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I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#81

Post by KronisLV »

geerlingguy wrote: post #64
foodstances wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why is view count the only metric you care about? How about getting fewer views but more engagement, with viewers that want to see the content but are turned off by the stupid thumbnails?

Getting fewer views (and likely much reduced watch time) means YouTube's algorithm quickly buries your video. You and I might use subscriptions on YouTube (just like I prefer RSS), but 99% of viewers for some reason just go to the home page and click on things YouTube recommends (regardless of whether they subscribe to a channel). If you don't get recommended, you don't get views, and it's even less likely that regul…

It's curious and pleasant to see some people taking a stance on this issue, by exploring other venues apart from YouTube.

For example, Luke Smith hosts many of his videos over on Odysee nowadays: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@Luke:7

Also, Bryan Lunduke also moved over to Locals and has generally expressed that it's a more pleasant community: https://lunduke.locals.com/

Of course, i don't doubt that it's akin to financial suicide for anyone who relies on YouTube as their main source of income, but if nothing else, it's nice to see people standing up for their principles, instead of selling out and trying to build their platform on another site that can end their presence at will.

I guess only time will show whether there ever will be any financially feasible alternatives to YouTube, though.

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#82

Post by MR4D »

Jeff - you mentioned "Pi's bus being only Gen 2 and x1".

Do you see a linear scaling if those interfaces on the Pi are improved - i.e. is there anything else that looks like a near-term bottleneck if those are improved?

Great article - I love watching your youtube channel as well

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#83

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

geerlingguy wrote: post #44
opheliate wrote: post #39

Really sad to see so many people dismiss this just based on the YouTube thumbnail at the bottom. Jeff consistently makes very high quality content, I really enjoyed his series on Kubernetes, I would urge you to look past any preconceptions there. The fact is, if YouTube makes up a sizeable portion of your income, and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face, you’d be silly not to do so. It’s un…

> and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face Think more like 20-30% — and not doing it leads to a much quicker falloff from YouTube recommendations, where over 90% of video views come from. I overlook dumb thumbnails when the content is actually enjoyable/entertaining/educational.

There's a thread not too far from this one where people are complaining about the difficulty of cancelling subscriptions to their gyms. I'm sure the gyms use similar reasoning.

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#84

Post by drumttocs8 »

rym_ wrote: post #7

I get so frustrated with the idiotic thumbnails on youtube video these days. I am sure it's all optimized for the maximum number of clicks/views but if I see a still that looks the way it does at the bottom of this page I generally just don't watch it on principle.

We see a face with an (albeit fake) emotional reaction, our monkey brains say "that must be interesting!"

It's very stupid, but not surprising that those videos get more engagement.

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#85

Post by post_break »

haraball wrote: post #51
rym_ wrote: post #7

I get so frustrated with the idiotic thumbnails on youtube video these days. I am sure it's all optimized for the maximum number of clicks/views but if I see a still that looks the way it does at the bottom of this page I generally just don't watch it on principle.

Youtube is painful to use without certain add-ons for me. For this specific issue I'm happy using "Clickbait remover for youtube": https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clickbait-rem... Another good one is "DF YouTube (Distraction Free)": https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/df-youtube/

My favorite is sponsorblock. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#86

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

colechristensen wrote: post #72
geerlingguy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe me, I had a nice discussion yesterday with my sister (who helped me take pictures for the thumbnail), and we both agreed it's one of the dumbest things about current YouTube... The thing is, from all my own A/B testing, a face vs. no face will automatically get 20-30% more views (all else equal). And an exaggerated face, a bit more than that.

The question not being asked is how your audience changes A vs B in other ways than size. You can easily A/B test yourself into mediocrity by constantly optimizing for a larger, dumber audience. They stop liking your old content (despite your dumb faces, etc) so you make new content they like more, keep that cycle up for a while. And you end up making emotionally charged rage-porn political videos and have become the…

> The question not being asked is how your audience changes A vs B in other ways than size.

That's not how it works.

The most important factor to get views on YouTube is the recommendation algorithm. It makes a huge difference. YouTube will not even push your videos to people who are subscribed to you if the recommendation algorithm doesn't favor them.

