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YouTube, the jewel of the internet

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Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#401

Post by Applejinx »

neom wrote: post #260
sitkack wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had the YT algorithm "hunt me" for a weeks, keep recommending some what looks like a dumb-ass video, only when I finally cave in and watch it, I get it, I needed to see it. The thumbnail and the title didn't did it the opposite of justice. I even tried using the yt api to see if I could scrape the recommendations but they aren't in there. You would have to scrape the browser while logged in.

You need the extension "Clickbait Remover" - it just grabs a random frame from the video and sets it as the thumbnail, will change your youtube life: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/clickbait-remover-...

I'd like this, but it doesn't work when using uBlock Origin. It does change case of video titles, though, so it's working: just not able to alter the thumbnails anymore. Would be great but I'm not disabling uBlock Origin for it…

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#402

Post by edanm »

grumbel wrote: post #400
edanm wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Try watching the old videos of a channel you just discovered, that's 20 clicks and a lot of waiting just to get to the bottom of that endless scroll list. Some of your complaints are valid (though they are mostly UX gripes), but this one I don't get. I've done this multiple times and it's like three clicks. You click the channel's name, you click "videos", and you scroll down, that's it.

> You click the channel's name, you click "videos", and you scroll down, that's it. It's an infinite-scroll list, it loads in 9 or so videos at a time, than it takes a second to update your scrollbar before you can scroll down further. You can't instantly jump to the last page, load all videos at once or invert the sort order. Every time you accidentally click away from the page you have to start from scratch as it d…

I mean, I'm not saying you're exactly wrong, but I just tried and it took me like 30 seconds to go back a year on a channel that released like 2-3 videos a day.

It's certainly not the most convenient UX, but, you know, first world problems and everything. The greatest store of knowledge almost-instantly availalbe at our fingertips, these minor UX quips are small-potatoes IMHO.

And for sure I don't think the statement "the only way to interact is via the algorithm" is accurate, when what stands between us and finding old videos is to wait a few extra seconds. That's a really strong statement compared to the reality.

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#403

Post by Applejinx »

kibwen wrote: post #175
mastax wrote: post #81

I'm going to go against the grain here and say my YouTube algorithm is great. Signing out of YouTube and viewing the default home page is a reminder of the horrors that lie beyond, but my little corner of it is a bit too good. There was a period of time semi-recently when the algorithm was better than my heuristics, too. I had associated too-good thumbnails with overproduced shallow clickbait videos churned out by co…

> Signing out of YouTube and viewing the default home page is a reminder of the horrors that lie beyond, but my little corner of it is a bit too good. I resonate with the "a bit too good", so much so that I exclusively use YouTube in incognito mode because the recommendation algorithm is too addictive, and the content that it causes me to consume doesn't really do anything but waste my time in the long run. I also se…

It's weird how different my experience is, simply from spanking the algorithm every time it shows me something clickbaity that I haven't already seen.

I actively use the 'not interested' every time the recommendation algorithm tries to show me something where I don't already know what it is. I pretty much only want to see recommended videos I've already watched :)

It takes some patience to get this going, but it seems to work. Any time I see anything novel, it will get excited for a while until I settle it down and tell it I hate all its ideas. Usually I don't have to tell it never to show channels, though if it's obvious enough I will. Eventually it's back to old faves again :)

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#404

Post by anticrymactic »

jahsome wrote: post #200
JKCalhoun wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am hooked as well. (But, please, stop with the YouTube Shorts, I'm just not that into you.)

I'd double my premium subscription fee to remove this feature from the Android app.

