Normally, I use YouTube very little (watch a couple videos a month). However, I’ve been in bed with an injury for some time now, which has led me to watch quite a bit of YouTube. The thing is, I subscribe to a small handfull of channels that I enjoy content from, but after a relatively short time I had watched pretty much all the new content from those channels.
Now, I would expect that the YouTube algorithm, which is supposedly designed by competent people to get me to stick around, would be able to suggest some decent content to me based on my subscriptions. However, the past week, I’ve opened YouTube only to find the same old videos being suggested over and over. Even worse: Whenever there’s something interesting-looking from a channel I don’t recognise, it always turns out to be some shitty AI voice over some generic animations or footage.
I know for a fact that thousands of hours of content are created on YouTube daily, but it genuinely feels like there are maybe five creators out there that are making anything worth watching. It’s either that, or the YouTube algorithm is just complete crap at suggesting creators that are in any way similar to what I’m already subscribing to.
What’s going on here? Why does it seem like there’s no real content out there?
As a “funny” side note: What’s with the “aggressively American” AI narrator-voice? I’ve heard it before, but thought it was some dude until I realised it’s the same voice in a bunch of unrelated videos. It reminds me of the Discovery-channel “action-narrator”-voice from back in the day, but now it’s showing up in all kinds of crap videos.
There is lots of great content on YouTube, but you need to do some work to shake it loose. On the thumbnail page, click on the dots next to the image and choose “not interested” to get rid of the same ones showing repeatedly.
Try searching for terms you are interested in. Once you watch a couple of videos on the same subject, they’ll keep trying to show you more, which one be a good thing or not, depending.
Creators come and go, so finding new ones is an ongoing process.
I hate their setup. The way they recommend the same creators over and over again if you just watch a minute of their content makes it so bland and repetitive.
You clearly have the intelligence to spell the words ‘algorithm,’ ‘aggressively,’ and ‘the.’ The algorithm is not meant for you. It is made to suck children and idiots down into machine induced ADHD. If you have standards of any kind, you reject the obvious trash and end up where you are. You have my congratulations and my sympathies.
A lot of it is AI slop now too
The moment I hear the AI voice, I instantly jump to the next video.
Oh, so much this. It’s gotten to a point where I feel physical revulsion when I hear them. The tiktok-woman voice is decidedly the worst, but there are others that make me sick to my stomach as well.
The youtube algorithm used to show users a smattering of all the types of content on the site. Everyone was getting random shit from one public algorithm.
Now, it only shows you the tiny section related to the search data you seeded your own personal algorithm with.
Youtube’s algorithm is now Show the user videos like the last two they watched and NOTHING ELSE
The other day I started off watching a video about fixing the vinyl on my center console in my car. Left to check a few things and when I came back it was some right wing BS.
On youtube your always 5 videos away from rightwing propaganda.
And it won’t take no for an answer (without actually selecting not interested). If I get a video from someone I kind of like but that video doesn’t interest me, I will see it every refresh of the home page for at least a week. But if i select not interested or don’t recommend channel I’ll miss videos I might want later on.
Google Exec: He clicked “not interested” again! Lmao loser! Have some more!
Unfortunately, quality content is hard to find on youtube, especially because the algorithm will focus more on already established creators and channels. Videos under 20k views and creators under 1k subs almost never appear, even if they’re better related to what you’re watching than what’s being shown on the sidebar.
One thing you can try is to check the related videos while browsing incognito, or with Piped/NewPipe or Invidious, as these will ensure the recommendations are as “plain new account” as possible.
My personal experience, whenever I watch anything game related while logged in, YT will throw dozens of Brazilian Roblox/Minecraft videos as related, even if I’m watching english videos. I block them, refresh the site and another batch of similar shit shows up. I check the same video on Invidious and a different set of videos show as related.
99% of channels suck. Its only the select few educational channels that actually have content. Other than watching Youtube, I pirate a lot of TV shows and movies.
This may be a large part of my problem. I’ve kind of just noted that theres so many people spending so many hours watching youtube, that there must be an abundance of good content. Then again, a decent amount of people are probably content with having some slop on in the background, and a major user-base probably consists of kids watching people scream into the camera. With that in mind, it may not be that unlikely that even with millions of hours of content, there may only be a few thousand actually worth watching if you find it…
The algorithm isn’t there to suggest you something enjoyable to watch.
It is designed to keep you on the site as long as possible by suggesting you what has kept other people on the site longer who also have watched what you watched, maybe.
Use the not interested button very liberally when it recommends you something you don’t want to see.
I guess I’ve understood that “keeping me on the site” doesn’t necessarily coincide with “show me stuff I like”, but I honestly thought there was more overlap. I keep scrolling past loads of shit before leaving, and then just being shown the same shit again when I come back. I haven’t really used the “not interested” option, I’ll try that and see if it helps. Thanks for the recommendation!
Or if you have already seen it, but it keeps getting proposed in your list, you can open it, like it, and it will disappear. Works for me at least.
I can feel you. YouTube is my “tv” and I’ve been watching it for years. But lately the quality of the suggestions has gone completely out of whack, imo. I scroll through the suggestions and find nothing worth watching. Sometimes i try to improve it by hitting ‘not interested’ or ‘don’t suggest this channel’, but it’s not helping.
Maybe Spez has bribed Google to show us rubbish, so we’d return to Reddit?
It’s actually kind of nice to hear this. You’re the kind of person I was thinking of when I thought to myself that “there must be heaps of decent content out there, because a bunch of people use youtube as their tv”, so if it’s gone to crap for you as well, at least that indicates I’m not just going crazy from lying still for way too long.
I’ve noticed a lot of AI slop being recommended all of a sudden too, not just AI voice stuff but lazy AI generated thumbnails and titles too. I’ve been clicking don’t suggest channel every time it turns up but YouTube is still trying to push it.
I know you just came to ask about the algorithm but I’d be happy to suggest you some great channels (100% human in content) if you could tell me your interests!
There are some extensions that make a big difference.
“Blocktube” sounds like one you’d get a lot of use out of - all it does is add a block video and block channel option to the drop down menu of each video.
Get that AI voice or any other content that indicates the entire channel is garbage, just block the entire channel in one click. Be aggressive with blocking channels, and you’ll start noticing much less trash in your feed.
Block video is more useful for the channels you’re subscribed to -once you’ve watched a video, block it as a kind of “mark as read” button. That way your recommended videos won’t keep showing you shit you’ve already seen.
What types of videos do you like? I have so much high quality content available I literally cannot watch it all.
my experience is that is def not made by competent people, and i have to train the algorithm by selecting garbage and tell it to shove it up and never recommend it while im alive…and MAYBE in the future im gonna get a watchable video
