It sucks so much...

1.0k points · 126 comments · view on lemmy.world

126 Comments

cannedtuna@lemmy.world · 167 pts · 16d (22 replies)

Back in my day, YouTube had a 5-star rating system

DaddleDew@lemmy.world · 82 pts · 16d (6 replies)

And the video's rating was plainly visible so you could use it to make the decision whether the video was even worth your click.

The shovelware AI slop video channels wouldn't be such a problem today if we still had that.

cRazi_man@europe.pub · 16 pts · 16d (4 replies)

Going straight to YouTube is like going straight to Imgur looking for good content. Should never be done. Places like Lemmy or friend chat groups refer me to good videos. Or my curated subscribed channels with quality content is the other way I watch youtube.

Anyone going straight to YouTube.com looking for their algorithm and ratings system to tell them about shit content in advance is mistaken in their expectations.

alpine_jim@piefed.social · 10 pts · 16d (1 reply)

extensive use of the "Don't recommend this video > Tell us why > I don't like this video" function, plus removing bad videos from my watch history after I stop watching, has got me a well-trained slop-free recommendations page with interesting new smallish channels.

feddylemmy@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 16d

Yeah it can definitely be somewhat trained. Also the extention dearrow makes a big difference in the experience too.

DaddleDew@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 16d

Usually I go there looking for something specific and use the search bar.

However, the search function in YouTube has also turned to absolute crap. It only lists a few results and then switches to random shit you didn't ask for.

A lot of the results are also often misleading titles leading to lazy videos that are a slideshow of impertinent pictures with a synthetized voice spewing inaccurate information. AI has made that even worse. The star rating system would have helped identify these crap videos before you click on them.

far_university1990@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 16d

Or good channel you know mention other channel.

MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 15d

I never get those because I never watch them.

sasquash@sopuli.xyz · 44 pts · 16d (8 replies)

and search results showed only videos related to your search. recommendations on the side were similar videos and not some unrelated bullshit. it was so much better.

cannedtuna@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 16d (4 replies)

Honestly if someone remade an old YouTube alternative I think it would take off.

It’s what I wish PeerTube was, but I’m not sure if that will ever take off sadly.

Lack of advertising dollars is definitely an impediment to video platform alternatives…

I remember a time when people just posted silly little shitty drawn videos just for the fun of it. Not saying creators shouldn’t be compensated for their hard work, I just feel like something was lost with the monetization of every little thing.

heartSagan5@lemmy.zip · 12 pts · 16d (3 replies)

The trouble is hosting that much video content and the bandwidth to feed viewers.

banazir@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 16d (1 reply)

People really fail to understand what a truly colossal undertaking a site like YouTube is. It's a technological wonder that they are able to process that much data and serve it so efficiently. Hate YouTube all you want, I do, but the engineers at Google are fucking magicians.

feddylemmy@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 16d

Last I heard it was something on the order of 700 hours of video content uploaded per minute. Insane.

ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 16d

Maybe when the AI bubble bursts, people will buy up abandoned data centers for pennies on the dollar and repurpose them for a better Youtube alternative. And maybe Margot Robbie will see this comment and fall in love with me.

lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 16d (2 replies)

Recommendations on the side today are related to everything you've watched in like the last week or so.

tiramichu@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 16d (1 reply)

Which I really hate, because it means when you get into some specific interest, YouTube basically stops showing you anything else.

Hey YouTube! Those interests I was into last week, last month, I'm still into them! Please don't railroad me like that!

WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 16d

You'll watch that sponsored content and you'll like it. Because you can't dislike it.

laurenceOfSuburbia@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 16d (3 replies)

google is absolute worst

eurodyne@piefed.world · 9 pts · 16d (2 replies)

Back in my day, there were alternatives to Google

ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 16d (1 reply)

And they were all worse

eurodyne@piefed.world · 4 pts · 16d

Only because Google actually worked as advertised (and only as advertised). Compared to what Google is now, that’s a matter of opinion.

All things considered, I’ll take the Google of yesteryear over the Google of today. I’ll also take a more privative and much goofier/glitchier YouTube.

