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I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

towardsdatascience.com

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Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#101

Post by powerapple »

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #49
smoe wrote: post #34

Really cool project, going to play around with it, since I wanted to experiment with alternative algorithms for these kind of platforms for a while, but didn't found time to get started. My biggest gripe with YouTube recommendations, or any service of that kind (Spotify, Amazon, etc.), is that they don't understand what aspects of the content I value. So it is a huge hit and miss. Sometimes it works, because I guess…

I wish I could explicitly tell YouTube “don’t ever recommend videos I’ve seen.”

Don't ever recommend videos from 9 years ago please.

This is the part I don't understand, how is Google doing so bad at this. You get slightly better experience if you use Chrome. It (on purposely?) keeps asking you to click 3 buttons to play a video Edge, and won't even show comments.

Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#104

Post by brylie »

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #49
smoe wrote: post #34

Really cool project, going to play around with it, since I wanted to experiment with alternative algorithms for these kind of platforms for a while, but didn't found time to get started. My biggest gripe with YouTube recommendations, or any service of that kind (Spotify, Amazon, etc.), is that they don't understand what aspects of the content I value. So it is a huge hit and miss. Sometimes it works, because I guess…

I wish I could explicitly tell YouTube “don’t ever recommend videos I’ve seen.”

Also, if a video thumbnail/title displays on my screen and I don't click it, it is a sign of disinterest. Stop suggesting videos I have repeatedly scrolled past. Use the lack of engagement as a feature.

Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#105

Post by oriettaxx »

bpodgursky wrote: post #95
aeternum wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube has some quality content that is not available elsewhere. For example it would be illogical to shred your library card just because you don't like the books that the librarian shows you.

I'm not suggesting nullrouting the site (if you don't need to), I'm suggesting deactivating your account so you're never shown the all-too-enticing personalized recommendations. You can always watch specific videos without being logged in.

this is what I do, too.

but lately, with ublock origin ON, I cannot see it anymore

Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#106

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

ChrisLovejoy wrote: post #3
fsflover wrote: post #2

I wish the author would also do this for PeerTube.

Ah, good suggestion! Let me look at what I can get from their API

yes. as the other commenter said, sepiasearch is the index for around 500 peertube instances. also, can this be implemented in the browser as a website? a recommendation engine better than what we have right now would be nice

Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#109

Post by BeetleB »

frankosaurus wrote: post #48
stingraycharles wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you for real? YouTube seems to do terrible at the recommendations. It cannot even recognize that when I’m behind the computer, I’m not interested in watching documentaries and when I’m behind my Apple TV, I’m not interested in listening to music videos. It’s such basic stuff, let alone the actual recommendations; it just keeps rehashing the same channels. “Oh you watched a video about the US elections, let’s bomb…

I actually agree with OP. YouTube recommendations on my primary account are quite good. I attribute this to careful curation of my logged-in viewing habits. > you watched a video about the US elections That's the problem. As a rule, I never view political, celebrity, or clickbait videos when logged in. There is such a vast amount of dreck in these categories, you're sure to be disappointed sooner or later. If I see a…

> I attribute this to careful curation of my logged-in viewing habits.

> That's the problem. As a rule, I never view political, celebrity, or clickbait videos when logged in. There is such a vast amount of dreck in these categories, you're sure to be disappointed sooner or later.

I think you've just pointed out that YT's recommendation algorithms are very poor. If a user needs to carefully curate to get good recommendations, then it means Youtube's algorithm is not very robust.

Re: I created an alternative to the YouTube algorithm to stop me wasting time

#110

Post by bigfoot675 »

selestify wrote: post #85
bra-ket wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

agreed, it's strange that with all their legions of machine learning PhDs Youtube recommendations still suck. The worst part is when it gets stuck on particular video/topic and just keeps recommending the same thing for months.

I’m sure the YT algorithms are optimized just fine for whatever revenue metrics they’re maximizing. You and I might just be part of the edge cases that they haven’t bothered improving their models on just yet

This is such an insightful comment. I find myself falling into the trap of complaining about things that are "broken" all the time too, but you're right: if you're on HN then you're not the customer that most companies are targeting.
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