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Unhook: Hide YouTube Recommendations

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Re: Unhook: Hide YouTube Recommendations

#71

Post by stickfigure »

scrollaway wrote: post #50
thepasswordis wrote: post #19

I honestly just wish the recommendations were better . I watched an interview that Curtis Yarvin gave on Tucker Carlson (about an hour long...interesting at least). Now youtube is sending me all these conservative "talk show" people that I have absolutely 0 interest in. Same thing: I think I watched some video about guns a while ago. I think guns are neat, but I absolutely do not care about watching dozens of videos…

You have to work on them a little bit but once you do, the recommendations are incredibly high quality. Just make sure to hide the stuff you don’t want to see on your homepage. I go as far as removing dumb videos from my watch history (or watching them in incognito in the first place). I find that most people who complain about the YouTube algorithm expect it to just work out of the box with zero tuning. It’s not tha…

This.

My youtube recommendations are incredible. I've spent a lot of time liking and subscribing to things that interest me, and now my feed is full of videos about history and trains and machining and woodworking and science and all kinds of stuff that I could watch for days.

Re: Unhook: Hide YouTube Recommendations

#72

Post by Laforet »

scrollaway wrote: post #50
thepasswordis wrote: post #19

I honestly just wish the recommendations were better . I watched an interview that Curtis Yarvin gave on Tucker Carlson (about an hour long...interesting at least). Now youtube is sending me all these conservative "talk show" people that I have absolutely 0 interest in. Same thing: I think I watched some video about guns a while ago. I think guns are neat, but I absolutely do not care about watching dozens of videos…

You have to work on them a little bit but once you do, the recommendations are incredibly high quality. Just make sure to hide the stuff you don’t want to see on your homepage. I go as far as removing dumb videos from my watch history (or watching them in incognito in the first place). I find that most people who complain about the YouTube algorithm expect it to just work out of the box with zero tuning. It’s not tha…

I tried something similar and the results are a mixed bag at best. When the algorithm decides to recommend a video from a creator that I don't follow, it is usually something worth my time. However I cannot seem to stop getting recommendations for videos I have already watched despite diligently clicking the "not interested because already watched" boxes.

A lesser issue is that if I don't watch the videos from a certain channel or genre for a while, the algorithm decides that I must have lost interest and stops recommending those content altogether when that's not really the case. And the "related videos" on the side bar never goes beyond a list of videos from the same channel.

Re: Unhook: Hide YouTube Recommendations

#73

Post by mythrwy »

alphabetting wrote: post #35
thepasswordis wrote: post #19

I honestly just wish the recommendations were better . I watched an interview that Curtis Yarvin gave on Tucker Carlson (about an hour long...interesting at least). Now youtube is sending me all these conservative "talk show" people that I have absolutely 0 interest in. Same thing: I think I watched some video about guns a while ago. I think guns are neat, but I absolutely do not care about watching dozens of videos…

Hover over the recommended video and you can click the three dot tab to select "not interested in Curtis Yarvin" or "not interested in Tucker Carlson." I do this all the time and it makes the feed so much better.

You have to be logged in to do that no?

Not like Google doesn't know exactly who I am anyway but I prefer not staying logged in.

Re: Unhook: Hide YouTube Recommendations

#74

Post by sillysaurusx »

scrollaway wrote: post #50
thepasswordis wrote: post #19

I honestly just wish the recommendations were better . I watched an interview that Curtis Yarvin gave on Tucker Carlson (about an hour long...interesting at least). Now youtube is sending me all these conservative "talk show" people that I have absolutely 0 interest in. Same thing: I think I watched some video about guns a while ago. I think guns are neat, but I absolutely do not care about watching dozens of videos…

You have to work on them a little bit but once you do, the recommendations are incredibly high quality. Just make sure to hide the stuff you don’t want to see on your homepage. I go as far as removing dumb videos from my watch history (or watching them in incognito in the first place). I find that most people who complain about the YouTube algorithm expect it to just work out of the box with zero tuning. It’s not tha…

Yes. In particular, the single most important thing to do is to click the three dots next to a video and then click "Not interested": https://i.imgur.com/1CQzOy6.png

Literally any time you see a video you don't like, do this. It only takes one or two "Not interested"'s to dramatically improve your feed.