Shit, I remember when having a Gmail account was a coveted thing that required an invite that people paid literally hundreds, even thousands of dollars for. I had five, and I sold one for $2k, and another for $4k. (These people were total twats). Decades later, I still use my fistname.lastname@gmail.com addy, while one is dead, and the other got married 2 months later and changed their name anyway. Idiots, lol. Weeks later, invite Scott bumped up to 50, then 250, then unlimited, then it got opened to the public.

Being impatient is expensive.

Grad school was a crazy time

Zarobi@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 16d

Makes me wonder if under the hood it's still stored as stars or if they migrated their data. Is a 3 star or more rating displayed as thumbs up now? Is a thumbs up just a 5 star rating? When thumbs down existed was that just 1 star?

MXC48@tarte.nuage-libre.fr · 1 pts · 15d

I haven't experienced those days...

LogicalDrivel@sopuli.xyz · 66 pts · 16d (3 replies)

Back in my day, memes weren't Ai "enhanced" and Bart didn't have a vagina for an ear.

jaybone@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 16d (1 reply)

What is going on with that vaginear anyway? And the random grass rectangle.

TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 16d

new darwinism dropped: survive of the vaginear-en-ist

osanna@lemmy.vg · 6 pts · 15d

Hey man, they're raggin' on your vaginear!

banazir@lemmy.ml · 42 pts · 16d (3 replies)

You sweet summer child, back in my day YouTube had a five star rating system and video response functionality.

kboy101222@sh.itjust.works · 16 pts · 16d (2 replies)

Gotta say, don't miss video responses. It was nearly all irrelevant content and people trying to advertise their own channels

banazir@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 16d (1 reply)

Perfectly true. It would've been nice, if it wasn't so inherently abusable. We can't have nice things.

trem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 16d

Could imagine that working at the scale where PeerTube is currently at, where you can actually get to know folks and it's not just about broadcasting to as many people as possible...

fistac0rpse@fedia.io · 35 pts · 16d (11 replies)

no one uses the return YouTube dislikes browser extension?

istdaslol@feddit.org · 12 pts · 16d

I don’t want my watchlist stored on a random third party server

alpine_jim@piefed.social · 9 pts · 16d (6 replies)

What's the point, if downvotes are no longer a factor in the YT backend?

chunes@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 16d

To save you time avoiding a bad instructional video.

JcbAzPx@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 16d

It's a good enough approximation. Do you really need to know if the massively downvoted video had 357,923 downvotes or 357,924?

lugal@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 16d (3 replies)

It's more complicated than that. The button still exists even without the add-on and the back end factors it in and I think shows the creator, but doesn't show it to the front end. So the add-on doesn't have the real numbers but there still are real numbers

lime@feddit.nu · 3 pts · 15d (2 replies)

yeah the only thing you see with the add-on is the stats for the people who have the add-on, which ideally would statistically approximate the actual data but we all know that it's not even close.

lugal@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 15d

And they have data for older videos from before the button was disabled so those are accurate

yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 15d

It is surprisingly close. I download a lot of videos with yt-dlp and have seen ratios where up to 20% of total likes being from Return YouTube Dislike users.

Like here's a video with 188,573 likes in total of which 28,330 were submitted to the data base:

https://returnyoutubedislikeapi.com/votes?videoId=dtjb2OhEQcU

The users disliked 130 times which was extrapolated to 356. No idea how that formula works, I believe users with this plugin could be more likely to dislike videos than users without that plugin which may be factored in.

gezero@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 16d

There are dozens of us

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de · 4 pts · 16d

I had to get rid of it when it caused massive slowdowns for me. That's probably fixed by now...

aamram@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 15d

yeah it works good enough for people who knows what's going on.

slazer2au@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 16d (12 replies)

It still does, it just doesn't show numbers because YouTube is a coward.

istdaslol@feddit.org · 20 pts · 16d (9 replies)

No the API is dead. The extension everyone is using calculates their own dislike number by inferring from the extension users who disliked the video

slazer2au@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 16d (8 replies)

But the button is still there.

istdaslol@feddit.org · 5 pts · 16d (7 replies)

Afaik it’s only for the YT-Studio backend, so creators can see the dislikes but there is no public access to that data

slazer2au@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 16d (5 replies)

did you not read the comment?

