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Try a plugin called "Clickbait Remover for youtube". Your thumbnail will be replaced by freeze frame from video. I love it. And you can turn it off/on easily

by pcurve 5y ago

Try a plugin called "Clickbait Remover for youtube". Your thumbnail will be replaced by freeze frame from video. I love it. And you can turn it off/on easily.

ddtaylor 5y ago
I've been using this for about half a year now and it's great!
Nextgrid 5y ago
I think the parent's goal was to use the presence of a stupid thumbnail as proxy for low quality and completely hide those videos instead of merely replacing the thumbnail. Now if there's also something that could detect "YouTuber voice" (https://www.vice.com/en/article/aepn94/the-rise-of-youtube-voice-and-why-vloggers-want-it-to-stop https://www.vice.com/en/article/aepn94/the-rise-of-youtube-v...) or the awful trend of putting a short clip in the intro with no context which wastes your time at best or spoils the video at worst that would be great as well.
- Diskutant 5y ago
  about the short clips, try the browser extension "sponsorblock" it skips many of those.
- jerf 5y ago
  "Stupid thumbnail" as a proxy for low quality is no longer a valid metric. The good channels have been, reluctantly or otherwise, mostly been forced into following suit.
  - drcongo 5y ago
    Sadly this is true. I definitely used to use "stupid face" as a proxy for low quality but I've seen people who make good content doing it recently too, so now it all must go. I'm also painfully aware that I'm an old man shouting at clouds.
    - mrguyorama 5y ago
      The reason for this is if your videos stop having a very high click-through rate, or impression-to-watch ratio, youtube stops recommending it as much, meaning your videos likely won't get as many views as they would have had youtube not interfered at all!
  - ryandrake 5y ago
    But it is still a proxy for "content that the creator deliberately chooses to make irritating in order to appease the Algorithm Gods" which qualifies such content as "things I don't need more of in my life". Nobody has a gun to their head, forced to making "YouTube Face" thumbnails. "Incentivized" is probably the better word.
    - Uehreka 5y ago
      They kind of do have a gun to their head, forcing them to make “YouTube Face” thumbnails. Like, if you’re proud of your work and want it to get seen at all, this is what you have to do. It sucks, but in many cases any trace of “annoying YouTube culture” vanishes the moment after you click and the whole video itself is good. If you want to turn down good videos so you can make a point, then go for it I guess. But you’re not likely to actually change anything.
      - ayushnix 5y ago
        > Like, if you’re proud of your work and want it to get seen at all, this is what you have to do. Assuming what you're saying is true, I wonder why channels like Rare Earth, Kraig Adams, Super Eyepatch Wolf, and 3Blue1Brown have their videos seen at all then.
        jerf 5y ago
        I think all the channels you named were popular enough before the clickbait become nearly mandatory. The question is, if they restarted today could they also succeed without it? It's hard to know, but it's also hard to conclude that the deck wouldn't be that bit more stacked against them.
        ayushnix 5y ago
        > I think all the channels you named were popular enough before the clickbait become nearly mandatory. If that's the case, their viewership and growth right now would either be stagnant or on a steady decline. Is that the case? I doubt it.
- hateful 5y ago
  I have this rule that no matter what the video is - if I open it and I hear "hey guys" I immediately close it and remove it from my history. I may even block the channel itself. Unrelated, I also tend to have to "block channel" a lot after watching a trailer for a movie where I get 10 recommendations for the same trailer on unofficial channels.
ekanes 5y ago
Installed. Wow.
rchaud 5y ago
Discovered this extension a few months ago from another HN thread. It's great, the annoyance levels caused by 'Youtube face' was getting to be intolerable. I was making judgements on videos before even watching them, because of the thumbnail.
drcongo 5y ago
Thanks, turns out from this GitHub thread that there's even a Safari version - https://github.com/pietervanheijningen/clickbait-remover-for-youtube/issues/34 https://github.com/pietervanheijningen/clickbait-remover-for... edit: Bought and installed and I can confirm that this makes YouTube at least 43% more bearable. Most of the other 57% is taken care of by Vinegar - https://andadinosaur.com/launch-vinegar https://andadinosaur.com/launch-vinegar

by pcurve 5y ago

Try a plugin called "Clickbait Remover for youtube". Your thumbnail will be replaced by freeze frame from video. I love it. And you can turn it off/on easily.

ddtaylor 5y ago

I've been using this for about half a year now and it's great!

