No, wait Death Bringer, the thumbnail's just a joke! I'm a big fan of your work! Ow! Watch Dungeon Craft's original video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KGArPZ7E_sA.html Unhook extension: unhook.app/ Patreon: bit.ly/QBPatreon Old-School DnD newsletter: bit.ly/TheGlatisant
He used to have a great channel - until he decided to lean into making outrage bait for clicks. It seems to be doing well for him, I suppose, but I was a longtime subscriber who dropped the channel because of it. I'm not interested in the Internet Outrage Machine and gaming drama (often manufactured gaming drama), I'm interested in gaming, insights about it from interesting people, and so on. The Prof now spends half his time feeding the machine. Good luck to him, I guess, but I won't be watching
@@wadebutler7127 I am still a fan of Professor Dungeon Master and his DungeonCraft YourTube channel. However, I can understand your position, I too was not keen on his switch to a for profit model. However, PDM was very transparent on his Patreon about his reasons, and has always been straight forward on RU-vid. If you run the numbers you will find fewer of his posts are 'clickbait' than you imagine. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I'm the same way. The Subscriptions tab is effectively my "home" at this point. You won't need to install anything extra. it works on the mobile apps. It's just one click to the Subscriptions tab.
@@davesolo4352 Problem is, outrage draws clicks and RU-vid LOVES to push outrage as a result. You then get once excellent channels like Dungeon Craft that go where the clicks are. That taste of success changes them - and not for the better. His channel is a shadow of what it once was, thanks to him leaning so hard into WOTC drama videos; I unsubbed as a result. But to the larger point, RU-vid recommendations too often focus on outrage videos, drama videos, and so on. No matter how often I hide channels that peddle in that garbage, they're always shoving more into my recommendations. I still peruse the recommendations now and then to discover new channels, but searching by topic has become a better tool because RU-vid's algo seems intent on serving up content designed to keep people angry. I do wish the Prof would stop chasing this carrot. I'd consider watching him again, but the front page of his channel even right now shows that he knows where his bread is buttered and that he will continue to pander for clicks. It's unfortunate.
Generally, pdm is talking about how to get new watchers to a Chanel vs an existing audience. He references his views go up when he does dungeon drama vs normal content but his regular viewers say they want more regular content and less wotc earning reports. Issue is you get more people than just subscribers if you go for a broader interest topic; ie, you get people interested in finance and d&d if you talk about the wotc fiscal year, but lose the finance crowd if you talk about how to dry brush terrain. Less of a reach thing and more of an interest thing.
He lost me as a subscriber as a result of him leaning so hard into the outrage machine. I have no love for WOTC, but also have no interest in hearing about the drama all the time. It's part of why I'm into the OSR scene. He once had really good content, I liked hearing how he ran games, I enjoyed his views on gaming even when we disagreed on stuff, but the outage bait? Enough was eventually enough. I bailed on him
This kind of content is exactly why I am subscribed to you and enjoy your style. You are frank and don't try to fall into the easy pitfalls of most youtubers that will try to game the system. You give actionable advice and a clear viewpoint and it is so refreshing to see vs. all the channels that try to make their bones on hobby drama or other unimportant things that pander to an algorithm. Putting the power back in the hands of the people, where it should be.
Saw "One Weird Trick" and thought it was more playful clickbait. But I was wrong! It's a good thing ALL of Questing Beast's videos are great and I always want them in my feed!
"I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, messages or posts, both past and future." Making "I love ALL videos by So and So" posts is about effective as those silly Facebook messages people got tricked into posting
Less than a 10th of my views on a new video come from the subscription feed. Everything's from the homepage. What I see on my end as a consumer is if I watch one video from my sub feed & then go to my homepage, it's like the algorithm dumps all of that channel's videos in my feed. Idk man. All I know is I love Questing Beast's videos.
I recently had several situations where youtube activated the notifications on some channels I have been subscribed to for years without me doing so. So the notifications are definitely on the wonky side it seems.
This is what I've been telling people for years - if you stay on the subscription tab, you just see your subscriptions. It's so easy, and if you do it long enough it naturally warps your algorithm positively when you do venture out into the void.
Calling it a "DnD scandal" when it is simply the algortithm deprioritising content it thinks people are less likely to watch (like 'Professor' Dungeoncraft's consistently clickbaity, soyface-thumbnailed videos that people leave early and downvote) is very much like what freshman dungeoncraft himself would do. Also, all the dumbos trying the "I love all videos from xxxx" are the sort of people who use facebook and post the "I do not give facebook permission to use my photos" meme.
