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On YouTube’s recommendation system

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Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#271

Post by rtpg »

joe_the_user wrote: post #251
swalsh wrote: post #11

The reccomendation system is absolutely dangerous. Just this summer, I watched one video on peppers out of curiousity. By the end of summer I've got multiple different varieties growing, and all the accessories to support them. I'm really enjoying my garden, but it's very unlikely I would have started one without the youtube algorithm. Similarly my doctor reccomended I exercise more, so I started running. Then I goog…

I'd just note some things Youtube doesn't have. It doesn't have any "the key words I'm interested are" section. It doesn't have any fine grained "show me less like this" or "show me more like that" options. That all the filters of net (Google, FB, etc) have convinced users that an out-of-their control recommendation system is a triumph of this sort of system. If you just demand the recommendation system be different,…

What? YouTube has both of these features? Are you just using it without logging in?

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#272

Post by knubie »

swalsh wrote: post #11

The reccomendation system is absolutely dangerous. Just this summer, I watched one video on peppers out of curiousity. By the end of summer I've got multiple different varieties growing, and all the accessories to support them. I'm really enjoying my garden, but it's very unlikely I would have started one without the youtube algorithm. Similarly my doctor reccomended I exercise more, so I started running. Then I goog…

I can totally relate to this myself. My father also recently just purchased a small sawmill which I think Youtube had a not so insignificant role in...

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#273

Post by frosted-flakes »

steveklabnik wrote: post #96
cma wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like Facebook now does for "boosting" post shares, I wonder when the YT algorithm will start incorporating pay to win mechanics.

It seems like YouTube has realized that winner-takes-all is bad for the health of the platform, and is trying to grow smaller creators. I suspect they won't do this, because they realize that it ultimately strangles growth. Mr. Beast (for example) is already spending about $4MM/month on making videos; if they allowed this kind of stuff, well... not many people could compete. We'll see though!

Occasionally I will see a "Rising Creator" section on the Explore/Trending page showcasing a single channel. This channel typically has less than 5k subscribers and posts regularly.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#274

Post by frosted-flakes »

Asmod4n wrote: post #99
jeffwask wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sad because I remember being able to find new and interesting creators passively. Now the main page is all corporate BS and the algorithm locks you in. We played a bit of WOW Classic last year and all of a sudden I was just flooded with Asmongold videos and videos of people clipping and replaying Asmongold. It took a day of "never show this again" to make it stop.

I’m hitting never show this again on one type of content all the time. There are days where my feed consists of like 33% of that stuff and it happens all the time. I’m at the point where it only recommends me my subscribed channels or the stuff I tell it not to show at all some days too. It’s so frustrating.

I always get those "calming meditation" music videos in recommendations, or "5 Powerful Psalms to Help You Sleep" which is on my homepage right now. Every video is from a different channel named something like "Calming Truth", and I can tell at one glance of the thumbnail that it's one of "those" videos.

I have never, ever watched one, and I always click Not Interested, or Don't Recommend Channel. But they keep on coming. There seems to be an endless supply of them.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#275

Post by encryptluks2 »

spiderice wrote: post #140
encryptluks2 wrote: post #15

And as I got on YouTube just now, the recommendations are just utter junk. It is a bunch of clickbait on things I don't even like and find annoying and repulsive. This is why I use things like youtube-dl, NewPipe, etc.

> This is why I use things like youtube-dl, NewPipe, etc. Perhaps this is the reason the recommendations are junk? How can Youtube recommend you videos if you hide what you like from Youtube? I watch a lot of Youtube, signed in, on Youtube.com, and my recommendations are great.

I hide what I like from YouTube because their recommendations are junk. If they default recommendations are going to be more junk then I don't want them knowing what I watch as I can only assume that they promote what they are paid to.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#276

Post by frosted-flakes »

joe_the_user wrote: post #251
swalsh wrote: post #11

The reccomendation system is absolutely dangerous. Just this summer, I watched one video on peppers out of curiousity. By the end of summer I've got multiple different varieties growing, and all the accessories to support them. I'm really enjoying my garden, but it's very unlikely I would have started one without the youtube algorithm. Similarly my doctor reccomended I exercise more, so I started running. Then I goog…

I'd just note some things Youtube doesn't have. It doesn't have any "the key words I'm interested are" section. It doesn't have any fine grained "show me less like this" or "show me more like that" options. That all the filters of net (Google, FB, etc) have convinced users that an out-of-their control recommendation system is a triumph of this sort of system. If you just demand the recommendation system be different,…

YouTube has the "Not interested" and "Don't recommend channel" buttons, as well as upvotes, upvotes, downvotes, and subscriptions.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#277

Post by cmrdporcupine »

mjsweet wrote: post #163

I fell into a massive YouTube recommendation vortex two 1/2 years ago when my barista basically insisted I take all his Cafe's coffee grounds home and compost them. I had no idea how to compost (he was sick of telling customers it was going into landfill. every. single. day). I now have over 20kg's of worms spread over 30+ worm bins and I'm taking organic residue from all over the district and turning it into valuabl…

Any tips on getting organic material like this? We have a small market garden, and before COVID I was able to bring home buckets from the cafe at my office (Google Waterloo), but with the whole WFH situation I don't have that line anymore.

I found that a 50/50 mix of composted coffee grinds + pure sand made a great growing medium for potted peppers.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#279

Post by lawl »

city41 wrote: post #104
lordentropy wrote: post #5

For me, it seems like youtube's recommendation system mostly gets stuck in the local optimum. Once you watch a video from a particular channel, it'll keep on recommending the videos from the same channel for months. Soon, the recommendation just consists of stuff from the channels that have you already viewed. You rarely see new types of recommendations.

I am a huge YouTube addict and get sucked into it a lot. I used to discover all kinds of great channels and really enjoyed it. But lately I have noticed I'm not really finding much and the amount of watching I am doing has gone down a lot. Not sure if they changed the algorithm, or if I've just seen everything I like. I have definitely noticed YouTube is recommending me more clickbaity and mainstream stuff lately.

One of the reasons I never logged in on youtube back when I watched it a lot. Every few weeks when the recommendations were stuck, I'd just wipe cookies and get new stuff.
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