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Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count

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Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count

#432
post #170

Has anyone else been slowly watching YouTube turn into cable TV? When I search "Hong Kong protests" I just get a bunch of videos from CNN and Fox News, not that long ago a search like that would turn up first hand videos of people who were there. Now they are copying streaming services in making it harder to tell what is garbage and what is worth watching.

Yeah, slowly but surely YouTube is destroying itself. Which is very sad, because it's been an amazing resource. I'd love to see ByteDance do a YouTube competitor. (Or, dream of all dreams, see something distributed really take off.)

good luck getting videos of the hong kong protests with a ByteDance YouTube!

Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count

#433
This is simply so google can exert more control over its platform and control the narrative.

Hate to be so cynical but watching what happened to reddit seeing some similarities here at youtube.

It’s almost like Google (and others) want to tell you which videos are good and should be watched and pretend to have user interaction.

TV 3.0

Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count

#434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For now, but if they keep treating users like shit, it creates a bigger and bigger opportunity for competition to pop in. You might be thinking it's super hard for someone like you or I to create a YouTube competitor. That's probably true, but what about Amazon or Netflix? Can you imagine if Netflix had a YouTube-like platform where, if you're a subscriber, you get no ads?

This is unlikely, because youtube has one thing that no other platform does, creators. How many youtubers would actually be willing to post on another website, let alone exclusively? How many fans would actually follow them? For already risk averse youtubers this is unlikely.

Many, actually. There are quite a few active alternatives now, such as Nebula for science YouTubers and Odyssey. Last I heard Linus Sebastian was working on an alternative as well.

It seems that most content creators are quite worried about the way YouTube handles (de-)monitization and copyright strikes. Many CCs are also streamers and use YT only as a side channel. Sure, YT still has a large footprint, but it's not as solid as it used to be.

Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count

#435
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's entirely too much good stuff on YouTube to ignore. I learn so much there, all for free.

But what are the opportunity costs of learning stuff on YouTube, especially if you're watching hours of content? There is good stuff in there - don't get me wrong. It's just that the good stuff you want to find is often quite hidden, and I've on occasion spent more time trying to find some video that actually shows a tricky part of some bit of equipment maintenance than it would take to just do things the slow way (t…

>>I've also found that YouTube leads to a very poor, surface understanding of most issues - and this isn't the fault of YouTube specifically, it's just a limit of video.

Try watching TIK's BattleStorm Stalingrad series (link below). Exceptionally well-researched and the videos are information-dense. I own one of the books cited in his series, the 700-page "Armageddon in Stalingrad" by David Glantz. His video format communicates a fairly high understanding of the play of events, of the people involved, and other nuances, in less time than pouring over ALL of the source material would take. He mixes tactical/operational maps with dialogue bubbles of key commanders, tables of equipment readiness/casualties, quotes from people who fought there or from books, and lately he's been adding photos showing where on the battlefield they were taken. So a lot of it is book content (and many of the authors comment on his videos, praising his work), but he steps through the battle in almost real-time, and it provides a better view of scope, scale, and even decision-making by key leaders than digesting static maps in a book would. I would challenge the assertion that reading all of the books oneself would yield a significantly higher comprehension of the battle, and it certainly wouldn't be time-efficient to do so. Hence video as a communication medium is not inherently flawed. Like any other medium it is reliant upon exceptionally well-produced content. Most YT content isn't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAfo5mse-ag&list=PLNSNgGzale...

Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count

#436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you see the suggestion you can select "not interested" instead.

Which does nothing, of course.

For me, on youtube premium, "not interested" has massive, immediate effects on what is shown in my feed. Try it and see.

Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count

#437
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good point. Who really knows, but possibly Google just doesn't see that coming, or at least not any time soon. A true competitor to YouTube would really do consumers and creators a lot of good though.

Seems like it should be a market inevitability. There are just so many things wrong with YouTube. The main obstacle is the bandwidth cost, and that's not an issue for any major tech company. I think Facebook could actually properly compete with YouTube if they wanted, it's just that their insistence that you have to be logged in to access content makes it much less appealing as a platform, because you can't just link…

>The main obstacle is the bandwidth cost

...hence the ads? How would competitors be immune to the need to pay the bills?

Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count

#438
post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s cut the BS. It’s about not looking bad. Its that simple

That's absolutely what it's about. There's nothing to debate about that. It's the same reason Trump wanted to be able to block people on Twitter. For the same reason he wasn't allowed to do that, the White House shouldn't be allowed to disable YouTube commenting. But hey, it's not like there's a double standard in favor of the Democrats and Biden.

[deleted]

Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count

#439
I've actually made the same choice, but in the context of a game and user generated levels: people can like and dislike a level, but only the like count is shown. It's based on the user feedback (they don't want to be demotivated/humiliated by a large dislike count). It's also the solution chosen by Super Mario Maker 2, a big influence on me.

Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count

#440

What is going on in the comments to this article? Why has this relatively minor youtube feature change dredged up such significant vitriol and conspiracy-adjacent rhetoric in the hacker news comments? Skimming all the comments here I'm seeing lots of flaming and hand-wringing. I don't have any actual measures, but to me it feels like significantly more than normal even for an article about a high-profile site/company…

Youtube is one of the most culturally significant websites on earth, and the like / dislike ratio on videos are a huge part of the experience there. I can’t believe you think it’s a “relatively minor” thing, do you never look up videos online?
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