I also recommend the extension (channel blocker) It pops a little X next to the channel name that allows you to block channels so you don't have to see them anymore. You know, so if you want to still have the sidebar feature available, you don't want to unhook it. You can have it not feed you. Oh, I don't know. Bob, the world builder. He just happens to be on the sidebar right now for me. LOL
After pondering how much time I lost watching recommended videos I really didn't want to see I turned off my entire RU-vid history. No recommendations of any type, so I can focus in the subscriptions I really wanna see.
I've always just used the youtube Subscription button, super simple and built in, and doesn't need an extension to be installed. I don't need another group collating my data for sale to understand the traffic of me and my cohorts.
I always check my subscriptions since I don’t want to miss out on what my favorite creators have released. I only check the homepage to find random stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with watching the videos from the channels I’ve subscribed to.
Before people shame the home page too much, it should be noted that the subscription page comes with its own set of problems. Two core ones: 1) Users barely ever unsubscribe. We just add more subscription and switch between the ones we pay attention to. The home page reinforces this behavior, but it was there to begin with too. 2) It's in chronological order and will get flooded by channels who upload often. In my case, TYT used to flood my feed by uploading multiple time a day. So instead of a video like this competing with the algorithm, which is based on the type of content you've been engaging with lately, it will instead compete with the most upload happy channel you're subscribed to.
Ahhhh... I've been wondering for a while why people were complaining about not seeing videos. I didn't realize people were only looking at their homepage instead of the Subscriptions page, since I always make playlists of stuff to just listen to but not visually see while at work, what stuff to watch at home in general, and what stuff to specifically put off for days off.
If you turn off your watch history, RU-vid stops giving you the homepage with recommendations, which is really funny because they thought they were making it to induce people into turning watch history back on, but it's only made my RU-vid experience much better without any algorithm.
Unhook has literally made my life easier. Now, whenever I've watched everything my favorite channels uploaded recently, I'm just done with YT for the day! I would have to go out of my way to keep wasting time bouncing between videos I don't even really want to watch just because YT put them in front of me
For an honest moment Questing Beasts, I thought this was an April Fool's day video but then realized you were being honest! Will be using this though for sure.
I accomplish the same thing with different tools. Subscriptions used to be the default way to view youtube a loooong time ago. Anyways, I wanna see that list of spells, when can we get at that Knave 2e?
I don't know how many other people use RU-vid this way. But I almost never click a video and watch it. Instead, I glance at the home page and add a few things to Watch Later. Then I scan everything new on my Subscriptions page and add some of those to Watch Later. And then I start watching my Watch Later. When I see something good next to a vid I'm watching, I add that to Watch Later, too. I always have plenty of backlog. And I like this much better than hunting around vid by vid looking for what to watch next.
I've been using the same addon, which is great for removing all the felgercarb that normally resides on youtube. Prior to that, I just had my YT bookmark take me to subs directly, and would only go to the actual home page just to see what might be interesting.
Turned off watch history years ago so the home page doesn't even work. This forces me to use the Subscriptions tab and get all of your excellent videos Ben!
Grrr! And here was I slaying the RU-vid dragon, and some sorcerer comes along with a neat little magic trick and poof... i'm no longer needed. This must be 5e all over again!
If you turn off your watch history, it also breaks the algorithmic home page (at least is has for me). Mine is blank with a notice asking if I want to turn it on (I don't). I just use my subscription tab and never miss a video. I also like the videos that I watch and comment when I feel I have something to contribute. Most importantly, though, is just watching from the subscription tab. I've been doing it for years and it has greatly improved my RU-vid experience. And... it's easy.
It's weird, but RU-vid updated my watch history - aka, it's deactivated. I don't know how it happened, but basically the homepage is empty and asking me to turn back on the history to see anything. I've never turned it back on and i like it that way. It's so easy to wind up down a RU-vid rabbit hole and i avoid that now.
Ok I’ve seen stuff about the algorithm and videos not showing up in the subscription tab for years and years. since the “adpocolypse” is when I remember it becoming a big sticking point for RU-vidrs. Does anyone know of any concrete proof that RU-vid doesn’t show videos in sub boxes? I’ve never had the issue personally and I’m not saying anything about the quality of QB because I think they should be wayyy bigger. But I’ve always noticed that when I see a RU-vid complain about the algorithm I notice the recent content they’re producing also makes me, a fan, go “oh I don’t want to watch those videos” so I don’t click on them. I know what I just said is highly anecdotal, but that’s why I ask cause so is every instance of viewers and RU-vidrs saying videos aren’t showing up.
