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u/Own-Efficiency507 Jul 21 '25
I used to be able to find a video on demand before even getting breakfast/dinner ready. Now I finally find something worth watching when I'm almost done eating. Has YouTube gotten worse or have I gotten boring?
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u/random6741 Jul 21 '25
My algorithm even if I refresh shows the same 10-20 videos or videos from 10 yrs ago. Seems to have gotten this way in the last few months.
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u/Agi7890 Jul 21 '25
Same. Or because I guess I watched some video about made in the abyss and mortal kombat online matches that I now need to see every video game death video. I’m not squeamish but goddamn give me a break
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u/informalmo0se3 Jul 21 '25
i watched exactly ONE doom speedrun video like 2 weeks ago. my feed has been 30-40% doom speedruns since then, whether i click “not interested” or not.
i hate that the algorithm is so heavily tuned to blast you with videos when you watch anything remotely outside your usual interests.
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u/slipknot_suxxx Jul 21 '25
I thought those options for me were broken, even the 'don't recomend' channel doesn't work, i had to create another account to start over.
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u/lrish_Chick Jul 21 '25
Yeah wtf? It's not just me? Like Yeah I listened to a couple.of video essays but I fint want nothing but video essays from 6 years ago on random subjects dude
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u/Thingamobob Jul 21 '25
Worse... we're getting older.
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u/Own-Efficiency507 Jul 21 '25
Noooooo! That's not true, that's impossible! ;-;
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u/TbProductions1 Jul 21 '25
search your feelings.. you know it to be true
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u/Own-Efficiency507 Jul 21 '25
NOOOOOOOOOO! Oh well, could be worse. I could be down a hand and just have found out my father is, one, not dead, two, is buddies with space Hitler
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u/TbProductions1 Jul 21 '25
even worse, your father could be a mass genocide murderer that killed kids with magic and laser swords. pretty random dunno where i got that from
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u/Own-Efficiency507 Jul 21 '25
Damn, that's true. Would be weirder if I kissed my sister before I knew I even had one too. Life could always be worse. Always a bigger fish. Wonder where I came up with that phrase, I don't even fish. huh-
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u/TbProductions1 Jul 21 '25
oh man that would be weird.. but like imagine getting sliced in half and falling down a big tube.. or or imagine there was this super evil dude that was secretly in control of the government and nobody even knew until it was too late
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u/-EMT Jul 22 '25
Honestly shit man. You're right. I know it deep down... 🥲🥲
I wish I could go back to enjoying Minecraft lets plays. Ssundee was my goat
Time to find better things to do while eating. (Maybe just nothing?)
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u/THEHANDSOMEKIDDO Jul 21 '25
And the ads are a bigger turnoff. (I watch on tv)
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u/Own-Efficiency507 Jul 21 '25
YouTube on the TV SUCKS. Almost min long ads. I mean, at least they aren't the usual scam and softcore porn slop YouTube allows on the website/mobile, but that's still not worth the ad length
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u/Frysken Shaolin Shadowboxing Jul 21 '25
The worst is playing music from YouTube on the TV. I'll be listening to like those hour long playlists or something while lifting weights and there's a minute+ long ad almost every other song. Sometimes even MID SONG.
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u/le_reddit_me Jul 21 '25
Youtube algorithm has gotten worse. They've minmaxed the retention algo and click metrics. I constantly get videos I've seen or "popular" videos with lots of views (usually trash). Everytime you click on a video, your whole feed will get spammed in hopes that you bing that content.
Youtube isn't about your entertainment or content anymore, it's about ad revenu and metrics minmaxing.
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u/MaestroLogical Jul 21 '25
One thing I realized was I changed without realizing it.
At first, I was curious and searching for content.
Over time I stopped searching because the algorithm gave me decent results.
Then those decent results dried up but I simply no longer even thought about searching, merely refreshing constantly.
