Youtube "how to" videos are mostly useless

[IanB]

when books and printed materials are the only source of references. granted at the beginning of internet there were only texts exist, but the trend is shifting... until the age of youtube

I think maybe you are missing what life was like in the 1960's, 70's and 80's? There was a "YouTube" back then, but it took a different form, and that form was magazines (not textbooks). Newsagent shelves were full of monthly magazines all all conceivable subjects, with several titles covering electronics. Every child who wanted to learn would be buying these magazines.

The magazines would contain projects, reviews, tutorials, industry news, and adverts for all sorts of things to buy to make stuff.

Granted, magazines have not quite gone away, but it is hard to imagine how rich the scene was in previous decades.

One thing to mention about the difference between magazines and YouTube videos, is that magazines have editors to curate the content and maintain quality standards

[tggzzz]

Can you explain what you mean by "your advice is only valid before the internet"?

when books and printed materials are the only source of references. granted at the beginning of internet there were only texts exist, but the trend is shifting... until the age of youtube. if you want to limit your choice to printed materials only, then thats your choice, and anybody on your side. we taught kids to take advantages of any type of materials in front of them. but for proper education, yes its still books with established knowledges in it... better for kids to watch sort of education materials in youtube than playing some "claim your chicks" game in the phone. its inevitable. duh why i have to typing all this? maybe because i dont have better things to do than postings in GC

OK, that's a little more comprehensible and reasoned.

The only problem with your contention is that most of the "educational" stuff on yoootoob is - to be charitable - of very poor educational value.

You seem to think I don't value videos, despite my explicit statements that I do value some videos. What I - and others - object to is that objectively poor quality stuff is too easily circulated via clickbait tactics, and that makes it very time consuming to find good video.

But hey, if you don't value your time and are content to fritter away your life on yoootoob, then at least is stops you doing anything more harmful.

To mutilate the lyrics from Pink Floyd's "Time"...

  Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
  You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
  Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown yootoob
  Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Hope the emphasis helps your comprehension.

[pdenisowski]

One thing to mention about the difference between magazines and YouTube videos, is that magazines have editors to curate the content and maintain quality standards

As someone who was in grad school when I first heard the word "Internet," that's an interesting and in many ways a very appropriate analogy

But imagine that instead of having a newsstand with 40-50 professionally published and edited magazines, you shared that newsstand with 400-500 self-published "zines" (remember those?), some of which had great information that you couldn't get elsewhere, and some of which were total garbage.  They also aren't well-organized into categories and only a few of them have a cover that lists what's on the inside.

Oh, and they are all free

I spend a good amount of my work day creating content that appears (among other places) on YouTube, so I'm all too aware of the challenges of finding concise, clear, and accurate technical information.  No idea how to solve that problem - sorry

Incidentally, one of the things I love about Germany is how many magazines are still being published compared to the United States.  I'm amazed that even the smallest Buchhandlung sometimes has half a dozen magazines on a single hobby (model trains, chess, horses, etc.)

[IanB]

But imagine that instead of having a newsstand with 40-50 professionally published and edited magazines, you shared that newsstand with 400-500 self-published "zines" (remember those?), some of which had great information that you couldn't get elsewhere, and some of which were total garbage.

Ah yes, the monthly bulletins you would subscribe to, that would come in the mail, typewritten and photocopied, each one containing interesting technical news, "how-to's" and other content of interest. Publications like the "TI calculators owners club".

[soldar]

Absolutely.  Even though I taught classes for years and have given hundreds of in-person presentations, I don't ever try to "wing it" when I record videos.

My usual method is to record the whole thing straight through, backing up a sentence or two every time I make a mistake (and I make lots of mistakes).  I then go back and cut out the "bad parts".  No fancy editing skills necessary - just select the parts that I messed up and hit "delete"

I suppose with a little practice you can edit quite fast. It would take me forever.  Steve Lehto must do the same thing but alsoyou hardly notice the cuts because the video is transitioned over a few frames and he is sitting still facing the camera so it is just a bit of blurring. And you cannot notice anything in the audio stream. I suppose with a bit of practice and the right software you can move forward quickly.

It is not only the content that is important but also the quality of the video and audio.

