Youtube is also pretty boring though. I mean, there are ton of interesting content and quality content too, but the stuff that gets recommended, the "hype stuff" is full of false information, clickbait, tweaked reality to conform some narrative...

▲ glimshe 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

YouTube is as good as you make it. If you watch a lot of a type of content, it does a great job at finding similar content, including relevant things that you didn't know existed. If you just watch random popular stuff, then yeah, it's pretty trashy.

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fragmede 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Unfortunately, it'll pick up recommendations from watching one thing one time, so watching that one video your weird uncle sent you is enough to pollute your algorithm with his weirdo shit.

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shalmanese 5 hours ago | parent [-]

You can mark a video as not to influence your recommendations or delete it from your YouTube history.

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fragmede 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yes but you have to go and do that. GP was making it sound like GGP was watching crazy uncle videos to make the algorithm do that, when in reality, one errant click will pollute your suggestions unless you know to go and delete it.

New prank on someone that left their laptop unlocked. Open YouTube to something they hate and then close it before they get back.

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johnnyanmac 3 hours ago | parent [-]

You do need to take care in pruning videos you don't normally watch. Either remove from watch history, mark as not interested, or just thumbs downing the video.

But at least you still have that ability compared to most platforms.

	▲	ChoGGi a few seconds ago \| parent [-]
		Isn't the thumbs down only from a third party extension? Does YouTube pay attention to it?

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ryandrake 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

▲ techjamie 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I highly recommend using the "Not interested" button on anything you don't want to see. It's actually pretty effective at pruning unwanted things from your recommendations. If I get anything political or slop related, it gets the not interested button.

I also have a second channel for language learning where I used it to prune out any videos in English. It's not perfect and recommends a few still, but they get more rare as time passes.

	▲	scoofy 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I will try this. I have no idea what is wrong with the algo, but I've honestly thought youtube has gone way downhill since the pandemic.

▲ 1vuio0pswjnm7 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Imagine this option:

   [x] Turn off recommendations

Or this option:

   [ ] Turn on recommendations

On the internet before YouTube existed, I remember there were no "recommendations" by default. Methods for finding "similar" content existed and were being improved, but it was not assumed that _every_ computer user was _always_ seeking "recommendations", i.e., recommendations by default

One problem with an internet where people expect, accept and rely on "recommendations" from so-called "tech" companies is that it ignores and disincentivises people who know how to search and find good stuff. Often these people want to tell others about, and share, what they find. Before so-called "tech" companies existed, these people could be excellent sources of recommendations. IMHO, they still are

Other HN comments have suggested recommendations should be an exception to Section 230 (cf. publishing user-generated content without commercially-motivated favoritism)

▲ 0x80h 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Agree, their algorithm sucks, I wish I could have more freedom to customize it

▲ jasondigitized 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is the only downside. You really need to curate good content.

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krapp 9 hours ago | parent [-]

I don't know about everyone else's experience but I find Youtube to be pretty good at finding interesting content, especially for music. Curation is necessary but it does work.

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slumberlust 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Interesting. One of my many many complaints with YTMusic is that it does discovery very poorly. It fills any radio/discovery queue with one or two new songs followed by all the songs already on my playlists.

Other big complaints include no ability to prevent it from substantially using my cell data despite telling it to do everything over wifi. I've taken to just removing network permissions from the app unless I want to add something.

	▲	dzhiurgis 7 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		IMO you don’t need curation/algo - you need social network effect where you follow people who repost similar content you like. Your graph grows and if you don’t like something - cut them off. This is how soundcloud works.
	▲	krapp 8 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I'm not using Youtube Music, just regular free Youtube with an ad blocker.

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magicalhippo 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Works fine for me recommending interesting educational and edutainment content.

I'm quite aggressively removing videos I don't like from my watch history, or flag "don't recommend" channels I know won't be for me. If I'm not careful it'll recommend crap for a while.

▲ csantini 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Agree! So many great genuine creators, but the algo keeps pushing only clickbaity shit

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Gualdrapo 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Everyone was a genuine creator but was corrupted at some point. It will happen to your favorite creator too.

	▲	eudamoniac 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		EthosLab is immune to this

▲ 2OEH8eoCRo0 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I have a friend that sends me lunatic fringe videos every day that youtube recommends. It's tiring