Tell HN: YouTube’s removing upload dates from videos

[Hnaomyiph]

This isn’t a recent change, but something I’ve noticed in the past 6+ months.

YouTube videos occasionally no longer show upload date and it’s becoming more frequent. There is no way I’ve found to access the upload date information through the YouTube UI.

I speculate this is to make use of their ever-growing and ever-aging content to make it seem more evergreen, but makes finding the newest, relevant information more difficult in certain areas.

[dchest]

There are there in the DOM, just covered with lots of buttons.

PS Let's not use Tell HN to complain about website UIs.

[selfhoster11]

This is not just complaining about website UI. YouTube removing upload dates is erasing useful historical data, at the very least.

[dchest]

As I said, they didn't remove it. Open Dev Tools and check the DOM node after the view count. Or just make your window larger to see it.

[selfhoster11]

They haven’t removed it from the DOM yet. In a few updates, it’s likely that they will remove it.

[dchest]

So, your complaint is "I predict that YouTube will remove upload dates from videos"?

[selfhoster11]

Other than their recent history of user-hostile changes (like removing the dislike count), they have two more incentives:

1. If the user cannot see the upload date, they are less likely to realise that the video isn’t recent. This makes it less likely that someone will see a video that they think is “dated”, regardless of reality. YouTube is fighting to overcome younger competitors like TikTok, so it makes sense they would sacrifice some features to claw back the audience that could leave for such a competitor.

2. An upload date is a field that has to be maintained, tested and supported across the entire stack for as long as it’s there. If they think they can save money by dropping support for it (and eventually phasing it out entirely), they are likely to eventually do so.