There is a guy who has a channel in Spanish and he does videos which are just unbelievable. He will record a 20 or 30 or 40 minute video outdoors, by the beach, in the wind, in one single take, with perfect audio and video. He is moving, walking, sitting, turning and delivers a long monologue without a hitch. I assume he had a very good cameraman but I have no idea if he can memorize the entire thing and if he just keeps doing it until he gets the entire thing right. In the technical aspect that channel is just amazing. I suppose professional actors also need to memorize their lines but I find it amazing. The guy can talk about a movie, a book, a character from Greek mythology and you know he is not improvising because the entire speech is just perfect. I guess that is what a true pro can do but I find it amazing when broadcast TV, where they have more means, is much lower quality. This guy is someone doing it for the LOLs and who says he does not want monetary support. Once in a while he will say something like "As you know I do not ask for monetary support; if you like what I do and would like to do something then get on the phone and call your mother or someone you know is lonely and tell them you love them and you care".  I find his videos not only interesting in their subject matter but also impressive in their technical quality. Some things which may seem like defects are actually designed that way and you can see he repeats them in many videos. Every tiny detail is planned and designed that way. A perfect product done just for the pleasure of doing it. A very rare thing these days. As I say, the channel is in Spanish (even though the guy ran away and lives in Cyprus) but if anybody is curious, you can see his videos iXc5PYH04F0 , 7HyaiL5nwlo , gK_Cll61G-c , _mDsPCkNP-A , They are quite representative of some of his work.

[Mechatrommer]

I think maybe you are missing what life was like in the 1960's, 70's and 80's? There was a "YouTube" back then, but it took a different form, and that form was magazines (not textbooks). Newsagent shelves were full of monthly magazines all all conceivable subjects, with several titles covering electronics. Every child who wanted to learn would be buying these magazines.

even though i didnt live in 60 or 70, but i think i got the idea about "YouTube" back then. and i have hundreds of magazines here in form of pdf... and i remember buying magazines sports etc while i was very young. and i have full rack of books of real knowledges just back there. and i still add new collection bought from online stores. i only dig them when i want to revisit some real knowledge esp involving math and theories... half of my lifetime is without computer. but things like how to repair smartphones, how to make "floating" desk etc, i thankfull there is internet/youtube right now.

[Mechatrommer]

just popping up in my channel again (i was looking for this kind of guy yestesrday i couldnt find)... is this OP talking about? if you can spend 50 minutes (i dont) on how to (100 days) build fighter boat check his channel i dont know what he's doing for a living... at least sometime he can give me some idea...

[Nominal Animal]

is this OP talking about?

Can you tell the difference between a "how to" video and a 'here's a thing I made in 100 days' video?  I'm serious, and not trying to be snarky or anything.

We're not talking about work log videos.  I watch Cutting Edge Engineering Australia every Friday, Bad Obsession Motorsport whenever they get off their arses to publish a video, Frank Howarth's and Keith Rucker's work log videos, yes.  Nobody is complaining about those, because those videos are about what they do for fun or profit or both.

We're also not talking about videos that show how to replace the battery on a specific model tablet without breaking it, or how to reach a particularly tricky doodad on some model of cars.  Those are fine, too, because they show a procedure that should not cause any damage while doing it.

We're talking about the crappy videos that are supposed to help others but really do not, because the person does not understand what they're doing.
For example, consider a video where someone is showing how you can tell a battery is almost depleted by simply measuring the cell voltage with a voltmeter.
That is bullshit, because you need to load the battery (with a series resistor) to see what kind of a voltage it has under load to tell how depleted it is.

[soldar]

Can you tell the difference between a "how to" video and a 'here's a thing I made in 100 days' video?  I'm serious, and not trying to be snarky or anything.

We're not talking about work log videos.  I watch Cutting Edge Engineering Australia every Friday, Bad Obsession Motorsport whenever they get off their arses to publish a video, Frank Howarth's and Keith Rucker's work log videos, yes.  Nobody is complaining about those, because those videos are about what they do for fun or profit or both.

We're also not talking about videos that show how to replace the battery on a specific model tablet without breaking it, or how to reach a particularly tricky doodad on some model of cars.  Those are fine, too, because they show a procedure that should not cause any damage while doing it.

We're talking about the crappy videos that are supposed to help others but really do not, because the person does not understand what they're doing.
For example, consider a video where someone is showing how you can tell a battery is almost depleted by simply measuring the cell voltage with a voltmeter.
That is bullshit, because you need to load the battery (with a series resistor) to see what kind of a voltage it has under load to tell how depleted it is.

Exactly!

Before there was the Internet there was Norm Abram and his New Yankee Workshop. In every project he would start out by showing the finished product; what he was going to build. Whether it be a greenhouse, a shaker chair, an amish cupboard, whatever, he would show it, describe it, point out what made it special, things to pay attention to.

HE would then make the parts but explaining very precisely why he was doing it that way, why that joint needed to go that way, why this part needed to be glued before that other part, etc. It was not just him working with the machines and without explanation.

