this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2025
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Normally, I use YouTube very little (watch a couple videos a month). However, I've been in bed with an injury for some time now, which has led me to watch quite a bit of YouTube. The thing is, I subscribe to a small handfull of channels that I enjoy content from, but after a relatively short time I had watched pretty much all the new content from those channels.

Now, I would expect that the YouTube algorithm, which is supposedly designed by competent people to get me to stick around, would be able to suggest some decent content to me based on my subscriptions. However, the past week, I've opened YouTube only to find the same old videos being suggested over and over. Even worse: Whenever there's something interesting-looking from a channel I don't recognise, it always turns out to be some shitty AI voice over some generic animations or footage.

I know for a fact that thousands of hours of content are created on YouTube daily, but it genuinely feels like there are maybe five creators out there that are making anything worth watching. It's either that, or the YouTube algorithm is just complete crap at suggesting creators that are in any way similar to what I'm already subscribing to.

What's going on here? Why does it seem like there's no real content out there?

As a "funny" side note: What's with the "aggressively American" AI narrator-voice? I've heard it before, but thought it was some dude until I realised it's the same voice in a bunch of unrelated videos. It reminds me of the Discovery-channel "action-narrator"-voice from back in the day, but now it's showing up in all kinds of crap videos.

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[–] Blackout@fedia.io 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That doesn't work anymore and I say this as a long time user. In the last 5 years their algorithm has gotten worse and worse. I have an extensive subscription list and the junk they push at me these days never matches any of the videos I currently watch. Deleting history and trying to rebuild it doesn't help. OP's feelings here is widely held with many users these days.

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

that's literally impossible.

The subscriptions tab has been, and still is, only from channels you actively clicked "subscribe" to. If you see trash in there, it's because you subscribed.

There is 0 algorithm in there.

This is the feed: https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions

[–] Blackout@fedia.io 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's not about what you already watch, op wants to find new related videos to watch. YouTube's algo no longer works that way

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Ah, I thought you meant trash stuff showing in your sub feed.

Yes, it has gotten worse, but tbh, it's not that bad for me. Recommendations still are basically stuff related to what I watch.

There tends to sometimes pop up weird stuff when I click on videos that people send me, but as soon as I remove that video from my history it's back to normal