Where Have All The Viewers Gone? - General

Oh god this guy comes off as so ignorant, the reason he isn't doing as well now is because he isn't adapting to how things work now. Youtube's current system and algorithms aren't really worse, just different some people who have made videos for a long time are doing better than ever now, like for example look at Internet Comment Etiquette, he's been making that series for 7 years but since he started his new channel last year and is engaging more with his audience as well as making more consistent and interesting videos he's growing really fast or jacksfilms, he's definitely one of the oldest currently relevant channels and he's more popular than ever now that he's doing his daily series in addition to his parodies

I only keep like 100 subscribed channels at a time. I also very regularly unsub channels I don't watch anymore. More often than not it's a drop in quality. Like I used to love Ashens, but nowadays I barely watch his videos because I don't really give a crap about Lootcrate or Barry Lewis. And some channels just do the same thing all the time. Eventually it gets boring. I don't even sub all channels I watch because I'm only interested in very specific videos from them and I don't want their entire feed on my home page. And I also use AdBlock. This country doesn't have a lot of youtube advertisers and it gets real fucking tiring watching the same three ads hundreds of times a day. And now we have short unskippable ads too. I don't have adblock on my phone, and I get my share of the suffering from there.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/CEnxp39.jpg[/IMG] Remember when you could make it so the frontpage was only existing out of your subscriptions? Especially here in the Netherlands the frontpage is spammed with cancerous vbloggers

[QUOTE=Eric95;50510057]Oh god this guy comes off as so ignorant, the reason he isn't doing as well now is because he isn't adapting to how things work now. Youtube's current system and algorithms aren't really worse, just different[/QUOTE] Annnnd his argument is that the emphasis on watch time makes it really difficult for channels that produce a low amount of high quality content (like animations for instance) to get any kind of success at all. The point is that there's a certain type of specific content that is encouraged (high amount of high retention videos like let's-plays that can be produced quickly) which basically cuts down on the diversity. The rich get richer and most other channels get left in the dust. He's not the first one to have made that argument, either (especially about the views drop in 2013). It's mind-boggling how channels can have millions of subscribers but only a fraction of that count end up watching their actual videos.

[QUOTE=fruxodaily;50502286]first, no don't remove adblock but if adblock (or ublock) ever released a feature where you can whitelist channels, then you should.[/QUOTE] just btw, this option totally exists [img]http://puu.sh/prk8P/39b43ff813.png[/img] [img]http://puu.sh/prk5F/832c601c8e.png[/img]

[QUOTE=DudeGuyKT;50510954]just btw, this option totally exists [img]http://puu.sh/prk8P/39b43ff813.png[/img] [img]http://puu.sh/prk5F/832c601c8e.png[/img][/QUOTE] yeah but all the cool kids switched too ublock origins now

[QUOTE=StrawberryClock;50510850]Annnnd his argument is that the emphasis on watch time makes it really difficult for channels that produce a low amount of high quality content (like animations for instance) to get any kind of success at all. The point is that there's a certain type of specific content that is encouraged (high amount of high retention videos like let's-plays that can be produced quickly) which basically cuts down on the diversity. The rich get richer and most other channels get left in the dust. He's not the first one to have made that argument, either (especially about the views drop in 2013). It's mind-boggling how channels can have millions of subscribers but only a fraction of that count end up watching their actual videos.[/QUOTE] Well yeah but also, looking at his channel his newer content barely has any appeal at all Like, he did the microwave show which was popular not because of the people or the production but because they're microwaving stuff and people are curious. And he basically exhausted all possible potential from that show back in like 2008 which makes sense, you run out of interesting ideas pretty quick. Now he's doing generic movie reviews and vlogs, and he's not particularly good at it, so it makes perfect sense that people aren't really interested in his channel anymore There are plenty of newer animation channels that are doing really well now too, and growing fast. You just have to optimize your content for how internet video works right now And then there's fairly new and thriving channels that only make sparsely released high-quality video content, like video essay channels such as Every Frame A Painting for example. The PewDiePie thing makes total sense too, most of his viewers don't watch everything he releases because he releases multiple videos a day. So, they might specifically watch the videos for a specific game or only his vlogs or only his VR videos or whatever. Just like people with a cable subscription only watch a few specific shows on a few specific channels at specific times of the day even though they have access to much more. Being interested in a channel's content doesn't mean you're interested in everything they release

[QUOTE=Eric95;50510057]Oh god this guy comes off as so ignorant, the reason he isn't doing as well now is because he isn't adapting to how things work now. Youtube's current system and algorithms aren't really worse, just different some people who have made videos for a long time are doing better than ever now, like for example look at Internet Comment Etiquette, he's been making that series for 7 years but since he started his new channel last year and is engaging more with his audience as well as making more consistent and interesting videos he's growing really fast or jacksfilms, he's definitely one of the oldest currently relevant channels and he's more popular than ever now that he's doing his daily series in addition to his parodies[/QUOTE] Explain the chart that shows the massive drop of viewers since the youtube layout change. Did he just so happen to make a bad video that day that caused him to lose hundreds of thousands of viewers for the rest of his channel's life?