But the button is still there.....

istdaslol@feddit.org · 1 pts · 15d (4 replies)

I meant that while the button is still there the Data is only available for the uploader via the Studio backend. The public API is dead, wich I omitted in the original comment for simplicity

slazer2au@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 15d

And ops post is about the button being removed. Which is false.

lugal@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 15d (2 replies)

How is:

the Data is only available for the uploader via the Studio backend.

different from:

it just doesn't show numbers because YouTube is a coward.

?

You were more technical than the top level comment and framed it as a disagreement.

istdaslol@feddit.org · 1 pts · 15d

Because the second can implies the data is still available but not displayed. I wanted to specify that the data isn’t available (for the public). I don’t disagree with the top per se but wanted to clear up the ambiguity

lugal@sopuli.xyz · 0 pts · 16d

How is this different from the comment you disagreed with?

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de · 10 pts · 16d (1 reply)

They already removed it from Shorts. Give it a little time and it will be gone from the rest of the videos.

slazer2au@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 16d

Not like you need another reason to not watch shorts.

ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 16d (2 replies)

All I want these days is a "Don't show me any fucking AI slop" setting and a button to report AI slop.

SethTaylor@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 15d

Tidal has a no-AI button, if it helps. They've just introduced it. That's music taken care of, I guess. It's something.

YouTube is letting people mark their videos as AI or not AI and I assume doing nothing with it? I think I've stumbled upon an AI video or two on YouTube but I didn't see any labels?

EDIT: Oh, fuck, are they just asking us to label our videos "non-AI" so they don't train their own AI on AI slop? Fuck.

some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 15d

Then turn the button into some kind of cookie-clicker type game, because it will be being used a lot!

Pudutr0n@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 16d (10 replies)

back in my day, you posted about your life in your geocities website! And you wrote the html on notepad and had to include an animated gif that told people to email you, cause that was the style at the time.

eurodyne@piefed.world · 6 pts · 16d (3 replies)

Eh, back when GeoCities was still a thing, most people were too busy actually having a life to regularly post about it online. Since this was before smartphones, updating a social media profile was a lot more complicated and time-consuming.

Having an active social media profile back then was often a red flag that a person was more “talk” than “walk“.

Pudutr0n@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 16d (2 replies)

idk I've always been a weirdo

eurodyne@piefed.world · 3 pts · 16d (1 reply)

Unironically, that’s usually what most geocities pages were about

Pudutr0n@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 16d

Exactly.

Mac@mander.xyz · 5 pts · 16d (2 replies)

Some people still do on Neocities

Pudutr0n@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 16d (1 reply)

nowai

WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 16d

Yahweh

NABDad@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 16d

I wrote HTML in EDIT, but my first webserver ran on an OpenVMS Alpha workstation.

MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 15d

Also, you tied an onion to your belt.

vane@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 16d

If you had Office you could use Microsoft Office FrontPage

Elgenzay@lemmy.ml · 19 pts · 16d

And this meme wasn't AI upscaled

Xerxos@lemmy.ml · 18 pts · 15d (1 reply)

Ah, I remember when you paused and the whole video was buffering. You could have multiple tabs open and watch the video when it was done. No matter what kind of connection you had, you could simply wait for the video to finish downloading in the background and watch it without problems.

No ads, a 5-star rating system, 100% buffering, and mostly enthusiasts posting, no profit-driven incentives. We didn't know how good we had it.

I hate the way YouTube now gives millions of dollars to people exploiting children watching videos - be it slop factories or 'influencer' preying on their insecurities.

In a just society YouTube would have been destroyed as a pseudo-monopoly ages ago.

Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 15d

I watched so much illegally uploaded anime on old YouTube/Dailymotion... those were the days

Dookieman12@piefed.social · 16 pts · 16d

We're all being punished because Google's feelings got hurt when we didn't like the 2018 YouTube Rewind enough. That was the end of the dislike button and the YouTube Rewind altogether.

