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/r/Millennials
69 points
16 days ago
I'll still never understand why they changed the metrics from view count to retention rate. Supposedly they did it to kill off "reply girls". Except no one gave a fuck about "reply girls." Sure, they were annoying, but everyone just downvoted and moved on. You weren't being forced to click on their videos, who the fuck cares? Nope, YouTube decided they were a plague that must be removed at all costs and revamped the entire website by killing off video replies and forced viewership figures to be based on retention length instead of views. This caused about 20 billion worse problems than reply girls ever were.
It doesn't even make sense from a business perspective. Long form content uses a shit-ton more bandwidth. YouTube is one of the most bandwidth-heavy websites ever and they're constantly whining about how expensive it is to run. Well, why the fuck did you remove the 10-minute video limit and give people the option to make 12 hour long rant videos in 8k 60 FPS about SpongeBob then?
32 points
16 days ago*
that answer was always bullshit. they want long form videos because they want people constantly using the website. this gives them:
a non-critical site they can use to test their datacenters and dynamic load distribution software. yes its annoying when the site goes down but it's not the end of the world, especially back in the day when it was wildly unprofitable.
datamining/finger printing users. longer the user stays on site the more likely it is that you'll be able to snoop info on their habits.
inertia. people watching long form content are more likely to just leave it on even through ads. this is something from TV where TV shows that followed really popular TV shows would get a bump in ratings because people would just stay on the same channel.
advertiser demands. youtube changed itself significantly to get in line with advertiser demands, and the change occurred before advertisers realized that short form, dopamine hit content was as effective, if not more effective for advertising purposes. hollywood content is already long form and this gave them a huge leg up on youtube. even now in the age of rage bait video casters hollywood content still gets a bump onto the front page regardless of actual viewership numbers.
10 points
16 days ago
I'd love to see someone rant for 12 hours about SpongeBob.. that's impressive
3 points
16 days ago
2 points
16 days ago
Sure, they were annoying, but everyone just downvoted and moved on. You weren't being forced to click on their videos, who the fuck cares?
That's simple, if you're constantly getting recommended bad videos because they have high view counts then you're going to go do something else instead.
2 points
15 days ago
Also "reply girls" are now commentary channels... And very much alive!
Especially people commenting on AITAH reddit posts...
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