YouTube has announced that it is “currently experimenting” with how videos on the site are displayed in users’ sub boxes.
The news comes after the platform responded to another Twitter user who asked why their videos were no longer in chronological order.
Team YouTube said: “We find that some viewers are able to more easily find the videos they want to watch when we order the subs feed in a personalized order vs always showing most recent video first.”
Just to clarify. We are currently experimenting with how to show content in the subs feed. We find that some viewers are able to more easily find the videos they want to watch when we order the subs feed in a personalized order vs always showing most recent video first.
— Team YouTube (@TeamYouTube) May 23, 2018
YouTubers have since been responding to the experiment on Twitter, with Thomas ‘TomSka’ Ridgewell saying being a creator on the site “is a lot like working in an office except every day they move your desk to a different department”:
Being a YouTuber is a lot like working in an office except every day they move your desk to a different department, change your job description without telling you, and promote the 15-year-old intern to senior partner and let him fuck your wife https://t.co/6Y9DK4A5Cu
— Thomas "TomSka" Ridgewell (@thetomska) May 24, 2018
Taha Khan was also critical of the experiment and said the move would “straight up kill my channel”:
This would straight up kill my channel. https://t.co/tgIxdOIqUK
— taha (@KhanStopMe) May 24, 2018
Meanwhile, Gary C said: “When I click subscribe on a youtube channel that’s me saying: ‘more of this please’.
“I don’t expect to be force fed things YouTube ‘thinks’ I should see.
“I have nearly 47,000 people who said ‘yes’. Yet, I’m regularly asked if I still post videos or people are not seeing them.”
Other YouTubers mentioned Twitch whilst commenting on the news, with Daniel Hardcastle asking the site for a way “to bulk upload 8 years of video to you at once”.
“My old website is about to kick me out,” he said.
Hey @Twitch, we need to talk about a way for me to bulk upload 8 years of video to you at once. My old website is about to kick me out. https://t.co/NuIItoWCJF
— Daniel Hardcastle (@DanNerdCubed) May 24, 2018
YouTube has since addressed some of the concerns on Twitter, confirming that the chronological order of the subscription feed “is not going away”.
In response to a tweet by Alfie Deyes, the site said: “We’re testing a new and completely optional way to sort the sub feed with a small group of people.
“All videos are still in the feed and it’s optional, so those in the experiment can still choose to sort by most recent.
“We know that any potential updates to to the subs feed are extremely important and we don’t take this lightly, this is why we experiment and gather feedback.”
Want more?
Find out more about YouTube’s own music charts, or find out the YouTubers announced as this year’s Creators for Change.
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