The algorithm is a combination of things they think you want to watch and things they want you to watch. The latter are things that tend to keep people watching, increasing ad revenue for youtube.
Top #1 sign(s) that you’re spending too much time on YouTube.
Or too little. As someone else suggested the algorithm would understand me better if I watched more.
Tell you a problem I’ve had with it recently: search.
Used to be, you’d search Youtube for something like 'how to make a zero clearance throat plate for table saw" and you’d get pages of useful results, then some not so great results, then things that make you say “no not that kind of throat.” and by then it’s just giving you results with at least one of the search terms in it.
Now, you’ll get maybe ten relevant results, then about ten results that have absolutely nothing to do with your search, just…stuff it would clutter your home page with. Like you’re not trying to find information. You can feel that “increase watch time at all costs” shit.
When you search for something that doesn’t give tons of results with decent or above views, they keep injecting sections of 3 “other videos you might like”. Which makes it really annoying to find something less popular.
You’re spending too much time on YouTube if you have the opportunity to yell at it 10 times in one day.
Yeah you are right I just move away from YouTube altogether again.
I watch so much niche stuff that it’s hard for YouTube to sneak their suggestions in.
- someone nerding out about history
- someone nerding out about science
- someone nerding out about Star Trek
- ✅ EPIC FAIL COMPILATION ✅
Never had this problem with YouTube’s algorithm. If anything, it offers 20 more videos from the same channel after I watch just one.
Are you using the options where you tell it you don’t like this video/don’t recommend this channel/thumbs down the video? There are like three different ways to tell YouTube you’re not interested.
That doesn’t exist anymore in the client I use.
Use Grayjay. No ads, no algorithm, all video platforms in one feed.
Grayjay is not open-source, sadly; FreeTube and NewPipe are, though they are YT-based.
The source is available, right? You just can’t fork it to include ads? Or you can’t fork it at all?
You can fork it but you can’t redistribute it or change the name. You also can’t do anything that would be considered making a profit.
Essentially you can’t do anything but contribute free labor. If Greyjay put ads and malware into the app you would be powerless to start something based on it.
I tried FreeTube and NewPipe, but got tired of YouTube constantly changing things to make them not work. I’m too old to deal with constant tinkering, and have no interest in investing into a Pie Hole.
I think you gave up too soon because both of these has been working flawlessly for months… I’d strongly recommend retrying either!
Thanks for the info. I’ll try again. 👍
It’s frustrating, but to make it somewhat work you have to keep using the “Not interested” and “Don’t recommend channel” options, and go into watch history and remove ones that you click on by mistake or find out you don’t like while watching.
Do what I do fuck the YouTube algorithms and just only use the subscription part. I use the “recommended” part once every few months if that. Got my subscriptions on my smart tube and that’s all I need.
I still find it funny it thinks my 3 year old is interested in solar panels.
The more concerning one was a divorce lawyer for fathers. That shit wasn’t even on my account or my computer, it just assumed daytime watching of kids stuff means a guys going through a divorce, lol.
Tell me about it… Started clicking “Do not recommend this channel” solely based on the thumbnail - if there is trump, musk or anything political, I clicked the button. Recently I started noticing pro Chinese “propaganda” which is something I don’t want to watch either.
My solution: sticking mainly to subscribed channels and if I don’t see anything I want to watch I’ll try the YouTube feed algorithm.
I need YouTube word filter or figure out how to do the same I did for Lemmy and reddit in ublock custom filters. Example I found for reddit which works for me: reddit.com##article[aria-label]:has-text(/tesla|trump|vance|biden|republic|democrat|conservative|senate|congress|candidate|politic|healthcare|capitalism|billionaire|inflation|corporation|greed|tariff/i)
I’d love the same thing for YouTube, but I don’t know how to configure it.
Switch to peertube mate
YouTube has the worst commenting system as well. Oh a highlighted reply in a 500 comment thread I never commented on? Great just what I didn’t need YouTube!
Dang that’s a lot of youtube you’re watching there
I’m so glad I never have to deal with youtube’s idiotic algorithm
