YOUTUBE...WTF

Mr. Mike · Post by **Mr. Mike** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 5:46 am

YT is crazy...the %$##$% format seems to change everyday. Now when I log on, I cannot get the "all activity" button...doesn't show up..
It was there 2 days ago, then it disappeared, showed up again this afternoon now its gone again! It suck, cause I cant see what all the people I follow are saving and liking

llama · Post by **llama** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 3:36 pm

i agree the all activity button is crucial....if for Musictattoo alone...i havent seen it for several days

markyc118 · Post by **markyc118** » Sun Nov 22, 2015 6:10 pm

Was this ever implemented on the iOS app?

Dangling Fan · Post by **Dangling Fan** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 1:00 am

It's the same story in Greece as well! What a bummer!

Why do they have to change every day just for the sake of it?

paradigm88 · Post by **paradigm88** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 6:22 am

Similarly, when I load up YouTube my "Subscriptions" link at the left suggests I have tons of new unwatched content - when I usually have one or two new videos. It's as if it's been incrementing that number without counting out my watched videos or anything old. Hopefully they fix it soon.

llama · Post by **llama** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 10:02 pm

paradigm88 wrote:Similarly, when I load up YouTube my "Subscriptions" link at the left suggests I have tons of new unwatched content - when I usually have one or two new videos. It's as if it's been incrementing that number without counting out my watched videos or anything old. Hopefully they fix it soon.

same problem here

notalwaysright10000 · Post by **notalwaysright10000** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 3:38 am

"Similarly, when I load up YouTube my "Subscriptions" link at the left suggests I have tons of new unwatched content - when I usually have one or two new videos. "

There is a way to fix that. Go to the upper right of your screen and switch "grid view" to single "column", and you'll see video posts just like before, but not other activity.

Why are they doing this? I know perfectly well why. They're a corporation, and for well over half a century corporations have relied heavily on their ability to influence what gets to be said is mass media. Social media, conversely, have no economic barriers to entry and thus, quite unlike CNN or the New York times, can serve as fora for unconstrained discussion.

Both corporate and bureaucratic power are terrified of this, and rightly so.
The person with whom you're arguing on the internet may be an ignorant dolt without the faintest fucking clue what he's talking about, but so are most on TV and in newspapers, and unlike a newscast or column, you can ask pointed questions and demand *primary sources*.

Anyway, it's perfectly clear that every single set of changes Youtube has made has been to whittle down the comment features and isolate discussioners from each other. You're the customer, not the product, and as far as they're concerned you're there to watch ads, not engage in discussion.

They've partially concealed what they're doing by including occasional improvements alongside the cutbacks, like expanding the character limit while removing video responses and making commentary no longer visible from subscription feeds. But mark my words, the ability to follow "likes" will return while the ability to follow comments will stay removed. Both "bugs"are quite deliberate and they'll "fix" one but not the other.

Oh, and this is not a conspiracy; it's business.

notalwaysright10000 · Post by **notalwaysright10000** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 3:38 am

*in mass media

Mr. Mike · Post by **Mr. Mike** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 5:23 pm

I simpler terms...they do this from time to time. This has happened before and then the "all activity" button reappears. This has been almost a week though...pissing me off

notalwaysright10000 · Post by **notalwaysright10000** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 6:37 pm

That depends heavily on what you mean by "all activity".

Mr. Mike · Post by **Mr. Mike** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:13 pm

There was on the upper left an "all activity" button that allowed you see anytime any of people u follow would save or like something. Now it's gone and all you see is when someone posts something on YT

notalwaysright10000 · Post by **notalwaysright10000** » Fri Nov 27, 2015 7:08 am

Right. And I'm saying it's likely that "likes" and playlist additions will return to the subscription feed, but comments will not.

Two things are certain:

1)Google is experimenting with ways to direct your attention and influence what you view.

2) They are attempting to make discussion as difficult as possible without their efforts being utterly transparent.

You see, if they temporarily remove and then restore the other features without restoring the comment features, it's less abrupt and conspicuous than if they'd simply removed the comment related features without removing any others.

