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Is anyone actually happy with the current state of Youtube?

Power Pro

Member
I was afraid of posting anything, because a lot of people on here don't seem to like to actually read threads, but this is something I've wanted to get off my chest for a while; I'm tired of the hustle that is YouTube. Sadly since I don't watch a lot of TV, and there are still a few things like Red Letter Media, or MVs I enjoy watching on there, so I always find myself going back to it to find something worth watching, but it's gotten so hard to do.

I'm glad that Youtube provided opportunity for some talented content creators to do it as a full time job thing, and considering the years of entertainment they provided, they probably deserve it, but I also really miss the YOU part of YouTube. The part where people could just share their hobbies and passions. When YouTube was new, I was the kind of person who occasionally did a game review, or made some AMVs. Some of those actually got a few hundred thousand views, and it was fun and made me happy to see people enjoyed what I made. One in particular got so many people saying it was their favorite AMV, so that stuck with me. It was just a hobby, because I enjoyed editing, and I made people happy. I enjoyed just interacting with others about stuff I made, but I didn't keep doing the game reviews, because Nintendo fans are jerks. A lot of them didn't seem to like my less than perfect review of Mario Kart Wii, so I didn't keep doing that as long, but I digress. The point is, there was a time when you could just do YouTube videos as a hobby, and still get some amount of engagement with others. Now every thing is so run by what the algorithm wants, that doing something because you or your viewers want it seem all but lost on YouTube.

YouTube has become all about the money, and as someone who just wants to watch fun content, this is what makes me sad the most. I escaped watching regular TV, because I was tired of being dictated what type of content was alright to watch, but now YouTube might as well be television. You got videos censoring swear words for fear of pissing off advertisers, you got people doing videos strictly because it's what's trending at the moment. Instead of making thumbnails that actually tell you about the video you're going to watch, they often have people making dumb faces, and if you go to a creator's profile, so many of the thumbnails look near identical because it's what works on YouTube I guess? Let's not even start with the constant thumbnails with people making dumb faces on them.

These people aren't happy unless they're constantly monetizing EVERYTHING. I won't knock them for wanting to be a monetized YouTube channel, go nuts, but a common factor with so many people I've watched in the past couple years is they get sooooo upset if even one video underperforms, or is not monetized. Somebody like Angry Joe as an example, he probably made a dozen videos complaining about copyright claims, because oh no, this guy worth over 1 million dollars didn't make money on one video he made. I get it, some people feel they need to be paid for their "work", but at some point when a lot of the content by these creators comes down to sitting in a chair, talking, and maybe some minor editing.....get over it. You can make another one in an hour probably. It's hard to feel sorry for someone not able to monetize their content, when they're still making money from any number of sources. Twitch subscribers, patreons, donations...they're bringing in money constantly from so many different directions. Stop crying that you only made $10,000 today, instead of $11,000.

I know this is running kind of long, but let me give one more example. I follow a game streamer/let's player who does daily videos where he posts 20-30 minute videos of a let's play per day. Often times, I actually just wait till an entire game is posted to even watch them because I hate watching them in short chunks, but he's entertaining enough to wait it out. He's got a fanbase that is sizeable I'd say, sizeable enough that I would be happy to get what he does if I was in his shoes. However instead of just trying to appeal to those fans, he keeps chasing this never ending idea of "I must follow follow the algorithm and grow! that's all that matters", at least that's how it comes off to me. In his comments, or discord chat, he'll have members in his fanbase community say "I love watching you play this game", and hope he would follow it up, or actually finish a game he starts, but he doesn't care about that, if it doesn't meet his view count demands, he'll quit that game half way through, and go back to doing more Zelda randomizers, because they might get 10k views per video, rather than what he considers a "low" view count of 7-8k views, which I guess that's what he seems to consider a failure.

I've dabbled into doing YouTube/streamer stuff, but no one watches, so I don't usually stick with it, but this guy has what would be the dream for me. A supportive and consistent fanbase that's been with him for years, which is easily enough to live off of. Yet he seems to hate his fans, and doesn't care about doing what makes them happy, but rather what the algorithm says might make him get bigger. That's what drives me nuts. It's like, dude clearly makes enough money to live happy. That's just the YouTube side of it, the guy still has an average of 1200 or more subscribers a month on his twitch channel, not to mention the donations of money or bits every day I've seen him stream.

