Shout out to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clickbait-remover-for-youtube which honestly makes looking at YT so much less awful.
This was inevitable considering a few notable youtubers (one of them being kwebblekop) has started using AI avatars
As much as I try to like Bryant Gardiner’s videos since he’s so active on Peertube, I can’t follow him simply due to his thumbnails. They irritate me so much. I’d love for a dearrow type of feature on Peertube or a way to straight up block channels from showing up in the Explore tab.
I’m glad they do this so I know to avoid their channel. I know their content is likely not something I’m interested in spending my time viewing when I see the thumbnail following whatever the current trend is.
I’m not too interested in the fluffy stuff. But on the occasions I am, it’s easy to find.
For instance, sometimes I like to watch travel vlogs. I avoid the ones that have thumbnails showing the face of the vlogger in every thumbnail, with just one exception, Dale Philip. He also has the most subscribers of anyone I’m subscribed to, by far.
I just “don’t recommens me channel” immediately
I disabled watch history and the default front page is blank for me--tells me to enable watch history. The only place I see recommended videos now is the side bar that shows on the video watch page, which are more relevant than the default home page.
I only watch on desktop, it might be different on phone.
I killed YouTube history and the algorithm with it. I live on channel subscriptions.
Recommendations are a killer feature on YouTube. Only, one needs to cultivate them carefully. Look through the recommendations on an interesting video and save promising ones into the ‘watch later’ playlist (or better yet, separate playlists per topic). Don’t click on random videos, especially from links on social media — use an incognito tab for that.
This works great for me, I have enough videos saved to last me a year or two at least. YouTube learned my taste quite well, especially when it comes to music — found many good albums and tunes in the recs, despite being a snob.
I disabled “history” so it has almost? the same effect. It just keeps showing the same videos; no algorithm at all. it also shows a little banner “Is something off? You can always turn on history you know? Okey? no? … aright”
Shocked expressions, big red arrows pointing to nothing, titles based on shock, surprise or open-ended questions are videos I tend to avoid. I don’t particularly care to watch a video where the first emotion had is sympathy for desperation. (It makes you almost question the emotional state of most of the users that “the algorithm” tuned itself for, TBH. I say that only as an observation of scale when looking at the sheer numbers of viewers that YouTube has.)
Sticking with the subtle stuff is just fine. A picture of the host smiling with an informative title and thumbnail is OK, and not very gag evoking.
Blaming “the algorithm” for having to do that shit is likely a very real thing. However, I will religiously watch channels that produce good content first.
Either way, I have conflicting views: A person has to earn a living, but when emotional exploitation is used in this way, I don’t know what to think. Is it really harmless? Not sure about that yet.
Also anything with DESTROYS in the title
3 ukrainian soldeirs OBLITERATE 3 russian soldiers. Russia is BANKRUPT (added 4 years ago)
I was erect for too long, it’s coming any day now!
Standup comedians in r/StandupComedy report that following some trends unfortunately does increase views. E.g. censoring ‘obscene’ or ‘violent’ words. Although that’s not as prevalent on YouTube, but they can’t really produce separate videos for various platforms.
I agree. It doesn’t feel harmless because mirroring validates the behavior and perpetuates the cycle. It’s not how I earn a living so I’m lacking the perspective and motivation of the account holder(s). Seeing thumbnails in that style has always made me cringe. Maybe I’m feeling embarrassed for the person?
Generally I found that people that rely on these types of thumbnails don’t often have very good content. I like Josh the intern but he’s started doing this as well.
