HN Explorer

16 comments

[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 43.7 ms ] thread
htrp
This is not to be confused with YouTube Shorts, the clone of tik tok/instagram reels.
hirvi74
Crap, I guess I was confused then.

I absolutely cannot stand YouTube Shorts, and I do not know of many people that actually enjoy them either.

mdonahoe
I like YouTube Shorts.

I think the TikTok swipe format works pretty well for content discovery on mobile, so I’m glad YouTube copied it.

And unlike TikTok, the long form videos are still there, so I can click on a username and watch more from a creator I like.

kranke155
Yep agreed. I think shorts have their place. The UI/UX could improve.
nozzlegear
I’m with you. I resisted YouTube Shorts at first, but I quite like them now. And as you said, the long form videos are still there right alongside the shorts.

One criticism I have of them, though, is on the web they’re mixed in like regular videos on your subscriptions page. On mobile they’re sort of grouped together in a separate UI element, which makes it much easier to scroll through your subscriptions. Maybe this is one of the reasons people hate shorts so much?

3vidence
I want to like shorts as everyone now and then there are really interesting and cool creators / videos I wouldn't find otherwise.

With that being said the algorithm needs SOO much work.

I have to select "don't show videos from this channel" every single single time i use it.

The quality seems very very inconsistent and it seems to have a weird bias towards undesirable topics that seem to have large popularity.

By contrast my normal video recommendations are excellent and I am rarely bothered by them.

throwaway675309
I also tend to prefer longform YouTube videos, but I feel like YouTube shorts appeal to the zoomer vine TikTok generation with short attention span's.

I'm deeply worried that traditional YT creators will feel obligated to produce these one minute spastic shorts just to remain competitive.

rhaway84773
Several YTers I follow have spoken about how the algorithm promotes you if you have shorts, so they pretty much have to.
pcurve
What do you hate about it? I've grown to like them. The only thing I don't like is, YT doesn't let you save Shorts in your list.
mansion7
You can't turn them off, at least from the app.

It sucks being spammed with things you'll never watch, and for me at least YouTube now three such boxes take up space: shorts, "mixes", and music videos.

They used to have an option to remove these items. Now the option is gone.

anticrymactic
If your on Android, then look into revanced. A modded YT app on which you can remove everything you don't like
sdwr
The people in youtube shorts are too attractive for me to enjoy. I like my performers to have a little bit of grit - too hot and I get either envious or jealous.
hirvi74
I have finally found my calling in life.
barbazoo
I wish I could reliably hide them.
1attice
Kickerstarter idea: _Logan's Run_, but it's about being a Google product.