My main reaction when I saw this us "wait? Nobody uses subscriptions?" When nearly exclusively use my subscriptions to look at things and maybe one or twice a week go on the home tab because YouTube home tab is fucking garbage. I also do this on other platforms where I have my followed tab I watch.
this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Right?! It's the same for me!
The subscriptions thing is something I have been saying about YouTube for years. People are always complaining that the predictions are terrible but they never have subscriptions.
They are literally not using the app the way it's supposed to be used and then complaining that it doesn't work. Well yeah.
It's a really good video. He did a very good job putting words to my thoughts too, I've struggled to say why I don't like AI beyond "it's not very good at things", but as he touches on in the video, that is only one small part.
I was also very surprised by the 3% statistic, I think I watch nearly everything from my subscriptions, the recommended is either completely useless from whatever the algorithm has decided I want or showing me videos I intentionally didn't watch.
I went and followed him on Mastodon, and in that thread learned you can just add a channel to an RSS feed by using the link to their channel. I'm sure that's old news to some, but as I already use an RSS app, I'm going to start switching over I think.
What surprised me the most was the statistic that only 3% of author's views come from the subscriptions feed. This is wild to me because subscriptions are pretty much the only way I have ever used YouTube.
Considering that my biggest issue with YouTube is the fact that subscribing to a channel means fucking nothing now, it doesn't surprise me at all.
Being subscribed to a channel used to actually inform you when that channel uploaded something new, every time without fail. Now, that system is a separate thing (the bell) and it doesn't even fucking work 100% of the time. I subscribe to and have notifications enabled for about 13 channels that upload every single day; I only get notified like once a month about a random video whenever YouTube decides it wants to actually do the thing I have told it to do.
Like, I am subscribed to Technology Connections and have notifications enabled but this post is how I have come to know this video was uploaded.
Apparently my way of consuming YT is very different from most people. I do rely on subscriptions feed, but I have never used notifications. The feed still works perfectly - for me at least.
Just out of curiosity. Why do you need notifications? Do you try to watch the videos as soon they are posted?
I have similar questions when YouTubers say the old "don't forget to ring that bell" and the like. What on Earth would I need notifications for? It's on-demand video! The whole point is that it waits for me!
Having upcoming videos in my subscription feed can get stuffed too. Just list it when it's online.
Preach!
Youtube notifications drives me mad. I will see the video I was when I get around to loading next, I don't need to be told the nano second they upload
i have never understood this complaining about subscriptions, it has always worked absolutely fine for me
i subscribe to a channel and their videos show up on the subscriptions page, that's it, it works?
There’s absolutely no incentive to log in to YouTube now that subscriptions and bells do nothing to control your feed. End stage enshittification.