[QUOTE=JCDentonUNATCO;50511783]Explain the chart that shows the massive drop of viewers since the youtube layout change. Did he just so happen to make a bad video that day that caused him to lose hundreds of thousands of viewers for the rest of his channel's life?[/QUOTE] I'm not denying that the layout and algorithm change impacted his viewership. But for most channels that it impacted that was temporary because they changed their strategy. And for many channels it improved their viewership. Thing is, YouTube adapted its algorithms to fit what's more popular on YouTube. Which is Let's Plays and vlogs, and consistently posted comedy videos. Because that's what most YouTube users want to watch, even if it isn't your thing. So that helped a lot of those YouTubers out, though it had a negative impact on a few of the older YouTube channels that had a working strategy tailored to the way YouTube worked in 2008. It's very possible to get a lot of views nowadays without going full-out clickbait like he did with his most popular videos. You just have to adapt a little, just like they used to adapt to the old algorithms.

[QUOTE=JCDentonUNATCO;50511783]Explain the chart that shows the massive drop of viewers since the youtube layout change. Did he just so happen to make a bad video that day that caused him to lose hundreds of thousands of viewers for the rest of his channel's life?[/QUOTE] Devil's avocado: maybe this was beneficial to the viewers? Maybe people watched some channels because they didn't know any better, but then the new algorithm gave them good suggestions so they ended up watching those instead?

[QUOTE=Kljunas;50512173]Devil's avocado: maybe this was beneficial to the viewers? Maybe people watched some channels because they didn't know any better, but then the new algorithm gave them good suggestions so they ended up watching those instead?[/QUOTE] Sounds quite plausible. As Paula said, competition is fierce and content is abundant. It is no surprise both new and old viewers alike found something better after the change.

So I unsubscribed to a channel yesterday and this morning I have a new video from that unsubscribed channel in my subscriptons feed, shows how messed up the system is.

[QUOTE=Ott;50504999]Idk man I have 38 subscribers and 82 views on my most recent video[/QUOTE] I have 41 subscribers and a video with 35,000 views

"don't forget to like, fave and subscribe" Being subscribed to a user never meant anything to begin with. It just means even less nowadays. People use it as a metric to judge if a channel is failing (good example with the recent case of keemstar) even though its pretty irrelevant.

I wouldn't mind YouTube pushing suggested channels so much if they weren't so shit at suggesting things. No YouTube, just because I watched videos related to video games doesn't mean I want to watch 20 different Minecraft channels. No matter how many times I click "not interested" to hide them they keep fucking coming back.

Personally some of the youtubers he listed as examples of suffering creators are youtubers I used to watch but grew tired of

[QUOTE=darth-veger;50510275]http://i.imgur.com/CEnxp39.jpg Remember when you could make it so the frontpage was only existing out of your subscriptions? Especially here in the Netherlands the frontpage is spammed with cancerous vbloggers[/QUOTE] You mean what happens if you click on the Subscriptions button? You don't even have to click it, just bookmark [url]https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions[/url]

My YouTube channel page has over a quarter of a million views, but I have only a couple hundred subscribers.

[QUOTE=Paramud;50518913]You mean what happens if you click on the Subscriptions button? You don't even have to click it, just bookmark [url]https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions[/url][/QUOTE] Thats not the issue. Most people who use youtube go to just, you know, [url]www.youtube.com[/url] and log in and what you get is recommendations that YouTube makes rather then what your subscribers have made like it used to be. I made my own chrome extension to just show subscription videos

[QUOTE=DudeGuyKT;50510954]just btw, this option totally exists [img]http://puu.sh/prk8P/39b43ff813.png[/img] [img]http://puu.sh/prk5F/832c601c8e.png[/img][/QUOTE] Which adblock is this adblock+ on chrome doesn't have these options?