As the click-through rate is an important part of how the algorithm decides what to recommend, you need a catchy thumbnail and a somewhat clickbaity title or you will be reduced to oblivion by people who use one regardless of the actual quality of your content. The story is the same with the length of video.

Veritasium made a couple of very good videos on the issue if you are interested.

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#87

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

opheliate wrote: post #39

Really sad to see so many people dismiss this just based on the YouTube thumbnail at the bottom. Jeff consistently makes very high quality content, I really enjoyed his series on Kubernetes, I would urge you to look past any preconceptions there. The fact is, if YouTube makes up a sizeable portion of your income, and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face, you’d be silly not to do so. It’s un…

That expression alone tells me "I'm not really an expert, just someone with time, money and trying to appeal to morons."

YouTube was cool back in the day cause people didn't make it their livelihoods. It was something to do for fun or to showoff. You just wanted to get popular or well known, not get rich.

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#88

Post by CyberRabbi »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #80
opheliate wrote: post #39

Really sad to see so many people dismiss this just based on the YouTube thumbnail at the bottom. Jeff consistently makes very high quality content, I really enjoyed his series on Kubernetes, I would urge you to look past any preconceptions there. The fact is, if YouTube makes up a sizeable portion of your income, and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face, you’d be silly not to do so. It’s un…

> The fact is, if YouTube makes up a sizeable portion of your income, and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face, you’d be silly not to do so. Sorry, I don't believe profit motive alone should ever be acceptable justification for making the world a worse place. You might argue that stupid faces and clickbait titles don't really make the world a worse place, and if that's the case we'll just h…

This guy makes free high quality content for random strangers online to enjoy and learn from and you’re unironically accusing him of making the world a worse place?

Spend 1 week doing the work of making free content for strangers online and then you can get on your soapbox about YouTube thumbnails. Until then you just sound like a parasite.

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#89

Post by jjk166 »

geerlingguy wrote: post #59
jjk166 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly wonder which came first, the viewer preference or the algorithm. Like are there people out there that see a whacky face in the thumbnail and think "Oh that's a video I want to watch!" and the algorithm just got trained on that? Or did whacky faces just resemble something (from the algorithm's perspective) that was briefly popular and then a positive feedback loop of algorithm recommends it -> gets popular…

I've discussed this with my brother a bit (he's a neurologist, though not a specialist in vision), and he seems to think part of it goes back to our brain's instinct to react more to 'face' than other stimuli. Therefore thumbnails with a discernible face will do better. And on top of that, an expression outside of "stock photo smile" will stand out more, and if you combine that, plus a catchy title that piques your i…

This explanation never really made sense to me. It's not like videos are hidden in a background and the thumbnail needs to stand out in our field of vision. Videos are presented front and center, and you're only looking at a few at a time. I presume everyone looks at all the video thumbnails; I just go left to right, top to bottom. Maybe if you were presented with hundreds of options at once and had to click on something quickly, something that draws the eye might get that sort of response, but that's not how Youtube works.

Instead you are presented with a small number of options and given unlimited time to choose, and the consequence of choosing a bad video is several minutes of wasted time. I presume most people are asking themselves "do I want to watch this" and deciding "yes, this video looks interesting/entertaining/etc." Maybe if the effect were small, like 1-2% I could believe its just a slight nudge due to psychological hacking, but the reported differences in the tens of percent and the extreme importance that seems to be placed by the algorithm indicates this is a major factor in peoples' decision making process.

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#90

Post by geerlingguy »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #86
colechristensen wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question not being asked is how your audience changes A vs B in other ways than size. You can easily A/B test yourself into mediocrity by constantly optimizing for a larger, dumber audience. They stop liking your old content (despite your dumb faces, etc) so you make new content they like more, keep that cycle up for a while. And you end up making emotionally charged rage-porn political videos and have become the…

> The question not being asked is how your audience changes A vs B in other ways than size. That's not how it works. The most important factor to get views on YouTube is the recommendation algorithm. It makes a huge difference. YouTube will not even push your videos to people who are subscribed to you if the recommendation algorithm doesn't favor them. As the click-through rate is an important part of how the algorit…

This. And the Veritasium video is linked later in this thread.
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