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I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#181

Post by RoddaWallPro »

geerlingguy wrote: post #94
ASalazarMX wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> an exaggerated face, a bit more than that Have you tested a difference between a regular expression (intrigued, skeptic, smiling...) and a goofy face? For science?

Yes. Goofy face always wins :( Though it gets an insane amount of backlash on HN (case in point: this thread).

Like the sibling commenter here, reactions to this (as I've observed) are indeed very bimodal. If I see any video on YouTube with a face with a strong expression, I will not click it, no matter how interesting the title, because I hate how contrived the thumbnail is.

I think it might be more honest of you to phrase it not as: I have to do this because otherwise I don't get 20% more views. That feels a little bit disingenuous to me. You don't have to do anything. You could probably get a lot more views by colluding with another YouTuber to create drama or apparent "fights", like so many seem to. Aka, go full Kardashian. But you don't. You choose very explicitly what you do. Which does include goofy face thumbnails, but does not include staging YouTube drama.

A more honest phrasing to me might be something like: "Goofy faces get more views, and without them, my YouTube channel has much less income. I'm trying to support myself with YouTube, and so I am doing goofy faces even though I hate it and think it's completely asinine." You get really close to something like this phrasing, & the underlying message can be gathered by your other comments, but you don't outright own it. If you are going to do something asinine for exposure, you might as well own it imo.

So, with that out of the way: This project is really cool and thanks for doing a write-up & video on it :)

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#182

Post by jgalt212 »

colechristensen wrote: post #72
geerlingguy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe me, I had a nice discussion yesterday with my sister (who helped me take pictures for the thumbnail), and we both agreed it's one of the dumbest things about current YouTube... The thing is, from all my own A/B testing, a face vs. no face will automatically get 20-30% more views (all else equal). And an exaggerated face, a bit more than that.

The question not being asked is how your audience changes A vs B in other ways than size. You can easily A/B test yourself into mediocrity by constantly optimizing for a larger, dumber audience. They stop liking your old content (despite your dumb faces, etc) so you make new content they like more, keep that cycle up for a while. And you end up making emotionally charged rage-porn political videos and have become the…

A/B testing attracts the bots in my experience. Peoples' tastes change quicker than the bots' decision models do. Given that's somewhat of a bold statement, then try this thought experiment: If A/B tests actually work, then wouldn't you expect there to be zero films and/or TV shows released that are flops?

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#183

Post by dekerta »

willis936 wrote: post #141
dekerta wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people's eyes are just naturally drawn to faces, so more people end up seeing the thumbnail among the grid of other videos, and are more likely to watch the it as a result

That's the base narrative, but I find it difficult to believe without proper controlled testing. People are 25% more likely to click on a technical video when the creator is trying to look like a buffoon? It just doesn't sound correct.

People don't click on the video because of the dumb face. They watch the video if they think they'll be interested in it. But the dumb face makes it more likely that you will initially notice the thumbnail

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#184

Post by readflaggedcomm »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #155
goohle wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how IQ is defined.

No, it is not. 68.2% of the population is in the average span of 85-115 IQ. 15.9% is in the below-average span of 0-85.

It is. Specifically, IQ is assumed or asserted to follow the normal distribution, where mean equals median and mode.

By definition, half are below the median. The normal distribution's median is equal to the mean, so half are below mean.

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#185

Post by amelius »

jonathankoren wrote: post #116
rym_ wrote: post #7

I get so frustrated with the idiotic thumbnails on youtube video these days. I am sure it's all optimized for the maximum number of clicks/views but if I see a still that looks the way it does at the bottom of this page I generally just don't watch it on principle.

It’s not just the thumbnail faces. Streamers constantly overreact to even the most mundane things. My son and a friend of his were watching some pair of Minecraft streamers, and I couldn’t get follow what was happening. Both men were constantly yelling “WHAT? WHAT? OH MY GOD! AHHHHHHHHH!” As far as I could tell, they were both yelling independent things, and just walking around sheep.

As someone who constantly underreacts to everything, even when I receive a nice gift, I must confess that I am somewhat jealous of the streamer generation.

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#186

Post by mbreese »

Nextgrid wrote: post #123
JKCalhoun wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing what a Raspberry Pi can do still has me clicking through.

I mean, it could always do that. You can connect a ton of drives over USB (I think the device limit is 127). The question when it comes to RPi-powered NASes is whether it can do that well and the answer is as everyone expected: not really; the CPU is the bottleneck regardless of the underlying interface the drives connect over.

That's always my question with these too. I want to know if the RPi can saturate a 1GbE connection, and really, even if the RPi can connect a bunch of SSDs, how well does it really use those resources -- and like you said, the answer is usually no.

> Pi's bus being only Gen 2 and x1 means you're quite limited in terms of bandwidth

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#187

Post by kmos17 »

opheliate wrote: post #39

Really sad to see so many people dismiss this just based on the YouTube thumbnail at the bottom. Jeff consistently makes very high quality content, I really enjoyed his series on Kubernetes, I would urge you to look past any preconceptions there. The fact is, if YouTube makes up a sizeable portion of your income, and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face, you’d be silly not to do so. It’s un…

Yes agreed, HN is an amazing community but there seems to be a sizable contingent of grumpy old men when looking at some comment threads like this one above. nature of the beast I guess.

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#188

Post by szszrk »

riobard wrote: post #147
szszrk wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. Plain Pi won't be able to attach 4 sata drives natively and is not a real alternative for actual NAS. This might be. Jeff does a lot of Pi-NAS testing and I'm thankful for that, as I find of the shelf solutions lacking a lot. Mostly software-wise. There is a huge demand for a simple NAS device that is not much larger then drives it uses, but doesn't have Qnap OS installed on it. It has good network connecti…

> a simple NAS device that is not much larger then drives it uses, but doesn't have Qnap OS installed on it. Well, you could just install your favorite Linux distro on a QNAP NAS device. Cost-wise the Pi-NAS option isn't even competitive if you aim for similar spec and form factor and packaging.

I can, but:

a) it's hard to get support on the device when you can't provide any of the configuration dumps they ask (from their software) :)

b) It is not even close to being comparable in price with NASes Jeff tests and shows on his videos and blogs. PiBox (currently on kickstarter) is $250 in a version that has a full solution, including case, pi, charger, LCD, OS, fan, board to connect regular 3.5" drives... It is the same form factor, it has better spec than cheapest qnap devices.

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#189

Post by willis936 »

dekerta wrote: post #183
willis936 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the base narrative, but I find it difficult to believe without proper controlled testing. People are 25% more likely to click on a technical video when the creator is trying to look like a buffoon? It just doesn't sound correct.

People don't click on the video because of the dumb face. They watch the video if they think they'll be interested in it. But the dumb face makes it more likely that you will initially notice the thumbnail

The dumb face makes the algorithm more likely to put the video on peoples' feeds*.

Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)

#190

Post by alexanderdmitri »

skrbjc wrote: post #167
dark-star wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube algorithms are truly weird. I have a YT account with, I think, 3 or 4 subscribers and maybe a dozen or two views on the 10-20 videos I ever uploaded. I basically use YT to upload things that I want to share with some close friends. Then, earlier this year, one of my videos suddenly skyrocketed[1]. It was an old video, 10 years or so, and it only consisted of one 10 second scene of a movie that I found funny a…

*couldn't care less

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/could-couldnt-...
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