alt Hacker NewsThanks, I appreciate that!
FWIW, unfortunately, I think the problem is a two-headed one, and maybe reversed for viewers vs creators. Creators want as many people to see their work as possible. But viewers have to sift through a graveyard of 95%+ junk videos to find the 5% worth watching. AI (or Google/TikTok/etc. in general) acting as gatekeeper in between isn't great, but not having any metrics/summaries/descriptions for videos would be even worse.
In this particular case, I get that this particular creator might've had a point to make, but the description and summary were so cheekily written (to make a point, I guess) that I had no idea what it was about.
The creators who I do follow typically make long-form educational videos with a lot of nuance; I wouldn't want to rely on even the best-written human summary for those. But there are many, many videos for which I'd prefer a 1-sentence summary over 3 minutes of intros and jokes, a 45-second sponsorship, and a gradual dramatic buildup before getting to the point.
Not sure what the long-term solution is.
> In this particular case, I get that this particular creator might've had a point to make, but the description and summary were so cheekily written (to make a point, I guess) that I had no idea what it was about.
This is totally fair. I watch quite a bit of his educational content on cameras so I already trusted him enough to watch past the preamble. When this thread came up it was the first video that came to mind since I’d recently watched it. I can totally see how it’d be a bit less effective for someone not already familiar with his stuff.
I also agree with the general theme of your last paragraph. For the most part, I’ll avoid channels that are primarily fluff, or skip through the preamble if it’s a creator that I begrudgingly follow because they make good - if unnecessarily fluffy at times - content.
Also not sure what the long term solution is. I do tend to believe Google’s approach with this YouTube feature isn’t it.