points by BoppreH 3 days ago | 0 comments
And the YouTube home page is blank if you have Watch History off. The recommendation algorithm still runs on the side bar of any video you watch, but the home page refuses to even show your subscriptions.
[–] ACCount39 3 days ago
[–] OvervCW 3 days ago
I'm surprised they don't just store your watch history anyway , with the toggle option being "don't show me or people looking over my shoulder my watch history".
[–] TingPing 3 days ago
My watch history is set to 3 months. It used to constantly show things I had already seen. However eventually (years ago) I just don’t get repeats.
[–] syshyk 2 days ago
I have a whole add-on just to default/redirect me to my subscriptions page.
[–] SoftTalker 3 days ago
That could be seen as a feature.
[–] rolosa 3 days ago
That's actually a plus.
[–] latexr 3 days ago
> And the YouTube home page is blank if you have Watch History off.
That one I do like. YouTube’s homepage (at least without an account and with history off) is a cesspool of uninteresting clickbait garbage so I’m glad to have it off. I do agree they seem to think of it as some kind of punishment¹, which makes it all the more satisfying that it works as I want it.
¹ It’s now entirely blank for me, but I remember when they started doing this (it wasn’t always the case) they showed a message that suggested not having a homepage was undesirable.
[–] BoppreH 3 days ago
Agree, but it should at least show recent uploads from my subscription. It's stupid that I can visit "www.youtube.com" and not see a single video.
[–] aquentinn 3 days ago
Welcome to monopoly where they get the free videos from the sheep and still order you around. Why has Youtube not been disrupted btw, everyone gave up or did VCs order it?
[–] BeetleB 3 days ago
I have to say - I actually like this.
Imagine if you go to Google.com to do a web search, and it is a page full of recommendations on sites to visit. Would you want that?
[–] BoppreH 3 days ago
The difference is that I'm subscribed to a variety of channels on YouTube. Yes, I do want to see their videos on the front page. That's what the Subscriptions page is doing anyway.
[–] BeetleB 3 days ago
Yes, but what algorithm will it use to show videos from the channels you're subscribed to? Will you and everyone else agree with that choice of algorithm? The only one that makes sense is chronological. Anything else leads to similar problems as in the past.
[–] BoppreH 3 days ago
Yes, why not? Chronological is infinitely better than a blank homepage.
[–] BeetleB 3 days ago
I agree, but most people do not. A quite common complaint of Mastodon - even here on HN - is that chronological makes discovery difficult.
[–] Timon3 2 days ago
I find it hard to believe anyone prefers "no results" to "chronological results".
[–] dTal 2 days ago
You know what makes discovery difficult? A blank page
There's no reason they can't have a mix of "this is popular in general" and "your subs and likes suggest you'd like this" on the front page - they just don't want people to disable watch history. They are required to offer that as an option, but they'll never stop pestering you about it.