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YouTube, the jewel of the internet

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Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know there's supposed to be a bunch of clickbait garbage on YouTube but I just wouldn't know, because I literally never see it. Just sort by view count for any common english word and filter out the music videos. Well, even including music videos there appear to be several dozen or hundred accounts dedicated to reposting the exact same Indian music videos, film trailers, clips, etc... Not even small variations of…

Why is anything with India content so... spammy? Endless cheap reposts with low res text and memes (or the India flag) pasted on top. Page after page of what I can only call video garbage. I have the feeling it is a cultural difference I am ignorant of.

How are you coming across this content? I'm in India and when I see Indian content recommended it's generally one of: a. Movie clips and songs b. Religious stuff like prayer songs c. Local channels that mostly do comedy (kinda like CollegeHumor used to) d. Nerdy channels like solving math puzzles or doing Geoguessr

I can't really visualize what you're describing, though a sibling reply says there's "literally thousands of such videos with millions of views each" so there must be a lot of these out there. Do you get these recommended to you, or how are you searching them up?

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#442
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…

Pretty much all my homepage is, is video essays and Invader Zim clips

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#443
post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have teams of people doing it. Comments only go into that queue when certain words are used, and they have to be bad. Well reasoned disagreement never goes in there. Even just “what you said is dumb, I know better that you” doesn’t go in there It’s always comments like “f$&@ you, moron, “.

But links often go there as well

They do. Which means if you don't want your comment to go in the queue on YT, don't post links in comments.

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#444
Bizarre to see this YouTube love-fest in the comments. Lately I've been finding their recommendations a disaster of click-bait shorts that seem like a desperate attempt to compete with TikTok. The worst part is that the algorithm is way too sensitive so if you ever accidentally click on something, you're guaranteed to be force-fed a fire hose of that for life (good luck trying to convince the algorithm otherwise).

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#445
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…

Mine is pretty good too, but what I'd appreciate more than a page of random algorithm-matched videos is something with structure.

Like a tree, where a video I watched, or one of my subscriptions, points to suggestions. To wit, often the links suggested at the end of a video are the most interesting to me.

As someone who uses YouTube to consume foreign news, I'd also love a setting that lets me see only content and recommendations in a given language.

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#446
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…

As a Millennial, I can confidently say this is not true.

I learned LAMP architecture as a kid by reading tutorial webpages and following along. No bank account or library card needed. Wikis and how to's were updated regularly, were uninterrupted by ads and were easily searchable! I learned SQL on a dynamic website where I could write code and see results (or errors) instantly! If I needed help, message boards were there. Even today, I learn things way more quickly from a stack exchange post than a YT video.

Anyone can be motivated to learn something on their own, but if they are successful, it's not going to be because of YT.

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#447
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 agree. My wife and I get the YouTube Premium with Music family plan, and we both agree that of all of the monthly subscriptions we pay, YouTube Premium is the best deal because we use YouTube as much as Netflix, HBO, Prime, etc. combined.

For me, the hidden jewels on YT are philosophy and other “thoughtful” style streams, Chess, Thai Chi, some alternative news, news from foreign countries, and short sci-fi content. But, there are thousands of niches like what I follow, something for everyone.

The recommendation algorithm is not perfect for me, I need to do some work to find content, but it works well enough.

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#448
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…

I can't understand people paying for streaming services like Netflix & competition, where all their catalogs are region-locked and every single one of them producing mostly crappy shows/movies (at least that's the Netflix I experienced last time I was able to use someone else's account on someone else's computer many years ago, so I must assume as everything else, things get worse, not better). What would I pay for?…

It sounds like you want to find some movie critics whose tastes line up with yours, buy DVDs of their highly rated movies and then rip them.

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#449
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…

+1

I've been referring to it as the "Youtube synchronicity algorithm". Often it suggests channels and videos that are niche-ish but hugely relevant to me personally. It's one of the few things from Google I still love.

Re: YouTube, the jewel of the internet

#450
post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you misunderstood the comment. It could be better written as "By the time they leave school they can already be..."

Right but hats the point im making - unless a kid is very strictly trying to actually learn a particular subject, no amount of edutainment is gonna give them any kind of professionally applicable skills. Now if a kid watching videos that are long form treatments on specific subjects and are following allong with a pen and paper doing practice problems, sure, thats a case where youtube might give you some serious skil…

School isn't a panacea either. I think I've done above average in school for the most part, but I never learned enough to have "professionally applicable skills". And the skills I actually use in my profession I learned outside of school.

The thing is, when people are motivated to do something, they'll learn what they need. Otherwise, not even school can force feed students into learning those things.

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