This would be a massive change
dinckel
link
fedilink
English
12024d

It’s already really difficult to engage with the content you want to see, but now they’re also taking away the only immediately noticeable metric of a successful video? Genuinely just why

@DaddleDew@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
114
edit-2
24d

They removed the star system a long time ago. They removed the down votes again a few years back.

They want their algorithm to be the only thing that decides whether you watch a video or not.

@SuperIce@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
123d

To be fair, the star system was garbage. I agree with the rest though

@scarabic@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
322d

Personally I find the highest viewed videos on YT to be the absolute shittiest ones.

dinckel
link
fedilink
English
122d

Yeah, that’s kinda the problem too

@Cheesus@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
124d

To hope you find new content. YouTube had been putting random low watch count videos in my feed. I never click on them because of their low view count. The thumbsnails make them look like they’re high quality videos. Without the view count I have no idea if they have 1,000 views or millions. They’re hoping I will click on them, subscribe, and spend more time in the app.

@atrielienz@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
223d

I’m curious how this will affect things like sub-a-thons where people stream for charity and so on.

@umbrella@lemmy.ml
link
fedilink
English
7
edit-2
23d

some internal metric and testing said this increases engagement by 2.1% so now we are stuck with it.

YT Exec - /rips massive line of coke off Intern’s ass/ - “Remove View Count”

YT Engineer - “But Sir, users will hate that. It will actively make the user experience worse”

YT Exec - “That’s the goddamn point!”

@scarabic@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
222d

This is inane but damn if it didn’t give me a good laugh :D

@notfromhere@lemmy.ml
link
fedilink
English
2323d

Not to mention their “1080p” streams look worse than 2013 480p streams. The site is a dumpster fire.

@CaptKoala@lemmy.ml
link
fedilink
English
423d

I thought I was imagining this until I put a 1080p episode on one monitor and a 1080p YT vid on another. The difference was night and day.

@CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
323d

That’s why you need to pay for premium so you can get the 1080p premium bitrate.

@Squizzy@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
-123d

Hmm at a glance I dont see a major issue here, my concern would be that I dont click on vids with shit numbers so they are now on a more equal footing.

But it is better for people not to be so focused on numbers like removing number of likes on Instagram.

@moseschrute@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
022d

Wouldn’t the YouTube creator need to see views for ad revenue? Are they removing them for viewers or creators too?

@Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
322d

But it is better for people not to be so focused on numbers like removing number of likes on Instagram.

Is my mental health really something I want Google managing?

@Squizzy@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
122d

They are not managing so much as they are eliminating a likely issue for users and the public.

@Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
122d

That’s a lot of words to describe managing.

@Squizzy@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
121d

They are not managing your mental health they are managing their brand and PR.

@Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
120d

When Google removed the dislikes from youtube videos, one of the lies they told was it was for the users(or uploader’s) mental health.

@Squizzy@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
120d

Prominent youtubers came out and specifically said that they found it a good measure for their mental health to not have the focus on dislikes. Fairly certain one of the vlogbrothers did. They may not agree with it completely but said it was a positive.

I dislike it because it was a good measure of if I should click on a video or not.

@Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
120d

Except that the uploader can still see the downvote count. It was just removed so that corporations wouldn’t be embarrassed when they put out an unpopular trailer or product.

@COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
link
fedilink
English
423d

I don’t know what’s up with the algorithm pushing these lately. If it’s a video with 4 views from a channel with no subscribers I’m probably not interested in it. Sometimes they have a good thumbnail/title so I give them a chance but 9/10 times it’s terrible. Also often extremely right wing for whatever reason.

@ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
link
fedilink
English
4023d

YouTube/Google and hiding data from the end-user, name a better duo.

@notous@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
321d

Screw this, mainstream websites are constantly trying to do everything they can to influence public opinion every day. First dislike button second this.

@Ironfacebuster@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
15
edit-2
23d

As someone who tries to regularly post videos on YouTube I think this would help me, since I’m sure many people (including me, unfortunately) avoid low view count videos.

But I can absolutely understand why you wouldn’t want it hidden. I’m sure this will lead to major misinformation clickbaiting (as if that isn’t already a problem!), but I believe that the view count will still be visible on the view page.