Those programs were very well scripted and were very useful if you ever wanted to build those projects but even if you were just watching you would learn useful techniques.

Watching a guy cutting lumber on the table saw without explanation is a waste of time that gets you nowhere.

[tggzzz]

Can you tell the difference between a "how to" video and a 'here's a thing I made in 100 days' video?  I'm serious, and not trying to be snarky or anything.

We're not talking about work log videos.  I watch Cutting Edge Engineering Australia every Friday, Bad Obsession Motorsport whenever they get off their arses to publish a video, Frank Howarth's and Keith Rucker's work log videos, yes.  Nobody is complaining about those, because those videos are about what they do for fun or profit or both.

We're also not talking about videos that show how to replace the battery on a specific model tablet without breaking it, or how to reach a particularly tricky doodad on some model of cars.  Those are fine, too, because they show a procedure that should not cause any damage while doing it.

We're talking about the crappy videos that are supposed to help others but really do not, because the person does not understand what they're doing.
For example, consider a video where someone is showing how you can tell a battery is almost depleted by simply measuring the cell voltage with a voltmeter.
That is bullshit, because you need to load the battery (with a series resistor) to see what kind of a voltage it has under load to tell how depleted it is.

Exactly!

Before there was the Internet there was Norm Abram and his New Yankee Workshop. In every project he would start out by showing the finished product; what he was going to build. Whether it be a greenhouse, a shaker chair, an amish cupboard, whatever, he would show it, describe it, point out what made it special, things to pay attention to.

HE would then make the parts but explaining very precisely why he was doing it that way, why that joint needed to go that way, why this part needed to be glued before that other part, etc. It was not just him working with the machines and without explanation.

Those programs were very well scripted and were very useful if you ever wanted to build those projects but even if you were just watching you would learn useful techniques.

Watching a guy cutting lumber on the table saw without explanation is a waste of time that gets you nowhere.

Yup, to both of those posts.

The idiocracy of yoootoob videos stops youngsters from realising how good videos can be.

[SiliconWizard]

I still don't get the problem.
How did you do when you didn't have YT videos?

Anyone can make YT videos, and for just any kind of motive. Statistically, what do you think are the odds of a given video meeting your expectations? Practically zero. And that's normal. If you find some channels with great content that meets your expectations, great, enjoy. Otherwise? What point is there to make? It's just a completely "open" platform at zero direct cost (if one has a problem with the indirect costs, frankly the best would be to just go elsewhere), so complaining is exactly like, say, listening to hundreds of people in a meeting on some topic and coming back with "wow, those guys really suck!" Yeah?

[tggzzz]

What point is there to make?

The bad crowding out the good. Not only because of sheer volume, but also because the algorithms push crap.  How so?

Google favours the new over the old; that's also visible in its text search results. Consequence perennially good stuff that doesn't change over years is "deprioritised" in favour of today's clickbait.

It is also in google's financial interest to push stuff that drives advertising revenue, which is typically more idiotic (cats anyone?) or controversial.

[jonovid]

in recent years I have noticed a trend of deliberate dumbing down of how to content on youtube that is made for the so-called modern audiences.
to make it easier for non technical low IQ people to understand.   call it kiddie playschool science if you like.
also there is a trend of more professional full time youtubes posting for instant video gratification or quantity over quality. 

[Buriedcode]

This thread is very reminiscent of an Eti thread.

I don't like x.  I expect x to do this. but x doesn't do this, and people should make x do this for me.

Viewing youtube videos is optional.  And if you are complaining that many - perhaps most - are "useless" to you then I'm not sure what you expect anyone to do about it - or care.

I suppose if your job is repairing things, and the first way you approach that problem is to look for youtube videos, then I can understand frustration if said youtube videos explicitly state they show you how to do said repair but then fail to do so. But I suspect that isn't what you're on about.  Sounds like you assume and expect something from a youtube video from its titel, and it doesn't live up to that.

There are myriad reasons people upload videos - money, likes, a genuine wish to help others, because their friends are doing it.  Also - they are free for you to watch and as such come with no guarantees or quality control (whatever you expect that to be). Not sure you can compare youtube to old books, newsletters or even pre-2000 websites, as all of those had a higher bar because it cost money to publish and present that information, as such, it was more to the point, and generally more reliable.

Maybe take a break from watching youtube for a while and spend your valuable time doing things that dont' make you angry?

[tggzzz]

This thread is very reminiscent of an Eti thread.

I don't like x.  I expect x to do this. but x doesn't do this, and people should make x do this for me.

