this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

suggestions are kinda the whole point of YouTube.
don't care if they're algorithm-based but they DO work (unlike for example example the twitter feed.) youtube suggests me some good shit and awesome new small channels all the time

[–] thedirtyknapkin 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

i enjoy my YouTube subscription feed quite a lot. I've had watch history off forever and never really clicked on their suggestions.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

the issue with the subscription feed is that

  • it makes it harder to find new channels to watch

  • it doesn't stop showing channels you don't care about anymore automatically like the algorithm feed

  • gives all channels the same value - i like some stuff more and some stuff less.

  • subscription feed prioritizes channels which release more videos (quantity over quality), which causes it to quickly fill up with clickbait and low-effort content unless you carefully watch your subscription list

(tbf, I'm not a privacy extremist, i don't care about first party tracking if it's actually used to provide a better service. "personalized" ads (and other third party stuff) can go fuck itself though)

[–] dovahking 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah. These are pretty much the reasons I've enabled watch history despite privacy concerns.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

new channels

I'm not really in the market for new channels, but occasionally I'll sub to one when a channel I like refers one. Good channels tend to recommend good channels.

it doesn't stop showing channels you don't care about

I just unsub.

gives all channels the same value

I don't sub to enough channels to matter, just enough to have 1-2 hours of decent content every day, a bit more if there's a big event or something.

subscription feed prioritizes... more videos

Unsubscribe fixes that.

If my channels were available elsewhere, even if that elsewhere charged a nominal fee, I'd leave YouTube. Imo, most of YouTube is trash, especially the top channels, so I'm really not interested in whatever their algorithm thinks I'll like. I like medium sized channels that produce high quality content make most of their money from merch and Patreon, not the clickbait nonsense channels that whore themselves out for views and sponsors.

Some favorites:

  • Gamers Nexus - PC gaming news
  • Level1Techs - cool IT hardware stuff (mostly prosumer and small scale enterprise)
  • Not Just Bikes - discussion about transportation infrastructure
  • Louis Rossmann - right to repair
  • Tech Ingredients - cool applied science stuff that I could potentially DIY (I never do)
  • Sci Show - cool science stuff
  • John Stossel - libertarian short form journalism
  • Digital Foundry - technical video game analysis
  • Audit the Audit - high quality police interaction analysis

Each of those are generally high quality and have minimal nonsense (intros/outros, long sponsors, etc).