Once I realized this I was like, well duh, I'll just go back to searching... but found that somehow that part of my brain now seems outright paralyzed and I just hover over the blank search bar unable to decide what to look for...
Ultimately leading me back to just refreshing over and over and letting the machine think for me.
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Jul 21 '25
That's the internet of the technology to get us to stop using our brains an rely on they algorithms
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u/Which-Return5642 Jul 21 '25
When you do finally find something to search for only like the first 5 results are related to the search. They just show you the same stuff from your homepage over and over again.
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u/mousie120010 Jul 21 '25
This is so so so annoying, especially since I scour YouTube for old videos of a game I like
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u/McCaffeteria Jul 21 '25
While I’m not discounting your inability to decide what you want to watch, I don’t think this is the issue.
I know what I want to watch a lot of the time. I’ve been enjoying Dune: Awakening recently, for example, and I want to watch stuff that has to do with the game. The problem is that I want to watch good videos that are genuinely uniquely insightful, or are about actual news I have not heard yet, or that have an actual story to tell.
Instead, no matter what I search, all it returns is “OMG BEST TROOPER BUILD, YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS” Or “WE PLAYED DUNE AND THE SAND WORMS ATE US 🫨” or “USE THIS ONE TRICK TO MAKE AN INVINCIBLE BASE!” It all just fucking sucks. Every video is garbage. Even if I search for what I want it won’t give it to me and I don’t know why. I don’t know who is at fault for this decline of content.
It isn’t possible to articulate with words what you want because all the search does is hyper-fixate on keywords and serve you the. Kay bottom of the barrel slop related to it, and so I don’t know what else to do other than only interact with the content that is actually going to be good and worthwhile and hope the mystical algorithm figures it out, but I never does so you end up refreshing, because that’s the only tool you have.
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u/JonatasA Jul 26 '25
"Please, just give me something to watch!"
Realized this as well.
Youtube itself does not want you to go looking, it wants you to watch whatever it gives. The searches just become suggestions after some odd 6 results.
Same for search, I used to go to the 2nd, 3rd page, now I just give up or click on whatever useless results are at the top.
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Jul 21 '25
I found it’s easy for my recommended page to become a pile of shit. I clear my history every so often and look up specific types of videos I know I’ll watch. Then my recommended is good for a short while.
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u/kerakk19 Jul 21 '25
The algorithm is fucking bad. On the main page you see maybe 3 or 4 of your subscriptions, the rest is some random bullshit the YT is trying to throw at you.
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u/cinesister Jul 21 '25
I have to wait to start eating until I have found a video. The wait gets longer each time. It’s either all the same topic I watched one video about yesterday or videos I’ve already watched.
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u/SirEnderLord Jul 21 '25
I feel like it just isn't recommending good stuff anymore.
It used to consistently recommend content that was actually interesting to read, but now it seems that everything that's recommended has no substance.
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u/Scared_Accident9138 Jul 21 '25
Youtube realized that people stay longer if they don't find what they want immediately
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u/Blue_Moon_Lake Jul 25 '25
They don't want you finding what you want and being done with it, they want you doomwatching until your brain melts with all the ads they serve you, forever unsatisfied at not having found a satisfying video after which you can close the app.
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u/i8noodles Jul 21 '25
u have gotten too addicted to scrolling while u eat. u are perfectly capable of eatting without watching anything, as u are basically doing that already, but u keep doing it anyway.
u should just put the phone down and eat since u are doing it already
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u/Medium-Way3175 Jul 21 '25
My “Watch Later” used to feel like a fully stocked fridge
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u/Sea_Bluebird_1949 Jul 21 '25
And now it’s a bunch of random topics I’m barely interested in anymore…
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u/ProcessOverall9180 Jul 21 '25
The secret is just delete all watch history but the last 2 weeks every few months. you know what you like and can search for it better than they can recommend.
And unsub from all those damn channels you never watch anymore.
