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I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

towardsdatascience.com

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Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#91

Post by wruza »

pantelisk wrote: post #25

The youtube algorithm is working extremely well, to the point where I find hard to believe it does not have any human in the loop or active moderation. I have discovered so many interesting types of music and documentaries and subculture/subgenres on it. It manages to hit my interests so well, that I rarely go to netflix nor spotify anymore for discovery. I 'll either directly go watch something that I 've chosen on…

This sounds like from 10+ years ago. It did that discovery thing for me, but only for a while. Today my youtube is an isolated cell that I have to forcefully break out of to discover something new. As if they were not interested in me consuming new content at all.

Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#92

Post by jingw222 »

Interestingly, the ranking approaches used here are quite comparable to how those big giants do their recsys algorithms. The algorithms are never perfect and there will always be edge cases that even machines learning models cannot handle decently.

Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#93

Post by wruza »

gylterud wrote: post #28

I found YouTube suggestions to be generally useless, so I have just disabled the suggestion sidebar completely[0]. Leaves more screen space for the video. The reason I found them useless is that the suggestions were too specialised. I usually do not want to watch a dozen videos on the same topic. I usually want to watch one high quality video about it, then move on. Same with channels. I do not want to follow ten cha…

I suspect that it is the difference from other viewers who are reporting yt algo as good. I also want diversity/exploration on unknown topics rather than it repeating the same shit to me again and again. Once a channel/topic is found, I can explore it by myself, no more suggestions required.

Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#94

Post by gibolt »

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #49
smoe wrote: post #34

Really cool project, going to play around with it, since I wanted to experiment with alternative algorithms for these kind of platforms for a while, but didn't found time to get started. My biggest gripe with YouTube recommendations, or any service of that kind (Spotify, Amazon, etc.), is that they don't understand what aspects of the content I value. So it is a huge hit and miss. Sometimes it works, because I guess…

I wish I could explicitly tell YouTube “don’t ever recommend videos I’ve seen.”

They have two options under the triple dot menu (at least on Android feed) that you are not interested in this video or this channel.

May help curate once you start getting those recommendations.

Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#95

Post by bpodgursky »

aeternum wrote: post #88
bpodgursky wrote: post #19

Note that a supplemental option is to also delete your YouTube account. I was worried I'd accidentally nuke my gmail account, but turns out you can delete your YouTube account + history without affecting any of your other Google services (I did it last night).

Youtube has some quality content that is not available elsewhere. For example it would be illogical to shred your library card just because you don't like the books that the librarian shows you.

I'm not suggesting nullrouting the site (if you don't need to), I'm suggesting deactivating your account so you're never shown the all-too-enticing personalized recommendations.

You can always watch specific videos without being logged in.

Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#96

Post by drivebycomment »

bobbydreamer wrote: post #86

YouTube or Google search business need algorithm change. They need to go back to what they had 7-8 years back. Tiktok had the best recommendations system so far. They are designed to keep you hooked. YT they are designed and give feel you are wasting your time on this so go back to your life. Not sure if search engines can provide user defined algorithm plugins for searching or day use search algorithm 1 or 2. Most o…

Youtube app has an incognito mode.

Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#99

Post by s4n1ty »

wruza wrote: post #91
pantelisk wrote: post #25

The youtube algorithm is working extremely well, to the point where I find hard to believe it does not have any human in the loop or active moderation. I have discovered so many interesting types of music and documentaries and subculture/subgenres on it. It manages to hit my interests so well, that I rarely go to netflix nor spotify anymore for discovery. I 'll either directly go watch something that I 've chosen on…

This sounds like from 10+ years ago. It did that discovery thing for me, but only for a while. Today my youtube is an isolated cell that I have to forcefully break out of to discover something new. As if they were not interested in me consuming new content at all.

I have the same sense, it just keeps recommending stuff similar to what I've watched before, to the point of repetitiveness.
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