I find it frustrating because I would do the kind of content he does even without the money aspect. I would be so grateful that people were actually watching and wanting to interact with me, but I don't do it, because every time I try, no one watches, and that's more discouraging. People like the creator I mention don't even don't even see their viewers as people, and in fact often just look down on them.

TLDR: Sorry if this is long post, but I am just a wordy type of person, and wanted to get my point across. Basically, I am tired of the over monetization of YouTube, and how it made so much of the content homogenized. You can't find people making videos for the love of a hobby, or passion anymore, but rather how much money it can make them. Does this actually make anyone happy? The creators seem miserable, and I would hope the viewers would tire out on all the same-ness of everything.
 

feynoob

Banned
Nope.
I am just browsing YouTube short, and it's shit at most.
Old YouTube short were nice.
Now I am being bombarded with Andrew Tate and his other shit friends.
My other channel is filled with sobranos, breaking bad, Ozark, Rick and Morty, friends, and big bang theory.
It feels like I watched all those shows from the YouTube shorts.
 

Power Pro

Member
The excessive commercials every minute are horrendous.

Have no opinion about it as far as the creator side goes.
Yeah, it's the worse when it's not even broken up to a point where it makes sense. I am pretty sure these people can set when an ad is played, yet there will be videos that cut mid-sentence.
 

Mistake

Gold Member
It’s pretty bad when you want to search for anything “controversial.” I tried looking for chappelle’s lgbt car skit the other day, and had a hell of a time. That being said, my experience is overall fine since I use freetube on desktop and there’s no ads. I don’t mind creators having sponsorships either, since you can skip those if you want anyway.

I’ve mentioned it here before, but I prefer Odysee now. It’s like youtube in 2010 and the UI feels better. Some people complain about buffering, but I never have problems. Another huge bonus is no age verification bs
 
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Power Pro

Member
It’s pretty bad when you want to search for anything “controversial.” I tried looking for chappelle’s lgbt car skit the other day, and had a hell of a time. That being said, my experience is overall fine since I use freetube on desktop and there’s no ads. I don’t mind creators having sponsorships either, since you can skip those if you want anyway.

I’ve mentioned it here before, but I prefer Odysee now. It’s like youtube in 2010 and the UI feels better. Some people complain about buffering, but I never have problems. Another huge bonus is no age verification bs
Interesting, I might check that out. Never heard of it before, but anything that gets me to use YouTube less would be a plus.
 

Winter John

Member
The problem is YT's greed and predatory adverts. It's at the point where they have forced people to either use an adblocker or pay an overpriced sub just to have them removed. That's before you even get to the content creators who run multiple ads in their vids. Break up their videos with sponsorship reads for the lowest, snake oil bullshit imaginable. Then constantly harass their viewers to like, comment and subscribe. Being a YT viewer is a miserable experience unless you got some kind of Adblock, Sponsorblock and Christ knows what else you need to combat all the sleazy bullshit on there just to watch a 5 minute vid.
 
youtube is a HIGHLY competitive space, so in order to stand out in a sea of many other youtubers that are also trying to do this full time, you have to resort to stuff like clickbait thumbnails, cleavage, or basically whatever it takes to make YT's algorithm work in your favor. Furthermore, the main source of revenue is from sponsorships as YT's ad payout is pretty small in general. Thus you want to release videos regularly in hopes of maintaining viewership to attract sponsors.

That being said, there are still many channels that make content for "hobby", but they almost always have a patreon because you need money in order to make good content.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
I really like YouTube but the advertising there (and on Twitch!) has gotten really bad over the years. I know it's a business but I'm so tired of all these companies just caring about more profits and infinite growth instead of actually caring about the user experience as a user themselves.
 
It’s pretty bad when you want to search for anything “controversial.” I tried looking for chappelle’s lgbt car skit the other day, and had a hell of a time. That being said, my experience is overall fine since I use freetube on desktop and there’s no ads. I don’t mind creators having sponsorships either, since you can skip those if you want anyway.

