I consistently hear people on YouTube complain that the subscribe button doesn’t do anything for viewers, now that channel notifications are controlled by the bell. But it does do something: it puts the videos from that channel in your subscription feed, which is readily accessible on all versions of YouTube. So why do people act like it doesn’t exist? I think it’s super convenient, especially if you’re subscribed to a ton of channels and don’t want your notifications feed flooded with new videos.
Honestly I try to only use the subscription feed because the home feed is addictive. I installed the unhook addon to block as many recommendations and other algorithmic things as possible, and try to just search when I want to find a particular thing.
However, sometimes I find myself running out of ideas and just disabling unhook and watching a few things from the home feed before reenabling it and going back to subscriptions only. I think if I also disabled ublock, youtube would be infinitely less addictive, since it would shove ads in my face constantly, and I’d soon get fed up.
I think most people sadly don’t use subscription feed. They just blindly watch whatever youtube algorithm throws at them.
It works though, most of my YT consumption is from the ATV feed of Smart Tube Next in my Shield TV home screen I barely ever access YT from my mobile or desktop.
And I have found good content there, I usually just skip annoying thumbnails, but even those can have good content, badly promoted ofc, so you never know what you will find there.
I started with subscriptions and now I like both methods, they’re complementary. The algorithm is really good at suggesting either random stuff I like or new stuff I might like. And I subscribe for stuff I know I’ll want to watch no matter what. Works pretty well!
My bookmark is set to subscriptions page but yeh, when I run out of stuff to watch I’ll see what the algo has for me
I guess the answer would be yes for me, because I’ve never subscribed to any youtube videos. If I wanted to watch a youtube video, I’d search for it and click on it. Most of the time I probably use youtube without being logged in to a google account. Have no interest in “following” any youtubers.
I’m exactly the same way. I just don’t subscribe or comment or vote or anything like that.
Same, never logged in but still yt knows who I watch and will present it on the homepage
Wait…. Thats not how people use YouTube? I browse almost exclusively from my subscriptions page.
Same, the front page is a scary place and god help your soul if you click on trending
Default front page yes. Customized with my data, no not really
Agreed, I have some custom ad block rules that remove videos I already watched. That removes about half of the videos on the page, but it helps a lot not showing nonsense.
Yes YouTube, that video is perfect for me, I really like the creator, I like the subject, the video is well made with a good length. That’s all of the reasons I chose to watch it yesterday, I don’t need to watch it a second time. If I did wanted to watch it for a second time, I know where to find it, you don’t have to present it to me.
i have a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory that youtube intentionally shittifies the frontpage if you disable your watch history as an attempt to make you turn it back on.
Really? For me the front page hits almost spot on on what I want to watch. Weird. I use subscriptions tab first and then when im done with it I move to feed to watch new stuff I might not know and almost all of them are interesting.
I swear people does not use the “I dislike this content” or whatever it’s called button from the triple dot panel.
I have seen myself times where someones video just is not in my sub feed, but I can see it on the Youtube channel. Happened twice in the last year with Louis Rossmann for some reason?
Why logging in on youtube anyway? It makes it easy to track you.
Google will track you even if you don’t login.
Not me.
Because I get a non-toxic personalized YouTube feed that does not suck…
Would highly recommend pausing yohr watch history when you’re satisfied with the recomendations. It stops them from collecting new data based on what you watch. This doesnt affect your revomendations unless you wipe the history
I want it to continuously adapt to my ever changing interests. That’s one of the major features for me.
Ok, if you’re using it as your everyday entertainment tool… i only use it for the odd youtube link and prefer written text over videos.
Yeah, don’t tell Google, but from back before they bought YouTube, they still have code running to serve RSS feeds for each channel. So, you can have a simple, chronological subscription feed without even needing an account.
youtube feed is a toddler you’re trying to tame. even the slightest misdirection will end you up with infinite crochet videos for 2 weeks because you watched a video about the last crochet artists in cambodia
Yes this, so much this. The worst part for me is that it includes random videos you clicked on the internet with the same weight as videos I personally selected. And since they are mainly about stuff I’m not interested in it gets even more weight.
