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Comment by srean | Hacker News Reader

For me it has been the opposite as in it has so little hysteresis. Just one day I watch something I do not usually watch, say cat videos, and for weeks I will get only cat videos as recommendations. I think their algorithm needs to be cognizant of and adapt to temporal shifts in a viewers interest. Some users may like change in focus at slightest of deviations, others may prefer more hysteresis.

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It's both for me. It locks on to a few categories or channels and occasionally, almost randomly decides to start showing some other category or channel based entirely upon a single view.

This is not the same algorithm that they've always used. It began changing somewhere around 3 or 4 years ago and it's completely different now. Honestly, I think they've intentionally broken it. I used to derive a lot of enjoyment from going on an algorithm enhanced "wikiwalk" of YouTube content, discovering many interesting and bizarre videos. It's impossible to do that now, you just wind up stuck on a channel or going around in circles.

To put it plainly, I think YouTube has decided to bury all of the fringe and weird one off content in favour of mainstream channels because they can't monetize the former. Good job Google, you killed another golden goose.

Because of this, when I'm sent video links to watch I will open them up in a Private Window / Incognito so I do not pollute my account.

I never use non-private windows, so I use Invidious or mpv for this. I put

  control + alt + m
    notify-send "mpv loading $(xclip -o)"; mpv --player-operation-mode=pseudo-gui "$(xclip -o)" || notify-send 'mpv error'

in my ~/.config/sxhd/sxhkdrc to conveniently play any youtube-dl supported url I’ve copied or highlighted.

Thank you for this tip, just added it to my sxhkdrc.

The main Invidious site just shut down, although various alternative Invidious sites still exist.

I set my browser to block all cookies. Has the same effect as private window mode. That way I can still browse youtube without having to open a new window. Yea, it sucks that I can no longer sign in, but at least the recommendations are better.

This criticism shouldn't apply anymore. They predict categories you like and you can select a category. The 'All' page should be a mix of all categories, not just cat videos. Amazon on the other hand...

> you can select a category

Could you tell me how ? Would love to have that feature. They seem to have turned this off.

I'm sorry I don't know how to turn it on. When I go to youtube.com, at the top it has about 15 categories that it has gleaned from my use (e.g. Guitar, Flight Simulators), some of which I'm surprised it learned, as well as All, Mix, Trending. I use Edge and I'm logged in to YouTube.

I know what you are talking about. They had rolled it out in my region and I loved it. Now they seem to have rolled it back

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