Dookieman12@piefed.social · 15 pts · 16d

Back in my day, you could customize your YouTube profile and PM anyone on the platform

Hackworth@piefed.ca · 14 pts · 16d (5 replies)

YouTube used to not have ads.

laurenceOfSuburbia@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 16d (2 replies)

yeh. pepperidge farms members. "broadcast yourself" my ass

WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 16d

You're supposed to use only fans to broadcast your ass fyi

MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 15d

Still doesn't if use an ad blocker.

FauxLiving@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 16d (1 reply)

YouTube has ads?

#uBlock Origin

osanna@lemmy.vg · 4 pts · 15d

May I nicely suggest AdNauseam instead? It poisons the well of advertising.

SethTaylor@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 15d

I miss being able to tell people they suck with just one click

Sandbar_Trekker@piefed.zip · 10 pts · 16d

The dislikes were great at telling me quickly if a tutorial was good or not.

Now you generally have to check the top comments to see if there's something wrong about the tutorial, but then YouTube started hiding those comments below ads/recommendations.

Now I just use GrayJay and I can quickly check comments for any video.

QueenHawlSera@piefed.social · 10 pts · 15d (1 reply)

It still does.

Zacryon@feddit.org · 1 pts · 15d

Not in shorts anymore.

far_university1990@reddthat.com · 9 pts · 16d

Return youtube dislike extension.

Kennystillalive@feddit.org · 8 pts · 15d

I've never blocked as many channels as now after they removed the dislike button on the shorts section.

smaximov@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 16d (2 replies)

It still has for me.

DeLancre@piefed.social · 8 pts · 16d (1 reply)

Yes, but actually no.

2 things:

  1. Dislike button itself not "wired' to any visible/meaningful count and only seen by video author (which is funny, cause whole point of hiding dislike count was promoted as "beneficial to mental health of channel owners")
  2. If you using youtube dislikes — it replaces that button with it's own, counts presses on its own and uses own logic to show "approximate" amount of dislikes on video: it's not like it knows real count, what I'm trying to say
smaximov@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 15d

Yes, I was talking about the extension. I'm aware that the dislike count it displays is a tradeoff, I find it acceptable.

Jankatarch@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 15d

What pushed me to use revanced some years ago.

Iunnrais@piefed.social · 5 pts · 16d (1 reply)

I seem to recall that people found that the like and dislike buttons equally improved the video’s visibility in the algorithm, causing many youtubers to genuinely suggest disliking the video as their call to action.

MufinMcFlufin@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 16d

That's more of an issue with their algorithm. The thing I think most people here (myself included) miss is that they used to let you know the rating on videos before you clicked them so you could see whether a given video was decent or not and therefore whether or not you should bother with some clickbait BS or not

heartSagan5@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 16d

I hate the one-sided engagement button. It elevates trash.

mangobanana@discuss.online · 3 pts · 15d

Back in my day you only watched YouTube videos for tutorials on how to do stuff.

lime@feddit.nu · 3 pts · 16d

i remember spending two hours making sure the background of my youtibe profile theme tiled correctly.

Hueristic_Autistic@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 16d

Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 16d (2 replies)

Fuck yourube lol, couldn't care less if the like button and the rest of the website disappeared too

WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 16d

Man, influencers and looksmaxxing idiots are gonna starve if that happens. How we will know the world is turning into a fucking clown show without it???

MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 15d

I watch it all the time. There are a lot of really interesting niche channels run by enthusiasts who care about the content. I like how ordinary people can have a chance to build a following without having had to be green lit by suits in a boardroom first. Plenty of garbage too, but still plenty worth watching.

Also good for sports highlights.

justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 15d

back in my day it was kinda easy to find interesting content

saltesc@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 16d (3 replies)

It still does and you can see the usual like:dislike ratio as normal with SmartTube and other similar and far better, feature-rich applications for YT content.

cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 16d (2 replies)

Does it actually do anything though or is or placebo

alpine_jim@piefed.social · 2 pts · 16d

saltesc@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 16d

Not sure what you mean. But for anyone that cares enough to pay attention to likes and dislikes, there it is.