Viewing youtube videos is optional.  And if you are complaining that many - perhaps most - are "useless" to you then I'm not sure what you expect anyone to do about it - or care.

I suppose if your job is repairing things, and the first way you approach that problem is to look for youtube videos, then I can understand frustration if said youtube videos explicitly state they show you how to do said repair but then fail to do so. But I suspect that isn't what you're on about.  Sounds like you assume and expect something from a youtube video from its titel, and it doesn't live up to that.

You partly answer your own point, when you note the content doesn't live up to the title.

"Never judge a book by the cover" is a good sentiment. With books, you can avoid that by looking at the table of contents and skimming a couple of pages.

You can't do the equivalent with videos since they rarely have a ToC, and the couple of pages take 20 minutes to speak (2000 words, 100wpm).

Maybe take a break from watching youtube for a while and spend your valuable time doing things that dont' make you angry?

That's why I have stopped watching yoootoob videos unless someone I trust has recommended them for a specific reason. Shame, because I miss the 0.001% of good videos.

There are other equivalents, e.g.:

• the net after Eternal September, and Kanter and Siegel (may they rot in hell)
• that lovely holiday destination that is spoiled by becoming so popular that you can't get a good meal there anymore

You get the drift.

[coppercone2]

they just make 0 effort crap because algorithms/ai gets you to watch it and they get beer money for it

its kind of like information pollution. can you do something cheaper and get more money if you pollute? of course
does youtube want more content (like those old video game CD's that came with 5000 games?) yes. its a selling point
do people want money for half assed work ? definitely

those kind of videos later involve someone bragging to their friends along the lines of "can you believe I got a check for this shit"?


the only thing that could help is some kind of detector to warn you that the video is half assed. using youtube now means using the seek bar ALOT to scan the video to see if anything useful occurs.

IMO this happened because cameras are really cheap now. the video makers have a fishing mentality IMO, come back and get fish. but they cause massive information pollution


magazines were higher quality because they had a editor. it kept the fishermen out

[tggzzz]

It is worse than the crap search algorithms

I've just bumbled across the piece below, from the UK "Private Eye" magazine[1]. I wasn't aware of the phenomenon, but it matches some of the points made in this thread.



"Musa Mustafa" does have a yoootoob channel and it looks as obnoxious as the article suggests. I won't link to the yoootoob channel, in order to save people's sanity, however, it ought to be obvious how to permute "ht tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZXI2rbymZ0"

[1]PE has been going since 1961, regularly exposes dodgy practices in local/national government, medicine, law, business, construction, newspapers/broadcasting/publishing .... The editor (since 1986) is the most sued man in British legal history. When PE wins, it often sets usefui precedents.

Several of its memes have spread far beyond the magazine, e.g. "tired and emotional" and "Arkell v. Pressdram(1971)".

PE doesn't have much of an online presence. You have to pay for print, and it is worth it.

[soldar]

The bad crowding out the good. Not only because of sheer volume, but also because the algorithms push crap.  How so?

Google favours the new over the old; that's also visible in its text search results. Consequence perennially good stuff that doesn't change over years is "deprioritised" in favour of today's clickbait.

It is also in google's financial interest to push stuff that drives advertising revenue, which is typically more idiotic (cats anyone?) or controversial.

in recent years I have noticed a trend of deliberate dumbing down of how to content on youtube that is made for the so-called modern audiences.
to make it easier for non technical low IQ people to understand.   call it kiddie playschool science if you like.

also there is a trend of more professional full time youtubes posting for instant video gratification or quantity over quality.

Exactly. There are thousands of suggestions to videos which are crap or even dangerous, videos which ask the viewer to believe and invest in scams or to do very dangerous things like mount saw blades on a right angle axial grinder.

Youtube allows videos which are dangerous, mechanical, electrical, does not matter. But it will promptly censor anything if viewers complain. For example, Shawn Woods has a channel about catching mice and rats but he cannot show the animals being caught by a kill trap. He cannot show a mouse being killed by a snap trap.

I get suggestions to a video called HOW TO GET FREE ELECTRICITY FOREVER - TESLA'S HIDDEN INVENTION and I know it's crap but many people must fall for it because it has 5.7 million views in one year.  And all sorts of free energy scams and other dangerous proposals.

There is just too much crap and it drowns out the good stuff.

[Nominal Animal]

It's just a completely "open" platform at zero direct cost (if one has a problem with the indirect costs, frankly the best would be to just go elsewhere), so complaining is exactly like, say, listening to hundreds of people in a meeting on some topic and coming back with "wow, those guys really suck!" Yeah?

