Normally, I use YouTube very little (watch a couple videos a month). However, I’ve been in bed with an injury for some time now, which has led me to watch quite a bit of YouTube. The thing is, I subscribe to a small handfull of channels that I enjoy content from, but after a relatively short time I had watched pretty much all the new content from those channels.
Now, I would expect that the YouTube algorithm, which is supposedly designed by competent people to get me to stick around, would be able to suggest some decent content to me based on my subscriptions. However, the past week, I’ve opened YouTube only to find the same old videos being suggested over and over. Even worse: Whenever there’s something interesting-looking from a channel I don’t recognise, it always turns out to be some shitty AI voice over some generic animations or footage.
I know for a fact that thousands of hours of content are created on YouTube daily, but it genuinely feels like there are maybe five creators out there that are making anything worth watching. It’s either that, or the YouTube algorithm is just complete crap at suggesting creators that are in any way similar to what I’m already subscribing to.
What’s going on here? Why does it seem like there’s no real content out there?
As a “funny” side note: What’s with the “aggressively American” AI narrator-voice? I’ve heard it before, but thought it was some dude until I realised it’s the same voice in a bunch of unrelated videos. It reminds me of the Discovery-channel “action-narrator”-voice from back in the day, but now it’s showing up in all kinds of crap videos.
People don’t use the subscription tab? Why do they subscribe in the first place?
that was my reaction as well.
I did a non-scientific poll in my friendscircle and fedi followers, and aparently only about a quarter of the people even know that “subscriptions” is an actual tab.
They just assume if they subscribe, that it will show up on the home page / main feed somehow.
It absolutely explains the “youtube unsubbed me from you” comments you always see. They never were subscribed in the first place (always saw releases on the home page when YT felt like it). Or they subbed, but never use the sub tab
I didn’t even “see” the subscription tab because for years the home screen had stuff from my subscription.
Now the subscription tab is my home page, mostly thanks to Technology Connections for pointing it out.
I didn’t know there was a feed. The subscription page is what I have bookmarked, not the home page. People have complained about not getting notified of new videos, but that hasn’t happened to me once in the 15+ years I have been using YouTube.
The latest vids from my subs always show up on my main feed, I sub to give the creator a number boost, let yt know to put these on my feed, and even with notifications off I will see their latest vid near the top of my feed within a short time of release, sometimes I get the vid posted less than 5 mins before I get back.