I honestly thought this was how it always worked...seems like a good thing if they're at least appearing to not track people who aren't signed in, especially since in every other way they will try to get your data fighting tooth and claw. (Not saying they aren't tracking habits of non account users though)
this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
447 points (97.7% liked)
Technology
59192 readers
2433 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Yeah... this isn't a bad thing as far as I'm concerned. I have never used the front page for anything, besides the search bar, and even that's waning.
Considering the right-wing garbage YT is constantly trying to slip into my recommendations - a habit of YT that has mysteriously gotten a whole lot worse in the last few weeks - I'd say they are threatening me with a good time.
" shows a simple YouTube homepage without any videos or tips on what to watch."
I've had watch history off for like 7 years now and I haven't had videos on my homepage for at least 2 years now. Hasn't bothered me a bit, I only watch my subscription page and find new people with the recommendations based off of their videos.
load more comments
(3 replies)
What? That's literally a feature I got with a plugin. YouTube feels so much better without the algorithmic reinforced "hype" videos with no content and it's good for your mental health too.
I stopped letting YouTube save my watch history years ago because their suggestion algorithm became too intrusive: watch a quick cooking tutorial, get nothing be cooking channels, look up the proper way to use a toggle bolt, YouTube wants to teach me how to re-shingle a roof. It was out of control.
First, they took away my home screen, because they claimed they couldn't reccomend videos without my watch history (even though they'd done it for years). Then they took away the shorts tab, because they said they couldn't reccomend shorts without my watch history (even though they'd done it for months). So now I just have my subscriptions, a curated list of things I actually want to watch. They've punished me with the product I wanted this whole time.
this move kinda got me to stop using youtube (for me, it also happens when my watch history is empty, and then it Specifically Nags that you need to unpause it for the feed to come back.) From personal reflection, I get how they could see people just enabling the watch history if they do this. (though right now, you don't need to not have it paused, there just needs to be stuff in it for the feed)
Lol the users being upset about this is the strangest part, I never ever want to see the recommended feed, how can I opt into this while signed in? XD
delete and pause your watch history, at least that's how it works for me.
Yeah, I actually want my watch history though, been helpful a few times trying to remember some obscure vid I watched like 4 years ago
Subscriptions page really needs an overhaul, at least it mostly actually shows all the videos posted these days, would be nice if we could categorize them in some fashion, or if it auto-groupes videos from the same creator, an example... I like Kyle Kulinski's Secular Talk, but he posts like 4-10 segments a day so it fills up my subs page
deleted by creator
All that is left is letting people without a watch history default to seeing their subscriptions instead of a blank page. That's the whole point of subscribing: I want my own curated experience. I don't want to watch BS YouTube thinks I want to watch.
It was a mistake letting YouTube decide on behalf of everyone that recommendations was a better experience than letting the users decide for themselves what to watch. The recommendations are no less of an echo chamber. Worse, the recommendations are gamed with churned, garbage content. It's the same problem as google search.
We need a return to form of user-curated content. Down with algorithmic recommendations.
You can get extensions which make the homepage redirect to your subscriptions page. Lifesaver imo.
That pretty much describes how I use my Piped server in Feed mode. It only show my subs and I can filter out Shorts from those as well. Pretty sure the public Pipeds are the same if you make an account.
Maybe you'd like to see some Andrew Tate shorts?
load more comments
(1 replies)
Meh. For all the YT I consume, I haven't visited the site in years. yt-dlp, sponsor block, invidious, and newpipe keep me far away, while still having all my subs stored in a json file. Simple, easy, no algo suggestions, just organic heard about them from word of mouth sub on an alternative platform. No ads, no sponsor or patreon mentions, no like, no subscribe. Is bliss.
EDIT: Typo fix and slight rewording.
Love it
It's pretty obvious they're only doing this to try to push people who like the recommendations to create an account. But can't people just create throwaway accounts to temporarily relieve their recommendation fix?
Their recommendations are useless anyway. I don't want to see 200 rock hard abs videos just because I watched a clip of Roseanne doing sit-ups.
Fantastic news.
Don’t threaten me with a good time!
will this affect invidious/piped?
As with what others are saying here, pulling out algo nonsense is good, however I do worry that it slowly devolves into something similar to what's happening with Twitter where you can barely look at anything without being pushed to login. It's unusable unless you have an account. Websites shouldn't operate like that.
Oh no ! Anyway .
Best feature so far
Exactly
This is an amazing way to view youtube .... this isn't a degradation of the service ... it's the first good useful thing they've done in years
It'll be rolled back when they realize engagement drops.