What annoys me about YouTube videos | Hacker News Reader

What annoys me about YouTube videos

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One of my favorite college classes was called "Prose Boot Camp", where we basically practiced all the types of writing you don't usually learn in school. Assignments included writing an obituary, a restaurant review, a termination letter, a letter appealing said termination (subtle threats included), and recipe intros for a fictional cookbook called See Dad Cook!.

A majority of these assignments had specific word-count requirements. The appeal letter, for example, had to be exactly 800 words, no more and no less. The requirement irked me at first, but it ended up adding to the value of the class. The professor wasn't an easy grader, so you were forced to really consider how to use the space. A 100 word blurb needs to be approached differently from an 800 word letter or a 2,000 word article.

My point is, there's nothing inherently wrong with length targets, and maybe the author needs to find better videos!

> maybe the author needs to find better videos!

the YouTube algorithm significantly increases the recommendation weight of the 9-12 minute videos, though, and decreases the weight of everything else. it's not like 9-12 minute videos are in short supply, either.

I'm trying to say that it is often difficult to "find better videos" in any real quantity without a long YouTube watch history demonstrating a preference for them. this results in a situation where it is somewhat easy to find them if you've already found a lot of them, and not so easy otherwise.

Right, I'm saying that content creators need to do a better job of writing to that length. Come up with a concept that works in 9-12 minutes, instead of attempting to stretch out a paragraph.

Look at it this way—traditional television programs have always had mostly-arbitrary length requirements as well, and I'd say they managed to do a lot with that format!

> Right, I'm saying that content creators need to do a better job of writing to that length.

yes that would be nice, and there is zero incentive to do that, unfortunately.

This is a very good point but puts the arbiter of quality content on those willing and able to be weaker on that ratio and still earn the same dollar. It’s not enough to ask people not to be lazy

It typically takes 10 times as long as your content to write a lecture, and according to [1] it takes about 12 hours to produce a minute of video.

The algorithm also likes 2 videos per week.

2 videos * 12 hours work/minute_video * 10 minute_video / video --> 240 hours/week to keep the algorithm happy.

The algorithm is greedy, and is making videos worse.

[1] - https://www.lumavox.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-produce-a-m...

I disagree, because Bottom Line Up Front. Take the straightest path to communicating intent. Word count is not important.

If your intent is to make the reader feel things with flowery language, then it's appropriate to use flowery language.

If your intent is to convey a concept, then do it ASAP and don't add anything else.

Just because a company may have an elevator pitch, doesn't mean that's the best way to explain their business given more time, right? The elevator pitch may be less detailed, or less nuanced, or simply less convincing—but it's useful because of it's brevity.

A lot of topics are like this. So you need to figure out how to do what you can in the space alloted.

I feel like starting a longer pitch with the elevator pitch is probably a good idea. It gives everyone context for the details that'll follow.

Fluff. Yep. Fluff makes money. YouTube, books, TV shows... Fluff designed to hold your attention while delivering very little actual content. Very annoying.

Please make the world better, don't make the world suffer, Get right to your point and don't be a fluffer.

HAH! But I'm not sure how many people are going to get your joke ... That's pretty specialized jargon. But, Avenue Q had it right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTJvdGcb7Fs

The only thing he can't make fun of on Twitter is "YouTube Face" ...

His logic is actually very wrong.

The main reason content creators create 10 minutes YouTube videos is not because of fashion but because it unlocks additional ad slots and monetisation opportunities.

If you do a 10:01 video you can earn much more than a 9:30 video.

Also, in general, YouTube recommendation algorithms tend to prefer monetized content, this is why you see more monetized content in recommendations than non-monetized.

>= 10 minutes: more views, more money.

How’s his logic wrong? He says a paragraph (1-3 minutes) is stretched to 10. This is true because of the ads. YouTubers talk about this all the time, that 10 minutes is the minimum for a video because the algorithm dictates that. It’s more views more money because Youtube won’t promote a 3 minute video.

I thought he was going to say "they always start with 'in this video...', or 'today...'".

I would like a browser extension that automatically reports all youtube videos whose title contains "shocking", "astonishing" and "what happens next" as spam.

Does this dude realize he’s doing the same annoying thing on Twitter?

He must right? Is there any way it would naturally take someone that many tweets to say “the algorithm selects longer videos creating an incentive for fluff”?

That is the joke

It took me until he said "adding fluff".

I think that's intentional and meant as an example of the issue at hand.

Well yeah but it’s a bad example and is still annoying. I stopped reading it.. Like NJM commercials, they poke fun at jingles by having commercials with annoying jingles. It’s really not witty!

Is he? It's an interesting question with proponents and detractors , one we can explore in more detail. But first, are you still spending 100s of dollars on disposable razors?

He could just tell you.

Or he could demonstrate it while telling you.

Seems effective, doesn't it?

I assume he was doing that deliberately, which is why I bothered to keep reading at all!

He does. He’s mocking it. Deliberately.

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