YouTube’s switcheroo
I hate, hate, hate the new YouTube format. I am not alone in this, although plenty of people like it as well.
You may not have noticed it, but it happened a few days ago. It happens now and then—you’ve been going along for years, happily using a site, accustomed to the way it looks, knowing how to navigate around and get to what you want, and then suddenly things are upended and most of the old familiar landmarks are gone.
Not only that, but the current online trend is to hide things—to purposely hide things to make a site look “cleaner” or some other rubbish.
Now, I have to say I’m probably not your typical YouTube user, so I’m not surprised if YouTube doesn’t care what I think or what I want and doesn’t cater to my needs. I tend to generally dislike technical change unless it’s obviously and unequivocally an improvement, and much of what I see that constitutes change online is merely cosmetic. I especially hate the tendency to hide things, something I’ve seen on site after site and which seems to originate in the limitations of mobile viewing. Now those mobile limitations have become the dominant esthetic, and we all have to play “button, button, who’s got the button?” as we search for something that used to be quite easy to see.
I’m not alone in that sentiment, either. This commenter expresses my sentiments exactly, and better than I have:
This trend of hiding a UI element (e.g. the comment menu) until the user hovers over it is bad, bad, bad. I see this sort of thing confusing people all the time. Unless you know it’s there, you won’t know where to find it.
Google keeps doing this all the time, and it’s a terrible design practice. I think it reflects how they assume users are well-versed in their platform, so they’d know where to look, but a good chunk of their users aren’t in that boat, and end up just lost about how to do things.
And there’s a lot of chatter about the wonderful new YouTube logo. Logos are something I don’t tend to notice and when I notice them I tend to not care about them. But here’s the stunning and revolutionary new YouTube logo design (and yes, that’s sarcasm):
But fortunately, although I had to be told about it (and not by YouTube, I can assure you), there’s a way to go to “settings” and restore old YouTube, which I promptly did. I wonder how long they’ll let us do that before they force permanent change, just like Yahoo email did.
Grrrr.
[NOTE: More about the change here.]
Thanks for the tip. Heading to “settings” pronto.
“resistance is futile, you will be assimilated”.
Google did buy up youtube. They are part of the generation that believes in advancing the progress of the race, even if it leaves the old timers behind.
Uhm, have you practiced yelling, “You kids get off my lawn” yet? I do feel it. My bank pulled some krep like this, a few months ago, and yes, you could still hit a button that allowed one to go back to the old set-up, because even they realized that the new format could not do all the things that the old one had done. Grrr, indeed!
This is not, as many will accuse, the old timers wanting the old ways. It is, rather, that it worked, so why did you mess with it?
Change is good. You hear it all the time.
It must be true.
YouTube is owned by Google. The evil apple doesn’t fall far from the evil tree.
Uh-oh. (That summarizes and expresses my reaction.)
Uh-oh.
“Do no evil”, ….yet.
If you ever wondered how “The Internet” works, or how Google makes money.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-serf-on-googles-farm
The old logo was designed with white surpremacy in mind, and had to go.
“This is not, as many will accuse, the old timers wanting the old ways. It is, rather, that it worked, so why did you mess with it?”
Because that seems to be the way with many Millennials. It HAS to change because it’s “old”, not because it can be made more efficient. And if I can extend this a bit; it also is a characteristic of the left.
Yes, us old farts can be stick-in-the-muds at times. But until one realizes that the old saying rings true, there will be this need to change just for change sake. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
physicsguy Says: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
Maybe that’s the conservative descriptor.
Ever since I installed Windows 10, I have been unable to perform a simple “restart”. The “start” button has disappeared. I also cannot “shut down” Windows.The only way that I can do a restart is to turn off the computer (hold the power button down til the computer shuts off) and then do a cold startup.
What a marvelous improvement…….
I hope I am not the only one who loves the classic email. My daughter rolls her eyes but that has never stopped me. (it encourages me)
I assumed something was wrong with my computer when I first went to Youtube since the change.
Hangtown Bob,
On most computers, if you just press the power button for a half second, Windows and the computer will shut down in the normal way. (There are settings in the BIOS that can affect this however.)
Shutting down Windows by pressing and holding the power button for 4 seconds forces an immediate shutdown. This is useful in case of a crash or lockup, but doing it routinely is asking for trouble. It’s like playing Russian roulette with your software. Someday, it’s going to go down and not come back up.
Also, if you press the “Windows” key on your keyboard, or click the Windows button in the lower left corner, you will get the Windows main menu. In the lower left corner of that menu is the power options button which, if you click on it, include sleep, shutdown, and restart.
or click the Windows button in the lower left corner,
Also, right-clicking that window button in the lower left corner will take you to that same option list of shutdown, sleep, update & restart, etc.
One thing that MS has always done well (of the very few) is to provide multiple ways of doing any particular action.
I view this as progressive imposition of tyranny by our new ruling class of billionaire techies, thin but awesomely wealthy Lefty reeds like Zuckerberg, Brin, Page, Must, and Gates, who do what they want when they want to do it…We really are powerless to resist their control of the vast digital realm, upon which we inexorably depend.
I am now coming to realize that the Citizens United v. FEC decision has its own unintended consequences. We sheep cannot resist the wolves without shepherds with dogs. Who are our shepherds? Where are they and their dogs?
I remember a few months ago, Neo asked about updating her blog. If I remember correctly, most of us said that it should be kept as is, since we are all familiar with the current look.
My “problem” is that I keep programs until there is an obvious error or the vendor drops support for it. So, the shock level is greater when I do update.
