Someone at YouTube Needs Glasses: The Prophecy Has Been Fulfilled

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Recommendation behavior & history settings

  • Several people note that watching a single video on a topic floods recommendations the next day; some like this for research, others find it overwhelming.
  • Turning off YouTube watch/search history gives very different behaviors: some get a completely blank home screen (which many treat as a feature), others still see “wild” or polarizing recommendations in the sidebar.
  • YouTube heavily nags users to turn history back on; some infer this is to push engagement rather than serve user intent.
  • Subscriptions feed is widely preferred for control, but users complain it’s buried and polluted by “recommended” rows and Shorts.

Ads, ethics of adblocking & creator income

  • Many see YouTube’s ad labeling and placement—especially ads styled as regular videos—as deceptive and potentially bordering on fraud.
  • Long subthread debates whether adblocking is “piracy”:
    • One side argues skipping ads circumvents the de facto payment model.
    • Others counter there’s no explicit agreement to watch ads, compare it to muting/looking away during TV commercials, and stress security/privacy risks (malvertising).
  • Some pay for Premium to avoid ads and/or support creators; others say direct donations or Patreon give creators far more than ad or Premium revenue.
  • There is broad resentment at being asked to pay extra just to avoid what many describe as harmful, manipulative advertising.

UX, information density & platform differences

  • Core complaint: drastic reduction in visible videos per screen, especially on TV apps (Apple TV, consoles). Home pages sometimes show ~1–2 videos plus large ads.
  • Some argue low density suits couch viewing; others compare it unfavorably to Steam’s Big Picture or porn sites that manage dense, usable grids.
  • Apple TV app is singled out as “inexcusable”: confusing remote mappings, hard-to-read truncated titles, odd focus behavior, and past attempts to override the system screensaver.
  • Users also gripe about autoplay, oversized controls, intrusive overlays, and inconsistent keyboard shortcuts on web.

Automatic AI dubs, translations & Shorts

  • Automatic AI dubbing is widely hated: it’s on by default, often can’t be disabled globally, and is missing in some clients (e.g. mobile web, embeds). Multilingual users find hearing the “wrong” language uniquely jarring.
  • Auto‑translated titles are similarly unpopular, with no global off‑switch.
  • Shorts are seen as addictive, low‑value slop; Premium users are frustrated they can’t disable them, including in kids’ accounts. Some note Shorts have quietly lengthened, blurring into regular videos.

Workarounds, alternative clients & broader enshittification

  • Many describe a defensive setup: browsers with uBlock Origin, SponsorBlock, DeArrow, Enhancer for YouTube, custom CSS, or Tampermonkey scripts to restore dense grids, hide Shorts, and kill overlays.
  • On phones/TVs people use ReVanced, SmartTube, Grayjay, Invidious, or Brave/Firefox with background play and adblocking instead of official apps.
  • A recurring theme is “enshittification”: YouTube (and other big platforms like Netflix, Amazon) are perceived as steadily degrading UX in pursuit of engagement and ad revenue, despite YouTube’s unique cultural value.