This tactic probably worked the first ten times it was done ..... but it's completely useless now
Every time I see this kind of thumbnail, I actively avoid the video, channel and the creator
this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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Trippin' Through Time
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Same, but they can A/B test thumbnails, so clearly it leads to more engagement.
I like that its become an easy filter for dumbed down content, so I save myself some time
It's only gotten subtle, can't avoid it
I have ascended to a higher level of old-man-yells-at-cloud and just don't watch youtube*. I'd rather just read words. It's really depressing how illiterate many people seem to be.
*with the exception of like music videos and the occasional "this is how you do this weird thing in a video game"
I watch short form videos on mute
I find it regulates me from continuously watching hours of junk.
When you start seeing it all without sound, you start realizing how mundane and meaningless it all is.
I really, really hate "YouTube face", it's so annoying. Maybe it's overkill, but I actively avoid the videos and channels where they use it. Oh, your clickbait thumbnail is more important than the content? Guess I'll check out other sources then...
Seems they all have to do it or the algo will punish you.
Fucking disaster.
No they don't. There are plenty who don't.
And they probably get less views because of it. I respect their integrity.
There's always DeArrow
I block every channel that does it, even those that I've been subscribed to for years because it's a harbinger of quality decline.
I used to think they were all "phone Shrek at 3am" kinds of jackasses but have since learnt that they all do this. "Phone Shrek at 3am" was still the first impression I had though and I honestly think it's really fucking weird that apparently doing this gets them more views. Maybe this is what getting old is but sometimes it feels like half the world has been replaced by pod people over the last 10 years.
It gets them more views when they use it. I hate it, too, but human psychology is to blame.
but human psychology is to blame.
I believe youtube algorithms are playing a bigger role than human psychology here.
People have to choose to watch it, regardless. Many creators have said they get more views with the stupid faces than without.
I recommend a Firefox extension called DeArrow, it replaces all the thumbnails and titles to be less clickbaity.
Same
Glad to see i'm not alone. It's for me a sign of, uh, .
Every couple weeks my recommendations gradually turn into mostly this crap and I don't even know what I'm doing. I literally never click on them and pretty much only watch the same stuff but still the algorithm somehow is like... no this must be just the thing for him. I've started just running it in private window so it wipes my cookies and shit whenever I close out of it.
I hate that useless "nobody:" Glad it went out of style. If nobody said nothing, then everybody said something. The still useless but correct way would be "everybody:"
It's a shorthand for "nobody asked for this but [person/group] do it anyway:"
I know, it's just very poorly done. You can remove it every single time and it changes nothing about the joke.
Be that as it may, "everyone:" is not a good replacement.
It's more accurate, but yes, they both suck.
Perfection
Was about to do that, saved me the crop thanks
The extension DeArrow gets rid of the annoying thumbnails and titles
The problem I have with that is that it probably means I'll end up unknowingly rewarding the clickbaiters/blanking the more thoughtful creators who deserved the view. Somewhere, somebody in the world will think I deliberately clicked on a dumb thumbnail and that's too great a burden to bear.
How do you know to avoid the Video/channel then?
Need one that puts things in their gaping mouths
The hilarious thing is that they probably practiced the face in front of the mirror
All that's missing is a massively huge curved red arrow and a bit of text with an exclamation point or a question mark.
And the bright colour palette to appeal to children
And some sort of lame question/exclamation.
Thank fuck for Dearrow!
The worst is when the painting actually has interesting composition but I have to waste my time looking for a similar work where nobody is making a stupid face, to avoid rewarding artists who paint overly dramatic self-portraits.
I remember watching a video where the guy was reaming influencer culture.
He referred to that face as the "dick sucking face", and I can't unsee it now.
🤭
EDIT: Holy shit, I found it. It's from The Hated One, on a video he made about YouTube three years ago. The dick sucking thumbnail comment is at around 3:33: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZZ59HOdAbI
Yeah, enjoy your block.
What’s sad is that making a good thumbnail/poster for a form of media is truly an art to itself.
Some movie posters have taught me that you can capture attention, be witty AND have artistic merit.
And either the word "shocking" or "nightmare" is being used
Well, to be fair, there really are a lot of shocking nightmares going on these days.
BANNED??!????!??!!?!!!!!!!!
The oh noes duckface.
kid named finger:
More than one has complained about how dumb it is yet how well it works. Another version of Don't Hate The Player, I guess
