this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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I'd happily pay for the content on youtube, if the user experience was not as miserable as it is.
Search is basically non functional, sort by oldest is gone, search in channel is only available on desktop not on mobile, filter videos by date range is not possible, video quality is mediocre, everyone and their dog makes titles that leave no clue at all about whats actually in the video because "they do better for the algorithm", if you want to actually read the comments or video thescription on mobile you'll have to click "show more" and "expand" until your finger hurts, video caches only a few seconds ahead, which makes watching on flaky connections miserable, video quality defaults to 480p even on gigabit internet, subtitles have become almost completely useless, etc., etc., etc.
If they would actually care about the user experience, I'd pay. Instead they just make the ads as annoying as humanly possible, in the hopes that users pay just to get rid of the annoyance, instead of paying for an actually good service.
This is crux of the issue. The whole websites interface is structured around ads. If you pay to get rid of them, it's still structured around ads from its most basic level, so much so that simply getting rid of them doesn't fundamentally change the experience.
I pay for premium and the only reason is because I watch a lot of youtube on my TV. However their app is terrible on cable boxes. I've had 3 different brand boxes and they all have the same issue. If you rewind the video it stutters while playing from the buffer until you get back to live.
And it's so annoying if you have a ton of channels you are subbed to. The algorithm will only show you videos from like the last dozen or so of your subs that you watched videos from. Then show me tons of videos I have absolutely no interest in. Or tons of videos on the same topic that are basically just plagiarized from each other.
I've found youtube has gotten really, really good at recommending me stuff over the past 2 years. I've gone to great lengths not to mess that up once I noticed that. I also like how youtube now shows me 0-10 view videos since I keep clicking on them. Most are trash but very occasionally youtube finds an incredible video. Basically like tiktok but without that annoying short form content interface and I get to choose to view it.
I've got thousands and thousands of subscriptions to channels over the years at this point. It's impossible to manage. I've no joke probably cost them in the thousands at this point.
I don't watch youtube on a TV but I do believe there are ad free solutions if the TV runs some form of android, besides premium.
Wonder how long the ad-free non-premium will last. I predicted in the 2030s like 5 years ago, but with how quickly platforms are cracking down on "leach users", it's probably in the <5 year span at this point. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Or a Fire TV Stick with SmartTube.
The recommendation algorithm is very mixed in my experience as someone who also has premium and watches a bunch of youtube. Sometimes it will show a bunch of great videos right at the top, while other times everything it recommends is stuff that is uninteresting to me.