No Stupid Questions

I use the subscription feed and it's how I've always used YouTube. I certainly don't want it giving me random notifications. It's not like I need to drop what I'm doing during the day just because someone published a video. When I want to watch videos, I'll go check my subscriptions.

I think most people sadly don't use subscription feed. They just blindly watch whatever youtube algorithm throws at them.

Wait…. Thats not how people use YouTube? I browse almost exclusively from my subscriptions page.

It is my default page for Youtube. I want to see the most recent content from creators I have subscribed to.

After exhausting the subscriptions page, then I will go to the main page for related content. Shorts and the Explore are avoided at all costs.

That is how i use youtube, but now it is poisined with those crappy shorts. They are changing youtube into tiktok

youtube feed is a toddler you're trying to tame. even the slightest misdirection will end you up with infinite crochet videos for 2 weeks because you watched a video about the last crochet artists in cambodia

I had no idea people didn't use the subscription fees. It's the only way I engage with YouTube

I've heard that the subscription feed doesn't always show you uploads from the creators you're subscribed to.

I must not be subscribed to enough people for that to happen.

Otherwise, I don't let a non-subscription video live in my history unless liked it, and I generously block channels for the slightest click bait bullshit, so my home feed is pretty consistent as well.

Thank you for asking this question because this has bothered me too. I subscribe to a bunch of mostly educational Youtube channels and then the only thing I do on Youtube is go to my subscribed feed and watch them.

But then I hear people talk about how channels they subscribe to just don't ever show up on the home feed so they end up missing things. Then Youtube implemented an additional system where you not only have to subscribe but you also have to set it to be notified of new videos. Thus starting the whole problem all over again where the home feed algorithm has too much stuff you are subscribed and notified to for it to all show up.

There is this nice little feature that shows you a chronological view of subscribed video releases that everyone ignores for no reason.

Dude I've had that exact same thought. Like, yeah, the subscription is where everything is. I never use the regular home page, my bookmark for YouTube goes to my subscription.

There's zero need for me to use the bell. I never understood why people complained about videos not showing up, etc.

I always use the subscription feed, in fact, my custom homepage has a link to specifically that page. However, my husband didn't even notice that there was such an option and only uses the recommended feed (we talked about it recently). I personally can't stand recommendation engines. These have destroyed my art business in social media platforms. I need chronological.

I use an RSS feed. I never miss a video and it always keeps my backlog in tact for me to comb through later.

Personally I remember when the main page used to be the user's subscription feed. After they changed it, I just updated my bookmark and continued to land on the subscription feed. At some point everyone else seems to have forgotten that that happened and started pushing the bell.

TBH I don't use the subscription feed often. I subscribe to many channels and rarely clean them out after not watching them for years. So that feed is full of videos that I'm not really in the mood for right now but I might watch some day. My home feed is filled with videos that I'm currently in the mood for - from subscribed channels and new ones I can then discover.

I use the subscription feed. Definitely don't use the bell. Bell is so cumbersome where you get a email for a new video, then you get that pop-up preview on your browser, and push notifications on your mobile device. Too much for me, especially since I'm at a point where I subscribe to 600 channels or so, which makes it hard to play favorites. That's sort of what the bell is for I guess, determining whose content you value the most.

I just use subscriptions as a super-like: please keep putting this channel's videos in my feed.

I'm generally not interested in seeing all the updates for every channel I like in one place, especially not per-artist. I just want a mix of stuff I'll probably like in with stuff I might like, so I stand a good chance of finding something cool.

I have zero notifications enabled and use the sub list exclusively (about to switch to RSS), although I'm probably an outlier since I have a habit of sacrificing comfort just to stick it to big tech.

I very much use the subscription feed. I don't know how alone I am with this, but I usually only subscribe to channels when I want to watch almost all videos they post.

A lot of the time if a creator gets a little bit popular they start to spam videos and that's when I unsubscribe, even if I generally like their content. I feel like I cannot ever keep up anymore so I just watch their videos sporadically from then on.

I use it consistently. I, however, do not like the shorts panel taking up a ton of space in the feed now. My subs feed shouldn't have shorts from people I am not subscribed to, but it does.

I use it almost exclusively - I've bookmarked Subscriptions instead of any other page. But it does feel like I'm unusual in this sometimes.

I almost exclusively use the subscription feed. The front page is a mess of terrible recommendations on videos I have no interest in watching.

The one thing I hate about the sub feed is that I can't seem to filter out shorts. I have no interest in shorts, and they make up more than half of my feed.

I just use RSS feeds of the YouTube channels I want to follow. I am sure that will be taken away from us soon to force us to do things the way they want. Until then ... go RSS!

Creators both put out so much dogshit that I have to cherry pick and also my sub feed doesn't account for actually good content.

So yeah I stopped paying attention to it. Even as a YouTube premium member.

The peak of garbage was when YouTube enforced a 10 minute watch time for max profit. They rolled it back but dude there used to be 8 minutes of fluff for a 2 minute video.

I only use the Subscriptions feed, and use an extension that blocks recommendations and shorts.
Additionally, before watching any video I'll check the channel page to see if YouTube is hiding any of that person's videos from me (which they do even on the Subscriptions feed sometimes).
Fuck the algorithm.

If you turn off history, it is very important and definitely shows in your Home feed, actually, it is the no.1 reason to turn off history

I use an extension called PocketTube to manage my subscriptions into categories. I'm sure there's a better way, but it works for me.

I have seen myself times where someones video just is not in my sub feed, but I can see it on the Youtube channel. Happened twice in the last year with Louis Rossmann for some reason?

There was a short time when YouTube was removing videos from the feed, and the only guarantee was the bell. But that is not true for like 4 years now.

I guess those people still erroneously believe that's how it works.

I used to, but then I got so many subs it wasn't really practical anymore. Now I just let the algorithm recommend new vids. Just too much great content creators, what can you do.

I don't mind the YouTube algorithm cause at least I still have the choice. With TikTok or shorts I have to actively scroll to not watch something. So I let the algorithm give me new stuff on youtube, but it tends to focus on one or two areas at a time. So if I want to see more gardening in my feed I use my sub feed and watch a few gardening vids and presto old vids from channels I'm subbed to and new vids from new channels or cool one offs from the algorithm.

But I don't like my sub feed because I have such varied interests and moods I'm not interested in 60% of it at any one time.

I don't rely on it at all because it likes to omit things I assume it thinks I won't like. Plenty of times I'll see a new video from a subscribed creator on the home tab to head over to subscriptions where I can't find it but see previous ones.

If it worked that would be great, instead I use third party apps to manage it and would just stop using YouTube if those tools were unavailable.