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How did you get YouTube to stop recommending videos you’ve already seen?

by synu 4y ago

ntlx 4y ago
Would love to know the answer to this as well.
- NavinF 4y ago
  I replied to GP.
pbhjpbhj 4y ago
Maybe frustration with YouTube somehow drives more engagement, so you'll go looking for new content and stay longer -- like how shops rearrange things to expose you to other goods and so increase sales. Perhaps you need to change human behaviour so that most people don't rewatch things? (Speculation! Personally I prefer fresh content too.) Maybe YouTube have found that rewatching items drives people to annoyance with the adverts and gets more revenue?
NavinF 4y ago
This is gonna sound pretty silly, but: You gotta scroll down! The top recommendations on YouTube are often extremely "safe" in the sense that you'll feel bad about marking them as "not interested" because you already like the video and the uploader. This is likely a bug in their reward function, but if you skip the safe recommendations you'll start seeing more more intelligent recs such as videos that have the same presentation style as the ones you like except they were uploaded by unknown creators with 1k subs. Over time the algorithm will learn that you only like to rewatch certain kinds of videos (music videos in my case) and that you like to be surprised. Note that refreshing the page doesn't help. It will keep giving you new equally-safe recs until you scroll at least 1 page down and force it to generate new recs.
- bondarchuk 4y ago
  >if you skip the safe recommendations you'll start seeing more more intelligent recs such as videos that have the same presentation style as the ones you like except they were uploaded by unknown creators with 1k subs. Over time the algorithm will learn that you only like to rewatch certain kinds of videos (music videos in my case) and that you like to be surprised. Why oh why can't you just tell youtube that this is what you want, instead of some elaborate algorithm training dance?
  - NavinF 4y ago
    Building an easily tunable recommendation algorithm has been on my bucket list for over a decade. I'm not aware of any serious implementations. I'm sure if you look at the issue trackers for any alternative client for YouTube, you'll find people who strive towards the same goal.
- synu 4y ago
  Interesting, thanks for the detailed answer. I’m going to give it a shot.
bobsmooth 4y ago
Don't watch them. I hate that YT recommends videos I've already seen but I also click on them more often than not.
- synu 4y ago
  I don’t watch them again, but it keeps recommending them.

How did you get YouTube to stop recommending videos you’ve already seen?

by synu 4y ago

How did you get YouTube to stop recommending videos you’ve already seen?

ntlx 4y ago

Would love to know the answer to this as well.

NavinF 4y ago
I replied to GP.

pbhjpbhj 4y ago

Maybe frustration with YouTube somehow drives more engagement, so you'll go looking for new content and stay longer -- like how shops rearrange things to expose you to other goods and so increase sales. Perhaps you need to change human behaviour so that most people don't rewatch things? (Speculation! Personally I prefer fresh content too.) Maybe YouTube have found that rewatching items drives people to annoyance with the adverts and gets more revenue?

NavinF 4y ago

This is gonna sound pretty silly, but: You gotta scroll down! The top recommendations on YouTube are often extremely "safe" in the sense that you'll feel bad about marking them as "not interested" because you already like the video and the uploader. This is likely a bug in their reward function, but if you skip the safe recommendations you'll start seeing more more intelligent recs such as videos that have the same presentation style as the ones you like except they were uploaded by unknown creators with 1k subs. Over time the algorithm will learn that you only like to rewatch certain kinds of videos (music videos in my case) and that you like to be surprised. Note that refreshing the page doesn't help. It will keep giving you new equally-safe recs until you scroll at least 1 page down and force it to generate new recs.

bondarchuk 4y ago
>if you skip the safe recommendations you'll start seeing more more intelligent recs such as videos that have the same presentation style as the ones you like except they were uploaded by unknown creators with 1k subs. Over time the algorithm will learn that you only like to rewatch certain kinds of videos (music videos in my case) and that you like to be surprised. Why oh why can't you just tell youtube that this is what you want, instead of some elaborate algorithm training dance?
- NavinF 4y ago
  Building an easily tunable recommendation algorithm has been on my bucket list for over a decade. I'm not aware of any serious implementations. I'm sure if you look at the issue trackers for any alternative client for YouTube, you'll find people who strive towards the same goal.
synu 4y ago
Interesting, thanks for the detailed answer. I’m going to give it a shot.

bobsmooth 4y ago

Don't watch them. I hate that YT recommends videos I've already seen but I also click on them more often than not.

synu 4y ago
I don’t watch them again, but it keeps recommending them.