For example somebody posts on social media “Look at my cool new toy”. It’s a YouTube video of a guy with a brand new tractor and he’s super happy about it. I like his genuine pleasure, so I give it a thumbs up. Go to sleep and wake up the next morning and YouTube be like: “Hey there, good morning. I heard you are super into tractors at the moment, so here are a million tractor vids for you.” OK, not a big deal, just pick out the videos that aren’t about tractors and watch those. No big deal, the algorithm will figure it out and fix it right? Wrong, it pushes more and more tractor vids. The next day you somehow manage to watch a non tractor video and the doorbell rings. It’s your cute neighbor and you make smalltalk with him/her for a while. Oops big fuckup, autoplay was on and it just played 10+ tractor vids for you. Now you’re an official tractor superfan and your whole life revolves around watching tractor vids. At least, that’s what the algorithm thinks.
I wished when I watch a video embedded on another site it would just not track that as being my interest. On my phone I had it configured to play youtube vids in the browser and not in the app, that helped a lot. But an update broke it, so now I have to delete it from my watch history anytime I open a YouTube vid anywhere.
Same thing with instructional videos. I got me a nice new dishwasher, but how to hook it up? Cool, they included a QR code to the brands site with clear instructions and a helpful video on how to hook it up. But oops, they hosted that video on YouTube. Now the next two weeks it’s nothing but instructions on how to hook up dishwashers you don’t own. At least it fits well with all the ads you get for the dishwashers you considered buying but ultimately didn’t decide on. That’s really useful right? Yay algorithms
If Youtube’s algorithm is swayed too easily, you can disable a lot of it in your account settings. Without your watch history or personalised ads, the algorithm seems to be a lot less random.
I’ve worked around the “embedded videos fucking up the algorithm” problem through a combination of Multi Account Containers Temporary Containers. I open all the random websites I browse in temporary containers and force content websites like Youtube and Lemmy into more special containers, but I open videos I don’t want associated with my recommendations in a temporary container.
Containers are like two separate browser sessions, they can’t see each other’s data directly. That way, Youtube doesn’t connect the random shit I encounter on the web to my account. Tricks like being logged into multiple accounts at once on some sites (Gmail etc.) is just a nice bonus.
Youtube still does its IP-based recommendation thing, but it’s a lot more streamlined than it was before.
I ended up getting rid of looking at recommended videos entirely. I use Unhook to get rid of recommendeds.
I usually use the “I don’t like this” button from the triple dot option panel of the recommendations and YT doesn’t fuck around. IDK, try using that?
I mean, don’t just try to sidestep unwanted content by not watching it, but actively tell YT you dont like it form the recommendations list.
Yeah, it is weird.
I never watch duck videos. But if I watch 10 seconds of one duck video, YouTube is like:
“OH YEAH, YOU LIKE DUCK VIDEOS!? HERE ARE SOME FUCKING DUCK VIDEOS!!!”
I use it to catch up on the latest vids from account im following. Occasionally I’ll also browse the algorithm feed as well.
I use the subscription feed and it’s how I’ve always used YouTube. I certainly don’t want it giving me random notifications. It’s not like I need to drop what I’m doing during the day just because someone published a video. When I want to watch videos, I’ll go check my subscriptions.
Agreed. In my mind every notification is a chore to be dealt with, and I’m not going to let Youtube assign me chores.
I turned off notifications for everything outside text messages a couple of years ago and I could physically feel the anxiety going away. I hate this trend of notifications for the smallest things.
Ping.
Reverify our distance to target.
