this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
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Video game news oriented community. No NanoUFO is not a bot :)
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This isn't only the need to compete for viewers, this is the need to comply to YouTube's search algorithm. It enforces similar content just like SEO is enforced for Google Search. There sometimes will be new stuff, but all as a means to keep being relevant, not because the stuff is interesting. That means that most new stuff will be entertainment, or "infotainment", which is fine in itself, but drowns out anything else. If you don't see the danger in that, the US government does in their strive to sabotage TikTok (not saying it's undeserved).
Production value is indeed up, which is a good thing, but not enough. This is presentation over the actual stuff. However variety is way down in the more successful youtubers. The variety comes from people who mostly don't give a shit about the performance of their videos; or from people trying to be successful while tending to a niche. The latter however will still implement most stuff from the top youtubers. If something seems successful it will be implemented by the more successful youtubers, but they mostly won't experiment as it costs money and normally negatively impacts viewer counts. YouTube's search algorithm has driven people to comply to presentation, nothing more.
Clickbait, asking for subscription, adding ads and more are all symptoms of this compliance to the platform. Do you sub to a channel that has never done any of those?
SEO and "algorithms" like YouTube are tuned for maximum user engagement, which means people watching more videos for longer. That's a pretty decent proxy for enjoying what you watch.
I honestly don't watch any of the top YouTube channels. I don't sub to any of these, and I don't think I've watched a full video of any of them, aside from maybe a few music videos. In fact, the channel with the most subs that I sub to is JerryRigEverything, and I mostly sub because he's local (we're both in Utah). Here's a selection of channels I sub to that I watch the most:
They do a pretty good job of keeping titles informative instead of clickbaity and thumbnails relevant (I honestly don't care about thumbnails). I have abandoned a lot of channels because they do that nonsense and don't go as in-depth as I'd like, such as SomeOrdinaryGamers, LTT, and Jayz2Cents.
I honestly recommend any of those channels, they're about all I watch on YouTube. Oh, and only 3-4 of those have sponsors (GN, Stand-Up Maths, and Audit the Audit come to mind), and very few of them ask for subs and likes. I block ads and occasionally buy merch from them.
Edit: Forgot Tech Ingredients.
Also, I like your choice in channels. Those I don't watch from that list are those I don't yet know. Thank you for the list!
So, you are trying to defend a mechanism you actively try to work against?
I'm not defending anything, I'm merely pointing out that my tastes differ from mainstream tastes, yet my preferred channels can still flourish.