Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 309 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#171

Post by jaarse »

I consume a lot of YouTube content. I have also been a full time content creator for the past decade (so I consider myself a dinosaur in social media land).

I have noticed significantly less interesting content on YouTube over the past 2 years, but I attribute most of it to a lack of small creators on the platform now. It takes a ton of time and effort to even make a good 10 minute video. This is a big time commitment on top of your other job, family, etc.

10 years ago there were no professional outfits on YouTube. Then everyone started to "grow up". About 5 years ago people started seeing there was money to be made on YouTube, so a ton of new creators joined the platform and there was tons of content. Fast forward to now and creators have realized it's actually very hard to live off YouTube, so a lot of them have moved on.

If all they want to do is show off their project they now turn to Instagram and/or TikTok. If all you are after is likes (and don't care about monetization) it is actually way easier on those platforms (due to their discovery engines) with a fraction of the production time.

I think YouTube knows this (hence shorts). The general rule of thought around YouTube now is to grow your brand using shorts and then monetize it using long form videos. So unless a creator has a large enough following to support their work making long form videos (over 90s) there is really no incentive anymore.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#172

Post by is_true »

People creating content to scratch their own itch -> people creating content to make money

But YouTube is also giving more room to spammers, they make more money when you have to watch 3 videos than when you watch 1. Unfortunately there's a big lack of ethics in the tech community.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#173

Post by unsignednoop »

popcorncowboy wrote: post #94

This is almost boringly textbook late-stage "monopoly in practice" playing out. Start with an "edge". Get big because edge. Use "big" to sharpen edge further. Use big (and/or edge) to consolidate market. Once sufficiently consolidated and/or controlled, raise costs. This is what costs getting raised looks like in a monopoly market. Who's gonna stop them.

>Who’s gonna stop them

Ive been thinking for a while that Netflix could. They desperately need to seperate themselves from the competition and they already have the video distribution tech and captive audience to launch a real challenge to youtube.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#174

Post by antioppressor »

Tarq0n wrote: post #153
antioppressor wrote: post #145

Recommendation system is long time broken. I am subscribed to 100+ channels and check 10 channels on a weekly basis, meaning I watch all the new videos these creators make. So that means I want the new stuff from the frequented ones on my front page ASAP. Yet, it's a hit and miss. From the remaining 90 channels I never get anything recommended. Why? If I subscribe to a new channel it gets recommended like hell, then…

That's not what the recommendations are for. There's a separate page that list all posts by your subscriptions in chronological order, you can find it in the sidebar, IMO it's the only way to use YouTube.

Which is also nonfunctional, useless, not for human consumption. You can't filter those in any way. It looks like a relic from the 90s :DDD. Anything else you want to add?

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#175

Post by mcv »

antioppressor wrote: post #145

Recommendation system is long time broken. I am subscribed to 100+ channels and check 10 channels on a weekly basis, meaning I watch all the new videos these creators make. So that means I want the new stuff from the frequented ones on my front page ASAP. Yet, it's a hit and miss. From the remaining 90 channels I never get anything recommended. Why? If I subscribe to a new channel it gets recommended like hell, then…

I'm not subscribed to a lot of channels, and mostly relied on recommendations, which served me reasonably well for a time, but over time I noticed that some of my interests completely vanished, while others keep repeating old stuff I've already seen. And even channels I'm subscribed to, the recommendations are often old stuff and not the most recent.

But click one recommendation outside my interests just to check it out, and that's going to dominate for the next couple of weeks even if I decide I don't like it. Maybe I should downvote that more aggressively.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#176

Post by jaarse »

ddmichael wrote: post #107

You asked about bots and spam but I want to talk about the content degradation. YT has been heavily commercialised and lots of people are trying to make a living out of it. Most videos are about keeping viewers for as much time possible watching your content. As a result what would have been a 2-minute video becomes a 20-minute video with introductions, discussions about the weather and silly sales/crowd manipulation…

You are correct ... because if I'm only going to make a 2 minute video I would put it on TikTok or Instagram. Way easier to get likes (which is what I'm after if I'm not monetizing it), and way easier to make that content.

I think YouTube knows this which is why they are pushing shorts so hard.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#177

Post by jaarse »

is_true wrote: post #172

People creating content to scratch their own itch -> people creating content to make money But YouTube is also giving more room to spammers, they make more money when you have to watch 3 videos than when you watch 1. Unfortunately there's a big lack of ethics in the tech community.

I agree 100%.

People making content to scratch their own itch have moved on to TikTok or Instagram. They're the "cool" platforms to be on now, and the production requirements are way less.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#178

Post by tinyhouse »

Like with everything, once you get to a certain scale it's just very hard. This is not Netflix and their tiny catalog. We're talking about millions of videos added to YT every day. My main issue with YT lately is the increase in ads before videos are played. I use it much less because of it. I know they have a mo ads tier. It's probably worth it for someone using YT often.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#179

Post by jgwil2 »

shapefrog wrote: post #66
gherkinnn wrote: post #19

YT on a clean slate is horrendous. Give it a few days and it becomes bearable. I’m mostly impressed. Though there is a growing number of anecdotes surrounding (niche|not palatable to SV) channels who’s subscribers don’t get notified despite the bell thing being on, new videos no longer in feeds, and even people getting unsubscribed for no apparent reason. This is a problem, as I’d sooner give up peanut butter than on…

> YT on a clean slate is horrendous It makes me worry about the future of humanity, as the clean slate is what is popular in your location. > open mouthed dweebs on a rainbow background for thumbnails Dont forget to add a large amount of money to the title my $$$$250,000 computer . But it f'ing works - I am really not sure what is wrong with people. Oh and now I get 2 ads every single video, its barely worth it ...

> Oh and now I get 2 ads every single video, its barely worth it ...

Do yourself a favor and get an ad blocker. YouTube is barely usable without one at this point.

Post reply on HN