this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2024
511 points (97.9% liked)

Technology

59168 readers
3269 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
L3s@fry.gs
L4s@fry.gs
L4s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
511
DeArrow is an open source browser extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails on YouTube. (dearrow.ajay.app)
submitted 1 month ago by basilisa@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
88 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19421887

DeArrow is an open source browser extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails on YouTube. The goal is to make titles accurate and reduce sensationalism. No more arrows, ridiculous faces, and no more clickbait.

"Clickbait" isn't the exception anymore, it's becoming the norm. Many have even started going through their entire backlog, changing old titles and thumbnails to be more attention grabbing and vague.

It's no one's fault. It's a system that creates a race to the bottom.

DeArrow hopes to stop this cycle. It's time to return to a more peaceful experience.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

When you browse Netflix, they use different thumbnails for the movies depending on the profile they've made for you. Even if it's as blatant as "white person from the movie"/"black person from the movie". If you ignore a movie for long enough, sometimes they even swap it out for a different image to trick you into watching it.

I'm amazed that YouTube doesn't try and do this somehow. Instead, every video somehow has the same stupid thumbnails of arrows, meaningless text and gormless faces, and I hate it.

But then I block all ads anyway, so it may be that they're actively trying to make me go away.

[–] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm amazed that YouTube doesn't try and do this somehow.

They do. They even give the creator statistics on which thumbnail generated more clicks (completely ignoring other factors so it's a misleading metric anyway).

[–] MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There's no active a/b testing though. The creators have to specifically change the thumbnail for everyone at once. From what I understand.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No they can a b test so some people will get one version and other people will get the other version and whichever version becomes the most popular is the version that everyone gets.