I’ve mentioned it here before, but I prefer Odysee now. It’s like youtube in 2010 and the UI feels better. Some people complain about buffering, but I never have problems. Another huge bonus is no age verification bs
what about Odysee is like youtube in 2010?
 

nocsi

Member
YouTube is what you make of it. If you only see trash, then that’s what you’ve allowed. Take for example this channel that used to be total war simulations and now producing stuff like:



Channels like coffeezilla have an endless supply of content covering scammers. The best content on YouTube are legitimate educational longform content and that’s stuff you’d never ever find on any other platform

If you’re not getting the views, it’s because you haven’t carved out anything for yourself. The gaming space is incredibly dense and for each review you put out, there’s already a ton more. People don’t want to watch 30 different opinions on the same game. They invest in listening to a character like dunkey telling them what to think

But post your content. I’ll check it out
 
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Coconutt

Member
I hate current Youtube, Youtube used to be good for gaming but I don't think that is the case anymore, don't care for streaming, prefer a well edited video.
 

Jsisto

Member
It’s what you make it. If you watch that kind of content, you will be recommended that type of content. If you use enough YouTube that you’re bothered by ads, I gotta say you might as well just get premium. Given the amount of time I spend on YouTube vs other streaming platforms, it’s the best bang for my buck possible and totally worth it.
 

GeekyDad

Member
...YouTube ... These people aren't happy unless they're constantly monetizing EVERYTHING. ...

TLDR: Sorry if this is long post, but I am just a wordy type of person, and wanted to get my point across. Basically, I am tired of the over monetization of YouTube, and how it made so much of the content homogenized. You can't find people making videos for the love of a hobby, or passion anymore, but rather how much money it can make them. Does this actually make anyone happy? The creators seem miserable, and I would hope the viewers would tire out on all the same-ness of everything.

Well, yeah, it's Google, man. And this is their time to mine. It's a golden age for this type of media right now, and they're going to scour every nook and cranny.

Yes, it's sad, and fuck yes, I miss that homegrown feel Youtube used to have, but it's completely unsurprising. Where there are hoards of mice, the birds of prey will eventually start to nest.

I think the worst part, though, and what likely has gotten you so frustrated is the nature of their search and recommendation algorithms. Whatever's being watched most or promoted the best (which also involves the use of money) is going to rise to the top. So, the stuff you're hoping to find, though it still may be there, has become like hunting for truffles -- much harder to find. What's the solution to that? I'm sure you could work out your own paradigm.
 

gradient

Resident Cheap Arse
The ads have gotten to a point where I'm finding myself turning off videos part-way through because the constant double ad breaks make the actual video content unwatchable.

The algorithm is fristrating too. Click on just one misleadingly titled video and even if you quit that video shortly after it starts then your feed and recommendations get flooded by content of the same kind.
 

Wildebeest

Member
There are good popular channels covering science and so on. These days, if anyone seems even remotely like a drama farmer or politics troll, I purge history and do not recommend. Yeah, early days, I would spend hours watching youtube poops, which were basically the same gags over and over, but now youtube even has channels doing real high effort animation videos that I forget I'm subscribed to until they post.
 

The Cockatrice

Gold Member
i only watch what i am subbed to + adblock so 0 issues. Do you ppl not know how to use an adblock if the ads are such an issue?
 

HoodWinked

Member
i think both sides are to blame, people have gotten too used to the algo feeding up recommendations, there used to be some agency from the user to find what they like.

but also the algo has gotten worse because its likely being biased to serve content people will view longer rather than actual better content this is likely due to competition from tiktok as it has accelerated the race to the bottom of dumpster content.

removal of the like/dislike was a big sign that going forward content quality no longer mattered as long as it's getting views.
 

winjer

Gold Member
Yes, Youtube is getting worse, but it's still much better than traditional TV.

