Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by c54 524 days ago
I’m interested in the alternative YouTube front ends like Pinchflat and Glance mentioned here. Ideally I’d avoid scrolling the YouTube homepage while still giving views and likes/subscribed to the creators I watch, because it helps support them (to what degree exactly I’m not sure but it seems like the right thing to do). I do find the archiving/downloading case meaningful as well, since a few yt vids that I enjoyed have been taken down over the years.

But.. reducing mindless scrolling while still giving me a way to follow content I care about seems good.

Does anyone have experience with using these? Are there alternate tools which are better than the ones listed here?
3 comments
kevinfiol 524 days ago
> But.. reducing mindless scrolling while still giving me a way to follow content I care about seems good.

My solution [1] to this was to create a static site that is built by a Github Actions workflow that runs every hour. The script just pulls RSS feeds I have listed in a .js file, and uses that to build the site [2]. The result is I'm more deliberate in what videos I watch, and I discover new creators organically (a friend recommends one, or I find them while doing a search).

For "favoriting" videos, I just add them to a folder in Firefox bookmarks manager.

My newest "feature" is a "Picks from your subscriptions" thing that uses an external Deno service [3] to grab a random video from one of my random subscriptions. This helps me discover old videos from my subscriptions I may have never seen.

[1] https://github.com/kevinfiol/youtube

[2] https://kevinfiol.com/youtube/

[3] https://github.com/kevinfiol/youtube-random

link
wongarsu 524 days ago
I use pinchflat mostly for archiving channels that occasionally take videos down. It technically has an inbuilt video player, but that's more for "debugging". The intended non-archival usecase is have the download folder picked up by your Plex or Jellyfin and watch it there.

Of course that deprives you from interaction with the actual youtube content. But for support, $1/month on the creator's patreon goes further, and for engagement you can join the creator's discord. The only thing you are really missing out on is feeding the youtube algorithm.

link
carlosjobim 524 days ago
> (to what degree exactly I’m not sure but it seems like the right thing to do)

It doesn't help them very much, or at all. If you want to support them, you can pay them.

link