[vonseel]

I've seen it said that newsfeeds/ads/etc. feed you what they think you will engage with, so you may want to wonder why you're seeing that type of content. I've never seen anything of the sort on any large tech platform, and I'm probably in an appropriate demographic to be recommended that stuff.

[Zak]

Those algorithms tend to be "people who liked X also liked Y", which is very prone to false positives for people who don't fit conventional stereotypes.

For example, someone who watches the Forgotten Weapons channel on Youtube might get recommended far-right conspiracy videos, because people who like guns often like far-right politics. They might also get recommended Scott Manley and Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles because all three have deep dives into interesting historical technology.

Ideally, there would be more manual knobs for communicating one's preferences about such things to recommendation algorithms.

[askiiart]

Relatedly, easily the highest item on my wishlist for YouTube features is algorithm customizability. Half the time I'm recommended the same 5 channels, while the other half I'm recommended amazing videos from fantastic smaller YouTube channels.

Being able to at least switch between some presets for the algorithm would be amazing.

[martin_a]

I think it's more the lack of other analytics data, due to uBlock Origin and a PiHole in my network, that they fall back to those ads. Maybe I'd have some nice ads for cooking supplies if I were to allow tracking, not sure.

[heavyset_go]

Facebook shows me mobile game ads that are basically soft core porn for games that have absolutely nothing to do with the content of their ads.