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Comment by rockbruno | Hacker News Reader

I watch an youtuber that makes videos about life in Japan and he mentioned recently about how this drives the direction of his videos against his will. Despite producing extremely high-quality videos, every video is accompanied by clickbait titles and the classic "=O" idiotic face thumbnail. The quality contrast between the cover and the video is immediately clear once you start watching the content.

He mentioned that he despises this with every inch of his being, but is forced to do so because YouTube's algorithm would dump the video otherwise.

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I feel sorry for him, and I even think I know which channel you mean, but I've never clicked on one of his videos because I absolutely refuse to click on any video with a clickbait title or a clickbait thumbnail.

I'm sure that I'm not the only one.

Linus Tech Talks has a whole video explaining that they hate making YouTube Face thumbnails, but their numbers are dramatically worse when they don’t.

Lots of UK tech magazines used to use scantily clad women on the cover (holding up some piece of tech).

When challenged on it they responded that when they didn't their sales went down by a significant percentage.

I've pretty much refused to watch any of his videos because he looks lone of those open mouthed clowns you throw balls into at the carnival.

As another commenter on HN said yesterday, sell people what they want, but give them what they need.

If it's abroad in Japan, I would say he's found a great way to hit mass appeal but still maintain his authentic and snarky takes on the country.

If it's Paolo from Tokyo, I'd say he's defensively changed over the years and has become much more focused on clicks over real substance.

If it's neither of them, then still give those two channels a watch, especially the stuff from several years ago.

Ah, the YouTube face! It's so weird that video creators have to have a shot of themselves making a stupid face to get viewers. Are we the consumers that stupid?

It's only natural. Expressions convey a lot; they drive curiosity and makes the content seem more important to watch ("what made them make that face?").

I avoid any and all videos using the tactic because it feels crude, tho..

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