I am genuinely curious, how do you find videos worth your time without recommendations? 99.9% of what’s on YouTube I have zero interest in, the recommendation engine is how I cull the noise and actually find things to watch.
Not without recommendations. I just want the default recommendations directly related to the video I currently watch, ignoring what other videos I watched before.
How do I find? I just search for a particular subject (maybe also specify the author) whenever I want/need and have time to watch/read something.
Some prompt crafting-type technique of seeding the recommender with deliberate sequences of videos is probably possible. Youtube's system really is remarkably responsive to this kind of logged-out browsing, unlike most others.
Tangentially, there's a lot of praise for TikTok on HN, but I've never found anything compelling there myself.
Everyone should be doing this monthly anyways since YT recommendations along with your viewing trends can eventually get too narrow. Nice to reset it.
The same way as one did in the past: 1) search for something interesting, 2) look at the videos, 3) if you like a creator, subscribe to the RSS feed for their channel
I find this a totally unusable model to the point I don't understand who the heck pays for paywalled websites (for me it would be a waste because I would only read some 2.5 articles on the same website a year). I just search for a particular subject (maybe also specify the author) whenever I want/need and have time to watch/read something. Subscribe to someone and watch/read everything they would produce? Impossible, I don't have time for this. I watch many new (whom I have never seen previously and probably won't see in future although I liked them and they go on) creators every week.
For a simpler example, take webcomics. I created a category in my RSS readers for the webcomics I like. If I feel bored and want to read a webcomic, I just open my reader, click that category, and immediately see the most recent one I haven't read yet. I can instantly get exactly what I want, without any recommendation engine attached. But I don't get any notifications – I only look at it when I feel like it.
The same with youtube creators. If I feel like watching videos of a certain kind, I look at the channels I subscribed to of a certain topic, and see if they’ve got something interesting.
1. I search for a topic and pick out a video that seems interesting.
2. I remember the names of the few YouTubers I like, and I look them up once in a while.
I do actually have a YT account and I'm subscribed to some people, but I rarely bother to sign in.
For me, YouTube is a platform for seeking content rather than a platform for being fed content (like HN or Twitter).
Instead, I find videos through talking with friends, as well as when YouTubers I do watch recommend them. It works very well for me.
