[youtube] Remove annotations and deprecate `--write-annotations` (#765)

Closes #692 
Authored by: coletdjnz

4 files changed, 5 insertions, 37 deletions

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 248b7e688..917350bda 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1500,6 +1500,8 @@ These options may no longer work as intended
     --no-call-home                   Default
     --include-ads                    No longer supported
     --no-include-ads                 Default
+    --write-annotations              No supported site has annotations now
+    --no-write-annotations           Default
 
 #### Removed
 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
diff --git a/test/test_write_annotations.py b/test/test_write_annotations.py.disabled
index 7e4d8bc5a..7e4d8bc5a 100644
--- a/test/test_write_annotations.py
+++ b/test/test_write_annotations.py.disabled
diff --git a/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py b/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py
index 375eca8f8..9ca81e6cb 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py
@@ -59,7 +59,6 @@ from ..utils import (
     unsmuggle_url,
     update_url_query,
     url_or_none,
-    urlencode_postdata,
     urljoin,
     variadic,
 )
@@ -3168,40 +3167,7 @@ class YoutubeIE(YoutubeBaseInfoExtractor):
             needs_auth=info['age_limit'] >= 18,
             is_unlisted=None if is_private is None else is_unlisted)
 
-        # get xsrf for annotations or comments
-        get_annotations = self.get_param('writeannotations', False)
-        get_comments = self.get_param('getcomments', False)
-        if get_annotations or get_comments:
-            xsrf_token = None
-            if master_ytcfg:
-                xsrf_token = try_get(master_ytcfg, lambda x: x['XSRF_TOKEN'], compat_str)
-            if not xsrf_token:
-                xsrf_token = self._search_regex(
-                    r'([\'"])XSRF_TOKEN\1\s*:\s*([\'"])(?P<xsrf_token>(?:(?!\2).)+)\2',
-                    webpage, 'xsrf token', group='xsrf_token', fatal=False)
-
-        # annotations
-        if get_annotations:
-            invideo_url = get_first(
-                player_responses,
-                ('annotations', 0, 'playerAnnotationsUrlsRenderer', 'invideoUrl'),
-                expected_type=str)
-            if xsrf_token and invideo_url:
-                xsrf_field_name = None
-                if master_ytcfg:
-                    xsrf_field_name = try_get(master_ytcfg, lambda x: x['XSRF_FIELD_NAME'], compat_str)
-                if not xsrf_field_name:
-                    xsrf_field_name = self._search_regex(
-                        r'([\'"])XSRF_FIELD_NAME\1\s*:\s*([\'"])(?P<xsrf_field_name>\w+)\2',
-                        webpage, 'xsrf field name',
-                        group='xsrf_field_name', default='session_token')
-                info['annotations'] = self._download_webpage(
-                    self._proto_relative_url(invideo_url),
-                    video_id, note='Downloading annotations',
-                    errnote='Unable to download video annotations', fatal=False,
-                    data=urlencode_postdata({xsrf_field_name: xsrf_token}))
-
-        if get_comments:
+        if self.get_param('getcomments', False):
             info['__post_extractor'] = lambda: self._extract_comments(master_ytcfg, video_id, contents, webpage)
 
         self.mark_watched(video_id, player_responses)
diff --git a/yt_dlp/options.py b/yt_dlp/options.py
index 6bad37d19..86aad3393 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/options.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/options.py
@@ -1070,11 +1070,11 @@ def parseOpts(overrideArguments=None):
     filesystem.add_option(
         '--write-annotations',
         action='store_true', dest='writeannotations', default=False,
-        help='Write video annotations to a .annotations.xml file')
+        help=optparse.SUPPRESS_HELP)
     filesystem.add_option(
         '--no-write-annotations',
         action='store_false', dest='writeannotations',
-        help='Do not write video annotations (default)')
+        help=optparse.SUPPRESS_HELP)
     filesystem.add_option(
         '--write-playlist-metafiles',
         action='store_true', dest='allow_playlist_files', default=None,