• cordlesslamp@lemmy.today
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      8 months ago

      If I got a completely new account, watch the first video showed up on the home page and leave the Autoplay on, isn’t that just the algorithm jerking itself off?

      • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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        8 months ago

        No different from how it normally works, imo. The YT algorithm is shit and it only suggests the same content over and over, sometimes figuratively as it shares content which approximates successful content or sometimes literally because it will just share the same stuff on repeat.

        If you disable all watch history for your account they will simply refuse to recommend anything on the home page, so you’ll have to use the search bar and maybe start with the first video ever published like OP did with the elephants and the YT founder.

        • cordlesslamp@lemmy.today
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          8 months ago

          Funny you mentioned that. YT took away my homepage in order to force me turn on watch history. Instead I changed my habit and only watch stuffs on my Subscription tab. My daily YT time decreased from 4-6 hours a day (I know, I’m kinda addicted), down to just 40-60 minutes a day.

          And you guess what, in less than a month, my YT homepage magically returned 😂😂😂 I didn’t do anything, it just reappear one day. But it kinda too late, I’m already picked up a new hobby and my YT time keep decreasing.

          Too bad I’m just a fluke in the statistics, and wouldn’t matter whatsoever. A lot of people cave in and turn on watch history.

        • Zink@programming.dev
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          8 months ago

          That is so annoying, how YT’s algorithm just wants to show you the same thing.

          Being Google and all, I would expect them to have a sophisticated algorithm that learns your daily patterns and gets really good at what kind of content you want to watch next. But no, it’s “yo dawg I saw you watched a car video so I queued up car videos to play after your other car videos!”

          It’s not a mystery why, though. I assume their algorithm is much better at keeping people watching anything for as long as possible, rather than delivering the best product.