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YouTube Lets Users Override Recommendations After Criticism

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Re: YouTube Lets Users Override Recommendations After Criticism

#122
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I click on "not interested" when it shows videos i've watched the day before, but then assuming i don't want to see videos of a similar type would be a mistake, yet that's how broken the system is. Any attempt to "train" the algo is wasted effort based on past experience. You could say we users have been "trained" by the algo not to even bother anymore.

It actually does this on purpose, if you've watched it once there is a good chance you will watch it again. This doesn't make much sense to you until you realize one of the biggest groups of video watchers on YouTube is toddlers.

> it actually does this on purpose, if you've watched it once there is a good chance you will watch it again.

Bullshit.

If I start a random video and let it automatically progress to the next one, I will have to watch it (or parts of it) to tell if I’m interested or not.

This is particularly annoying for Youtube music where starting a radio from something you like now is guaranteed to add new artists to “your artists” because you listened to them once, only to click “next” or “not interested”.

Re: YouTube Lets Users Override Recommendations After Criticism

#123
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His videos are region locked so re-uploads are popular in places like my country. Very unfair imo.

The official channel has recently been unblocked in my region, so those pirates must be having the desired result.

Good thing we have pirates then.

Re: YouTube Lets Users Override Recommendations After Criticism

#124

The main thing I want them to do is not to keep repeatedly showing me the same videos I've already watched. They have little bars under them that show I've watched them all the way through, it shouldn't be that hard.

I'm really confused as to why they do this: there must be hundreds of people and hundreds of millions of $s working on the YouTube algo. I'm seemingly in the minority that thinks it's largely brilliant, it regularly uncovers things that are related to stuff that I'm interested in but new takes on them, and sometimes throws up some absolute genius recommendation from nowhere. However, like you, my "Up Next" selection is plagued by videos I've previously watched! It's horrible UX.

Re: YouTube Lets Users Override Recommendations After Criticism

#125
These recommendation engines suck

During election month I watched lot of news videos

Then my feed was just news

Then I unfollowed and said "I want to not see channel x" for every 25 such channels

And then I watched standup comedy

And now my entire feed is comedy bits

I've moved back to watching tv shows/reading books and occasionally watching a specific video on YouTube

Re: YouTube Lets Users Override Recommendations After Criticism

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It actually does this on purpose, if you've watched it once there is a good chance you will watch it again. This doesn't make much sense to you until you realize one of the biggest groups of video watchers on YouTube is toddlers.

> it actually does this on purpose, if you've watched it once there is a good chance you will watch it again. Bullshit. If I start a random video and let it automatically progress to the next one, I will have to watch it (or parts of it) to tell if I’m interested or not. This is particularly annoying for Youtube music where starting a radio from something you like now is guaranteed to add new artists to “your artists…

Young kids love the ability to predict what will happen.

An example of this is Blue's Clues, initially producers/scheduling were afraid that by having reruns in the same timeslot would doom the show. Instead kids being able to watch the shows again was a great boon to their target audience's enjoyment.

Re: YouTube Lets Users Override Recommendations After Criticism

#128
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it actually does this on purpose, if you've watched it once there is a good chance you will watch it again. Bullshit. If I start a random video and let it automatically progress to the next one, I will have to watch it (or parts of it) to tell if I’m interested or not. This is particularly annoying for Youtube music where starting a radio from something you like now is guaranteed to add new artists to “your artists…

Young kids love the ability to predict what will happen. An example of this is Blue's Clues, initially producers/scheduling were afraid that by having reruns in the same timeslot would doom the show. Instead kids being able to watch the shows again was a great boon to their target audience's enjoyment.

Sure. And if kids say “I hate this” chances are they will hate it tomorrow too.

Ignoring that kind of direct and obvious feedback is crazy.

Re: YouTube Lets Users Override Recommendations After Criticism

#129

These recommendation engines suck During election month I watched lot of news videos Then my feed was just news Then I unfollowed and said "I want to not see channel x" for every 25 such channels And then I watched standup comedy And now my entire feed is comedy bits I've moved back to watching tv shows/reading books and occasionally watching a specific video on YouTube

I have a hard time understanding how youtube can screw this up so badly.

Spotify does it nicely. They clearly recognized the few different tastes I have. And then offer separate discovery-queues for each of them and let me decide depending on what mood/situation i'm in.

But that might be the main difference... they signal back their knowledge to the user. Steam kind does the same with "Is this game relevant to you?" info. More clearly telling me what youtube thinks about me would be the first step towards correcting it...

Re: YouTube Lets Users Override Recommendations After Criticism

#130
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm concerned that I'd see less relevant content I used to have that concern as well, but then I realised I didn't actually get that much value from yt recommendations. The stuff I want to see comes from channels I'm subscribed to and only very rarely have I discovered something good from recommendations - most of the discovery comes from the right-hand side video column.

> I didn't actually get that much value from yt recommendations. The last rec engine I got much value out of was early Netflix, around the first public competition to improve their engine. My nightmare is that corporations suddenly realized that recommendation engines don't actually help them sell content. Maybe it's easier to persuade tons of people to watch something they'll all think is "good enough" rather than t…

Sorry to tell you but your nightmare is largely the reality. Recommendation engines are a fancy name with a brain dead backend.

As an example I fell asleep with youtube on a couple weeks ago. One time after I clicked on the ensuing recommendation and let it play while I wandered around. Now I cannot for the life of me stop this yt channel from playing. I've blocked the author, disliked videos. Doesn't matter.

Neural nets are only as smart as the people deploying them.

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