Nextgrid 5y ago

I think the parent's goal was to use the presence of a stupid thumbnail as proxy for low quality and completely hide those videos instead of merely replacing the thumbnail. Now if there's also something that could detect "YouTuber voice" (https://www.vice.com/en/article/aepn94/the-rise-of-youtube-voice-and-why-vloggers-want-it-to-stop https://www.vice.com/en/article/aepn94/the-rise-of-youtube-v...) or the awful trend of putting a short clip in the intro with no context which wastes your time at best or spoils the video at worst that would be great as well.

Diskutant 5y ago
about the short clips, try the browser extension "sponsorblock" it skips many of those.
jerf 5y ago
"Stupid thumbnail" as a proxy for low quality is no longer a valid metric. The good channels have been, reluctantly or otherwise, mostly been forced into following suit.
- drcongo 5y ago
  Sadly this is true. I definitely used to use "stupid face" as a proxy for low quality but I've seen people who make good content doing it recently too, so now it all must go. I'm also painfully aware that I'm an old man shouting at clouds.
  - mrguyorama 5y ago
    The reason for this is if your videos stop having a very high click-through rate, or impression-to-watch ratio, youtube stops recommending it as much, meaning your videos likely won't get as many views as they would have had youtube not interfered at all!
- ryandrake 5y ago
  But it is still a proxy for "content that the creator deliberately chooses to make irritating in order to appease the Algorithm Gods" which qualifies such content as "things I don't need more of in my life". Nobody has a gun to their head, forced to making "YouTube Face" thumbnails. "Incentivized" is probably the better word.
  - Uehreka 5y ago
    They kind of do have a gun to their head, forcing them to make “YouTube Face” thumbnails. Like, if you’re proud of your work and want it to get seen at all, this is what you have to do. It sucks, but in many cases any trace of “annoying YouTube culture” vanishes the moment after you click and the whole video itself is good. If you want to turn down good videos so you can make a point, then go for it I guess. But you’re not likely to actually change anything.
    - ayushnix 5y ago
      > Like, if you’re proud of your work and want it to get seen at all, this is what you have to do. Assuming what you're saying is true, I wonder why channels like Rare Earth, Kraig Adams, Super Eyepatch Wolf, and 3Blue1Brown have their videos seen at all then.
      - jerf 5y ago
        I think all the channels you named were popular enough before the clickbait become nearly mandatory. The question is, if they restarted today could they also succeed without it? It's hard to know, but it's also hard to conclude that the deck wouldn't be that bit more stacked against them.
        ayushnix 5y ago
        > I think all the channels you named were popular enough before the clickbait become nearly mandatory. If that's the case, their viewership and growth right now would either be stagnant or on a steady decline. Is that the case? I doubt it.
hateful 5y ago
I have this rule that no matter what the video is - if I open it and I hear "hey guys" I immediately close it and remove it from my history. I may even block the channel itself. Unrelated, I also tend to have to "block channel" a lot after watching a trailer for a movie where I get 10 recommendations for the same trailer on unofficial channels.

ekanes 5y ago

Installed. Wow.

rchaud 5y ago

Discovered this extension a few months ago from another HN thread. It's great, the annoyance levels caused by 'Youtube face' was getting to be intolerable. I was making judgements on videos before even watching them, because of the thumbnail.

drcongo 5y ago

Thanks, turns out from this GitHub thread that there's even a Safari version - https://github.com/pietervanheijningen/clickbait-remover-for-youtube/issues/34 https://github.com/pietervanheijningen/clickbait-remover-for... edit: Bought and installed and I can confirm that this makes YouTube at least 43% more bearable. Most of the other 57% is taken care of by Vinegar - https://andadinosaur.com/launch-vinegar https://andadinosaur.com/launch-vinegar