Is YouTube doing it with small creators actually in mind? Who knows, other than them?

Edit: I do want to clarify that I think hiding the date it was posted is just strange and would probably only lead to problems

@misk@sopuli.xyz
creator
link
fedilink
English
16
edit-2
23d

I don’t like this idea for the opposite reason. I’m one of the people who are suspicious of videos with millions of views since most of them look manufactured. We all use view counts to gauge if a video is something we’re after, probably in more ways than we can come up with.

If it gives you any encouragement - I’m not discouraged by view counts. I know I like niche stuff and give small channels a try. It’s a chance at having more genuine interaction. As long as a video is not off-putting due to bad diction or very bad production then I’m not going to back out and see what it is about. This can work to your advantage too.

That’s fair, and I’m more inclined to believe people on Lemmy would agree with your view thankfully! A lot of high view videos are for sure manufactured, and from what I can tell usually target children.

I guess we’ll see how the landscape changes if this sticks around? We’re all along for the ride, for the most part!

@vxx@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
323d

That makes sense. Youtube has mixed more and more small channels with low views into my feed for a couple of months.

Return youtube view counts, coming soon

Kokesh
link
fedilink
English
624d

Why? Is everything going to shit? Like counts, view counts, dislikes … I suppose it won’t change anything for me on reVanced, but still… why?

@misk@sopuli.xyz
creator
link
fedilink
English
324d

Their top minds data scientists figured it’d be easier to manipulate users this way.

@brap@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
524d

How about you test marking videos as watched across devices so I don’t have the same shit pushed back at me all the time.

@angrystego@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
123d

How about shutting your mouth and consuming what we show you. No one’s asking if you’ve seen it already. Watch the ads!

RubberDuck
link
fedilink
English
424d

I hope the return down vote people just start collecting view count and upvotes too. Then we can at least keep that.

@CosmoNova@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
33
edit-2
24d

Seems like a sure way to lose my engagement. I don’t understand what Google thinks they’re getting out of this except for flooding you with more ads between video recommendations at the cost of people actually watching anything and using the damn website.

Between removing the dislike counter, a defect search bar that shoves garbage down your throat, recommendations of decreasing quality on my end and shorts (which I hesitantly gave a try but ultimately lost all interest in because it remained mostly low effort content despite my efforts to train my algorithm), this is just another reason why I find myself spending more time enjoying other things lately.

Maybe I am just out of touch, but I smell another bubble bursting when I look at how enshittified all major web services are simultaneously becoming.

@brucethemoose@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
6
edit-2
23d

Maybe I am just out of touch, but I smell another bubble bursting when I look at how enshittified all major web services are simultaneously becoming.

It feels like something has to give, right?

We have YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, and more just racing to enshittify like I can’t even believe, Google Search is racing to destroy the internet, yet they’re also at the ‘critical mass’ of ‘too big to fail’ and shoved out all their major competitors already (other than Discord I guess).

@scarabic@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
122d

I guess I’d rather have it than not have it, but I don’t really understand how it would make YT unusable to me if I didn’t know how many other people viewed a video. How often are you using those numbers to make important decisions between videos about what to watch? I tend to go by the topic and subscribe to creators whose videos I like. Very occasionally I might be looking for a guide to an obscure level in an obscure game and there may be 3 similar looking videos about it, but one has 200 views and the others have single digits, and I agree in that situation it means something. But otherwise I just never pay attention to it. What do I care if 2000 or 200,000 people watched a video that looks interesting to me? Some creators I subscribe to have just a couple hundred followers. I don’t care.

paraphrand
link
fedilink
English
324d

Does TikTok show view count? This seems like a move that is intended to compete with TikTok.

@misk@sopuli.xyz
creator
link
fedilink
English
424d

TikTok shows view, like and favourite/bookmark amounts.

Create a post

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


  • 1 user online
  • 174 users / day
  • 498 users / week
  • 1.33K users / month
  • 4.26K users / 6 months
  • 1 subscriber
  • 7.67K Posts
  • 86.6K Comments
  • Modlog