You can use ReVanced and choose every "patch". For example only remove shorts and keep ads etc. That way the creator still get your premium compensation

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#405

Post by jeffrallen »

irrational wrote: post #17
rcarr wrote: post #9

I agree with the author. I just cancelled Spotify and got YouTube Premium and it was an absolutely brilliant decision. Pretty soon I’m going to cancel Netflix and Prime too and just take out the odd month subscription to a streaming service if there’s something I really want to watch. I’m probably better off watching some informative documentary on YT than I am watching Netflix anyway and if I want entertainment, the…

> they had a youth where they could spend their entire time learning literally everything there is to know about their passion for free I have children between the ages of 9 and 26. You know what they are passionate about? Minecraft, Mr Beast, Travel vlogs, mommy vlogs, “reality” videos, etc. I’ve tried to introduce them to science, space, programming, history, math, finance, nature, etc. content and they don’t want…

And YouTube shorts. It is shocking how addictive they are. I suffer it myself, and continually interrupt my son to ask him, "do you really want to run out your limited screen time on that garbage?" He agrees no, then is back on them 5 minutes later until his phone shuts him out. Thank god for parental controls.

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#406

Post by Aromasin »

fancy_pantser wrote: post #223
mastax wrote: post #81

I'm going to go against the grain here and say my YouTube algorithm is great. Signing out of YouTube and viewing the default home page is a reminder of the horrors that lie beyond, but my little corner of it is a bit too good. There was a period of time semi-recently when the algorithm was better than my heuristics, too. I had associated too-good thumbnails with overproduced shallow clickbait videos churned out by co…

I've been trying out an extension to hide the thumbnails to see how it changes what I wind up clicking. The problem with my little experiment is I don't go back to see what they would have been afterward to record an observation, so I'm not meeting the Adam Savage criteria for doing science. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hide-youtube-thumb...

May I suggest "Unhook"? It's great for switching different parts of the UI on and off. I quite often disable everything except subscriptions now; no recommendation, no comments, no explore/trending, among other things. It's change my YouTube usage tremendously:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unhook-remove-yout...

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#408

Post by kubectl_h »

meken wrote: post #66
kubectl_h wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watching kids watch youtube is like watching zombies. I know a kid who is a big fan of any kind of sports. He is constantly watching youtube videos that are basically stats and clips packaged up with some slight humor but very little analysis. This kid has basically an encyclopedic knowledge of sports... stats. All from youtube. I was also like this to a degree as a kid, but I got my info from stats books/magazines/n…

Not really sure what you’re talking about when you say that vid just enumerates stats. There’s a lot of narrative and comparison and context put into that video. Comparing it to how I grew up watching ESPN Sportscenter, I find that YT video much richer and varied

> There’s a lot of narrative and comparison and context

There's not though. Most of what is narrative is cutesy jokes. Comparisons are just... stats. If you re-watch with a critical eye you'll see it's basically a formula: in these X games he pitched this well, then he'll compare him to some historical figure on stats alone, over a clip or a screenshot of baseball reference. At some point he just reads passages off wikipedia. There really isn't any subjective thought being put into it, it's just a clever packaging of google searches in a lot of ways.

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#409

Post by nkit »

Applejinx wrote: post #401
neom wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need the extension "Clickbait Remover" - it just grabs a random frame from the video and sets it as the thumbnail, will change your youtube life: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/clickbait-remover-...

I'd like this, but it doesn't work when using uBlock Origin. It does change case of video titles, though, so it's working: just not able to alter the thumbnails anymore. Would be great but I'm not disabling uBlock Origin for it…

working for me on firefox with uBlock Origin, maybe it's some other extension (or some custom rule)?

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#410

Post by jon-wood »

yreg wrote: post #351
rossjudson wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I've said Not interested in channel hundreds of times. Creators get one shot with me, and if I think your thumbnail is clickbaity, or you do anything to annoy me...your channel is out. My youtube recommendations are pretty good. I subscribe to a decent-sized set of pretty great creators -- ones that follow my personal rules without even knowing what they are...

There are many decent youtubers who have clickbaity thumbnails. Unfortunately it probably makes such a large money difference that they compromise. E.g. LinusTechTips.

I see LinusTechTips recommended so often and I just don't get it. Everything I've seen from him has been clickbait, or surface level looks at technology, it never has any more depth than a technology enthusiast magazine. I guess that's fine if you're a technology enthusiast, but I find it weird how he gets so much air time even in a community like this which is populated by actual professionals.
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