this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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Back in my day, YouTube had a 5-star rating system
And the video's rating was plainly visible so you could use it to make the decision whether the video was even worth your click.
The shovelware AI slop video channels wouldn't be such a problem today if we still had that.
Going straight to YouTube is like going straight to Imgur looking for good content. Should never be done. Places like Lemmy or friend chat groups refer me to good videos. Or my curated subscribed channels with quality content is the other way I watch youtube.
Anyone going straight to YouTube.com looking for their algorithm and ratings system to tell them about shit content in advance is mistaken in their expectations.
extensive use of the "Don't recommend this video > Tell us why > I don't like this video" function, plus removing bad videos from my watch history after I stop watching, has got me a well-trained slop-free recommendations page with interesting new smallish channels.
Yeah it can definitely be somewhat trained. Also the extention dearrow makes a big difference in the experience too.
Usually I go there looking for something specific and use the search bar.
However, the search function in YouTube has also turned to absolute crap. It only lists a few results and then switches to random shit you didn't ask for.
A lot of the results are also often misleading titles leading to lazy videos that are a slideshow of impertinent pictures with a synthetized voice spewing inaccurate information. AI has made that even worse. The star rating system would have helped identify these crap videos before you click on them.
Or good channel you know mention other channel.
I never get those because I never watch them.
and search results showed only videos related to your search. recommendations on the side were similar videos and not some unrelated bullshit. it was so much better.
Honestly if someone remade an old YouTube alternative I think it would take off.
It’s what I wish PeerTube was, but I’m not sure if that will ever take off sadly.
Lack of advertising dollars is definitely an impediment to video platform alternatives…
I remember a time when people just posted silly little shitty drawn videos just for the fun of it. Not saying creators shouldn’t be compensated for their hard work, I just feel like something was lost with the monetization of every little thing.
The trouble is hosting that much video content and the bandwidth to feed viewers.
Maybe when the AI bubble bursts, people will buy up abandoned data centers for pennies on the dollar and repurpose them for a better Youtube alternative. And maybe Margot Robbie will see this comment and fall in love with me.
Recommendations on the side today are related to everything you've watched in like the last week or so.
Which I really hate, because it means when you get into some specific interest, YouTube basically stops showing you anything else.
Hey YouTube! Those interests I was into last week, last month, I'm still into them! Please don't railroad me like that!
You'll watch that sponsored content and you'll like it. Because you can't dislike it.
google is absolute worst
Back in my day, there were alternatives to Google
And they were all worse
Only because Google actually worked as advertised (and only as advertised). Compared to what Google is now, that’s a matter of opinion.
All things considered, I’ll take the Google of yesteryear over the Google of today. I’ll also take a more privative and much goofier/glitchier YouTube.
Shit, I remember when having a Gmail account was a coveted thing that required an invite that people paid literally hundreds, even thousands of dollars for. I had five, and I sold one for $2k, and another for $4k. (These people were total twats). Decades later, I still use my fistname.lastname@gmail.com addy, while one is dead, and the other got married 2 months later and changed their name anyway. Idiots, lol. Weeks later, invite Scott bumped up to 50, then 250, then unlimited, then it got opened to the public.
Being impatient is expensive.
Grad school was a crazy time
Makes me wonder if under the hood it's still stored as stars or if they migrated their data. Is a 3 star or more rating displayed as thumbs up now? Is a thumbs up just a 5 star rating? When thumbs down existed was that just 1 star?
I haven't experienced those days...