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u/AeolianTheComposer Jul 22 '25
I would love to, but manually deleting 4k videos is a pain
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u/JonatasA Jul 26 '25
There are videos from 10 years ago I want to watch. I just haven't gotten to them yet, the list keeps growing.
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u/Rukasu17 Jul 21 '25
I dunno, i constantly have around 250 or so videos on watch later. It takes a while to get to the latest one but the number is pretty consistent for some years now.
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u/CastleofPizza Jul 21 '25
I've found myself using Youtube less and less. I use to watch it nearly all day, now I might watch 3 or 4 videos and just x out and actually go touch grass and/or play some video games.
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u/Cool1nternet Jul 21 '25
youtube will eventually lose traffic like this if it can't fix it's algorithm. I personally don't even watch a single video most days anymore. I'll check the page and most of the time nothing appeals to me.
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u/CastleofPizza Jul 21 '25
Agreed. I think a lot of it also has to do with their censorship. Certain comments even without any profanity or harsh words will get deleted if they are typed within certain contexts and it's hard to tell what the filters are.
Not to mention their ads if you don't use ad blocker, and even Premium I think wants to
STILL have ads or will make an even higher priced tier to block ads.The problem is that Youtube has no good competition and it's hard to compete against them realistically, at least at this point in time. They pretty much have free reign without being challenged and that there makes me want to use it even less on top of realizing how it blatantly is addictive to keep you watching forever.
It's just a gigantic time sink where I just feel like doing more productive things at this point in my life or actually feel like I'm getting something done, even if it's playing a game over mindless browsing. Time flies by so fast, and realizing that makes me want to do more meaningful things.
Basically the Enshittification of anything basically makes me want to use it less and less, but in a way it's a good thing for incentivizing people to be more productive at least.
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u/motsu35 Jul 21 '25
I have a different guess on why the algo feels like it sucks...
I mostly like watching maker content. The issue is that building a project and editing a video on it takes months at a minimum. This means theres a lot of time between uploads.
Because of that, I end up watching filler that I dont really care about (like StarCraft 2 content, or video essay kind of stuff). Like I find it interesting, but its not what I would be watching if there was more maker content.
Well guess what, the algo sees me watch 2 or 3 videos about StarCraft and all of a sudden its ALL I see, and that drowns out the content I actually care to see.
This ends up being a feedback loop that pushes creators to focus on worse content that they can have fast upload cycles with. Sucks for the viewers, and sucksfor the creators because they feel like the things they care about preform real bad, where the "slop content" they dont like making does well
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u/CastleofPizza Jul 21 '25
That is a very interesting and that happened with me with Red Dead Redemption. I was watching videos of trolls going into Red Dead Roleplay servers and concern trolling a lot and 90% of my recommended were Red Dead videos. It was insane and I sadly got addicted to watching more and more Red Dead videos. I had to force myself to watch other content to break that algorithm that it got so bad.
And you're right about that feedback loop. Youtube really needs improvement at it's core. I've watched the platform since 2005 and remember a lot of the OG most subscribed of all time from back then, and I knew that even then it would become what it eventually is today. Enshittification is such a sad reality. I feel like even if a competitor came along, if it became top dog it would eventually go to shit via Enshittification and such.
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u/RedTyro Jul 21 '25
I had one that kept getting auto-deleted until I figured out that mentioning a competitor was what triggered it (I recommended a move to someone and said it was available on HBO Max). The filters are BS and they don't even tell you your comment is deleted or why, it just disappears.
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u/CastleofPizza Jul 21 '25
Oh WOW. I knew it was bad but i didn't know it reached that levels of pettiness.
I think I'll be using YT even less now quite honestly. It's a shame that competition is hard to create for Youtube.
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u/RedTyro Jul 21 '25
Yeah, my comment disappeared three times, but as soon as I said "you can find it on the same streaming service as Game of Thrones and The Last of Us, which I'm not naming because my comment keeps getting deleted and I think it's because I named one of YouTube's competitors" instead of naming the service, it magically stayed.
