I consistently hear people on YouTube complain that the subscribe button doesn’t do anything for viewers, now that channel notifications are controlled by the bell. But it does do something: it puts the videos from that channel in your subscription feed, which is readily accessible on all versions of YouTube. So why do people act like it doesn’t exist? I think it’s super convenient, especially if you’re subscribed to a ton of channels and don’t want your notifications feed flooded with new videos.
I use the subscription feed and it’s how I’ve always used YouTube. I certainly don’t want it giving me random notifications. It’s not like I need to drop what I’m doing during the day just because someone published a video. When I want to watch videos, I’ll go check my subscriptions.
I think most people sadly don’t use subscription feed. They just blindly watch whatever youtube algorithm throws at them.
I want to know who has seriously ever clicked the notification bell. YouTubers are constantly telling me to and I have never even come close. Why would I want more pointless notifications in my life?
I have clicked the notification bell for almost all of my subscriptions. From the notification I put the video to my Watch Later if I want to watch it. For example The Escapist has some videos I want to watch and it is easy to curate them with the notifications.
Creators both put out so much dogshit that I have to cherry pick and also my sub feed doesn’t account for actually good content.
So yeah I stopped paying attention to it. Even as a YouTube premium member.
The peak of garbage was when YouTube enforced a 10 minute watch time for max profit. They rolled it back but dude there used to be 8 minutes of fluff for a 2 minute video.
I had no idea people didn’t use the subscription fees. It’s the only way I engage with YouTube
Personally I remember when the main page used to be the user’s subscription feed. After they changed it, I just updated my bookmark and continued to land on the subscription feed. At some point everyone else seems to have forgotten that that happened and started pushing the bell.
Same here. My bookmark goes to the subs page.
One thing I’ll say though: They started making shorts take up a whole row and I’m not happy about it. I don’t really watch shorts unless they’re Hank Green’s, and then it depends on my mood. I’m on YouTube for YouTube videos, not TikTok videos
If you have ublock origin there’s a script you can put in that automatically hides YouTube shorts from your subscription page.
Them putting shorts in their own row made it much easier. You don’t even need to find a script, just right click on the shorts and block element.
Works great, until they change the page again.
I don’t
Wait…. Thats not how people use YouTube? I browse almost exclusively from my subscriptions page.
I use an RSS feed. I never miss a video and it always keeps my backlog in tact for me to comb through later.
I use the subscription feed. Definitely don’t use the bell. Bell is so cumbersome where you get a email for a new video, then you get that pop-up preview on your browser, and push notifications on your mobile device. Too much for me, especially since I’m at a point where I subscribe to 600 channels or so, which makes it hard to play favorites. That’s sort of what the bell is for I guess, determining whose content you value the most.
SIX HUNDRED CHANNELS. I have maybe 50, and of that most of them are defunct comedy channels like Derrick Comedy or David Mitchell’s soap box.
I guess I’ve been acculumating subscriptions for a long time. I do occasionally unsubscribe when a channel goes defunct or I lose interest or whatever, but I don’t do it regularly. I had been a videographer and broadcasting student as a teenager so I guess I wanted to find a lot of inspiration.
Dude I’ve had that exact same thought. Like, yeah, the subscription is where everything is. I never use the regular home page, my bookmark for YouTube goes to my subscription.
There’s zero need for me to use the bell. I never understood why people complained about videos not showing up, etc.
TIL
I’ll admit it lol
I watch YouTube way too much to ever be satisfied by any form of subscription feed. On places like Twitter all I want is the feed of people I follow, but not so much on video platforms.
I use it sparingly. All the subscriptions/bells/whatever generate too much spam from the channels.
I have subscribed to so many channels (like, 800 of them by this point), that sometimes my subscription feed turns to shit, so I simply decide not to use it anymore.
Nowadays I only use it when I want to access my list of subscriptions.
