From missing notifications to videos not showing up on the Home page, it's becoming harder and harder for YouTubers to make sure their content is seen by their subscribers. A lot of this is due to an algorithm that YouTube uses to determine videos users want to see, and because we can't have nice things, this is now making its way to the Subscription feed.
One Twitter user reached out to the Team YouTube Twitter account asking why their videos weren't showing up in chronological order, and upon doing so, got the following response:
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.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.— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) May 23, 2018May 23, 2018
To briefly summarize the words of just about everyone replying to this comment — "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS BAD YOUTUBE BAD!!!!"
In all seriousness, this is incredibly disappointing news. I understand that algorithms/AI is the future and Google wants to integrate them into as many of its products as possible, but the Subscription feed is the last place where you can see videos from channels you're subscribed to in a constant, organized layout.
It's true that algorithms are always learning and get better over time, but ask just about any YouTuber out there and you'll get an earful about how less and less of their subscribers are getting notified of new uploads. With chronological view thrown out, it's going to become even more difficult to find new videos you haven't seen — especially if you follow someone who uploads at a regular time each day.
YouTube may decide to stop with this experiment and not mess with the subscription feed, but then again, it could decide to roll this out to everyone as a mandatory change.
I certainly hope we end up with the former, but who knows at this point.
