[sangeeth96]

I wish we didn't stuff being "anti-algorithm" under "minimalism". It's just not the same thing. I don't want to go minimalist even if I respect the folks who do.

I wish I could pay for YouTube and other apps and they'd stop cramming their decisions on my feed and instead let _me_ control the experience. At least, let me have reverse-chronological feeds on my home, mute/block channels I don't care about, hide content types and give me more recommendations based on the things I actually like or prefer to consume at that point. I still want to use their apps but almost all of their product leads have decided even paying for something like "Premium" wouldn't entitle a customer to having control over their experience. It's gross.

[alisonatwork]

FreeTube and PipePipe largely solve this problem for me. I just subscribe to people I am interested in and watch their videos. If they link or recommend another creator I have a quick browse and subscribe there too, or not. When I get bored, I unsubscribe. Everything is chronological. It's like the good old days of mailing lists/usenet/blogs/RSS except with video.

The only downside is that it's still centralized behind the scenes so you still get the weird algorithm gimmickry inside the content like people superstitiously saying or not saying certain words in the first few minutes, nonsense like "nothing to add, just commenting for the algorithm", that weird tendency to dopily repeat the same sentences around what I guess would be an ad break if I ever saw ads etc. I try to mitigate this by sending money to specific creators, showing that an alternative income source to YouTube could be possible, but of course that's still funneled through Patreon which is another centralized for-profit service that has a vested interest in getting creators to provide membership tiers and value-adds that chip away at their motivation to put out meaningful content that enriches broader society.

I've come to think that centralization is a bigger problem than "the algorithm". I don't remember having these issues anywhere near as much when people shared their stuff independently. To be fair, though, back then most people were doing it as a hobby outside of their day job.

[gnarlouse]

DFTube (distraction free) is a browser plug-in that kills 99% of algorithm html. ublock origin kills ads. Perfect YouTube experience. So good I’d pay yearly for it.

[sangeeth96]

I do something similar with the built-in functionalities of uBlock/Adguard to hide the annoying bits of YouTube out of my sight. But I’m remarking that this shouldn’t be necessary when one’s already paying YouTube in hopes to get an unshittified experience.

[gnarlouse]

Apologies—I’m actually saying the same thing, too, fudged my wording. Meant to say our shared dream for a barebones YouTube experience is worth a yearly subscription to me. No algorithmic engagement features, no HTML suppression, just a search bar and videos.