I avoid the trending and shorts page. Mostly watch channels I subscribe, so I avoid all that crap that Youtube promotes.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
I watch it on the telly and constantly push up and select stop watching ads and back to the video, takes a few seconds but I'd rather burn 5secs doing that than watching a fucking advert
 

Dr.D00p

Member
Its s crapfest of adverts if you watch it on a SmartTV, but perfectly fine if watched on a desktop PC or Laptop and anything longer than 15mins I just tend to download the video with JDownloader and watch it 'Offline' so to speak on my Laptop
 

UnNamed

Banned
No, I like it, it's not perfect and there still are tons of garbage on the platform. But it's also easy to find interesting channels with information, even things you didn't know you would like.

I could say YouTube as a platform for your daily routines is over. Even the worst channels have a little of content, there are less and less Youtubers with boring stories on their boring life.

Maybe it's just my impression, but they probably solved the problem with spoilers on games etc, and even clickbaits titles are now less clickbaits.

I would only get rid of those videos with "5-10 facts you don't know about X" but they are moving on Tiktok.

I would say YouTube is improving.
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
I hate that YT fills all the videos full of ads now. 2 mandatory at the start and then if the video has some high view points they will automatically add one at each point.

Unless you pay for a sub of course.
 

The Cockatrice

Gold Member
Do you know there is no Ad Block on your TV?

Damn if only we had this thing called the internet and smart people that can figure out a way to watch without ads? Shame there is no such thing.


Get an android tv.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
What are you planning? :pie_thinking:
Lets Go GIF
 

QSD

Member
I was afraid of posting anything, because a lot of people on here don't seem to like to actually read threads, but this is something I've wanted to get off my chest for a while; I'm tired of the hustle that is YouTube. Sadly since I don't watch a lot of TV, and there are still a few things like Red Letter Media, or MVs I enjoy watching on there, so I always find myself going back to it to find something worth watching, but it's gotten so hard to do.

I'm glad that Youtube provided opportunity for some talented content creators to do it as a full time job thing, and considering the years of entertainment they provided, they probably deserve it, but I also really miss the YOU part of YouTube. The part where people could just share their hobbies and passions. When YouTube was new, I was the kind of person who occasionally did a game review, or made some AMVs. Some of those actually got a few hundred thousand views, and it was fun and made me happy to see people enjoyed what I made. One in particular got so many people saying it was their favorite AMV, so that stuck with me. It was just a hobby, because I enjoyed editing, and I made people happy. I enjoyed just interacting with others about stuff I made, but I didn't keep doing the game reviews, because Nintendo fans are jerks. A lot of them didn't seem to like my less than perfect review of Mario Kart Wii, so I didn't keep doing that as long, but I digress. The point is, there was a time when you could just do YouTube videos as a hobby, and still get some amount of engagement with others. Now every thing is so run by what the algorithm wants, that doing something because you or your viewers want it seem all but lost on YouTube.

YouTube has become all about the money, and as someone who just wants to watch fun content, this is what makes me sad the most. I escaped watching regular TV, because I was tired of being dictated what type of content was alright to watch, but now YouTube might as well be television. You got videos censoring swear words for fear of pissing off advertisers, you got people doing videos strictly because it's what's trending at the moment. Instead of making thumbnails that actually tell you about the video you're going to watch, they often have people making dumb faces, and if you go to a creator's profile, so many of the thumbnails look near identical because it's what works on YouTube I guess? Let's not even start with the constant thumbnails with people making dumb faces on them.

These people aren't happy unless they're constantly monetizing EVERYTHING. I won't knock them for wanting to be a monetized YouTube channel, go nuts, but a common factor with so many people I've watched in the past couple years is they get sooooo upset if even one video underperforms, or is not monetized. Somebody like Angry Joe as an example, he probably made a dozen videos complaining about copyright claims, because oh no, this guy worth over 1 million dollars didn't make money on one video he made. I get it, some people feel they need to be paid for their "work", but at some point when a lot of the content by these creators comes down to sitting in a chair, talking, and maybe some minor editing.....get over it. You can make another one in an hour probably. It's hard to feel sorry for someone not able to monetize their content, when they're still making money from any number of sources. Twitch subscribers, patreons, donations...they're bringing in money constantly from so many different directions. Stop crying that you only made $10,000 today, instead of $11,000.

