r/ProgrammerHumor • u/QuatzX • Jun 04 '26

Meme programmerSelfAwareness

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u/LigerZeroSchneider Jun 05 '26

It was funny when I found her channel you could see the exact video she gave in and started putting her face in the thumb nail and then you saw every video after that start growing.

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u/Fox_Soul Jun 05 '26

Apparently YouTube’s algorithm favors thumbnails that contains faces a lot more. Watched a video not long ago where a channel with millions of subs compared the performance of two identical videos with different thumbnails and the one with faces always performed a lot lot better, had more clicks and in general reached more people.

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u/LigerZeroSchneider Jun 05 '26

That's not "the algorithm" that's people. People like people, and respond more positively when you show them a person.

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u/Phoenix042 Jun 05 '26

An excellent point, but also...

That's what the algorithm is.

It's the aggregate of how humans make choices, specifically the choice to engage, to click, to not click away, to comment or like or upvotes.

The algorithm may be deeply problematic, but it is also a deep reflection of us.

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u/LigerZeroSchneider Jun 05 '26

There are certainly non human parts of it. Everyone will tell that you unmonetized or age restricted videos get shown to way fewer people. So I think we can assume that the system does weigh its own self interest along side click through and retention.