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I wish youtube was better in this regard. The videos it shows me just keep getting more and more focused on what it knows I'm interested in, to the point that i

I wish youtube was better in this regard. The videos it shows me just keep getting more and more focused on what it knows I'm interested in, to the point that it's boring. I discover new things to watch through reddit instead.

loxs 6y ago
Yeah, youtube is super boring. It just suggests my top N most watched channels, even years after I stop watching some of them, as I lost interest in the topic. For example I used to watch lots of vsauce, numberphille, veritasium etc but I gradually lost interest as they slowly morphed from genuine scientific shows into ads for their books or paid shows. Guess what, youtube still regularly recommends them, even though I rarely click some of these suggestions.
theshrike79 6y ago
What I really wish was that Youtube would show me videos related to the video I'm currently watching, not just related to my general watching history.
- pjc50 6y ago
  It does for me? The ones which are history driven say "recommended for you" next to them, but most seem to be related to the video itself. Maybe this is due to almost exclusively using it for music.
- johnisgood 6y ago
  Yeah, oddly enough all the recommendations are videos I have already watched, even liked. I remember when recommendations on the right side were "similar" music to the one I was listening to, this way I could find music. I cannot do this anymore. :/
pizza 6y ago
I wish the recommendation algorithm had knobs users could manipulate. eg - show me things that have < 20 views - reduce the weight of popular channels - don't send me into a political content feedback loop - prefer to show me short videos - show me something wildly outside my tastes every now and then I just got the Youtube Music app and it had very crude music recommendation options. You have to pick from a pre-selected list of artists. If you click on an artist, it adds another row of tangentially-related artists, but only sometimes. Suppose you like electronic music, but only niche electronic music. Basically you have to click on Daft Punk, and hope it gives you something closer to what you like, leap-frogging towards e.g. Actress. It doesn't even let you just type in what you like.., music that you know is already available on Youtube. If I had to guess, that's probably because of stupid copyright shit, but if that's the case, then why can I listen to the probably-violating-the-TOS music in the app if I just search for it myself?? Makes no sense...
- majormajor 6y ago
  The biggest problem in user-facing software right now is that product managers assume they + an algorithm can figure out what you want based on behavior, and that you shouldn't have any direct input in that. The best you'll usually see is an "i don't like this" button. Spotify sidesteps some of this by just giving you a bunch of different algorithms feeding different playlists, so at least there are options, but I miss having settings to tweak to gain more control, or to point it in the right direction better.
  - PragmaticPulp 6y ago
    > The biggest problem in user-facing software right now is that product managers assume they + an algorithm can figure out what you want based on behavior Given Tik Tok's success, this appears to be a correct assumption. For every 1 engineer who wants ten different knobs to use the app like a power user, there are 100 or more regular users who don't want anywhere near that much complexity. Catering to the power users only makes sense if they're your core market. For most public-facing apps, especially free apps, creating and maintaining power user level controls is far more trouble than it's worth.
    - majormajor 6y ago
      TikTok appears to let their algorithm do a lot more random walking than other companies. That's in some ways different from power user knobs, but it serves a similar purpose in exploring a broader area instead of assuming they can intuit everything from previously-collected data. That's an improved default that fits well for their app. But infinite scroll is not the only use case in the world. This assumption that "what works for [one app] is the path I should follow because that app has been successful" is frustrating and shortsighted.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      Catering to the power users makes sense if you care about your users. Power users aren't born, they're made - through repeated use, and space to grow. "Power user features" are that: space to grow better in using a tool. This isn't happening on social media (except one notable place: interfaces for advertisers), because users there are to be turned into addicts and exploited. With such a design goal, it's reasonable you want to take away user's agency - you want them "engaged" in your "experience", and them having options detracts from that. I'm serious, by the way, this is not just a "FB/IG/YouTube/TikTok are evil" rant. Their whole design is created around hooking users up. If you wanted to design an efficient, ergonomic app for sharing media content with friends or an audience, these social media platforms are almost the opposite of what you want.
reportgunner 6y ago
Sign out and wipe the cookies, you will get curveballs from youtube constantly.

