Best way to get recommended videos
I know there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding YouTube's recommendation algorithms, but I can't seem to find a better alternative. What are the ways y'all find videos that are of interest?
I know we could use RSS and subscribe to our desired channels and get a better experience than YT's own subscription system, but what about channel/video discovery, those that you've never seen before? Is there a better way to find a video that might be interesting to you without kneeling before the almighty algorithm? Half of the recommended page on YT seems irrelevant to me, but I can't seem to find a better alternative.
6 replies
One thing I really want are open source recommendation algorithms. Like lemmy introduced scaled but I wish there was an option to just apply your own choice of algorithm. I don't even know if thats possible lol but I'd love that on like newpipe.
I know this is only tangentially related and doesn't answer your question, sorry.
Old school way : using the search bar
Eh, that's fully enshittified too nowadays.
I use FreeTube on desktop to follow my favourite YouTube channels, and I've found the related videos section to be quite good in occasionally suggesting videos from channels I'm unfamiliar with. I also have a Nebula subscription, so I find content creators from there as well.
I do admit that sometimes I'll login to my old YouTube account and check what their algorithm is suggesting. I just copy/paste the URLs into FreeTube.
I only watch what’s in my subscriptions. Now and then I’ll add something new to see if I like it or remove something I don’t enjoy.
The old fashioned way was you asked people. Post a video of one of your favorites in a videos community and ask what people who like it what channels they also recommend.