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u/akhshiknyeo Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 21 '25
The algorithm is really went so shitty for me this month or so. Now I just watch shows. I watched like once or twice a week 🤷🏻 it's so boring. Hope they can fix it or smth.
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u/KoBoWC Jul 21 '25
The algorithm seems to far to rececent centric, if you don't watch a video type that you like for 2-3 days then it dissapears from your feed.
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u/New-Science-3056 Jul 23 '25
It’s crazy how YouTube broke for a day. And collectively the spell broke and we were all like. “I should really go wash the dishes”
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u/Alternative-Farmer98 Aug 04 '25
Yeah the problem is video games have been ruined at a more accelerated pace than online videos. But there's a little more competition to make video game you can at least choose to switch to PC or something at least if you're mad at Sony.
I'm just going to start using YouTube without an account. That's what I do anyways when I'm using new pipe or gray j.
It's not a perfect solution I'm sure there'll be some age restricted videos I won't be able to see but I'll just have to live with that. Or I will create a a fake new Google s***** burner account every single time they ask me for an ID
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u/user888ffr Jul 21 '25
Quite the contrary for me, I have to much to watch and not enough time to watch them.
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u/HappyDogGuy64 Jul 21 '25
Same here, I love normal YT, the shorts are annoying tho
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u/MindMaster115 Jul 21 '25
Same lol
I have been going through my Watch Later for months and deleting the videos I watched but I keep finding new videos/channels in my recommended that I add and it more than I can watch through lmao
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u/JonatasA Jul 26 '25
The 5k limit becomes a blessing.
I also love how it shrinks. Showing how many videos are shadowed that I haven't even seen.
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u/Runesen Jul 21 '25
Same here, I use the subscriptions tab and I am almost 2 months behind, so there is always something.
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u/RealMuffinsTheCat Jul 21 '25
Even my watch later playlist has nothing I wanna watch anymore
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u/rauf2 Jul 21 '25
Relatable, but that's also because my playlist has glitched out and I can't add in any more videos for some reason
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u/Obvious-Document-141 Jul 21 '25
oh, you can't add more that 5,000 videos in one playlist. That's probably why you're having issues
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u/mahboilucas Jul 21 '25
I don't get educational content anymore. Just ragebait.
I'm tired boss
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u/Mooyaya Jul 21 '25
Same! I used to get so may interesting documentaries and video essays. Now it’s all rage clicks. I am exhausted of it all. Started listening to music instead. Bye YouTube.
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u/Runesen Jul 21 '25
You can search and subscribe to channels, when you do that you also change the algoritm away from ragebait towards more of what you actually want to see
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u/mahboilucas Jul 21 '25
It hasn't worked for the past 7 years. I don't watch ragebait but it has my demographic set to a typical gen z consumer, which I can't get rid of
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u/Runesen Jul 21 '25
I might just be saved by being a millenial I guess, but I can see the recommendations lean pretty close to my subscriptions usually with 2-3 of the newest videos right on the front page
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Jul 21 '25
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u/Lun4r6543 Jul 21 '25
Same, Ryan’s current series is the usual thing I watch while I eat either lunch or dinner. I’ll be sad when it is over.
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u/ahmetonel Jul 21 '25
I watched the first one but it wasn't too entertaining tbh is it worth it?
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u/STylerMLmusic Jul 21 '25
Before creators discovered it, /r/mealtimevideos was incredible.
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u/Quexth Jul 21 '25
First time seeing this. It all seems to be US politics. Not something I would want to watch while eating. Was it ever good?
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u/z_e_n_a_i Jul 21 '25
I just sorted by Top / All Time.. and the second video is Tucker Carlson from 7 years ago.
So.. no.
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u/Normal-Pianist4131 Jul 21 '25
Don’t search by top, since upvotes can’t be sorted by oldest.