Re: Unhook: Hide YouTube Recommendations

#75

Post by sillysaurusx »

rsj_hn wrote: post #22
thepasswordis wrote: post #19

I honestly just wish the recommendations were better . I watched an interview that Curtis Yarvin gave on Tucker Carlson (about an hour long...interesting at least). Now youtube is sending me all these conservative "talk show" people that I have absolutely 0 interest in. Same thing: I think I watched some video about guns a while ago. I think guns are neat, but I absolutely do not care about watching dozens of videos…

I was looking to buy a leather belt about 6 months ago. I found the belt and bought it (am very happy, thank you). Now it appears for the rest of my life I will be getting leather belt advertisements. On Facebook, Youtube, Google, everywhere. The whole reason why I wanted a quality belt was so that it would last me the rest of my life if cared for properly. I intend to never buy another. And what's worse is that it's…

Sort of off topic, but which belt did you buy? The idea that the belt will last the rest of my life appeals to me.

Re: Unhook: Hide YouTube Recommendations

#76

Post by Zevis »

zeta0134 wrote: post #17
kbenson wrote: post #9

Honestly, that's where I get some of the most use out of YouTube, the recommended videos main page. Sometimes I'm annoyed they aren't showing me enough variation based on my subscriptions and past likes. I'm not sure why I'd want this. Sometimes I'm watching a technical presentation/talk by someone and I'll get other talks of theirs on the recommended videos for that video page, which is useful, or followup videos on…

I don't know how you're getting relevant recommendations; YouTube seems determined to get me into watching the latest celebrity personalities, or endless streams of clickbait. I use a few custom uBlock Origin rules to hide the recommendations sidebar and the end-of-video overlay complete. If a video doesn't show up in my list of curated subscriptions, I just don't see it, and that's fine. It's good for my feed to be…

I'm with the other two replies. My recommendations match my interests quite well. Probably due to what videos I like and others that I hide because they're not relevant to me. I don't think I'd be using YT if it weren't for the video suggestions.

Re: Unhook: Hide YouTube Recommendations

#79

Post by b0afc375b5 »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #75
rsj_hn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was looking to buy a leather belt about 6 months ago. I found the belt and bought it (am very happy, thank you). Now it appears for the rest of my life I will be getting leather belt advertisements. On Facebook, Youtube, Google, everywhere. The whole reason why I wanted a quality belt was so that it would last me the rest of my life if cared for properly. I intend to never buy another. And what's worse is that it's…

Sort of off topic, but which belt did you buy? The idea that the belt will last the rest of my life appeals to me.

If you like the idea of buying things for life, check out https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/

Re: Unhook: Hide YouTube Recommendations

#80

Post by garyfirestorm »

scrollaway wrote: post #50
thepasswordis wrote: post #19

I honestly just wish the recommendations were better . I watched an interview that Curtis Yarvin gave on Tucker Carlson (about an hour long...interesting at least). Now youtube is sending me all these conservative "talk show" people that I have absolutely 0 interest in. Same thing: I think I watched some video about guns a while ago. I think guns are neat, but I absolutely do not care about watching dozens of videos…

You have to work on them a little bit but once you do, the recommendations are incredibly high quality. Just make sure to hide the stuff you don’t want to see on your homepage. I go as far as removing dumb videos from my watch history (or watching them in incognito in the first place). I find that most people who complain about the YouTube algorithm expect it to just work out of the box with zero tuning. It’s not tha…

That’s exactly I was thinking. Why do people on HN keep hating YouTube recommendations. I want to learn electronics and now YouTube is recommending some amazing stuff. I’m absolutely amazed by the quality of content it recommends. Then again my echo chamber is mostly gaining new skills. I avoid watching trash on YouTube.
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