I think the front end of YT, the dislike button exists purely for algorithmic purposes these days; both macro and micro curating.

But the foundation of public ratings is the ad populum fallacy.

istdaslol@feddit.org · 1 pts · 16d (1 reply)

Back in my day YouTube Shorts had a thumbs up button

Test_Tickles@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 16d

Back in my day you could block channels that spammed you with bullshit or shit video clips overlayed super loud music.

x0x7@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 15d

gvid.tv has a downvote button. And it actually does something useful.

cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 16d (2 replies)

Now you will like everything

laurenceOfSuburbia@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 16d (1 reply)

I thnk google being ad company - they do it to increase number of videos advertizers willing to pay for.
advertisers avoid "negative" content

whichc ofc sucks for actual users

cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 16d

Ya that's a fair assumption.

eurodyne@piefed.world · 1 pts · 16d

As was the style at the time…

Sibshops@lemmy.myserv.one · 1 pts · 16d

YouTube music still does, at least

MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 15d (2 replies)

Uh, it very clearly has a dislike button still?

Maybe it's time for a cool refreshing glass of turnip juice.

Kolanaki@pawb.social · 1 pts · 15d (1 reply)

They removed the button entirely... for Shorts.

MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 15d

Ah, wasn't aware, I use extensions to block Shorts entirely.

yesman@lemmy.world · -13 pts · 16d (9 replies)

I don't understand why the dislike button is important. Do you feel like you've lost agency over the algorithm? Or do you value the opportunity to publicly disapprove?

Perhaps you trust that a like/dislike ratio is correlated to video quality.

For my part, like, share, and subscribe are just different buttons in the Skinner box that is algorithmic entertainment. "Engagement" is free labor for to improve algorithms and train "AI".

QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 16d (1 reply)

youtubers can delete negative comments. they couldn't delete dislikes

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 15d

it hurts thier viewership, and potential money source. works to help curb POS tubers.

Sibshops@lemmy.myserv.one · 5 pts · 16d

I'd like to give more feedback for the algorithm. The long press and selecting that you dislike this video feels like overkill.

lime@feddit.nu · 4 pts · 16d (3 replies)

yes, the first one.

yesman@lemmy.world · -5 pts · 16d (2 replies)

It's astonishing that you believe you ever had any agency, but thanks for being honest.

You must understand that your engagement may improve your suggestions but the ultimate beneficiary is a trillion dollar company. The creators have a chance to be compensated for adding value to the platform, but you're working for, I don't know, vibes?

lime@feddit.nu · 6 pts · 16d

it's worse than that, i am a paying customer. i am a triple-a corpo stooge who goes through life without a single thought in my head other than media consumption, leaving not a single spare thought to the late-stage capitalistic oligopoly hellhole we find ourself in and which will inevitably kill us. i would never even think of researching unions, protests, or a proletariat uprising because i'm too busy keeping up with fucking... ice road truckers and whatever.

there, does that fill my ego-stroking quota for today? then fuck off with that shit, you're just stating the obvious as if it's revolutionary insight and derailing the conversation.

MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 15d

but you’re working for

Who is working here? Creators who do well are compensated - I've seen a number quit their jobs to become full time Youtubers, they are more than likely making more money.

knatschus@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 16d

The opportunity to publicly disapprove is a weird way to write warning others that this content is shit/false/malicious etc.

zephiriz@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 16d

When I search the internet on how to do something I often prefer to read how it is done. In this day and age with google, reddit, Facebook and discord hiding guides behind walled gardens you have to sign up for. Also dont get me started on asking AI step by step directions on how to do something. Often times the only half descent guides are on YouTube but the number of shit clickbait guides makes finding the one you need a giant pain. The number of completely silent videos I've watched thinking I'll see how to do the thing I want is to damb high.

With dislikes I can instantly see not worth my time.

Edit as an example: My I suggest looking up how to replace the headlight bulb in your car if you own one. Bonus points if its made after 2020.