Every time I log in I get the exact same recommendations. Literally the exact same ones, every single time, for months at a time, so I can't just refresh the page like I would on TikTok and get all new videos to watch. Plus, the recommendations are so bad, I may as well be scrolling Facebook. They are bad, and there is a huge recency bias. I watch one new thing, and suddenly almost my entire feed is made up of more of the same, and usually it isn't even similar videos, it is the same videos on the same exact topic. I feel like I have such a diverse range of interests, and so many channels that I follow, but I can go years without these channels coming up again.
I feel like the fix would be so easy as well. Option 1, go back to how it was before, and option 2, show me things that other people are watching. If someone watched the same video as me, the video they watch afterwards is probably going to be of interest to me.
That's the background, my question is has anyone else been able to make their YouTube recommendations not shit? Is there another website that mirrors YouTube but has good recommendations? and also, does anyone have any theories as to why YouTube recommendations are so horrendous? There must be a reason, it doesn't make any sense.
I have ADHD and cycle through phases of hyper fixation pretty quickly. The algorithm you’re describing might be built for people like me (sorry!).
I find that my algorithm tends to recommend videos based almost exclusively on content from about 3 of my most recent fixations. I can usually change it up pretty quickly though. I think the trick is having a fairly robust set of playlists that I revert to whenever the algorithm fails me. This might provide some more insight to help train the algorithm, though it probably depends on a bunch of other factors.
Whenever showing me content similar to my most recent views doesn’t work, the algorithm usually just defaults to showing me cat videos. Which I’m pretty pleased with, cat videos are easily the best thing on that site.