5 ms·

Oh it's way worse than random, I think half my home page are videos I've already watch so surely I'd just LOVE to watch them again right ?

by cruano 4y ago

causi 4y ago
Same. I don't know why nobody at youtube understands that, yes, I might want to watch a funny 53-second video again but I probably don't want to spend an hour re-watching part nine of a Let's Play from 2015.
texasbigdata 4y ago
It’s probably a unsolveable computer science problem to add a filter that says “how many times does this user rewatch content, or dismiss recommended content she has already seen” and then not serving stale content. Personally, unless I’m quering something that’s fairly narrow, for recommendations you push to me please never show me anything older than 36 months. No, I don’t want an 8 year old video on this topic.
- watwut 4y ago
  Yeah, but normal people watch/listen the same music video 300 times, but then see the comedy video or documentary video only once. And for age, it is also fairly normal to listen to music older then 36 months. And to watch educational videos older then that. Or crafting videos older then that. Or tutorial videos older then that. Most of time, I am cool with old videos.
  - texasbigdata 4y ago
    Yeah fair. I meant as a default (either) on/off filter but your point totally render mine moot :)
- yourusername 4y ago
  For many of the topics i'm interested in videos made in the last 36 months are not better (if anything they are worse). If i'm looking up correct excercise form, how to cook a certain dish or perform a repair video's made 10 years ago are as good as video's made yesterday.
  - viraptor 4y ago
    5 years, likely. 10 years is before 720p became common. Videos that came after 480p are actually better for things like repair videos. Also the speech sound quality is way better these days.
    - hn_user2 4y ago
      YouTube is helping me build my house step by step. For framing, the first thing everyone recommends is “Framing Walls with Larry Haun” (1992). You even get the VHS tracking blips now and then from the video capture. To be fair it’s also good advice to then supplement Larry Haun’s videos with modern framing techniques but his videos are the first one should watch. Might just be a single example but it’s the first counterpoint that popped in my head. https://youtu.be/IQmt27qN6AI https://youtu.be/IQmt27qN6AI
  - aulin 4y ago
    > if anything they are worse They are. People that started with the genuine intent of sharing their knowledge gradually turned into professional youtubers, and now it's all about hacking the algorithm, diluting content in multiple videos, selling you to their sponsors. Older videos are almost always better.
- tomrod 4y ago
  Solution to the unsolvable problem: have one swim lane of "watch again", another swim lane of "watch similar", then only subs+discovery. These are easy and solved already. Apply exponential weighted average for length since watch for sorting, with two peaks of a month ago and a year ago. I fear the YT folks have a hot mess and it will be twitterized at some point (the new tech lobotomized).
Angostura 4y ago
Obligatory Ryan George video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8fJPvXyfc0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8fJPvXyfc0
BiteCode_dev 4y ago
Statistically, yeah. Because the most watched youtube videos are music videos, and people listen to the same music regularly. Also because some videos have been popular enough that people wanted to show that to their friends, and regular users don't know how to use the history, so they want to find it in their home page again. I assume the algo just doesn't know the difference between videos that are rewatchable and ones that are not, and does that on some statistical metrics that don't make sense in a lot of contexts. When you think something is stupid, the answer is usually there is something we don't know about it.
- Sharlin 4y ago
  An algo that does not know what the user wants but tries to do something anyway, based on "some [..] metrics that don’t make sense [..]" is by definition "stupid".
  - 2-718-281-828 4y ago
    you have to be wrong as Google is the leading developer of AI technology globally </irony>
- rmak 4y ago
  maybe they need a "watch again" tab?
  - RALaBarge 4y ago
    There does exist a History section that offers just that.
    - anticensor 4y ago
      YouTube truncates the History to last 2000 items, however. I need to be able to see my full, uncut history for audit and word-of-mouth purposes.
      - 4y ago
fphhotchips 4y ago
There's a filter for that on the home screen! It's called "new to me", and it shows up sometimes! Because why would you want something useful like that all the time? Nah much better to just hide it or not show it at all like 60% of the time.
- nolok 4y ago
  When A/B testing becomes a released feature !
- eimrine 4y ago
  > It's called "new to me", and it shows up sometimes! You can always chose the "new to me" saussage, it is always last in the line of sausages with some tags inside of them. The problem is that "new to me" stops showing really new content if you gonna use it heavily. Sometimes it gives video with that red line on the bottom of preview which means I watches this recently or videos from some channels I am subscribed to. So, this is option is a garbage as most of other YT options.