Whereas I spend more time on the subscription tab than the home page and sometimes forget the home page exists (...Which means I tend not to see any community posts until about two days after they're posted)
And my confusion deepens: When I watch videos by a channel, I get shown more; when I watch fewer video by a channel, I get shown fewer; and when I stop watching videos by a channel, the suggestions trickle off until I'm shown them no more. Yet, even one viewing brings that channel back fully into the feed to be calibrated by choices. This works consistently and has done so for years. Not joking: I get videos recommended _after_ they've been demonetized! According to every creator ever, that's literally impossible! It even knows when I am getting bored with my feed and offers the something-new option at just the right time. Am I the unique statistical fluke for whom the algorithm has been perfectly calibrated? ETA: Edited for typo.
I'm sorry, who's not bookmarking their subscription page? The home page has been trash for years. You only have to forget to sign into google once and stumble into the youtube home page once to be reminded what a nightmare it is.
I find the subscriptions page doesn't list everything. Perhaps its because I have ~10 years worth of subs (600+) and it stops working, but I rarely see woodworking things in there even though the channels still publish them. idk if the bell icon changes this behavior.
This is just anecdotal (but from my personal experience) but even when you are subbed and have "all" on, it still doesn't always notify you of all the videos from all the channels that you are subbed to.
Thanks, Ben. I love all your videos. Doing things to circumvent the homepage misses the problem, if the video isn't shown to the masses, who do use the homepage, then Ben's channel will wither.
@@QuestingBeast What percentage of your viewers do you expect will do your suggestion? What percentage the entire population will? The goal is getting more people from the genpop to see it, right?
Indeed it has. Someone above said if you run the numbers he doesn't actually do it that much. Well, I ran the numbers. Looking at his 10 most recent videos, 5 of them are about D&D/WOTC/Hasbro drama and another is about a "D&D Killer." Bring that up to his 20 most recent and 11 are drama clickbait, plus the "D&D Killer" vid. The headlines and thumbnail texts are hyperbolic clickbait - "The D&D RU-vid scandal just got worse," "Dragonlance is dead," "UNBELIEVABLE," "D&D is Over," "Who Killed D&D?," "Worst D&D Scandal Yet," "D&D Sales Crash," &D&D TV Dumpster Fire" - and in many of the thumbnails he's pulling those same po-faced mug shots that Dungeons & Discourse uses all the time. Half or more of his videos from at least the last six months are seeking outrage clicks.
Reposting a comment, but in a modified form, because I'm curious about something: Indeed it has. Someone above said if you run the numbers he doesn't actually do it that much. Well, I ran the numbers. Looking at his 10 most recent videos, 5 of them are about D&D/WOTC/Hasbro drama and another is about a "D&D Killer." Bring that up to his 20 most recent and 11 are drama clickbait, plus the "D&D Killer" vid. The headlines and thumbnail texts are hyperbolic - "D&D TV Dumpster Fire," "The D&D RU-vid scandal just got worse," "Dragonlance is dead," "D&D is Over," "D&D Sales Crash," "Who Killed D&D?," "Worst D&D Scandal Yet" - and in many of the thumbnails he's pulling those same mug shots that another channel (one with the initials D&D) uses all the time. Half or more of his videos from at least the last six months are seeking outrage clicks.
Quite some years ago I just changed my youtube bookmarks/shortcuts to the subscription page url instead of the "home page". Don't even see the home page at all and no need to install third party addon, which could affect your privacy while using your browser.
RU-vid still publishes an RSS feed of each channel behind the scenes. All you have to do is put the channel’s URL into an RSS reader and you’ll have every video from that channel delivered to your RSS reader feed (I’m using a Mac RSS reader called ‘Reeder’ where I know this works well.) I use this to subscribe to my favorite OSR blogs, and RU-vid channels and see them all in one feed.
If you sub to every channel that interests you, and always select "all notifications" for each subbed channel, then you can just rely on your notifications icon to see all your subbed vids in order of release. This bypasses the algorithm entirely and requires almost zero effort on your part.
I just use the app on my phone and look at my notifications. I still don't get all my notifications (even though that's what's I've chosen on every channel), but I get most of them.
