My pal Prince Watercress had a comment on one of his videos a couple of weeks ago which was a prime example of the mass idiocy that plagues not only YouTube but social media in general.
In this case user @barbs896 demonstrates their complete lack of remote comprehension on how YouTube suggestions work with the glorious comment:
Who are you? Why are you in my recommendation?
@barbs896, YouTube —
As you can see, Prince Watercress replied in kind with the typical snark we would expect from our favorite echidna friend.
These are, sadly, pretty common comments and it amazes me that people use the platform yet don’t have a clue how even the basics of it work, or grasp the idea that there are more people creating content than the algorithm-whoring-shills that are the most “popular” on the site.
So, for the sake of @barbs896, I’ll answer his questions.
1: Who they are is Prince Watercress — A Let’s Play creator who is also heavily into 80’s music and Wrestling, as well as some other hobbies. He has been producing this type of video content for 10 years now, and shows no signs of stopping.
2: Why is he in your recommendation? Well, first off, it’s “recommendations” but that’s just a minor grammatical correction — perhaps English isn’t your native language, which I certainly can’t fault you for.
On point, the video was in your suggested videos because you have likely shown interest in either the game being played in the video, or similar games, or let’s plays in general.
Now, given the fact that apparently YouTube has changed things and is now suggesting smaller creators more often, that may have resulted in Watercress’s content being more likely to be shown to people watching random Let’s Plays, and as such, the video was suggested to you. That is kind of how YouTube works. Always has, in one way or another.
Why you chose to click on it just to leave this kind of stupid comment is beyond me. While I get that maybe not everyone will understand the basic concept of the social media algorithm, and all the hell it brings to our lives, I would at least expect someone to not be so stupid as to actually ask such as above.
Obviously I’m writing this simply to laugh at the idiocy on display — I have no other real point beyond demonstrating that these kinds of people are out there and, as harmless as such a comment is (beyond its tendency to annoy) it nonetheless demonstrates a clear lack of basic comprehension on not just how things work but basic social etiquette which is far more common than not.
so, @barbs896, I hope that answers your question. Now please, go actually try to learn something about the basics of how the modern web works — you certainly subscribe to enough cooking channels, maybe it’s time to diversify your interests.
More to come, as always. Now get off my lawn!
P.S. Yes, I know this article is a bit mean, but the idea of people getting somehow upset in some capacity with a small time creator for having their content suggested just doesn’t make any sense to me. At all.