channels tab that is displayed on the right sidebar, and when you click on the browse channels link on your front page.
• From recommended or related videos which are displayed on the front page of YouTube.
• From YouTube search results.
• From the My Subscriptions and What to watch area on YouTube. This takes care of recommendations based on the likes of users you are subscribed to.

So how does it work? The userscript has been tested in Firefox and Google Chrome. Firefox users need to install Greasemonkey or Scriptish to install the script, while Google Chrome users need to install the Tampermonkey extension for the browser.

The script adds a new menu entry called Edit Blocks to YouTube's sidebar. A click on the link opens a small form on top of the Youtube page that you can use to add, edit or remove users that you do not want to see on the website.

Three users are blocked by default by the script so make sure you remove them if you do not want them to not appear in your suggestions and search results. The extension furthermore blocks videos from those video publishers on their video pages so that they do not play on YouTube even if you accidentally open them.

Click on save afterwards to save the changes. Once done, you won't see the blacklisted authors anymore on the video hosting site.