6 ms·

I suggest turning off recommendation if you dislike what they suggest My YT landing page is completely blank and need to go "subscription" tab to see newly upl

by jameson 4mo ago

I suggest turning off recommendation if you dislike what they suggest My YT landing page is completely blank and need to go "subscription" tab to see newly uploaded vids from the ones I subscribe to It's quite nice not having to view all kinds of random stuff YT wants me to see

mattgreenrocks 4mo ago
I love how passive aggressive the page becomes: "You turned off recommendations...we won't show you anything else on here either!"
- reddalo 4mo ago
  Yeah exactly, they could have made their service useful by showing your subscriptions instead. Yet, they decided to enshittify for people who want choices.
  - mattgreenrocks 4mo ago
    Just a small reminder that we aren't wanted ;)
- jameson 4mo ago
  It's somewhat deceiving practice IMO although it could simply be my insecurity. Along with the empty page, it says "Your watch history is off" in bold then says "... change your setting ... to get the latest video tailored to you" It sounds as if I'm missing out on latest videos which, technically true, but I wonder if that wording is necessary. It could've just said "Update the settings here to get recommendations". But of course for-profit companies need to make profit :)
monocat 4mo ago
This ^
Applejinx 4mo ago
Likewise. The page is youtube.com and then just /feed/ without anything else there. That's the blank page, thank goodness they've not ruined that yet :)
topspin 4mo ago
This doesn't help when searching. I'm looking for specific things as often as I'm clicking on recommendations. What's needed is a global "Hide AI Dreck". Particularly the overwhelming hoard of AI slide-shows masquerading as reviews.
- bauble 4mo ago
  This isn't possible on Youtube right now. The automatic tools for detecting LLM-generated content have far too many false positives. And obviously no one is going to pay an army of people to curate the content. The best thing right now is to rely on the reputation of individual channels that you are personally familiar with. Youtube's automatically applied label will be worse than useless unless they've made some remarkable breakthrough, which I doubt. They'd be better off just using creator-applied labels, and of course if they would label anything that Youtube itself contaminated with automatic translations or its ilk, that would be good too.
  - mschuster91 4mo ago
    > This isn't possible on Youtube right now. Well, theoretically you could build a service providing blocklists, and users could subscribe to such blocklists with a browser extension blocking accounts. Basically Sponsorblock or Blocktogether for Twitter, with individual users flagging accounts for slopaganda, content theft, rage / engagement bait and other issues. Unfortunately, it's way, way too likely that you'll run into some sort of bot detection on Youtube's side and I've seen more than enough horror stories about people getting fucked over and getting their entire Google account perma-banned with no way of recovery.
    - jens__jensen 4mo ago
      There is https://aisloplist.com/ https://aisloplist.com/ that works pretty much like you have described.
  - harimau777 4mo ago
    Maybe they could hand out lifetime bans to people who upload untagged AI music? Obviously that wouldn't eliminate the problem, but I could see it helping.
Cider9986 4mo ago
When I used to use YT, i used https://untrap.app/ https://untrap.app/, it was a great improvement. If you think you can't quit youtube, I used to think that way, and then i did it by deleting my account and using libredirect for invidious. my usage went to just a few minutes or 0 per day.
- neucoas 4mo ago
  A nicer way that also works on mobile is turning the watch history off. C
- alexpotato 4mo ago
  I'm not particularly religious but I did give up Twitter for lent as a test of my self control. I highly recommend everyone occasionally do this with social media as it was somewhat eyeopening how much better I felt overall. This was mostly due to not being exposed to the doom scrolling you can eventually get pulled into (despite efforts not to). I did miss feeling like I was "plugged in" to the stream of news/memes etc though. YMMV but def recommend.
- addaon 4mo ago
  > If you think you can't quit youtube Just stop paying for Pro. I made it less than one day with the ads.
  - Cider9986 4mo ago
    Why don't you have an adblocker for your whole browser?
    - addaon 4mo ago
      I do. I don’t have a browser for my television, though.
      - Cider9986 4mo ago
        Makes sense. I wont name the ad-free modded youtube apps for android tv that take out ads.
felooboolooomba 4mo ago
Same for me. Godsend. It also switches off showing me a follow up "short" after I watch the one I want to watch.
kilroy123 4mo ago
Or just use Channel Surfer. https://channelsurfer.tv https://channelsurfer.tv
bahmboo 4mo ago
Their recommendation engine has surfaced awesome obscure content I would have never found otherwise so I value it. Stuff like random recorded conference talks with 3 views. A super enthusiast in Latvia. It does recommend crap sometimes but on balance I like it.
jdubs1984 4mo ago
I suggest stopping any and all interaction w/ the algorithm. Get a library card and be intentional about your media consumption choices.
- denkmoon 4mo ago
  It's a nice thought but it ignores that there is so much interesting, informative media on youtube that just does not exist anywhere else, at all.
  - Marsymars 4mo ago
    I've already got more interesting, informative books on my to-read list than I'm going to have time to finish in my lifetime, so I think I'll be fine without youtube.
    - denkmoon 4mo ago
      Lucky you man. I earn my dinner by reading, I don't really want to come home and strain my eyes some more.
xpct 4mo ago
This is exactly how I consume YouTube as well. I do keep the side recommendations on since they mostly contain music or videos I've already watched, which I don't mind. I'm now experimenting with hiding thumbnails too, and honestly I've been liking it a lot. It's a very curious feeling how my eyes can no longer latch on to something visually appealing, and instead try to look for information in channel names.
nicbou 4mo ago
I use Unhooked on desktop and UnTrap on iOS for this. Both work flawlessly, and reduced my YouTube usage to almost zero.