It's a smokescreen, and I doubt they have any intention of leaving the other features removed. If they don't restore them, it will only be because they've decided that their efforts to directly conduct your attention *themselves* ("what to watch" "watch it again" "recommended for you"...) are successful enough that it countervails the extra hits generated by allowing the activity of other users to be readily visible.

It all comes down to what they think will be the best strategy to direct and focus site visitors to the cynosures of advertising hot spots without driving them away altogether.

TL:DR: The features you miss will probably be back soon because they're good for hits and thus (most likely) profits.

llama · Post by **llama** » Fri Nov 27, 2015 8:12 pm

OK since it has been a week, with no sign of coming back, lets list some channels we can check for their activity manually-
My obvious choices are musictattoo, subliminalsoul, and Al raksan.......anybody else have suggestions?

notalwaysright10000 · Post by **notalwaysright10000** » Fri Nov 27, 2015 9:38 pm

You just named my top three, but Castlerock23 is also good, with a caveat: He adds a lot of videos to his shoeplay lists that don't have any actual shoeplay. Still worth checking.

llama · Post by **llama** » Fri Nov 27, 2015 11:10 pm

notalwaysright10000 wrote:You just named my top three, but Castlerock23 is also good, with a caveat: He adds a lot of videos to his shoeplay lists that don't have any actual shoeplay. Still worth checking.

will do, thanks

Mr. Mike · Post by **Mr. Mike** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 7:30 pm

Those are all good ones, I also follow:

Fotzibaer1981
Piedi Stanchi
Santarget

Mr. Mike · Post by **Mr. Mike** » Wed Dec 02, 2015 1:33 am

I don't get it...why have they taken away the "all activity" button for almost 2 weeks now? It serves NO POINT to eliminate it. (notalwaysright), while I love a lot of your opinions, I think you are looking way too deep into this. I dont think they are :trying to control what we watch"...hell, if thats the case just eliminate all the people I follow and just show me what you want me to see. This is the 3rd oor 4th time they've done this over the years...problem is, we can't complain because if they take a look at our videos we have saved, they will surely shut our page down. There is NO REASON for this but its really pissing me off.

notalwaysright10000 · Post by **notalwaysright10000** » Wed Dec 02, 2015 2:57 pm

Hey, I live up to my screen name. :superlol:

"There is NO REASON for this but its really pissing me off."

It's pissing me off too, but I think there's a reason. Think of it as a tree of logical possibilities, ask which are most likely, and see which branch we end up on.

Four possibilities at the first branch:

1)They have *some* financial incentive for what they're doing, whether that exact motive is scrutable or not

2)They have no motive, and this is just carelessness

3)That have a motive other than financial one (political, ideological)

4) Motive isn't directly relevant here; this is just a technical bug that they've not got around to fixing

I think (1) is by far the most likely. with (2) and (3) far fetched and (4) all but flatly impossible.

Assuming in arguendo that (1) is indeed correct, one might as well surmise what that motive could be. I already proffered a long-winded speculation, but I think I can succinctly expand on it.

"I dont think they are :trying to control what we watch"...hell, if that's the case just eliminate all the people I follow and just show me what you want me to see. "

Well it looks like they've stopped just short of that, but I think the answer is that there is, after all, a *limit* to the manipulation people are wiling to put up with. But since Youtube is a near monopoly service, they know that limit is *way* out there, and they keep adding a straw at a time to the camel's back.

Why would they want to control what we watch? I don't think they do, really. Rather, they want to herd viewers into as many narrow channels as possible, regardless what they're watching.
Why?
For the same reason advertisers are willing to pay so much for Superbowl ads. That's a lot of eyes in one place, which is exactly what advertisers are looking for. Having adds too thinly dispersed is like having one package of creamer distributed throughout all the coffee you drink in a year.

There's far more gold in the ocean than humans have ever mined, but a nugget the size of your head is not even noticeable when dissolved in hundreds of cubic kilometers of water.

Hopefully, a real competitor to Youtube will spring up -or preferably several.