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>No algorithm. A personal observation... On that Nebula site, I see creators like CGP Grey, Wendover Productions, Real Engineering, etc. I learned about thei

by jasode 7y ago

>No algorithm. A personal observation... On that Nebula site, I see creators like CGP Grey, Wendover Productions, Real Engineering, etc. I learned about their existence from Youtube's algorithmic suggestions. Probably 99% of any channel I watch regularly on Youtube came from algorithms instead of url referrals of HN or reddit. Yes, algorithms have a dark side such as the ElsaGate situation. All I can say is that they were effective in suggesting the type of topics (education) I like.

untog 7y ago
Of course, that's why YouTube insists on keeping recommendations despite the horror stories. It works 98% of the time. But .2% of the time it assembles a playlist of content finely tuned to the tastes of a pedophile. But you can't take the smooth without the rough. The plus side of the recommendation algorithm is great, but is it worth the bad side?
- chasontherobot 7y ago
  what happens the other 1.8% of the time?
  - egypturnash 7y ago
    Hi! Would you like to learn about why all the non-white races are inferior? It'll be fun! Just click on this thumbnail we keep on suggesting.
  - untog 7y ago
    It forwards people to Nazis. (or just shows them a video they aren't interested in)
- HNLurker2 7y ago
  <gruesome> >But .2% of the time it assembles a playlist of content finely tuned to the tastes of a pedophile. I knew about this stuff since pokemon go in the summer and I mean in 2016 What I used to do is search on YouTube something like "pokemon go challenge" and then look at videos posted 1 hours ago or today and then see videos of with children. Then if you looked at their channel you'll sometimes find gold because kids are bored and record themselves and put it online. I don't think much has been done they just stopped the comments with timestamps of poses </gruesome>
mochomocha 7y ago
So essentially Nebula offering is a human-curated selection of algorithmically-driven popular content on Youtube :)
twiceaday 7y ago
I am assuming they are referring to YouTube giving up on the old definition of "subscribe" and re-ordering peoples feeds to improve engagement. They want to be YouTube Premium with a guaranteed sequential subscription timeline.
- ihuman 7y ago
  > YouTube giving up on the old definition of "subscribe" and re-ordering peoples feeds to improve engagement What do you mean by this? When I subscribe to someone, they show up on my subscription feed page. Hasn't it always been like this?
  - twiceaday 7y ago
    The ordering of the feed page is driven by an algorithm. And it seems many people have too many subscriptions and just look at some of the top videos in the feed before moving on. This means as a creator you have to appease the algorithm even for your subscribers, to win against their other subscriptions.
    - halbritt 7y ago
      The subscriptions page shows videos in reverse chronological order. The recommended page may or may not show new videos from subscribed channels.
  - drdrey 7y ago
    Subscribing is not a guarantee that you'll be presented with every new piece of content of a creator, unless you also hit the bell icon
    - ihuman 7y ago
      Even on the subscription feed page, or just the home page and below videos?
    - drdeca 7y ago
      I am unsure if there is something misleading there. I don’t want any push notifications, ever. I do want my subscriptions list to include exactly the things I subscribed to in reverse chronological order. What does the bell do?
ehsankia 7y ago
You are kinda getting at the problem, but I don't think you fully hit it with your comment. The reality is that for small services, hand curation works perfectly fine. This right now is a platform with a couple dozen hand picked creators, and if you like a some of them, chances are you will like the others too. The issue with that is that these platforms don't really scale, and will always be gated by some magical hand. Getting on there is probably more about having the right connections. As long as Nebula stays small, it'll probably be fine, but this greatly limits to breadth of the site. One great example would be early Steam, and what Epic is sorta trying to re-create now. As the site got bigger and allowed more and more games, finding something you like became impossible. You had to dig through piles of crappy low tier games to find anything good. That's where algorithmic recommendation becomes a must.
madrox 7y ago
Is this the new "artisan, hand-crafted" of the internet? It isn't necessarily better, but it feels more authentic?
vukmir 7y ago
That's my experience as well. Most of the content that I watch and the content creators that I'm subscribed to comes from the recommendations. As far as I'm concerned, the algorithm works great.

by jasode 7y ago

untog 7y ago

Of course, that's why YouTube insists on keeping recommendations despite the horror stories. It works 98% of the time. But .2% of the time it assembles a playlist of content finely tuned to the tastes of a pedophile. But you can't take the smooth without the rough. The plus side of the recommendation algorithm is great, but is it worth the bad side?

chasontherobot 7y ago
what happens the other 1.8% of the time?
- egypturnash 7y ago
  Hi! Would you like to learn about why all the non-white races are inferior? It'll be fun! Just click on this thumbnail we keep on suggesting.
- untog 7y ago
  It forwards people to Nazis. (or just shows them a video they aren't interested in)
HNLurker2 7y ago
<gruesome> >But .2% of the time it assembles a playlist of content finely tuned to the tastes of a pedophile. I knew about this stuff since pokemon go in the summer and I mean in 2016 What I used to do is search on YouTube something like "pokemon go challenge" and then look at videos posted 1 hours ago or today and then see videos of with children. Then if you looked at their channel you'll sometimes find gold because kids are bored and record themselves and put it online. I don't think much has been done they just stopped the comments with timestamps of poses </gruesome>

mochomocha 7y ago

So essentially Nebula offering is a human-curated selection of algorithmically-driven popular content on Youtube :)

twiceaday 7y ago

I am assuming they are referring to YouTube giving up on the old definition of "subscribe" and re-ordering peoples feeds to improve engagement. They want to be YouTube Premium with a guaranteed sequential subscription timeline.

ihuman 7y ago
> YouTube giving up on the old definition of "subscribe" and re-ordering peoples feeds to improve engagement What do you mean by this? When I subscribe to someone, they show up on my subscription feed page. Hasn't it always been like this?
- twiceaday 7y ago
  The ordering of the feed page is driven by an algorithm. And it seems many people have too many subscriptions and just look at some of the top videos in the feed before moving on. This means as a creator you have to appease the algorithm even for your subscribers, to win against their other subscriptions.
  - halbritt 7y ago
    The subscriptions page shows videos in reverse chronological order. The recommended page may or may not show new videos from subscribed channels.
- drdrey 7y ago
  Subscribing is not a guarantee that you'll be presented with every new piece of content of a creator, unless you also hit the bell icon
  - ihuman 7y ago
    Even on the subscription feed page, or just the home page and below videos?
  - drdeca 7y ago
    I am unsure if there is something misleading there. I don’t want any push notifications, ever. I do want my subscriptions list to include exactly the things I subscribed to in reverse chronological order. What does the bell do?

ehsankia 7y ago

You are kinda getting at the problem, but I don't think you fully hit it with your comment. The reality is that for small services, hand curation works perfectly fine. This right now is a platform with a couple dozen hand picked creators, and if you like a some of them, chances are you will like the others too. The issue with that is that these platforms don't really scale, and will always be gated by some magical hand. Getting on there is probably more about having the right connections. As long as Nebula stays small, it'll probably be fine, but this greatly limits to breadth of the site. One great example would be early Steam, and what Epic is sorta trying to re-create now. As the site got bigger and allowed more and more games, finding something you like became impossible. You had to dig through piles of crappy low tier games to find anything good. That's where algorithmic recommendation becomes a must.

madrox 7y ago

Is this the new "artisan, hand-crafted" of the internet? It isn't necessarily better, but it feels more authentic?

vukmir 7y ago

That's my experience as well. Most of the content that I watch and the content creators that I'm subscribed to comes from the recommendations. As far as I'm concerned, the algorithm works great.