YouTube

• unable to Sort A to Z videos inside playlist
• no dislike count
• removed video in playlist should still retain its former name
• no grid view or compact view for videos inside playlist or search results
• lot of demonetization issues

YouTube covers nearly any topic you can think of. It’s a great place to learn, keep up with trends or just enjoy some downtime.

Absolutely! I get that those click-bait videos, all the ads, and the demonetization can be super frustrating, but honestly, YouTube remains the top video platform out there. You can find just about any content you want. I really can’t see anything ever taking its place.

peertube youtube

YouTube is the #1 video-streaming platform and the second-most visited website of all time, only behind Google Search. Of course, with the two being owned by Google, that doesn't mean they're actually the best.

Here, what I believe are the worst mistakes that Google has done to YouTube since they bought the site (besides the major privacy concerns stemming from Google):

• In 2013, YouTube made it a requirement to have a Google+ account to comment on videos, in an attempt to stop trolls; this only caused an outrage for millions of users, including YouTube's co-founder, Jawed Karim. That change was removed later. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/08/youtube-cofounder-why-the-fuck-do-i-need-a-google-account-to-comment
• YouTube removed annotations in 2019, removing the custom-built functionality for interactive games. https://mashable.com/article/the-death-of-youtube-annotations
• YouTube was required to comply to COPPA later in 2019 due to several violations; all video creators from this point on were now required to confirm whether or not their videos are made for kids. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2019/11/youtube-channel-owners-your-content-directed-children
• In an effort to compete with TikTok YouTube released Shorts, the short-form, vertical video format for their website in 2021. (Need I remind you, some of the videos are quite cringe-worthy and low-effort if I must say so myself.)
• Second-worst change. In November 2021, YouTube removed the public dislike count on videos and only made it available to the video creators in YouTube Studio, in an effort to prevent attacks on small creators. This, however, only provides more confusion as it's now harder to determine what videos are actually helpful or decent-quality and what videos are not. https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-59264070
• In 2022, YouTube set a limit on how many users can watch a small creator's live stream or how many times a small creator's video can be watched; that limit could be made more lenient if that creator had more subscribers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkENyu-iGw0
• Worst-change thus far. AND ONGOING. In May 2023, YouTube began to crack down on people using ad-blockers on the site, citing that they must disable the ad-blockers or whitelist YouTube to continue watching videos. Another option would be to purchase a YouTube Premium subscription to watch without ads. It only got worse from here. https://www.techradar.com/computing/social-media/youtubes-test-run-of-the-three-strikes-youre-out-policy-against-ad-blockers-seems-like-a-bit-much
• In March 2024, a UTTP outbreak occured, with "YouTube Troll Police" users poking fun at popular content creators, using the hard N, and just spewing the same comments all. Over. The network. Crazier still, YouTube did nothing about the trolls, instead pinning the consequences on the users reporting the trolls. https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1bbbk0n/i_said_to_a_uttp_bot_account/
• YouTube very frequently brings up unnecessary features at the expense of features we users actually want (and need). Recently in September 2024, YouTube introduced generative AI (both in video ideas and in video creation), boosts for small creators (known as Hype), and a method of donating money to small creators in vertical videos (known as Jewels). Quite frankly, the generative AI part bothers me the most because the platform is called YouTube, as in you make the videos, not AI. https://blog.google/products/youtube/made-on-youtube-2024/
• Ads have become a very common issue for YouTube users. Years ago, there was one 15 to 30-second ad (which can be skipped most of the time) at the very beginning of the video and/or a banner ad at the bottom of the video after ten seconds. It would end up being more ads per video, but fortunately, you could see when they'd play according to the yellow markers (which were removed later). Now, there are chances of getting back-to-back (2+ ads at a time) unskippable ads, each lasting either six seconds or 15 seconds. Ads that were at least 30 seconds long or longer were guaranteed to be skippable unless they were on a longer video. Worse yet, some of these ads were either scams or NSFW, yet the actual user-created videos were not allowed to promote either of these activities. Ironic. https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1dbawbt/youtube_is_doing_shit_with_ads_again/

Man, what a list. But this is just sickening of YouTube at this point.

Do better.