I can’t find ‘settings’ in any of the pull down menus.
I need a clue.
Even if you didn’t want Windows 10 upgrade, they made you upgrade with a sneak in “security update”. So unless you had win 7 on no updates, all manual updates, the next time it restarted, it would install windows 10 automatically, if you were eligible.
The reason is because Win 10 had more microsoft profit margins and ways to monetize the user. The slave always think it is free in Slavery 3.0. In reality, they’re just a cog of the machine, still taking blue pills.
The techies aren’t quite as stupid as Silicon Valley. If Youtube is going to piss off their users like MySpace did… why aren’t there any competitors?
There are.
VoxDay is only just one of them.
There are already formats switching from Twitter, wikipedia, etc. Although Facebook seems still pretty strong.
Linkedin is also pretty strong, although newer.
So if you want to get rich on the next bubble, find the next Youtube.
blert:
I’ve changed mine back to the old format, so I don’t remember exactly, but I think it was up in the right upper corner. It didn’t say “settings,” though. It was just a bunch of horzontal lines or something like that.
Here are some instructions.
Michael F Adams Says:
September 2nd, 2017 at 9:10 pm…the new format could not do all the things that the old one had done. .
This is not, as many will accuse, the old timers wanting the old ways. It is, rather, that it worked, so why did you mess with it?
Ed Bonderenka Says:
September 3rd, 2017 at 9:44 am
physicsguy Says: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
Maybe that’s the conservative descriptor.
* * *
Works for me.
The last time Google “improved” Gmail, they took away half the functions I used, and added a bunch I didn’t need at all.
Chesterton’s Fence maxim seems applicable here
(it’s posted on Wikipedia as a warning against overly hasty editing or deletion; perhaps the Statue Demolition Brigades should be directed there)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Chesterton%27s_fence
Chesterton’s fence is the principle that reforms should not be made until the reasoning behind the existing state of affairs is understood. The quotation is from G. K. Chesterton’s 1929 book The Thing, in the chapter entitled “The Drift from Domesticity”:
In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”[1]
* * *
However, it seems to me that the “Changers” at Google et al. may know perfectly well the use of what they are changing (there are extensive development histories for all the software), but just don’t care anymore if we have it or not.
The ultimate user interface is virtual self programmable macros and AI aided combos that suit the user’s style.
AutoHokey is a program used to basically program your own macros. Macros are used in botting, AI craft, and automatic functions via a script.
They are not easy to use nor learn, so the mainstream will dumb down an interface for 18 year old Leftists, that don’t suit the ultra users. The ultra users have 10+ years of experience in a certain interface and can do things in a streamlined approach similar to 1000 hour black belt proficiency martial artists.
10000 hours of mastery is in “hacking”, the creation of UI and code customized to your performance specs.
The point of progressive UI is to constantly look for the lowest common denominator. Which leaves old timers and users approaching the mastery limit, in the dust. It “progresses” the scale by equalizing your experience with the 15-18 year old “new gen” mainstream customers who have IQs and cpus less than half in the tasks certain people have become good at.
This not only appraises the “new gen” as being smarter and faster than the “old timers”, but it also is good pr and propaganda, as it highlights the “talents” of the new gen and the “obsolete weakness” of the old gen.
Even though, of course, 1000-10000 hours in a program is not at all “slow” compared to the progress of the Left.
“Your names are numbered down to a precious few.” This is the 2nd wave of 1984, the third wave will be uninended consequences. It counts down, eventually, to which side you are on when lead meets the meat. Have no lead, you are at best a bystander, and they will execute you. Choose wisely. Get trained or be a victim.
I spent a good ten years working as programmer (for the little computers inside other things that you normally do not think about – and you should never HAVE to) and the First Rule was…
Thou Shalt Not [Monkey] With the User Interface
The only exception was the one mentioned: where it is such a huge benefit that it’s worth the change. This is *extremely* rare.
And marketers think that doing this increases the number of people they draw and that no one leaves or gives up and goes elsewhere…
im serious
first thing the marketing department does that you hire is to make all other departments bad but theirs and have the ear of the person making choices they can wisper in.
they market themselves first
then they market you if your lucky
but they are mostly rote… no brains, often pretty people
(and this is more for internal marketing not ad firms)
[funny thing is they tend to imagine they are like the real movers who werent pretty people but pretty driven people who often came from nothing – hat tip to David Ogilvy of Ogilvy and Mather]
on another aside
Kim Jong does NOT have a H bomb
someone gave him one to use and thats that
If anyone here besides me knows what goes into making one work on the physics side, and the number of atom bomb tests you need to do to even get the exact numbers and more… please clue people in better than i can (but suffice it to say you need a very very well made atom bomb to make a h bomb fire and not fizzle)
the whole point of it is about balance
ie. off balance
I’m pretty oblivious to things like logos on a good day, and had I simply seen the new one, I could not have told you that anything was different.
On the other hand, perhaps it’s more subtle than my imagination can perceive. Example, once you see the arrow in the FedEx logo, you cannot “unsee” it. Does anyone see any hidden message in the new YouTube logo?
http://mentalfloss.com/article/53146/11-hidden-messages-company-logos
A very sad aside: Wallter Becker from the great band Steely Dan died at the age of 67 today.
Sorry, yesterday.
It says, “We don’t intend to provide anything to anyone that isn’t hip to our culture already.”
Next up, ideological purity tests, with permanent bans for failure.
Same attitude Trum primary backers had.
Goldman sachs wife? Purge. GOldmansachs administrative staff and cabinet: no problem.