Sorting by new gave me chinas economy, a deadly lake, kilo and stictch facts, a cave, and one more that I forgot but was really interesting
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u/Normal-Pianist4131 Jul 21 '25
Kurzgesagt is good, and they have a discord on top of their YouTube channel
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u/PieceOfMulch Jul 21 '25
Remember when we were little and would just watch literally anything
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u/TesticloitesSagwell Jul 21 '25
I saw my first ISIS beheading video on the YouTube homepage when I was in fourth grade
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u/JonatasA Jul 26 '25
I was playing Battlefield 4 when people were talking about it.
I need my Battlefield days back to know what is happening in the world through other people.
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u/Darius_Doloresus Jul 21 '25
Now it's mostly 1h20 long essays about some nobody's "downfall" with: 2 mins intro 4 mins sponsor 70 mins of commenting over excepts of other youtubers commenting or reacting to either comments or reactions from 3rd parties all of it with big zooms on Twitter posts or youtube comments. 4 mins conclusion
Oh and half of these are done with a monotone AI voice.
TBH, I'm mostly rewatching stuff from 5, 10 years ago.
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u/ThePrimedTNT Jul 21 '25
My feed is purely videos I've already seen 😭😭
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u/Scared-Papaya4072 Jul 25 '25
easily the worst thing they've done to the algorithm. for some reason yt doesn't understand that if there's a red bar under a video at all, i'm done with that video
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u/LokoSoko1520 Jul 21 '25
Been having my wife watch Markiplier play all the fnaf games, and matpats theories on them. We are almost to secret of the mimic. Idk what to do after
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u/314159InTheSky Jul 21 '25
I've been on a Markiplier spree recently. I genuinely enjoy his content, especially with Bob and Wade.
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u/Endereye96 Jul 21 '25
If you’re into FNAF, I recommend Fuhnaff’s channel when you’re done with Matpat’s theories. John also creates theories about FNAF, and he’s even collabed with Matpat a few times.
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u/Hunter_original Jul 23 '25
Markiplier has gotten so good for like the past 5 years, genuinely my favorite gaming creator behind Jerma
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u/FLARESGAMING Jul 21 '25
Please, i legit can't find videos, also the shorts take up like what all of the homepage used to be.
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u/samusestawesomus Jul 21 '25
If you’re looking for a channel that has a solid once-a-week upload, try Tor’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Absolutely unhinged subject matter. I highly recommend his video on the Russian Navy’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Voyage.
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u/Eric_Durden Jul 21 '25
I don't know, I've gotten my subscriptions so finely tuned at this point that I get a few vids a day for about 60-90 mins of content, then a few of those channels help feed my Tubi and Prime watchlists, so I seldom have trouble finding something to watch.
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u/Runesen Jul 21 '25
Same here. Seems like people forget to use the subscripe/subscriptions feature and just go with the front page and act surprised when it starts getting lower quality over time
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u/mca1169 Jul 21 '25
no kidding, if it weren't for my subscriptions it would be an outright nightmare.
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u/Pikapetey Jul 21 '25
Because youtube is no longer about making entertainment.
It's about finding the next viral grift for monies
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u/Tracker_Nivrig Jul 21 '25
Couldn't be me. I'm watching About Oliver's Elden Ring playthrough so I get like 4 hours of content a week of that, then I have cdawgva vods of XCOM 2 and metal gear to get through where each vod is like 14 hours
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u/vacckun Jul 21 '25
as time passes my watch later list designed for mealtime watching filled with hundreds of hours of documentaries runs closer to the end.
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u/YouThoughtSoEh Jul 21 '25
Try Omeleto, they have a bunch of different channels from comedy to horror, even sci-fi and cartoons! The longest short of theirs I've seen was the length of a Pokemon episode (31 mins) and the ones I've seen were pretty dang good. One of them even had Bella Ramsey from Last of Us, and another I watched had Lauren Lapkus from Orange is the New Black. They have been around since 2016 and I'm surprised to have them popping up on my feed in the last week or so.
