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Comment by Roark66 | Hacker News Reader

What creators need is a better youtube algorithm. Is it just me, or has youtube recommendations become almost unusable by now? Some years ago when I spent "an hour watching YouTube" I'd watch a huge majority of videos recommended by the algorithm based on my current subs. Today it is 1%. Why? I'll give you an example.

I have varied interests, I sub and regularly watch a number if channels in each of my hobbies, but fixing cars is not one. However, one day I searched youtube how to change a bulb in a specific model of a car. This was a week ago. My youtube feed is still full of car repair howto videos. The people I'm subscribed to have produced new videos, but they don't show up.

Also I used to get recommended channels similar to ones I sub. No more. It looks 100% random now. I get recommended a random channel with 10 subs, but somehow I manage to miss one of the biggest channels in one of my hobbies for months.

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I agree that the algorithm is weird.

To start with, it feels like 30% of the videos are videos I’ve already watched.

The rest tends to be a very naive list of things related to the last ten videos I’ve watched including many that were recommended before that I didn’t watch and never will. Often I pull down to refresh and it alternates between two lists and that’s it.

I know recommendations are a complex problem but the results seem very far off from what I’d expect.

What I've done is turn off watch history. That makes the front page blank, but it means that the recommendations next to videos are only related to that video, which in my experience makes for much higher quality recommendations than ones based on watch history.

It's not just algorithm and search. ux for grouping/viewing/hiding/watching later/getting rid of notification thumbs/etc/etc/etc of all your numerous subscriptions is nonexistent and it sucks.

> This was a week ago. My youtube feed is still full of car repair howto videos

FWIW, if you go into your view history, you can remove videos from there, and they will no longer influence your recommendations

This, I've found that people most comfortable with algorithmic feeds regularly prune what they don't want and cultivate what they do. Even tiktok is subject to this, albeit with an exceptional high bar for skipping skills.

I only use the subscribed tab, if that runs out of videos, I stop watching

There's a lot more content too though, and the attention span of the average viewer has gone down dramatically with TikTok, which is why YouTube launched Shorts and Instagram launched Reels.

here's my recommendation to get better suggestions.

in your single account you can multiple yt channels. the recommendations are per channel, so if you like cooking you can make a cooking channel where most of you recommendations will be just that.

I have around 4 channels each attached to a Firefox container you different topics (1main + 3 for more specific interests)

> Is it just me, or has youtube recommendations become almost unusable by now?

It's honestly the opposite for me. It's scary good at finding content related to my recent history, and it's even gotten better at directing me towards even toward very small (<1k sub) content creators. I don't subscribe to quite a few youtubers simply because I know the algorithm will point me to their relevant new uploads anyway.

But yes, if you take even a step towards some semblance of clickbait, or even hover over some random video too long, your feed will suddenly transform into a flood of crypto, cat videos, culture wars, or just general low quality content. You need to aggressively cull your history and make use of "don't recommend this channel" to stop that. Maybe even clear your entire history if it feels too lost Also, YT is aggressively promoting shorts no matter what you do, in my experience.

As a discaimer, I have Premium, so I don't know if I get a better algorithm as a result of that.

> it's even gotten better at directing me towards even toward very small (<1k sub) content creators

The cynic in me thinks this is because if you have under 1k subs you can't claim any ad revenue...

Yeah, that's shy I mentioned I have premium. I apparently have some disproportionate weight with my view and there's less incentive to try and make me watch more popular or longer videos, I imagine. That can definitely change how and what they put in my feed.

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