Youtube Promoting Moronic Trends and Products

Does anyone know how to make an official complaint to Youtube?

I keep getting this group spamming my youtube homepage feed called "Topic - Homepage GB" and I can't get rid of it. Every time I click on "remove from feed", it goes away, but is back again as soon as I hit refresh or come back to my homepage later on that day.

Basically, for those unaware, it seems to select the most stupid, idiotic videos available, and promotes them to you on your homepage feed in hope that trends such as "twerking" (whatever the chuff that is), "minecraft" and other mind-shrinking tools of pop-culture remain embedded in the collective consciousness, even if you wish to have nothing to do with things like that and do your best to avoid as much as possible.

The straw that broke the camel's back was this morning, when I was greeted with a video called "Girl Sh*ts Her Pants!"
Now, obviously I'm not going to click on any of their videos (including this one), so I have no idea what actually happens. But It seems like it's becoming more and more difficult to avoid this sh*t-brained pop-culture that the whole world seems to be pushing on me.

I don't listen to the radio, stopped watching TV years ago and I installed a plug-in on google-chrome that I'm not even allowed to mention the name of here, and still this rabid monster has finally caught up with me and sunk it's teeth into my hairy behind.

They could be doing so much to influence society in a positive way, but instead choose to help dumb-down the population by targeting the easily-malleable minds of teens.
I'm no teen by the way, so I have no idea why they are pushing these videos on me. And it's nothing to do with my 'recommended videos' or 'watch history'.

So, is there anyone I can complain to? Could I bypass Youtube and complain to someone higher up like ofcom or similar company?

I really don't want to wake up to youtube suggesting I watch a girl sh*t her pants, or pretend to sh*t her pants, or pretend to suck her dog's d*ck in public, or whatever video will be next.

I was going to post this in rants, but I believe it is (or at least part of) a general conspiracy.

Thank you for reading.

I'm glad you noticed this. You have the obvious option which would be to stop supporting google since they're in no way trying to keep your data private. They sell it off to third parties. Maybe this is where you draw the line?

I've noticed this too of late and you are correct in asserting that it's a strategy to de-brain all of society.

Probably time to move on and check out the competition. There are some viable alternatives.

I think (and it hurts too) that YouTube itself isn't really there to dumb down the general public (personal opinion), I just think that generally people are either bored or stupid enough to watch these videos. The more someone or a group watches X type of video the more that person is compelled to make another.

This is not an attack on YouTubers - I myself am one of the stupid people who watches videos on YouTube to kill time during lunch breaks or when waiting for something to happen but the best way around the home page is instantly searching Dont look at the horde of stupidity that assaults anyone who goes to YouTube

I use Opera as my browser and set a speeddial to a specific youtube that I subscribe to (a channel of someone who plays Minecraft LOL) but that way when I click on it, I go to that person's channel and I don't get a bunch of stupid videos that I don't want to see in front of me. I rarely ever go directly to the youtube home page for that reason, it's filled with lots of stupid videos I would never watch. I have no idea if there's a way to change what you see on the home page but the speed dial option works great for me.
Firefox has a similar feature, I think.

Although doing a general search for something always turns up some odd results from the weird users of the site. Click on one or two and you're soon transported to the Twilight Zone of Youtube.

nimbinned
I've noticed this too of late and you are correct in asserting that it's a strategy to de-brain all of society.

Probably time to move on and check out the competition. There are some viable alternatives.

Could you suggest a few good alternatives?
Thanks

GalaxyEyes

nimbinned
I've noticed this too of late and you are correct in asserting that it's a strategy to de-brain all of society.

Probably time to move on and check out the competition. There are some viable alternatives.

Could you suggest a few good alternatives?
Thanks

vimeo or vevo to start with. there are others too, just look around

good luck

thekaboose
I think (and it hurts too) that YouTube itself isn't really there to dumb down the general public (personal opinion), I just think that generally people are either bored or stupid enough to watch these videos. The more someone or a group watches X type of video the more that person is compelled to make another.

I disagree. People can make these videos (I really don't care), but they should be avoidable. It is youtube that is compiling and promoting them on my homepage. It's an official youtube group called 'Topic - Homepage GB'.

This is not an attack on YouTubers - I myself am one of the stupid people who watches videos on YouTube to kill time during lunch breaks or when waiting for something to happen but the best way around the home page is instantly searching

Dont look at the horde of stupidity that assaults anyone who goes to YouTube

Like I said, it's unavoidable. It's mixed in with my subscriptions and recommended videos. I like to view my subscriptions and recommended videos for obvious reasons, so it's hard not to see.

I installed something which got rid of stuff like this (that I'm not allowed to name) for a good few years, but it seems there are cracks starting to appear in my shield!

GalaxyEyes

nimbinned
I've noticed this too of late and you are correct in asserting that it's a strategy to de-brain all of society.

Probably time to move on and check out the competition. There are some viable alternatives.

Could you suggest a few good alternatives?
Thanks

I would suggest dailymotion but I think thats gone the way of youtube in the last year or so. But check it out, you never know

I don't like daily motion.

Vimeo has the most useless search tool I've ever come across, and I always thought vevo was some sort of highly polished version of youtube. ie. for people who watch beyonce and justin beeber videos?!

I like youtube a lot, and I've not come across anything as good yet. But this complaint has been winding me up for a good few weeks now.
I've contacted youtube via the 'give-feedback' option a number of times, but it seems like they don't care what their customers think on this occasion.

Oh well, I don't know how long it will be before I delete my account, but hope they sort it out before that happens.

Can someone please answer my original question.
Who can I complain to?