No.  I see people choosing shortcuts and pretend advice instead of thinking things through.  I'm not saying they suck, I'm saying they could do better.  Much better.

If we concentrate on the types of videos I have complained about, then it is more like pointing out fake/oblivious tutors spouting bullshit shortcuts.
Just because it is free like litter in the wind, does not make it okay.

Do I want Youtube to enforce something or some rules here?  No.  All I want is some social pushback to inept tutors and how-to posters posting bullshit advice, and that is exactly what I am doing, on Youtube and elsewhere.

[nctnico]

This thread is very reminiscent of an Eti thread.

I don't like x.  I expect x to do this. but x doesn't do this, and people should make x do this for me.

Viewing youtube videos is optional.  And if you are complaining that many - perhaps most - are "useless" to you then I'm not sure what you expect anyone to do about it - or care.

I disagree. The article tggzzz posted matches my own experience. There is a lot of fake AI generated content on Youtube. For example, I'm looking for a new bench DMM at the moment. When going on Youtube to find reviews, the results are swamped with videos called '5 best bench multimeters'. None of those videos is real as in somebody went through the trouble of actually reviewing 5 multimeters. It is just chat GPT selecting 5 random DMMs and repeating the manufacturer's marketing wank. In the end those videos are just useless noise and Youtube should do something about it.

[5U4GB]

The problem is the time wasted on determining that a specific video is worthless.

That's easy to do by speed reading articles, but there can never be the equivalent for videos.

Yup.  And when you do a Google search for how to fix some problem the first twenty hits are invariably useless Youtube videos where you have to sit through eight minutes of drivel (the optimum length for monetising a video on Youtube) to find out that there's nothing of any use in there and you need to skip to the next eight-minute load of drivel video which will also probably be totally useless for what you need to do.  And then there are also a ton of howto videos like this, Russian Roulette via Table Saw (trigger warning for woodworkers), which demonstrate pretty much everything you can do wrong when using one.

Having said that, there are occasional videos that'll show you how to solve a particular problem, but they're in a channel with six followers in Turkish with no CC available.

[tggzzz]

And then there are also a ton of howto videos like this, Russian Roulette via Table Saw (trigger warning for woodworkers), which demonstrate pretty much everything you can do wrong when using one.

Ah yes, the excuse being "I haven't had any problems therefore it is OK".

That happens too often on this forum, my triggers being floating scopes and using solderless breadboards

[tggzzz]

This thread is very reminiscent of an Eti thread.

I don't like x.  I expect x to do this. but x doesn't do this, and people should make x do this for me.

Viewing youtube videos is optional.  And if you are complaining that many - perhaps most - are "useless" to you then I'm not sure what you expect anyone to do about it - or care.

I disagree. The article tggzzz posted matches my own experience. There is a lot of fake AI generated content on Youtube. For example, I'm looking for a new bench DMM at the moment. When going on Youtube to find reviews, the results are swamped with videos called '5 best bench multimeters'. None of those videos is real as in somebody went through the trouble of actually reviewing 5 multimeters. It is just chat GPT selecting 5 random DMMs and repeating the manufacturer's marketing wank. In the end those videos are just useless noise and Youtube should do something about it.

Such repetition of marketing wank also occurs in non-video material, and is successfully fighting its way to the top of gurgle's results. At least it only takes 10s to ignore it.

Damn SEO; I remember when google.edu determined worth by the number of pages that linked to a a page - an analogue of the "science citation index" concept. Nowadays it is more like the FarceBook concept: whatever is newest and gives gurgle the most advertising revenue.

[coppice]

And when you do a Google search for how to fix some problem the first twenty hits are invariably useless Youtube videos where you have to sit through eight minutes of drivel (the optimum length for monetising a video on Youtube) to find out that there's nothing of any use in there and you need to skip to the next eight-minute load of drivel video which will also probably be totally useless for what you need to do.

That reflects more on Google than on Youtube. That Google search didn't only get you a lot of dodgy Youtube videos. It got you a variety of non-video junk too. 10 years ago a Google search was a pretty effective way to find things. Now its complete garbage. They improved i a bit over the low point maybe 5 years ago, but they seem incapable of undoing the damage they have done.

[pdenisowski]

Having said that, there are occasional videos that'll show you how to solve a particular problem, but they're in a channel with six followers in Turkish with no CC available.

When I was in college, I studied German and Russian in part so that I could read (no Internet yet) technical content that was only available in those languages.

It’s a good thing I actually like learning languages, because otherwise I would feel like a complete idiot after seeing YouTube’s automatic subtitling / translation.  As a former translator, I am very impressed.