Comment on Algorithms are breaking how we think - Technology Connections
leftytighty@slrpnk.net 1 week agoThe problems with that feed which he touched on in the video are pretty significant. If you subscribe to channels that put out lots of content and ones that rarely do, it becomes much harder to use.
One thing he didn’t mention is also that it’s not conducive to discovering and gradually catching up on the back catalogue of a new channel, which is something the home feed excels at.
I’m sure YouTube prefers you use the home feed and has no plans to improve subscriptions, and there are real issues with it, so it’ll probably continue to decline.
jarfil@beehaw.org 1 week ago
I’m not all that sure; don’t they get the same amount of money from ads no matter how you find them? And they get a hefty chunk on “Join” and “Thanks” payments (a 30% cut, IIRC), which people are less likely to spend on non-subscribed channels.
SteposVenzny@beehaw.org 1 week ago
If you look at your Subscribed page and don’t see any updates, there’s a good chance you’ll leave YouTube without watching anything.
The Home page has a higher likelihood of tempting you to watch something you hadn’t planned on.
leftytighty@slrpnk.net 1 week ago
That’s a fair point, improving the subscription feed would be in their best interest for the people who use it, even if that number is low.
zygo_histo_morpheus@programming.dev 1 week ago
I think that youtube wants to maximize watch time, if you just watch subscriptions you might get “done” at some point but with the home feed you can just keep watching forever