To be fair: not everything is shite and Youtube is my favorite social media (especially for discovering new music), but I noticed a big drop in quality videos from one day to the other a couple of years ago. Just opening up Youtube one day and seeing all kinds of thumbnails with people with their mouth open, very 'colory' thumbnails (more childlike), channels that I would never watch being presented... I should have noted the exact date, but I didn't. I guess it was around two years ago.

Even searching for specific topics is hard. I just know there's enough material on the platform, but in my search results I get so many doubles and channels that I already know. I can keep scrolling, but to no result.

If anybody knows some good DIY or woodworking channels, let me know!

I wish the BBC would publish their whole archive through YT. The few things that they do put up are often so mind expanding whether it's Berty Russel, The Beatles, or some cracking Scottish chap going for a bike ride with a bottle of whisky.

https://invidious.io https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

An accessible interface to YouTube content without tracking, using a decentralized network of community-run instances that scrape, rather than API-call, site data.

[EDIT]

Also Yattee doing the Lord's work:

https://github.com/yattee/yattee

Privacy oriented video player for iOS, tvOS and macOS with Invidious support.

The “remove video thumbnail” and “remove YouTube shorts” chrome extension is a must install though.

Disney on the other hand is an IP curation firm. Sure they make money on movie tickets and subscriptions and merchandise, but they create value by creating and maintaining a litany of characters, stories, and settings which are priced based on the idea they can be milked essentially forever. Disney could pump out flop after flop after flop, but so long as those flops keep Disney owned characters alive in the zeitgeist, it's a financial win. Obviously Disney needs revenue, but it's valuation is only loosely related to its current revenue.

The thing with traditional media is that it's all about limits and compromise and trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator. The TV and radio airwaves are limited, as is the schedule. Cinemas and screening times are limited. Shops selling books are limited. Etc.

So what you get is very generic and milquetoast. It's bland content aimed at a large audience that (presumably) doesn't want to think too hard or leave their comfort zone, which is designed to appeal to every possible region on Earth at the same time and which doesn't scare away corporate types that see anything outside of a few specific genres as too risky to deal with.

Much of what's on YouTube isn't like that. Yeah, there are censorship issues and other such problems, but many of the videos and channels there are as niche as niche can be, and all the better because of it. You don't need to care if your videos appeal to 300 million people in the US or are understandable to a few billion worldwide, you just need to care that an audience that wants that sort of content can discover them and find value from it.

Almost every commenter on this site watches something different on YouTube, often about topics that appeal to only a tiny percentage of the population. Platforms like YouTube can support that, traditional media companies can't.

The cumulative impact of all those different channels and creators is bigger than any small library of mass market works could ever be.

Couldn't imagine using YouTube on my phone without it, it's night and day difference – that's despite being a premium subscriber anyway.

There's a very low bar for anyone in the world to watch YouTube with a handheld device and an internet connection. What am I missing?

I suppose it's their ad program and fast-acting content ID system that juice it - that'd be the hard part to get right.

X has a lot of video content too - why not present it better in a video-focused version? Get rid of the "X" branding though - it's not a rating. Maybe "Y"?

Micropayments should be tied into all compensation now. x402 as well for monetization.

Perhaps if Soundcloud did video it'd be a challenger and there's one area Soundcloud lacks but should be able to capitalize on - music videos as uploaded by artists themselves.

Of course, the preceding paragraph could be re-written in many different ways.

(raises hand)

Photonicinduction

The very best of what youtube can offer, to me. Pick any video.

covered in terms of conference videos,

then you can listen to dj mixes.

YouTube is simply goated - no other platform comes to the versatility you can consume in terms of long-form content.

And stop recommending me the same videos over and over , gah

    disable_minimize()

In their ongoing fight against yt-dlp and others i can already not watch videos using VPNs.

Adblockers has made most tech people unaware of the enshittification of most web services. For most normal people when they eventually make this change it will not affect them at all.

Just for reference in 2025 annual year, the experiences division generated just a casual $36 billion with a pretty high profit margin.

This really doesn't seem like an apples to apple comparision. Youtube is nothing like Disney fundamentally

Eg. https://youtu.be/ucRTW4rgrbU?si=dfRIy76BM8ntNQph

I don't know if many of you remember the olden days of Youtube, when it wasn't lead by corporate greed, and before it was infested by greedy abysmal shitty people - When profits weren't the driving force behind content creation.

Whenever I see content creators like that on Youtube right now I just wish them the best, and if they have a platform currently that supports them financially, well good for them. I still remember the 2018 fiasco when the Ads bubble burst because of the bridge incident, and lots of them didn't know what to do cause the revenue was very shit for years and the future looked bleak.

My favorite channels thread: - Watch Wes Work: Car Mechanic but super funny - Super EyePatch Wolf and Worm Girl: Niche Horror Video Games and Topics. - Lots of Japanese Drawing Channels - Devaslife: Japanese Developer and Creator of Inkdrop - Miziziziz and countless game developers that want to show their games and tutorials. - Acerola: Best Youtube Content on Graphics Development - jdh: game development in C and super amazing content truly - Ethoslab: He'll always have a spot on my youtube world