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On YouTube’s recommendation system

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Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#121

Post by isk517 »

swalsh wrote: post #11

The reccomendation system is absolutely dangerous. Just this summer, I watched one video on peppers out of curiousity. By the end of summer I've got multiple different varieties growing, and all the accessories to support them. I'm really enjoying my garden, but it's very unlikely I would have started one without the youtube algorithm. Similarly my doctor reccomended I exercise more, so I started running. Then I goog…

Running is a hobby that feels like it should be cheap but gets surprisingly expensive. Two quick pieces of advice to save you from a bit of hurt. 1. Track your miles, shoes need to be replaced every 300-500 and 2. Go get a foot orthotic and gait assessment done. Wearing the right type of shoes and finding out if you require orthotics is a easy way to prevent injuries that won't pop up for another year or two down the line.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#122

Post by judge2020 »

CoryAlexMartin wrote: post #73

> With all that, why don’t we simply remove borderline content? Misinformation tends to shift and evolve rapidly, and unlike areas like terrorism or child safety, often lacks a clear consensus. Also, misinformation can vary depending on personal perspective and background. This is a weird way to say "ideas that we suppress for being misinformation are sometimes actually true."

'sometimes true depending on who's watching, what their cultural background is, and whether or not the idea presented is proved with future research'.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#124

Post by grumbel »

jeffwask wrote: post #44
swalsh wrote: post #11

The reccomendation system is absolutely dangerous. Just this summer, I watched one video on peppers out of curiousity. By the end of summer I've got multiple different varieties growing, and all the accessories to support them. I'm really enjoying my garden, but it's very unlikely I would have started one without the youtube algorithm. Similarly my doctor reccomended I exercise more, so I started running. Then I goog…

It's sad because I remember being able to find new and interesting creators passively. Now the main page is all corporate BS and the algorithm locks you in. We played a bit of WOW Classic last year and all of a sudden I was just flooded with Asmongold videos and videos of people clipping and replaying Asmongold. It took a day of "never show this again" to make it stop.

That's why I started using multiple accounts, makes it a lot easier to keep the algorithm on topic and not get side tracked just because you searched for a song or game once.

In the end the core problem with the recommendation system is simply that there is only one list of recommendations, which makes it damn near impossible to switch to a different topic unless you start account hopping. The new topic-bar helps a little, but still offers no way to get rid of an unwanted topic completely.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#125

Post by htrp »

hwers wrote: post #56

Best decision I ever made was installing an extension to get rid of the recommendations (they're such crap - I wish they would actually try to recommend me things with a high likelihood of me enjoying rather than whatever propaganda youtube wants me to see).

You can't say things like this without telling us what extension this is

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#126

Post by beckman466 »

This is all horseshit. YouTube should be a utility, democratically owned and governed. When are we going to stop pretending this profit-seeking ad platform isn’t dangerous, and start hosting videos according to other metrics than ‘monetizability’ instead.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#127

Post by munificent »

lelandfe wrote: post #13
spike021 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed this too. Occasionally I'll look up a how-to/DIY thing, watch one video for it, and then all my recommendations (even the ones on the front page) revolve around that topic. But it's not like I have a consistent interest in it, it was a one-off.

I can be pretty confident that once I've finished a video, that very same video will be on my YouTube homepage for weeks. It's useless. At this moment, my homepage's first 10 videos include 7 that I've already watched.

> that very same video will be on my YouTube homepage for weeks.

I just right-click those videos and tell YouTube I'm not interested in it. That helps keep my homepage fresh while still being pretty good about recommending stuff I like.

One thing I think must be deeply challenging about recommendation on YouTube is that many videos like DIY informative stuff only warrant being watched once. But music, DJ mixes, livestreams, etc. I will watch over and over. So the signal "did I watch this" might mean "definitely do not show it again" for some videos and "definite do show it again" for others. It's probably hard for the system to distinguish those.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#128

Post by munificent »

ysavir wrote: post #68
gxqoz wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they're being fooled by toddlers who love rewatching the same video over and over again.

Not even that, I bet. I've heard a lot about how YT is used for music by many people (myself included, sometimes), and recommending the song you just listened again probably has a good click rate.

Yeah, I have definitely watched the same DJ set dozens of times for some particularly good ones.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#129

Post by dkarl »

yummypaint wrote: post #120
kenjackson wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What corporate stuff do you have on your main page? Mine is all pretty much filled with content that matches what I watch.

This seems pretty tautological. What you watch will reflect your reccomendations because there is a causal relationship there, unless you never use youtube for discovery. I alledge that what people spend time watching is more heavily shaped by reccomendations than they are aware of.

When you depart from your usual intake, some departures are a lot more powerful than others. Sometimes you watch something new and YouTube spends days pushing similar stuff into your face. Other times you watch something new and only see one or two relevant recommendations mixed into your usual fare. My hypothesis is that YouTube knows that particular topics and particular content are associated with usage patterns that make money for them, and the algorithm is alert to any possibility of pushing users into those patterns.
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