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Mozilla Is Crowdsourcing Research into YouTube Recommendations

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Re: Mozilla Is Crowdsourcing Research into YouTube Recommendations

#31

Post by pharke »

srean wrote: post #26
FiReaNG3L wrote: post #5

What's impressive to me is that YouTube Recommendation are so ... stale. All it recommends to me is content from the same 3 categories, and the same videos over and over and over (you would think if I didn't click on the suggestion in the past 6 months it would adjust). Now the topics it recommends to me are non-political, but I can very well see that if you fall down one of more extremist rabbit holes thats all you…

For me it has been the opposite as in it has so little hysteresis. Just one day I watch something I do not usually watch, say cat videos, and for weeks I will get only cat videos as recommendations. I think their algorithm needs to be cognizant of and adapt to temporal shifts in a viewers interest. Some users may like change in focus at slightest of deviations, others may prefer more hysteresis.

It's both for me. It locks on to a few categories or channels and occasionally, almost randomly decides to start showing some other category or channel based entirely upon a single view.

This is not the same algorithm that they've always used. It began changing somewhere around 3 or 4 years ago and it's completely different now. Honestly, I think they've intentionally broken it. I used to derive a lot of enjoyment from going on an algorithm enhanced "wikiwalk" of YouTube content, discovering many interesting and bizarre videos. It's impossible to do that now, you just wind up stuck on a channel or going around in circles.

To put it plainly, I think YouTube has decided to bury all of the fringe and weird one off content in favour of mainstream channels because they can't monetize the former. Good job Google, you killed another golden goose.

Re: Mozilla Is Crowdsourcing Research into YouTube Recommendations

#32

Post by srean »

3131s wrote: post #20
dexen wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Systemic fixes are needed. In the meantime you can improve your own experience (and hopefully others a bit too). When you hover over a recommendation, there's a menu icon to the right side (three vertical dots, gray). Clicking it opens menu with option to indicate "Not interested" and "Report". The former is supposed to train your own instance of recommendation algo, the later does the usual reporting. According to t…

Those don't do shit. I tried getting it to stop recommending me fucking Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro videos for years, but I guess I just can't escape the angry 30-something category. I think Youtube's recommendation algorithm is an abomination that has caused real harm to society.

The rage is strong in those.

Re: Mozilla Is Crowdsourcing Research into YouTube Recommendations

#33

Post by tristanMatthias »

klmadfejno wrote: post #22
FiReaNG3L wrote: post #5

What's impressive to me is that YouTube Recommendation are so ... stale. All it recommends to me is content from the same 3 categories, and the same videos over and over and over (you would think if I didn't click on the suggestion in the past 6 months it would adjust). Now the topics it recommends to me are non-political, but I can very well see that if you fall down one of more extremist rabbit holes thats all you…

I use YouTube infrequently. Usually for binging random content like comedy sketches or speedrunning. No matter what I'm on, there's always a few videos in my recommendations that make no sense and look like trash. Not generically, but specific videos that ALWAYS appear. One of them is "I PAID FIVE BASSISTS ON FIVR TO PLAY AN IMPOSSIBLE BASSLINE" ... Why is this so bad? What are your hundreds of data scientists doing?

Hahah! I get this one too.

Re: Mozilla Is Crowdsourcing Research into YouTube Recommendations

#35

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

FiReaNG3L wrote: post #5

What's impressive to me is that YouTube Recommendation are so ... stale. All it recommends to me is content from the same 3 categories, and the same videos over and over and over (you would think if I didn't click on the suggestion in the past 6 months it would adjust). Now the topics it recommends to me are non-political, but I can very well see that if you fall down one of more extremist rabbit holes thats all you…

Yup. I'm somehow bored by the greatest collection of human knowledge ever captures on video because it can't seem to find anything new for me to watch, even with hundreds and thousands of hours of content created every hour.