I can't imagine what would happen if facebook promoted videos of girls sh*itting their pants, so why is youtube any different. It is as popular/mainstream as facebook, if not more.
It's disgusting and insulting whether it is real or fake, and should be avoidable at least.

your just trying to get extra traffic to your youtube channel

spartacus699
your just trying to get extra traffic to your youtube channel

Which channel would that be? I've not mentioned ANY youtube channels in ANY of my posts

GalaxyEyes
I don't like daily motion.

Vimeo has the most useless search tool I've ever come across, and I always thought vevo was some sort of highly polished version of youtube. ie. for people who watch beyonce and justin beeber videos?!

I like youtube a lot, and I've not come across anything as good yet. But this complaint has been winding me up for a good few weeks now.
I've contacted youtube via the 'give-feedback' option a number of times, but it seems like they don't care what their customers think on this occasion.

Oh well, I don't know how long it will be before I delete my account, but hope they sort it out before that happens.

Can someone please answer my original question.
Who can I complain to?

I can't imagine what would happen if facebook promoted videos of girls sh*itting their pants, so why is youtube any different. It is as popular/mainstream as facebook, if not more.
It's disgusting and insulting whether it is real or fake, and should be avoidable at least.

edit on 14-10-2013 by GalaxyEyes because: (no reason given)

Well, its almost impossible to get to the correct person, but all I can suggest is [email protected] its the closest you will get.

Youtube does operate on a "dont like dont click" mentality, if you are visiting youtube and are logged on, it will only be showing you things that trend in your direction. If you are not signed in then its what the general user group is watching.

Alas they will not change everything for one user. If 51% of youtubes users turned around and said "Sort this out" then you would be in for a shot. Plus lets face it, these videos are only on the front page for a day or two at the most then they disappear from the front page

reply to post by GalaxyEyes


It is very likely there is no conspiracy behind this. Youtube is simply a company, that serves the "needs" of its customers in order to gain as much clicks as possible. Clicks=money. Unfortunately such trends are popular and gain a lot of clicks, much more clicks than something less mind-numbing.

Nothing is done by employees themselves. There are simply too many videos uploaded daily. Even if every employee of Youtube spent their whole time watching videos, they would not manage to watch everything uploaded, as there is simply too many. That is where the search algorithms come in. When something gets more attention, automatically the search algorithms promote it. Youtube and Google are working hard to create scripts which would be able to keep up with the latest trends, to keep up with them, so that their search always bring the popular results, which is what people want, which brings in the $. At the end Youtube simply has one main goal ahead of them - a goal that nearly every major company thrives for - maximising profits, which is more important than the social consequences of it.

Do not blame the algorithms - these simply reflect the audience. When latest song from Miley Cirus and a video of girl sh*tting her pants are "brought up" in search, it only shows that far more of users would rather watch these than listen to Mozart and learn something - thats it.

thekaboose
s almost impossible to get to the correct person, but all I can suggest is [email protected] its the closest you will get.

Thank you, I will definitely email them at least a few times, or maybe spam the hell out of their inbox like they do with my homepage.

Youtube does operate on a "dont like dont click" mentality, if you are visiting youtube and are logged on, it will only be showing you things that trend in your direction. If you are not signed in then its what the general user group is watching.

Alas they will not change everything for one user. If 51% of youtubes users turned around and said "Sort this out" then you would be in for a shot. Plus lets face it, these videos are only on the front page for a day or two at the most then they disappear from the front page

Nope, that's how it used to be. I'm ALWAYS logged on to youtube, and I still get these recommendations that are aimed at American teenage girls. I'm a British adult male

It was fair enough when it was like that. You log in to make the video suggestions relevant to target audience (ie. me), which makes sense.



Did someone move my topic BTW? I'm sure I posted this in General Conspiracies. Please can one of the mods move it to the correct forum?
Thanks

Thanks for your post, and I understand and agree with a lot of what you said.

Cabin
Do not blame the algorithms - these simply reflect the audience. When latest song from Miley Cirus and a video of girl sh*tting her pants are "brought up" in search, it only shows that far more of users would rather watch these than listen to Mozart and learn something - thats it.

edit on 14-10-2013 by Cabin because: (no reason given)

I could understand this if I wasn't logged in and I was just Average Joe browsing youtube. That would be fair enough. But I thought there were algorithms that can read my interests and calculate what I will or will not be interested in. In fact I know there are from the 'suggested videos' section. They should just stick with this: it will offend/infuriate a lot less people.

Not sure what it's like if you are in USA or any other countries. I'm assuming the "GB" stands for Great Britain, but could be wrong.

qwerty12345
I'm glad you noticed this. You have the obvious option which would be to stop supporting google since they're in no way trying to keep your data private. They sell it off to third parties. Maybe this is where you draw the line?

Sorry I missed your post before.
I don't really care if they share my data with third parties, if these third parties come back to me with something relevant to my interests. It's only connected to an email address which isn't even my real name, so I don't mind.

But I don't see what "my data" has got to do with youtube promoting mind-numbing behaviour and products.

Cheers

reply to post by GalaxyEyes


My wife and I have had to deal with the great 'Google' machine and I can only say I wish you luck, should you choose to accept that mission. It's filled with peril and risk of falling out on your chair in disbelief at idiocy, mixed with long periods of boredom where nothing is happening (They call it, waiting for the next operator). Kinda like how people describe war?

Well, keep your head down and develop the patience of Job. You'll need it with this.

Sorry to be discouraging...but Google is about as friendly to work with on a problem as The Grinch to have over at Christmas.