Oh it's way worse than random, I think half my home page are videos I've already watch so surely I'd just LOVE to watch them again right ?

by cruano 4y ago

Oh it's way worse than random, I think half my home page are videos I've already watch so surely I'd just LOVE to watch them again right ?

causi 4y ago

Same. I don't know why nobody at youtube understands that, yes, I might want to watch a funny 53-second video again but I probably don't want to spend an hour re-watching part nine of a Let's Play from 2015.

texasbigdata 4y ago

It’s probably a unsolveable computer science problem to add a filter that says “how many times does this user rewatch content, or dismiss recommended content she has already seen” and then not serving stale content. Personally, unless I’m quering something that’s fairly narrow, for recommendations you push to me please never show me anything older than 36 months. No, I don’t want an 8 year old video on this topic.

watwut 4y ago
Yeah, but normal people watch/listen the same music video 300 times, but then see the comedy video or documentary video only once. And for age, it is also fairly normal to listen to music older then 36 months. And to watch educational videos older then that. Or crafting videos older then that. Or tutorial videos older then that. Most of time, I am cool with old videos.
- texasbigdata 4y ago
  Yeah fair. I meant as a default (either) on/off filter but your point totally render mine moot :)
yourusername 4y ago
For many of the topics i'm interested in videos made in the last 36 months are not better (if anything they are worse). If i'm looking up correct excercise form, how to cook a certain dish or perform a repair video's made 10 years ago are as good as video's made yesterday.
- viraptor 4y ago
  5 years, likely. 10 years is before 720p became common. Videos that came after 480p are actually better for things like repair videos. Also the speech sound quality is way better these days.
  - hn_user2 4y ago
    YouTube is helping me build my house step by step. For framing, the first thing everyone recommends is “Framing Walls with Larry Haun” (1992). You even get the VHS tracking blips now and then from the video capture. To be fair it’s also good advice to then supplement Larry Haun’s videos with modern framing techniques but his videos are the first one should watch. Might just be a single example but it’s the first counterpoint that popped in my head. https://youtu.be/IQmt27qN6AI https://youtu.be/IQmt27qN6AI
- aulin 4y ago
  > if anything they are worse They are. People that started with the genuine intent of sharing their knowledge gradually turned into professional youtubers, and now it's all about hacking the algorithm, diluting content in multiple videos, selling you to their sponsors. Older videos are almost always better.
tomrod 4y ago
Solution to the unsolvable problem: have one swim lane of "watch again", another swim lane of "watch similar", then only subs+discovery. These are easy and solved already. Apply exponential weighted average for length since watch for sorting, with two peaks of a month ago and a year ago. I fear the YT folks have a hot mess and it will be twitterized at some point (the new tech lobotomized).

Angostura 4y ago

Obligatory Ryan George video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8fJPvXyfc0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8fJPvXyfc0

BiteCode_dev 4y ago

Statistically, yeah. Because the most watched youtube videos are music videos, and people listen to the same music regularly. Also because some videos have been popular enough that people wanted to show that to their friends, and regular users don't know how to use the history, so they want to find it in their home page again. I assume the algo just doesn't know the difference between videos that are rewatchable and ones that are not, and does that on some statistical metrics that don't make sense in a lot of contexts. When you think something is stupid, the answer is usually there is something we don't know about it.

Sharlin 4y ago
An algo that does not know what the user wants but tries to do something anyway, based on "some [..] metrics that don’t make sense [..]" is by definition "stupid".
- 2-718-281-828 4y ago
  you have to be wrong as Google is the leading developer of AI technology globally </irony>
rmak 4y ago
maybe they need a "watch again" tab?
- RALaBarge 4y ago
  There does exist a History section that offers just that.
  - anticensor 4y ago
    YouTube truncates the History to last 2000 items, however. I need to be able to see my full, uncut history for audit and word-of-mouth purposes.
    - 4y ago

fphhotchips 4y ago

There's a filter for that on the home screen! It's called "new to me", and it shows up sometimes! Because why would you want something useful like that all the time? Nah much better to just hide it or not show it at all like 60% of the time.

nolok 4y ago
When A/B testing becomes a released feature !
eimrine 4y ago
> It's called "new to me", and it shows up sometimes! You can always chose the "new to me" saussage, it is always last in the line of sausages with some tags inside of them. The problem is that "new to me" stops showing really new content if you gonna use it heavily. Sometimes it gives video with that red line on the bottom of preview which means I watches this recently or videos from some channels I am subscribed to. So, this is option is a garbage as most of other YT options.