Re: Mozilla Is Crowdsourcing Research into YouTube Recommendations

#36

Post by 52-6F-62 »

stingraycharles wrote: post #23
52-6F-62 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had the same experience. I use YT to listen to music pretty regularly and if I don't go and actively select a different song it will play the same 5-10 over and over. Even when I do select a song it will make its way back to those same 5-10 songs. There's a lot to discover on there so I still use it, but it's also pushing me back to my other services or libraries.

Not just that, but I get super annoyed that I exclusively listen to YouTube music on my desktop, and exclusively watch shows etc on my Apple TV. And for some reason YouTube cannot figure out that no, I don’t want to watch these music videos on my Apple TV, and no I don’t want to watch this documentary on my desktop. And yeah even within music videos, the recommendations seem really basic. Compared to Spotify, Google…

It works well enough for me in some categories. Like if I'm listening to some guitar demo or pedal maker demo or shootout, I'll get similar videos coming through and I've stumbled onto some great ones that way (JHS pedals has a great channel).

But yeah, the music cycle is funny. And for some reason, no matter how many times I say "please don't show me this video", YouTube really wants me to listen to Mandolin Orange. I can't escape that recommendation even though I think I listened to them once and decided it wasn't to my taste and have always removed them from the queue. (Sorry, I'm sure they're nice but it's just not for me)

Re: Mozilla Is Crowdsourcing Research into YouTube Recommendations

#37

Post by jw1224 »

srean wrote: post #29

A few months ago YouTube was flighting a feature I liked a lot. The homepage would group my interest into named categories "Cute dog videos", "Strangeloop", "Debussy", "PyData", "Algebraic Topology" and so on. I really liked that because I could choose which deep end to sink into. Not just that it would also serve as a reminder on what I had been interested in, but have become too distracted to remember. They seem to…

I still see these category groupings on the YouTube Apple TV app today. I agree, they’re a really good way to browse.

Re: Mozilla Is Crowdsourcing Research into YouTube Recommendations

#38

Post by jack_pp »

klmadfejno wrote: post #22
FiReaNG3L wrote: post #5

What's impressive to me is that YouTube Recommendation are so ... stale. All it recommends to me is content from the same 3 categories, and the same videos over and over and over (you would think if I didn't click on the suggestion in the past 6 months it would adjust). Now the topics it recommends to me are non-political, but I can very well see that if you fall down one of more extremist rabbit holes thats all you…

I use YouTube infrequently. Usually for binging random content like comedy sketches or speedrunning. No matter what I'm on, there's always a few videos in my recommendations that make no sense and look like trash. Not generically, but specific videos that ALWAYS appear. One of them is "I PAID FIVE BASSISTS ON FIVR TO PLAY AN IMPOSSIBLE BASSLINE" ... Why is this so bad? What are your hundreds of data scientists doing?

They stop appearing if you specifically mark them as not interested

Re: Mozilla Is Crowdsourcing Research into YouTube Recommendations

#39

Post by torben-friis »

3131s wrote: post #20
dexen wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Systemic fixes are needed. In the meantime you can improve your own experience (and hopefully others a bit too). When you hover over a recommendation, there's a menu icon to the right side (three vertical dots, gray). Clicking it opens menu with option to indicate "Not interested" and "Report". The former is supposed to train your own instance of recommendation algo, the later does the usual reporting. According to t…

Those don't do shit. I tried getting it to stop recommending me fucking Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro videos for years, but I guess I just can't escape the angry 30-something category. I think Youtube's recommendation algorithm is an abomination that has caused real harm to society.

Same here! God forbid I watch a video by someone who's ever been in front of a camera with those two guys, I'm immediately pushed into a rain of suggestions.

Try watching a comedian that's slightly edgy like bill Burr, you get immediately showered in videos of people "showing feminists what's what" or "shutting up liberals". I'm not even American, not right wing, but YouTube seems to try its hardest anyway.

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