loxs 6y ago

Yeah, youtube is super boring. It just suggests my top N most watched channels, even years after I stop watching some of them, as I lost interest in the topic. For example I used to watch lots of vsauce, numberphille, veritasium etc but I gradually lost interest as they slowly morphed from genuine scientific shows into ads for their books or paid shows. Guess what, youtube still regularly recommends them, even though I rarely click some of these suggestions.

theshrike79 6y ago

What I really wish was that Youtube would show me videos related to the video I'm currently watching, not just related to my general watching history.

pjc50 6y ago
It does for me? The ones which are history driven say "recommended for you" next to them, but most seem to be related to the video itself. Maybe this is due to almost exclusively using it for music.
johnisgood 6y ago
Yeah, oddly enough all the recommendations are videos I have already watched, even liked. I remember when recommendations on the right side were "similar" music to the one I was listening to, this way I could find music. I cannot do this anymore. :/

pizza 6y ago

I wish the recommendation algorithm had knobs users could manipulate. eg - show me things that have < 20 views - reduce the weight of popular channels - don't send me into a political content feedback loop - prefer to show me short videos - show me something wildly outside my tastes every now and then I just got the Youtube Music app and it had very crude music recommendation options. You have to pick from a pre-selected list of artists. If you click on an artist, it adds another row of tangentially-related artists, but only sometimes. Suppose you like electronic music, but only niche electronic music. Basically you have to click on Daft Punk, and hope it gives you something closer to what you like, leap-frogging towards e.g. Actress. It doesn't even let you just type in what you like.., music that you know is already available on Youtube. If I had to guess, that's probably because of stupid copyright shit, but if that's the case, then why can I listen to the probably-violating-the-TOS music in the app if I just search for it myself?? Makes no sense...

majormajor 6y ago
The biggest problem in user-facing software right now is that product managers assume they + an algorithm can figure out what you want based on behavior, and that you shouldn't have any direct input in that. The best you'll usually see is an "i don't like this" button. Spotify sidesteps some of this by just giving you a bunch of different algorithms feeding different playlists, so at least there are options, but I miss having settings to tweak to gain more control, or to point it in the right direction better.
- PragmaticPulp 6y ago
  > The biggest problem in user-facing software right now is that product managers assume they + an algorithm can figure out what you want based on behavior Given Tik Tok's success, this appears to be a correct assumption. For every 1 engineer who wants ten different knobs to use the app like a power user, there are 100 or more regular users who don't want anywhere near that much complexity. Catering to the power users only makes sense if they're your core market. For most public-facing apps, especially free apps, creating and maintaining power user level controls is far more trouble than it's worth.
  - majormajor 6y ago
    TikTok appears to let their algorithm do a lot more random walking than other companies. That's in some ways different from power user knobs, but it serves a similar purpose in exploring a broader area instead of assuming they can intuit everything from previously-collected data. That's an improved default that fits well for their app. But infinite scroll is not the only use case in the world. This assumption that "what works for [one app] is the path I should follow because that app has been successful" is frustrating and shortsighted.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    Catering to the power users makes sense if you care about your users. Power users aren't born, they're made - through repeated use, and space to grow. "Power user features" are that: space to grow better in using a tool. This isn't happening on social media (except one notable place: interfaces for advertisers), because users there are to be turned into addicts and exploited. With such a design goal, it's reasonable you want to take away user's agency - you want them "engaged" in your "experience", and them having options detracts from that. I'm serious, by the way, this is not just a "FB/IG/YouTube/TikTok are evil" rant. Their whole design is created around hooking users up. If you wanted to design an efficient, ergonomic app for sharing media content with friends or an audience, these social media platforms are almost the opposite of what you want.

reportgunner 6y ago

Sign out and wipe the cookies, you will get curveballs from youtube constantly.