[QUOTE=Lexinator;50519080]Which adblock is this adblock+ on chrome doesn't have these options?[/QUOTE] [url]https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom?hl=nl[/url] AdBlock without the +

[QUOTE=darth-veger;50519033]Thats not the issue. Most people who use youtube go to just, you know, [url]www.youtube.com[/url] and log in and what you get is recommendations that YouTube makes rather then what your subscribers have made like it used to be. I made my own chrome extension to just show subscription videos[/QUOTE] here I was thinking I had some extension installed because I only see gives from my subscriptions when I go to subscriptions and I never have issues seeing irrelevant shit. Is it really that hard to hit the subscriptions tab? I know the youtube userbase is dumb but wow.

[QUOTE=ac/14;50522033]here I was thinking I had some extension installed because I only see gives from my subscriptions when I go to subscriptions and I never have issues seeing irrelevant shit. Is it really that hard to hit the subscriptions tab? I know the youtube userbase is dumb but wow.[/QUOTE] If you refer to my extension, it just saves a click.

[QUOTE=darth-veger;50522070]If you refer to my extension, it just saves a click.[/QUOTE] I don't see how youtube has a problem if you're willing to make an extension just to avoid clicking a single button.

[QUOTE=Paramud;50522139]I don't see how youtube has a problem if you're willing to make an extension just to avoid clicking a single button.[/QUOTE] The problem is the general user base who just take up everything from their frontpage video feed which influence them. It used to be that the top section was Subscriptions and it showed all subscriptions (as noticed in the video, this changed to only showing popular subscription videos) now on the frontpage i get random channels popping up with videos that are months old or completely unrelated videos. Basically what the middle part of the video in the OP is claiming.

[QUOTE=darth-veger;50522373]The problem is the general user base who just take up everything from their frontpage video feed which influence them. It used to be that the top section was Subscriptions and it showed all subscriptions (as noticed in the video, this changed to only showing popular subscription videos) now on the frontpage i get random channels popping up with videos that are months old or completely unrelated videos. Basically what the middle part of the video in the OP is claiming.[/QUOTE] Youtube's recommended algorithm doesn't work properly too was watching a Creation Kit tutorial for Fallout 4 all of a sudden all of my recommendations were Far Harbor Ending!! instead of more tutorials. The amount of times i clear my watch history because someone mentions YT Drama and i'm suddenly shown every Keemstar video ever is bullshit too. It in general has become less friendly towards who I've subscribed too and more to what's trending/viral that week

I must admit that I'm incredibly selfish. I don't agree with all this person's points, but the best thing you could do is disable adblock if you have it. I forgot that I had adblock on, I've had it for like 3 years now. I'm going to disable it for youtube and see what happens. I just pray it isn't as bad as it was 3 years ago. [editline]43[/editline] [img]http://i.imgur.com/CAA2mKN.png[/img] Yeah it's worse than youtube 3 years ago. These yellow parts are where video adds play, acting as a quick 10 second commercial break. Fuck me this is going to be hard.

[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;50524592]I must admit that I'm incredibly selfish. I don't agree with all this person's points, but the best thing you could do is disable adblock if you have it. I forgot that I had adblock on, I've had it for like 3 years now. I'm going to disable it for youtube and see what happens. I just pray it isn't as bad as it was 3 years ago. [editline]43[/editline] [img]http://i.imgur.com/CAA2mKN.png[/img] Yeah it's worse than youtube 3 years ago. These yellow parts are where video adds play, acting as a quick 10 second commercial break. Fuck me this is going to be hard.[/QUOTE] Only problem i have with those ad breaks is how suddenly they start.

I found that the algorithm works a lot better if you select videos you don't like and say you're not interested (you do this but clicking on the dots at the bottom right of a video and selecting not interested). It's kind of hidden away so I guess a lot of regular youtube viewers might not know about it. Still doesn't always show what your subscribe to though.

something that i don't think this guy has considered is how channels typically only blow up [I]once[/I] people get a shit ton of subs suddenly, their content gets eaten up by that sub-base, and then they move on it seems an incredibly simple explanation that people who subbed to content when they were interested, simply didn't unsub but didn't want their content anymore [editline]15th June 2016[/editline] also, why is it surprising that youtube doesn't immediately serve up what people are subbed to? if you did that, even [I]fewer[/I] people would be watching new channels because they'd be stuck in their own sub pool it seems ridiculous to me that people are complaining that youtube is attempting to serve up new content to you, while keeping the content you're subscribed to easily accessible like, best of luck to this guy, but producing a video where you claim that you're open-minded concerning the reasoning, but you don't list your content not being good enough as a potential reason, that sort of says a lot. i know he says that he produces videos in various genres and thus it can't be explained by content, but i think he's completely missing that all of those videos contain a common thing him