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On YouTube’s recommendation system

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Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#311

Post by grumbel »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #276
joe_the_user wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Downvotes on Youtube do nothing, as the system still counts them as engagement and continues to recommend the videos.

The issue with the "Not interested/Don't recommend channel" is that it's the nuclear option. It does make content go away, but more often than not, what I really want is just to watch something else right now. The content might be perfectly fine and up to my taste, but when Youtube keeps recommending the same stuff again and again, there is no easy way to just reduce that a little without nuking it completely.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#312

Post by zo1 »

deanCommie wrote: post #248
emkoemko wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you try watch any independent news, YouTube will never recommend more of it but will give you MSNBC,CNN etc its bad, years ago the algorithm was very good,it would give you a mix of what your into and new interesting stuff now it seems like its pushing corporate content.

What do you consider "independent news"? The majority of "independent news" have a highly partisan or highly unreliable tilt (both to the Left and to the Right): https://adfontesmedia.com/static-mbc/ Interestingly enough, most people complain about the opposite: that if you watch some piece of slightly tilted piece of content on YouTube, the recommendation goes wholehog and pushes you towards the same radicalization…

"Moderate" you with some mainstream content? Honestly that sounds like a euphemism for programming or brain washing.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#313

Post by grumbel »

quakeguy wrote: post #144
grumbel wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I started using multiple accounts, makes it a lot easier to keep the algorithm on topic and not get side tracked just because you searched for a song or game once. In the end the core problem with the recommendation system is simply that there is only one list of recommendations, which makes it damn near impossible to switch to a different topic unless you start account hopping. The new topic-bar helps a l…

„Using multiple accounts“ „Makes it easier“ That may work indeed, but i wouldnt call it easy in any way, or convenient. Instead try to subscribe to as many channels you find interesting as possible. Thats what worked for me in the end getting rid of the clutter that is suggested.

I find subscriptions completely useless when it comes to recommendation, as the recommendations seem to be build up of what I watched in the last week, while my subscriptions have little to no visible impact at all.

There are numerous channels I am subscribe to that I haven't seen in months or years, just because I didn't watch them for a week or two and they fell out of the recommendation cycle.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#314

Post by newsclues »

rubicon33 wrote: post #155

Be careful with YouTube. For years people have talked about social media's effect on mental health, but personally, I've found the biggest hit to be YouTube. Their recommendation system is really the heart of the beast. It's essentially a dopamine reward system, not too dissimilar from a slot machine at a casino. Pull the lever (refresh the page) and get random results! It sucks you in to a cycle of refreshing, findi…

I mostly watch long form lectures or discussion podcasts on YouTube.

I don’t get that same rush, you describe. Many short videos are the problem?

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#315

Post by notanzaiiswear »

Pxtl wrote: post #209
badmadrad wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

exactly, they are proud to tell you they block videos that are "problematic" from being recommended. But problematic to whom or what is not described. As this would surely reveal their bias in their algorithms. And also who our overlords are.

There's a pretty solid consensus that white supremacists, vaccine-deniers, and election deniers are "problematic" and YT isn't going out on a limb to make that call.

I don't think white supremacists, vaccine-deniers and election deniers would agree with you. Also you are just picking the easy examples.

And what is a "solid consensus"? Trump was elected in 2016, for example, presumably by a significant number of voters.

Why does YT have to make any call at all? Why not let me see what I want to see?

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#316

Post by lotsofpulp »

aix1 wrote: post #293
lotsofpulp wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that sounds like it would add up! I feel like I would dissuade myself from going on a run if I had to get all that stuff ready. Even putting sunscreen on sometimes feels like a bummer.

The truth is that you don't. All that's required for almost any training run is a pair of shoes[*]. Everything else is an extra; it's up to you to decide whether each of those extras is worth carrying. [*] That's true where I live (northern Europe) for pretty much all of my runs up to ~20km. In hotter or sunnier climates it may be necessary to carry water for shorter runs and/or put on sunscreen.

Sunscreen can measurably lower skin cancer risks even in cloudy weather.

It is recommended anytime you are outside when the sun is out.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#317

Post by polytely »

If anyone from team youtube is reading this, by god, please let me hide youtube short recommendations in the android app. They all started filling with incredibly gross pimple popping videos with horrendous thumbnails which cannot be hidden.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#318

Post by pixl97 »

cloverich wrote: post #282
city41 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wonder if the cat and mouse game of seo is being played out again in “algorithm land” and content creators have learned how to optimize their own content for promotion. I usually blame just the algorithm but maybe i’ve been oversimplifying a larger problem.

It seems to be and a few content creators I watch have documented the process. I believe the spiffing brit and another v named science based channel showed how that swapping the title of the video many times as a kind of A/B test can increase your views by millions.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#319

Post by b-star »

jackson1442 wrote: post #264
rubicon33 wrote: post #155

Be careful with YouTube. For years people have talked about social media's effect on mental health, but personally, I've found the biggest hit to be YouTube. Their recommendation system is really the heart of the beast. It's essentially a dopamine reward system, not too dissimilar from a slot machine at a casino. Pull the lever (refresh the page) and get random results! It sucks you in to a cycle of refreshing, findi…

This is where DuckDuckGo shines. I never go to the YouTube homepage since I just search `thing i'm looking for!yt` and it takes me straight to the search results for "thing i'm looking for." Granted, I've never watched much YouTube, but that curbs it even more.

I use Alfred on Mac for this. Targeted searches to any website/service you can think of (you can add your own). Such a time saver.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#320

Post by encryptluks2 »

foofoo4u wrote: post #79
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.

Do you know if https://freetubeapp.io/ is any better? I do most of my viewing on desktop.

I don't know but Minitube is an open source app similar to NewPipe for desktop.
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