I know this is running kind of long, but let me give one more example. I follow a game streamer/let's player who does daily videos where he posts 20-30 minute videos of a let's play per day. Often times, I actually just wait till an entire game is posted to even watch them because I hate watching them in short chunks, but he's entertaining enough to wait it out. He's got a fanbase that is sizeable I'd say, sizeable enough that I would be happy to get what he does if I was in his shoes. However instead of just trying to appeal to those fans, he keeps chasing this never ending idea of "I must follow follow the algorithm and grow! that's all that matters", at least that's how it comes off to me. In his comments, or discord chat, he'll have members in his fanbase community say "I love watching you play this game", and hope he would follow it up, or actually finish a game he starts, but he doesn't care about that, if it doesn't meet his view count demands, he'll quit that game half way through, and go back to doing more Zelda randomizers, because they might get 10k views per video, rather than what he considers a "low" view count of 7-8k views, which I guess that's what he seems to consider a failure.

I've dabbled into doing YouTube/streamer stuff, but no one watches, so I don't usually stick with it, but this guy has what would be the dream for me. A supportive and consistent fanbase that's been with him for years, which is easily enough to live off of. Yet he seems to hate his fans, and doesn't care about doing what makes them happy, but rather what the algorithm says might make him get bigger. That's what drives me nuts. It's like, dude clearly makes enough money to live happy. That's just the YouTube side of it, the guy still has an average of 1200 or more subscribers a month on his twitch channel, not to mention the donations of money or bits every day I've seen him stream.

I find it frustrating because I would do the kind of content he does even without the money aspect. I would be so grateful that people were actually watching and wanting to interact with me, but I don't do it, because every time I try, no one watches, and that's more discouraging. People like the creator I mention don't even don't even see their viewers as people, and in fact often just look down on them.

TLDR: Sorry if this is long post, but I am just a wordy type of person, and wanted to get my point across. Basically, I am tired of the over monetization of YouTube, and how it made so much of the content homogenized. You can't find people making videos for the love of a hobby, or passion anymore, but rather how much money it can make them. Does this actually make anyone happy? The creators seem miserable, and I would hope the viewers would tire out on all the same-ness of everything.
We live in a world where money is worshipped above all else, and money corrupts everything it touches.
 

MilkyJoe

Member
Damn if only we had this thing called the internet and smart people that can figure out a way to watch without ads? Shame there is no such thing. <-- Big man says this


Get an android tv. <-- with this caveat
What a chuffing weapon :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
I do like YouTube, I have around 20-30 worthwhile subs that I’ve slowly curated over the years, so my feed is actually pretty damn relevant these days. There’s a whole load of fantastic content once you filter out the shite.

But man, it’s sobering to open it on a new device as a “new viewer” that I’ve not signed in on yet, Jesus Christ the shite that they push to newbies…

But yeah, the ad situation is horrendous, more and more of them seem to be unskippable 30 second ones, sometimes stacked one on top of the other. The promos aren’t so bad, you can just scrub through them, especially when folk like Linus jokingly flag them up ahead of time.

But it makes me more appreciative of creators like MKBHD that don’t allow the actual “ads”, and have enough showmanship to make the promos “invisible” as it were. MKBHD is probably my favourite content creator on the platform, such a cool fucking dude whose opinion I take as gospel these days, loads of respect for him.

If they made it more realistic to subscribe to premium then I would, it should be like a fiver a month. But what is it, £12.99 a month? Fuck off lads, Netflix don’t charge that and they actually produce a decent chunk of the content for my money!
 

Jsisto

Member
Judging from the comments you’d think YouTube premium was some kind of luxury exclusive membership out of reach for us plebeians. It’s 12 dollars a month guys. Yes, it used to be bearable without ads, but times change. Either get an ad blocker like several people here have suggested or just suck it up and pay 12 dollars a month and your problems are over.
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Judging from the comments you’d think YouTube premium was some kind of luxury exclusive membership out of reach for us plebeians. It’s 12 dollars a month guys. Yes, it used to be bearable without ads, but times change. Either get an ad blocker like several people here have suggested or just suck it up and pay 12 dollars a month and your problems are over.
It's not about the money.
 
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