YouTube should stop recommending garbage videos to users

#1

Post by elorant » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 10:57 AM UTC

YouTube should stop recommending garbage videos to users
arstechnica.com

Re: YouTube should stop recommending garbage videos to users

#2

Post by Quequau » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 11:30 AM UTC

Everything about YouTube doesn't fit my interests or preferences... to such an extent that I use YouTube-DL for almost all the things I watch off YouTube.

Recommendations are almost always garbage and I have no idea why. I also think that the search function is bad, like so bad that's it's somehow dishonest. I routinely run the same searches looking for the same thing but find stuff that was made well before the last time I ran the search... so why didn't the previous search uncover these results?

Re: YouTube should stop recommending garbage videos to users

#3

Post by sarcasmOrTears » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 11:34 AM UTC

I really like youtube recs. I have different accounts for different interests and the recommendations are always on point. I don't understand why so many people from the media complain. I think they just don't like that youtube recommends non-mainstream channels too.

Re: YouTube should stop recommending garbage videos to users

#4

Post by dgudkov » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 11:37 AM UTC

Well, click-driven advertisement and emotion-driven social media have disrupted the old (and well functioned) system of information pre-filtering and pre-selection by domain experts and journalists whose salary was dependent more on reputation than "engagement".

Now we're mowing the consequences of such "disruption".

Re: YouTube should stop recommending garbage videos to users

#5

Post by cookie_monsta » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 11:41 AM UTC

That's weird. YouTube always makes awesome recommendations for me.

Just kidding. YT's a dumpster fire, but it serves to point at when somebody starts telling you that Skynet is just around the corner. We may have nailed the A but but we're a looong way off the I.

Re: YouTube should stop recommending garbage videos to users

#6

Post by SmellyGeekBoy » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 11:43 AM UTC

sarcasmOrTears wrote: post #3

I really like youtube recs. I have different accounts for different interests and the recommendations are always on point. I don't understand why so many people from the media complain. I think they just don't like that youtube recommends non-mainstream channels too.

I agree, I've actually found some really interesting channels through recommendations. Perhaps the targeting is so accurate due to the years of data they have on my 2 accounts.

That said, I recently created a brand new account for my company and the default recommendations seem to be absolute mindless garbage. But perhaps my interests just don't align with what the vast majority of the YouTube-using public are watching.

Re: YouTube should stop recommending garbage videos to users

#7

Post by apacheCamel » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 11:48 AM UTC

I propose an idea, maybe: every video you watch, the original author of that video can set up a list of recommended videos to watch after you are done with the one you originally came for. This way, the original video author has a say in where you head in your Youtube rabbit-hole experience.

This is just off the top of my head early in the morning so probably not the best idea, but honestly it seems better than what they are doing now. Personally, I subscribe to a certain set of people and rarely watch videos outside of those content creators.

Edit: Just to add to my first point, I would be much more happy to follow the recommendation of the content creator I follow than some algorithm designed to get me to watch/click more.

Re: YouTube should stop recommending garbage videos to users

#8

Post by striking » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 11:52 AM UTC

apacheCamel wrote: post #7

I propose an idea, maybe: every video you watch, the original author of that video can set up a list of recommended videos to watch after you are done with the one you originally came for. This way, the original video author has a say in where you head in your Youtube rabbit-hole experience. This is just off the top of my head early in the morning so probably not the best idea, but honestly it seems better than what…

They can already add suggested videos in end screens and in the info card drawer (although the info card drawer is not used nearly as often as it could be, and YouTube doesn't necessarily do a good job of drawing attention to it).

Re: YouTube should stop recommending garbage videos to users

#9

Post by mcemilg » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 11:53 AM UTC

How to define garbage?

Re: YouTube should stop recommending garbage videos to users

#10

Post by alexis_fr » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 11:54 AM UTC

dgudkov wrote: post #4

Well, click-driven advertisement and emotion-driven social media have disrupted the old (and well functioned) system of information pre-filtering and pre-selection by domain experts and journalists whose salary was dependent more on reputation than "engagement". Now we're mowing the consequences of such "disruption".

Those “domain experts” were censoring men’s rights, for example. Only since Youtube are we discovering that male victims of home violence are 28% cases; If you listen to the “domain experts” they’ll pretend it is so small it’s not measurable, or pretend it’s not a problem.

That’s just an example for the area I’m expert in, but the current western political blowback is massively due to information flowing with fewer censorship, hence discovering that “domain experts” have led us to believe false or inaccurate things in the past.

“Domain experts” is also “TV-channel chosen domain experts” or “journalist-chosen domain experts” which has proven to provide erroneous results.