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2018-05-25 · letter vlog · Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook, civic or action cta

After a creator reported that their subscription feed was no longer chronological, Hank argues that the sub feed, though shrinking and messy, is YouTube's contract with creators and users, the one place not controlled by a computer; YouTube must not fix it by breaking it, and he asks viewers to unsubscribe from what they don't watch.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank almost made this on Hank's channel; John gave permission on Twitter to goof off here

  • ★ Hank almost made this video on Hank's channel, where he has been goofing off for weeks, but John gave him permission on Twitter to goof off here. (playful) — 00:00:00 · hankschannel, Twitter

00:00:10 — Subscriptions have become less important: about 30% of first-day Vlogbrothers views, 15% over a video's life

  • ★★★ Hank says that over the last 10 years of YouTube, subscriptions have become less important. — 00:00:11 · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank doesn't know why and won't say it is YouTube's fault: subscriptions seem fairly front and center on desktop and mobile. (unsure) — 00:00:17 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Even on Vlogbrothers, a repeat-viewer channel with YouTube-savvy viewers, only about 30% of first-day views come from subscriptions, falling to about 15% over the video's life. — 00:00:29 · Vlogbrothers, YouTube
  • ★★ Since subscriptions are a smaller and shrinking piece of the pie, you would think people would freak out less when someone said on Twitter their sub feed was suddenly not chronological. — 00:00:46 · Twitter

00:00:53 — The non-chronological sub feed scare; why creators protect it; the feed's problems and declining use

  • ★★★ Hank understands why YouTubers protect the sub feed: it is the one place controlled by humans, not computers, the one place left where they know what's going on. — 00:00:59 · recommender system, YouTube
  • ★★ Saying he won't go into it, Hank complains that the news was released in a way that let YouTubers speculate wildly, miscommunicate and send notes to Twitch, then admits he just did go into it. (playful) — 00:01:10 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank says the sub feed has problems, visible in analytics: it works best for channels that upload every day and much less well for those who take a long time to make a video. — 00:01:23
  • ★★ Because it is psychologically easier to subscribe than to unsubscribe, sub boxes are often or usually a mess, so overwhelming that it is not a good user experience. — 00:01:36
  • ★★ Hank tried to scroll to the end of the month in his own subscription feed and did not have the patience. — 00:01:58
  • ★★ In the analytics he can see, fewer impressions and views come from the subscription feed; it seems people are using it less. (hedged) — 00:02:03
  • ★ Hank speculates that this may be because the home page is getting better or the subscription feed worse. (speculative) — 00:02:13
  • ★★★ If fewer and fewer people use subscriptions, that is bad for everyone, and YouTube knows it: it is the only place people are guaranteed to see what they signed up to see. — 00:02:16 · YouTube

00:02:27 — YouTube can't fix the feed by breaking it: a contract, one place users are in charge; other solutions

  • ★★★ But YouTube cannot fix that by breaking it. — 00:02:27 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank tells YouTube it created a contract with creators: the sub feed has to work this way, the one place where users are and need to be in charge. — 00:02:31 · YouTube
  • ★★ Creators need one place where they know their communities can find their videos, without worrying what a computer thinks; that needs to not change. — 00:02:45 · recommender system
  • ★★ Not denying the problems, Hank suggests other solutions, such as an algorithmically generated 'what you missed' section above the feed. (hedged) — 00:02:52
  • ★★ Because the problem is so hard, maybe it needs no computer code: maybe it is a behavioral problem. (hedged) — 00:03:03

00:03:11 — Please unsubscribe; YouTube should let people customize; direct control matters more than a clickable feed; sign-off and pointer to Hank's channel

  • ★★★ Hank asks viewers to unsubscribe from things they don't watch and that clutter their sub feed; it won't hurt his feelings. — 00:03:11
  • ★★ Hank suggests YouTube give people more options to customize the feed: if you want a personalized experience, maybe the person personalizing it should be a person. (hedged) — 00:03:23 · YouTube
  • ★★ Even if fewer people use the sub feed, those who do are YouTube's power users, the ones who matter most. — 00:03:34 · YouTube
  • ★★★ People's direct control over their experience of the platform and over the creator-audience relationship will always matter more than the most clickable feed. — 00:03:38
  • ★★ Hank points to a video on Hank's channel diving fairly deep into the analytics of the sub feed. — 00:03:54 · hankschannel

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description says sub feeds are the only place besides channel pages where audiences are guaranteed to see creators' videos, yet YouTube has been messing with them. — video description · YouTube

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: YouTube · YouTube subscriptions feed

Also: hankschannel · recommender system · Twitch · Twitter

Also centred on YouTube subscriptions feed: Here are Some YouTube Tricks I Use

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