One ping only
This. There is no way in hell I would want to be notified of a YouTube video dropping. I’ll watch when I want to watch, and it’s always the subscription feed that I go for. I will scroll back to the previous spot that I had watched and go through the feed from there to see if there is anything worth watching. If no one has posted for awhile and there is nothing new to watch in my subscription feed, then I’ll go to the Home feed and look at recommened videos, but 90% of the time I’m only going to check the subscription feeds.
ReVanced Manager on mobile, and SmartTubeNext on my TVs.
There’s a YouTube setting to send you a digest each day instead of each bell as a notification.
I’ve like newpipe because it’s just a clean experience of only my subscription feed. I’ve hated any page other than subscription on YouTube, since I can’t even stand most of the thumbnails and I don’t endlessly use YouTube. Don’t even check out most of the videos in my own feed, so don’t need all the additional clutter YouTube shows now days.
If you want a desktop experience, I recommend the Unhook extension/addon for major browsers.
Thank you for asking this question because this has bothered me too. I subscribe to a bunch of mostly educational Youtube channels and then the only thing I do on Youtube is go to my subscribed feed and watch them.
But then I hear people talk about how channels they subscribe to just don’t ever show up on the home feed so they end up missing things. Then Youtube implemented an additional system where you not only have to subscribe but you also have to set it to be notified of new videos. Thus starting the whole problem all over again where the home feed algorithm has too much stuff you are subscribed and notified to for it to all show up.
There is this nice little feature that shows you a chronological view of subscribed video releases that everyone ignores for no reason.
It is my default page for Youtube. I want to see the most recent content from creators I have subscribed to.
After exhausting the subscriptions page, then I will go to the main page for related content. Shorts and the Explore are avoided at all costs.
Same. My subscription feed is a curated list of creators whose videos I look forward to and probably watch on release. If I notice that I consistently don’t watch the new videos anymore I unsub.
I thought everyone used YT like this.
apparently it is a very low count, supposedly 2% of views.
I don’t know if the information is accurate any more, I heard it on the Hello Internet podcast quite a few years ago.
I personally never remove anything from my feed unless they’re spamming shorts or posting hate content. I’ve got channels that I haven’t watched in 5+ years that I’m still subscribed to.
I think you’re really the minority on the platform that are curating everything. When I talk to anyone else the home page is where they get most of the videos to watch.
Same. TONS of old channels just sitting there, waiting for a revival or just sitting as a memorial. However, they do have a way out, for channels that disappear and then reappear with completely new style of content. Only hapenned twice but I didn’t want them there if the stuff they were posting was going to be the norm.
I actually make a double exception for a channel getting hacked even if it was basically defunct and I hadn’t seen them in years or would be interested anymore. I remove them, then, if I figure out who they were, I get them back later once their account is back. Hapenned to Phoenix Kappashiro.
The most absurdly enduring channel on my list is marasy8. I have subscribed to them for nearly 15 years, and they have not stopped making content nor changed its nature.
It’s because the hot the button every time the channel asks them, constantly toggling it off an on.
deleted by creator
Maybe unrelated but what I do when I find a good channel: I click their name, go to their videos tab and look if there’s other good stuff. Often videos a bit older have very few views while the newer one has loads, which makes me think nobody ever clicks through all this.
But I also don’t log in to Youtube. I had a separate Youtube account until they forced me to use a Google account. I can always delete my YouTube cookies when the recommendations get to shitty.
I am also very pro subscription feed (and still don’t get why people are angry that shorts made by the people they subscribe to are on that page…).
But it mostly speaks to the mindset in a similar way to “tags versus folders” for document organization and so forth.
I go to youtube to largely watch content by creators I like. So for me, the subscription feed is generally how I do that. For others, they go to look for topics they like and benefit from the front page showing them someone else who is playing Remnant 2 or whatever.
About the shorts part, IIRC at first it didn’t separate them, so they were intermingled. That was a pretty big pain in the ass.
Now that they just have their own section, I fully agree.
I’ll never be interested in shorts type videos and would like the general view 30 day removal of shorts to also apply to the subscription view. It seems like bad design to only have the removal apply to the general view.
