On YouTube’s recommendation system

Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by pg_bot on Friday September 17, 2021 @01:35PM (#28568359)

Can we get a button to stop recommending videos that have already been watched? On the front page out of 12 videos listed, I've already seen 7 of them and have no need to watch them again.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by dpcx on Friday September 17, 2021 @02:33PM (#28569210)

It's not perfect, but in Firefox this definitely helps: https://github.com/EvHaus/youtube-hide-watched

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by sbierwagen on Friday September 17, 2021 @01:53PM (#28568669)

If you're logged in, hover over the video, click the three dot menu, then select "Not Interested".

If you are not logged in you can't do this, for obvious algo manipulation reasons.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by function_seven on Friday September 17, 2021 @02:01PM (#28568766)

Yeah, but then Youtube thinks, "He hates that channel!", rather than, "He doesn't want to rewatch old videos."

I keep getting old furniture restoration videos in my feed. I've seen them already. How about different channels on the same topic with new videos posted?

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by gothroach on Friday September 17, 2021 @02:06PM (#28568844)

When you select not interested, it gives the option of saying it's either because you already watched the video or that you don't like the channel. I don't know quite why they keep recommending videos I've watched recently, but at least telling YouTube I've seen a video (...) prevents it from spamming my recommendations.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by dashoffset on Friday September 17, 2021 @03:37PM (#28570027)

> I don't know quite why they keep recommending videos I've watched recently

You probably don't have kids.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by aix1 on Saturday September 18, 2021 @02:00AM (#28574054)

That, and music videos.

Though it feels like both scenarios should be pretty easy to handle algorithmically.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by lucb1e on Friday September 17, 2021 @05:39PM (#28571211)

Because kids watch furniture restoration videos that GP was talking about?

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by risho on Friday September 17, 2021 @02:04PM (#28568822)

you can tell youtube you've already seen it. you hit "not interested" and then click "tell us why" and then hit "i've already seen it".

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by lucb1e on Friday September 17, 2021 @05:40PM (#28571216)

It's quite a few clicks when you could just mentally skip over it, but indeed I wanted it to learn so I went through the trouble. Again and again. Probably more than a hundred times. It doesn't learn. I just pass over them now. The algorithm probably knows better than all of us what keeps us longer on the site anyway and the button is just a dummy.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by function_seven on Friday September 17, 2021 @04:59PM (#28570831)

Thanks. I never got to that step because I didn't know there'd be another question.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by barbazoo on Friday September 17, 2021 @02:15PM (#28568970)

You're right but somehow I would think that YT should know which videos I've already watched...

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by sbierwagen on Friday September 17, 2021 @03:13PM (#28569739)

There's lots of music on youtube. Some "videos" get rewatched hundreds of times.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by lucb1e on Friday September 17, 2021 @05:41PM (#28571227)

Those are in a category called music.

Even without the category system, if the user never ever goes back to rewatch a video they've seen, it could perhaps realize that the user doesn't want to rewatch videos they've already seen. Or if some videos or channels have a very high re-watch rate and others don't (presumably music channels vs., say, a random furniture restoration channel), it could tune for that. Clearly they're not separating the types, and it's not because they're not capable.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by pg_bot on Friday September 17, 2021 @02:05PM (#28568838)

This doesn't work, it will just show more videos I've already seen.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by sbierwagen on Friday September 17, 2021 @02:44PM (#28569352)

Well yes, it doesn't change the algorithm. It just drops that particular video.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by gremloni on Friday September 17, 2021 @06:26PM (#28571603)

That doesn’t solve the problem at all. I like and am interested in the videos I’ve watched. I want the algorithm to know I’m interested, I just don’t want it watch something I’ve watched again.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by bergesenha on Friday September 17, 2021 @01:46PM (#28568545)

I second this. I also wish the algorithm would throw a real curveball once in a while too, something completely different to what I have been caught in.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by imglorp on Friday September 17, 2021 @01:51PM (#28568625)

While we're at it, how about just let us call an API and use our own recommender?

They probably hate this idea but who knows, that might even increase vid views.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by willhinsa on Friday September 17, 2021 @03:36PM (#28570013)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28569079

> 2. If you have set your history to expire after some amount of time, it will start re-recommending videos you've already seen once it has forgotten you have watched them.

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Re:On YouTube’s recommendation system by stewartmcgown on Friday September 17, 2021 @02:13PM (#28568940)

Go to the end of the list of category pills on the homepage and click 'New to You'

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