by jameson 4mo ago

mattgreenrocks 4mo ago

I love how passive aggressive the page becomes: "You turned off recommendations...we won't show you anything else on here either!"

reddalo 4mo ago
Yeah exactly, they could have made their service useful by showing your subscriptions instead. Yet, they decided to enshittify for people who want choices.
- mattgreenrocks 4mo ago
  Just a small reminder that we aren't wanted ;)
jameson 4mo ago
It's somewhat deceiving practice IMO although it could simply be my insecurity. Along with the empty page, it says "Your watch history is off" in bold then says "... change your setting ... to get the latest video tailored to you" It sounds as if I'm missing out on latest videos which, technically true, but I wonder if that wording is necessary. It could've just said "Update the settings here to get recommendations". But of course for-profit companies need to make profit :)

monocat 4mo ago

This ^

Applejinx 4mo ago

Likewise. The page is youtube.com and then just /feed/ without anything else there. That's the blank page, thank goodness they've not ruined that yet :)

topspin 4mo ago

This doesn't help when searching. I'm looking for specific things as often as I'm clicking on recommendations. What's needed is a global "Hide AI Dreck". Particularly the overwhelming hoard of AI slide-shows masquerading as reviews.

bauble 4mo ago
This isn't possible on Youtube right now. The automatic tools for detecting LLM-generated content have far too many false positives. And obviously no one is going to pay an army of people to curate the content. The best thing right now is to rely on the reputation of individual channels that you are personally familiar with. Youtube's automatically applied label will be worse than useless unless they've made some remarkable breakthrough, which I doubt. They'd be better off just using creator-applied labels, and of course if they would label anything that Youtube itself contaminated with automatic translations or its ilk, that would be good too.
- mschuster91 4mo ago
  > This isn't possible on Youtube right now. Well, theoretically you could build a service providing blocklists, and users could subscribe to such blocklists with a browser extension blocking accounts. Basically Sponsorblock or Blocktogether for Twitter, with individual users flagging accounts for slopaganda, content theft, rage / engagement bait and other issues. Unfortunately, it's way, way too likely that you'll run into some sort of bot detection on Youtube's side and I've seen more than enough horror stories about people getting fucked over and getting their entire Google account perma-banned with no way of recovery.
  - jens__jensen 4mo ago
    There is https://aisloplist.com/ https://aisloplist.com/ that works pretty much like you have described.
- harimau777 4mo ago
  Maybe they could hand out lifetime bans to people who upload untagged AI music? Obviously that wouldn't eliminate the problem, but I could see it helping.

Cider9986 4mo ago

When I used to use YT, i used https://untrap.app/ https://untrap.app/, it was a great improvement. If you think you can't quit youtube, I used to think that way, and then i did it by deleting my account and using libredirect for invidious. my usage went to just a few minutes or 0 per day.

neucoas 4mo ago
A nicer way that also works on mobile is turning the watch history off. C
alexpotato 4mo ago
I'm not particularly religious but I did give up Twitter for lent as a test of my self control. I highly recommend everyone occasionally do this with social media as it was somewhat eyeopening how much better I felt overall. This was mostly due to not being exposed to the doom scrolling you can eventually get pulled into (despite efforts not to). I did miss feeling like I was "plugged in" to the stream of news/memes etc though. YMMV but def recommend.
addaon 4mo ago
> If you think you can't quit youtube Just stop paying for Pro. I made it less than one day with the ads.
- Cider9986 4mo ago
  Why don't you have an adblocker for your whole browser?
  - addaon 4mo ago
    I do. I don’t have a browser for my television, though.
    - Cider9986 4mo ago
      Makes sense. I wont name the ad-free modded youtube apps for android tv that take out ads.

felooboolooomba 4mo ago

Same for me. Godsend. It also switches off showing me a follow up "short" after I watch the one I want to watch.

kilroy123 4mo ago

Or just use Channel Surfer. https://channelsurfer.tv https://channelsurfer.tv

bahmboo 4mo ago

Their recommendation engine has surfaced awesome obscure content I would have never found otherwise so I value it. Stuff like random recorded conference talks with 3 views. A super enthusiast in Latvia. It does recommend crap sometimes but on balance I like it.

jdubs1984 4mo ago

I suggest stopping any and all interaction w/ the algorithm. Get a library card and be intentional about your media consumption choices.

denkmoon 4mo ago
It's a nice thought but it ignores that there is so much interesting, informative media on youtube that just does not exist anywhere else, at all.
- Marsymars 4mo ago
  I've already got more interesting, informative books on my to-read list than I'm going to have time to finish in my lifetime, so I think I'll be fine without youtube.
  - denkmoon 4mo ago
    Lucky you man. I earn my dinner by reading, I don't really want to come home and strain my eyes some more.

xpct 4mo ago

This is exactly how I consume YouTube as well. I do keep the side recommendations on since they mostly contain music or videos I've already watched, which I don't mind. I'm now experimenting with hiding thumbnails too, and honestly I've been liking it a lot. It's a very curious feeling how my eyes can no longer latch on to something visually appealing, and instead try to look for information in channel names.

nicbou 4mo ago

I use Unhooked on desktop and UnTrap on iOS for this. Both work flawlessly, and reduced my YouTube usage to almost zero.