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I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

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Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#31

Post by rob74 »

jasonkester wrote: post #11

If you're not familiar with this channel, do yourself a favor and watch your way through his backyard trail build videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAsuk8OndHs&list=PL5S7V5NhM8... They're so well done. Sadly, he doesn't do them anymore because Youtube's algorithm doesn't make it worth his while. Evidently, he gets the same traffic & revenue from a 10 minute video reviewing "stupid bike gadgets" into the camera…

I only saw his previous video on the Reevo that he now fixed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPe3cY3oeu4 - just in case YouTube doesn't list it under suggested videos when you watch this one) and it was hilarious.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#32

Post by rob74 »

marysol5 wrote: post #23
jonplackett wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m gonna say it’s YouTube. They are obsessed with pushing short form shit videos to me despite me never wanting to watch them. I hate YouTube shorts so much

In what context do you get Short Form videos? I've never once been pushed to them.

I don't get them on desktop either, but on the mobile app they're very hard to avoid. Seems like YouTube doesn't want to be YouTube anymore, it wants to morph into TikTok. We don't need more TikToks, having one TikTok is already bad enough thankyouverymuch!

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#33

Post by pjc50 »

freetime2 wrote: post #12
jasonkester wrote: post #11

If you're not familiar with this channel, do yourself a favor and watch your way through his backyard trail build videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAsuk8OndHs&list=PL5S7V5NhM8... They're so well done. Sadly, he doesn't do them anymore because Youtube's algorithm doesn't make it worth his while. Evidently, he gets the same traffic & revenue from a 10 minute video reviewing "stupid bike gadgets" into the camera…

Is it the YouTube algorithm's fault? Or viewer preferences? I think YouTube would be happy to recommend the videos to more people if more people watched them. I watch photography videos on YouTube, and camera review channels consistently have far more subscribers than channels who make content about taking photos. (Or at least they did in the past - in recent years camera tech has really matured and interesting relea…

> show people what they like to see?

The thing is, "what people enjoy while watching", "what they derive lasting benefit, memory or happiness from", and "what they click on in a thumbnail" are three different things, and youtube optimizes for the latter. Which is why youtube face is a thing.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#34

Post by seb1204 »

jonplackett wrote: post #21
freetime2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it the YouTube algorithm's fault? Or viewer preferences? I think YouTube would be happy to recommend the videos to more people if more people watched them. I watch photography videos on YouTube, and camera review channels consistently have far more subscribers than channels who make content about taking photos. (Or at least they did in the past - in recent years camera tech has really matured and interesting relea…

I’m gonna say it’s YouTube. They are obsessed with pushing short form shit videos to me despite me never wanting to watch them. I hate YouTube shorts so much

I'm with you on not liking shorts. I read there is a new option to limit time spent in shorts, if you set that to 0 they do go away. Have not tested it.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#35

Post by ben_w »

pjc50 wrote: post #33
freetime2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it the YouTube algorithm's fault? Or viewer preferences? I think YouTube would be happy to recommend the videos to more people if more people watched them. I watch photography videos on YouTube, and camera review channels consistently have far more subscribers than channels who make content about taking photos. (Or at least they did in the past - in recent years camera tech has really matured and interesting relea…

> show people what they like to see? The thing is, "what people enjoy while watching", "what they derive lasting benefit, memory or happiness from", and "what they click on in a thumbnail" are three different things, and youtube optimizes for the latter. Which is why youtube face is a thing.

Yes, modulo only that "what people like enough to keep going through the adverts" isn't exactly the same as "what they click on in a thumbnail", and the latter combines with "did these ads convince someone to get the paid ad free experience" is what YT optimises for.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#36

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

freetime2 wrote: post #12
jasonkester wrote: post #11

If you're not familiar with this channel, do yourself a favor and watch your way through his backyard trail build videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAsuk8OndHs&list=PL5S7V5NhM8... They're so well done. Sadly, he doesn't do them anymore because Youtube's algorithm doesn't make it worth his while. Evidently, he gets the same traffic & revenue from a 10 minute video reviewing "stupid bike gadgets" into the camera…

Is it the YouTube algorithm's fault? Or viewer preferences? I think YouTube would be happy to recommend the videos to more people if more people watched them. I watch photography videos on YouTube, and camera review channels consistently have far more subscribers than channels who make content about taking photos. (Or at least they did in the past - in recent years camera tech has really matured and interesting relea…

>* Is it the YouTube algorithm's fault? Or viewer preferences? I think YouTube would be happy to recommend the videos to more people if more people watched them.*

I always got garbage even if it suggested things I wanted to watch too.

The best way is to disable suggestions completely and then just make a note of your favourite channels. That way you get a completely blank landing page and are forced to search out exactly what you want every time.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#37

Post by orrito »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #36
freetime2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it the YouTube algorithm's fault? Or viewer preferences? I think YouTube would be happy to recommend the videos to more people if more people watched them. I watch photography videos on YouTube, and camera review channels consistently have far more subscribers than channels who make content about taking photos. (Or at least they did in the past - in recent years camera tech has really matured and interesting relea…

>* Is it the YouTube algorithm's fault? Or viewer preferences? I think YouTube would be happy to recommend the videos to more people if more people watched them.* I always got garbage even if it suggested things I wanted to watch too. The best way is to disable suggestions completely and then just make a note of your favourite channels. That way you get a completely blank landing page and are forced to search out exa…

You can disable suggestions and still subscribe to channels, I'd argue that's the easiest path while still keeping what you're actually interested in. If you have 200+ subscribed channels over the years it's less good, I'd just unscribe if you're not interested in it.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#38

Post by freetime2 »

anukin wrote: post #25
freetime2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it the YouTube algorithm's fault? Or viewer preferences? I think YouTube would be happy to recommend the videos to more people if more people watched them. I watch photography videos on YouTube, and camera review channels consistently have far more subscribers than channels who make content about taking photos. (Or at least they did in the past - in recent years camera tech has really matured and interesting relea…

Do you have some recommendations for photography channels on YouTube?

I like Thomas Heaton for landscape photography. For gear reviews I like PetaPixel. And for tips/tutorials I think Simon d'Entremont is good.

There are a bunch of other channels out there too that I watch from time to time, but I think the above are the best in their respective categories.

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#39

Post by antran22 »

nrabulinski wrote: post #16

I hate how he’s doing the kind of project a ton of people would like to help with, for free and on their own time, yet he’s making an LLM do all the interesting work. He can’t code so he vibecodes the whole frontend. He can’t reverse engineer so he leaves Claude with the uart connection. He doesn’t understand something so he makes an LLM explain it. With his platform he could easily find a person (or a couple) who co…

Imagine after mowing your own lawn with a petrol-powered lawnmower, you got some shades from the neighbors for "Robbing the kids in the community a chance for some honest labor. If you don't know how to use the gardening shear, ask the kids to do it instead of using the automatic lawnmower. Would be a win-win for everybody".

Re: I hacked into the worst e-bike and fixed it [video]

#40

Post by antran22 »

Absolutely insane how people could have bought a bicycle that will become (partially) useless if they don't connect it with a mobile app. Even if this bike have the build quality of a spaceship I wouldn't even touch it with a stick.

Kudos to Seth for cracking the control on the bike, just so we can reclaim control of an appliance that we paid for with our own money, one that won't work because the maker can't be arsed enough to make it work without a mobile app.

Related: Cory Doctorow's [Unauthorized Bread](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-...)

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