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Someone at YouTube needs glasses

jayd.ml

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Re: Someone at YouTube needs glasses

#361

Post by jeffhuys »

kotaKat wrote: post #52
rozab wrote: post #46

For a long time the grid of videos on the homepage has been slightly misaligned. I imagine the different rows belong to different teams. This means you can't hover your mouse in the gaps between columns while you scroll to prevent videos autoplaying when moused over. I find the autoplay so annoying because it hides the thumbnail which was carefully designed to communicate why I should click on the video and replaces…

THIS. THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS. This has been one of the most frustrating things I run into with Youtube scrolling the page. Can’t leave your cursor on the page while scrolling without managing to have the spacing shift the thumbnails just so slightly so that your cursor lands back into a thumbnail for an autoplay to start and add to the metrics.

You can just... turn it off: https://www.youtube.com/account_playback

I have it turned on, but leave my mouse to the right of the screen if I don't want autoplay. It's habit now.

Re: Someone at YouTube needs glasses

#362

Post by PaulHoule »

xp84 wrote: post #347
OJFord wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup yup yup. If you actually care about recommending things I'll want to watch, my subscriptions list is the strongest signal there is anyway , surely!

The word "want" is the key there -- they have zero interest in what you 'want' to watch, they have every interest in what will compel you to watch for the longest time! Maybe a certain person wants to watch a few 2-minute cute cat videos, and subscribe to those exclusively. But research showed Google that those people's watch minutes per day can be tripled if you fill their homepage with "Trump did WHAT?" videos (or…

Short term yes, but long term it turns people away from YouTube.

A year ago, I had a serious YouTube habit, once I replaced my trash Jellyfin server with a Plex server I can listen to my music collection on my phone anywhere… so no more music from YouTube. I got tired of asmongold and all his imitator gaming YouTubers, fell out of the habit of watching Ukraine warbloggers, etc. I saw other people who got into toxic rabbit holes in YouTube so bad that they decided to physically destroy their computers…

Re: Someone at YouTube needs glasses

#364

Post by mmmmmbop »

insin wrote: post #320
n2d4 wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which ones are misaligned? At least the ones shown to me are perfectly aligned on my computer (both Safari and Chrome on a Mac). Is it maybe caused by an adblocker? (I have YouTube premium, so no ads.) Edit: Actually, the picture in the article shows a misalignment in the "Breaking News" section. It's odd, because the sections align perfectly for me on various screen sizes

It's probably an adblocker, I explained why they get misaligned ([is-in-first-column] attribute adding extra margin) if a video gets hidden and the rest flow to fill in its place here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43848061

This bit of information makes the entire thread hilarious to read.

Bunch of hackers using adblockers that modify the client-side UI to cheat Google out of money and then complaining loudly about a minor UI convenience. How dare Google not optimize for them!

I say this as someone who uses an adblocker myself. But come on.

Re: Someone at YouTube needs glasses

#366

Post by mrandish »

I use a combination of add-ons to fix YouTube that let me:

* Block shorts

* Adjust the number of thumbnails per line, thumbnail shape, border, etc

* Limit the length of titles/descriptions

* Force titles/descriptions into normal upper/lowercase

* Change the default player window size

* Show thumbnails actually in the video (from start, middle or end)

* Fix literally dozens of other annoyances

For Windows desktop under Firefox:

* "Nova YouTube" https://github.com/raingart/Nova-YouTube-extension script running under ViolentMonkey add-on. Nova YouTube is framework that puts modular YouTube fix scripts under one UI.

* "AdashimaaTube" script running under Stylus add-on.

* "Enhancer for YouTube" add-on

* uBlock Origin (of course)

For Android phones: Revanced Extended

For Android-based streaming sticks: SmartTube

Note: The set of add-ons & scripts I use in desktop Firefox is just what I happened to end up with at the time I finally got fed up a few years ago, looked for solutions, tried out several and settled on this mix as working for my needs and preferences. YouTube is constantly changing (usually for the worse), so the landscape of community add-ons and scripts is constantly evolving in response. You'll probably need to update to latest version on whatever solution(s) you use at least every couple months.

Re: Someone at YouTube needs glasses

#367

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

homefree wrote: post #220
dcchambers wrote: post #58

I am BEGGING someone, anyone at Google/YouTube to let me permanently disable YouTube Shorts. I HATE Short form video content and no matter how many times I select "show me less of this" I still get them front and center when I open the app or website.

The annoying bit is similar to reels, shorts are good for engagement. It’s similar to why I don’t buy Oreos. I like Oreos, everyone likes Oreos - they’re engineered to be liked, but they’re bad for you. The best way to not eat them is to not have them in the house. Short form videos are the heroin of media consumption - meta having to pivot instagram to it is because they’re facing competitive pressure. Same with You…

So you don't buy Oreos, and think the best way to eat them is not to have them in the house. I agree. That's why I don't have TikTok on my phone. So why can't I keep YouTube Shorts disabled? I'm telling them I don't want it. If I'm the kind of person who doesn't keep Oreos in the house to avoid eating them, why would I go to a grocery store that insists on slipping a pack of Oreos into every third bag of carrots?

Re: Someone at YouTube needs glasses

#369

Post by jeffhuys »

tambourine_man wrote: post #109
Levitating wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It resets itself every 15 days or so Are you saying that YouTube just alters your preferences?

If you are not being sarcastic, yes, it happens all the time. Probably to maximize whatever metric they're measuring. I'm fearing the day they'll just remove that toggle for good.

> I'm fearing the day they'll just remove that toggle for good.

Don't. Nowadays we can just re-introduce it, at least all who read this. iOS, macOS, Windows, Android... All have browser extensions, all can be modified.

Re: Someone at YouTube needs glasses

#370

Post by bigstrat2003 »

a123b456c wrote: post #89
herpdyderp wrote: post #4

You can insert (and tweak) this into uBlock Origin filters: ! YouTube Fix & Customization by Arch v1.8.4 ! (1/11) YouTube 4 Videos Per Row Fix (Home and Channel Pages) / YouTube Fix & Customization youtube.com##ytd-rich-grid-row, #contents.ytd-rich-grid-row:style(display:contents !important;) youtube.com##ytd-rich-grid-renderer, html:style(--ytd-rich-grid-items-per-row: 5 !important;) youtube.com##ytd-rich-grid-rende…

Didn't the new Chrome update break uBlock, or is that just for my test cell? I've been in mourning...

Use Brave if you want to stick with a Chromium browser. Their ad blocker still works great.
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