[MyFedora]

So... the recommendation system works like it's supposed to? Giving you content you want to see.

I'm not sure what the complaint is here, besides that platforms strong arm their creators into creating more engaging content to retain their viewers. Everyone's taste shifts from time to time, so I think it's reasonable to expect platforms to show you what content you're likely in the mood for watching at the moment.

It's the opposite that bugs me: Platforms forcing me to go out of my way to discover interesting content once my taste shifts. At that point, I'd wonder why I even use that platform if not for content curated based on my personal preferences. Might as well go back to RSS newsreaders for the self-curated experience.

[anigbrowl]

The complaint is that people signed up to follow individuals and platforms started feeding them high engagement content instead. I sometimes 'lose' people who I follow but who are not highly active; when I recall that I haven't seen anything from them in a while and check their feed, it often turns out they were posting the platform had decided to stop showing their stuff if I didn't interact with it enough.

[Nevermark]

Yes the 100% natural candy they gave you, surreptitiously laced with addictive substances, did what it was supposed to!

By the time you are addicted, they don't care that you know.

(The line between addiction, and highly reinforced habit, is a continuum. But it is all insidious. Your choice and will was hacked by deception, before you had an informed choice to not even start.)

[MyFedora]

When I check out YouTube's home page, I usually find recommendations for cool stuff like https://youtu.be/Loq-YHYGZy8, https://youtu.be/xb_g7qNCpuo, or https://youtu.be/8iPoXZuzlUg. This isn't the stereotypical, braindead content everyone complains about. It's actually relevant to what I watch. A lot of these come from smaller creators who post a mix of topics, which means the traditional subscriber model flat out doesn't work. Sometimes they also only post a few videos and then vanish. So when people say the recommendation system is broken, I have to wonder if it's really about not wanting to face the fact that their feed reflects what they watch. If they're getting recommended stuff they don't like, maybe it's because that's what they've been into.

[Nevermark]

YouTube is certainly more quality maintainable than small post social media