I think in 2024, Youtube changed the algo for the front page. Now there is almost always one video in the top two rows with tiny amounts of views. I think it came about when there were lots of complaints about discovery of niche/new stuff.

YouTube does this for me relatively frequently.

Genuinely glad to hear it. I almost always get something I’ve already seen before when I let it auto-play.

i don't know if it does it on auto play, i typically see a "rising video" in a top slot on the homepage. i think its also based on what it thinks you might like so not everyone may get them.

I explicitly disabled YouTube’s and extra layers of tracking. Ironically, it should still be able to track off my upvoted and playlists, it just doesn’t, unless it’s playing on my TV and then suddenly it can again and that’s when I sometimes (though only hours and hours later) get new stuff.

if you don't save your watch history, yeah, it probably doesn't bother using you for this feature

Maybe I should allow YT to save my watch history, then. I have found it frustrating that it refuses to use any of the other indicators (upvotes, downvotes, messages said back and forth, channels I’m subscribed to and their general type of content, etc) to curate my algorithm; but you know.

a well curated (pruned of anything you don't like) watch history is essential to getting a good youtube experience. it's pretty much the only signal that drives recommendations.

… why do I need to delete something, that’s frustrating :( I don’t want to need to log out and turn off my ad blockers to watch something weird or abnormal on YouTube… I pay for premium for a reason :(

there's a pause watch history button on the history page or incognito mode or just open it in an incognito window

Lately I've noticed this more frequently with Shorts. It brings about an interesting dilemma because I know for the algorithm to work and benefit creators, people need to watch videos with few views. But I also don't want to spend my time to figure out if a video is worth watching for the benefit of the algorithm.

If YouTube never shows people new videos then how do new videos get views?

New videos and “new videos from someone that’s never been seen before” or “who I’ve never seen before” are very different things.

Yeah, like the sibling comments I can confirm that this is a core part of the YT algorithm now and has been so for at least a year.