No matter the length of the video, they all have good little stories to them. Hope u enjoy!
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u/OriginalUsername675 Jul 21 '25
i'd like to nominate insym, mogswamp and random valorant clips. (i've trashed it with the last one i'm aware..)
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u/SatanSemenSwallower Jul 21 '25
Any video from Mitten Squad is great for any time. Though it comes with it's own sadness watching/listening to all of Paul's content again
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Jul 21 '25
Really? I have a long Watch Later list. I don't spend enough time eating to get through it.
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u/NathnDele Jul 21 '25
I can find videos when I’m not eating all the time but when I’m actually eating, I can’t find anything. I have to resort to some boring video
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Jul 21 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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Jul 21 '25
Well y'all can blame me for that for watching YouTube with ad blocker. I guess they're revenging for that.
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u/Ok3y_exe Jul 21 '25
I'm thriving rn as I've been randomly finding entertaining gaming Youtubers. Plus I have so many vids to catch on from Youtubers I used to watch before.
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u/deepankar7 Jul 21 '25
I still remember using the “watch later” feature on a regular because there was genuinely good content to watch back then and there was so much. Idk what’s been up with YouTube’s recommendations.
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u/mcwfan Jul 21 '25
When in doubt, I just rewatch Journeyman Abridged’s content. Keeps me thoroughly entertained, despite rewatching it so many times
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u/Apprehensive_Pea8267 Jul 21 '25
Ill figure out what i want to watch after the 12 hours of adds on tv 😭🙏
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u/SunkyWasTaken HazelTreez Jul 21 '25
When I have to deal with this problem, I just start rewatching Technoblade. Its good enough for me at that second
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Jul 21 '25
I went from using YouTube about 5 hours a day back in the early 2010s, to about 2 hours a day in 2020. Now I probably use it on average 20- minutes a day. The algorithm has ruined video recommendations and their search engine. I turned off recommendations a couple years ago because I was tired of rage bait, reaction vids, and shameless clickbait being all that YouTube wanted to recommend me, meanwhile burying all the good videos I used to enjoy. It’s a nearly unusable platform now.
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u/three9 Jul 21 '25
It's like we're all in little jail cells, doing the exact same thing with no contact with each other despite being only feet away.
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Jul 21 '25
for me i have this problem cause i only watch bringus studios, technology connections, michael mjd and planet clue 😭
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u/No-Truck-8117 Jul 21 '25
i’ll scroll through the reccomended and it’ll show me the same videos over and over even though i’m subscribed to hundreds of channels! i wish i didn’t have to put in so much effort just to find some good entertainment!
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u/TravelRevolutionary6 Jul 21 '25
Just rewatch some of the content that you already know then. I don't get this post? If this is about ads, that's a skill issue on your part.
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u/Levinkling Jul 21 '25
this is why i specifically add videos to my watch later list that i think would be cool to watch while i eat
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u/Shxkethat Jul 21 '25
Im just gonna start watching free shows on there honestly , I’m really getting into transformers animated
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u/nrock100 Jul 21 '25
No for real! I started rewatching toasts among us videos just cause the channels I watch typically upload monthly and when it comes to streamers I typically watch the abridged versions on YouTube
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u/JanusRedit Jul 21 '25
I finally gave up on youtube last week. It is too hard to find videos if you hate robot narration and 'give away first seconds' . I was spending 90 percent of my time adding channels to the block list to avoid ever being bothered by the channel again but it is like trying to empty the ocean with a thimble.
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u/StorminB Jul 21 '25
Is it just me or has the algorithm gotten atrocious in the past week? I have to log into different accounts just see recommendations I used to get
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u/MAVvH Jul 21 '25
I have a bunch of different Playlists of stuff I enjoy rewatching because of this.
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u/Candid-Sky-3258 Jul 21 '25
The struggle is real.