so starting yesterday (or technically the day before yesterday, technically yesterday still since i started at like 2am) i started doing this thing where i watch only old youtube for an entire week. or 10 days depending on how i feel by the 7 day mark. im on day 2 currently. i made possibly the WORST most UNOPTIMIZED ublock filter ever that checks for phrases like "month ago" or "2 years ago" to filter out those videos and hide them in as many pages as possible on YT. showing only 12+ year old videos, from 2014 and beforehoof. sometimes 2015 videos bleed through though, but thats fine theyre still old.
so like. why. why do this? well, curiosity. that and i think my experience doing this would maybe make for a good green hoodie cat video. DONT QUOTE ME ON THAT THOUGH if i feel too stuck on making this video idea i might move on to just make a... totally different video. in the event this is eventually turned into a ghc video then CONGRATS youre getting to see what the next ghc video is ahead of time.
if you want to try the filter out for yourself, you can find the ublock filter here! i wouldnt fully recommend it outside of a curiosity thing for a short time though. its probably super unoptimized and i doubt most people want to watch only old videos? i wont judge if you do want that though. this filter also only works with the V3 youtube frontend extension thing! since thats what i typically use to make youtube usable, even outside of what im doing with all this.
if you DO choose to use the filter, and have any interesting experiences or observations using it, feel free to email me with said experiences! you can also message me anywhere listed on my about page, but email is preferable. (also found on my about page)
on the first day of using this extension i noticed afew things, one, this is actually pretty fun and enjoyable. but that just makes sense given its the first day! another thing i noticed is that im kinda just... using youtube as i normally would. just with only older videos being watched. so far ive been using this time to watch "classics" for any specific fandom im in that i never really got around to watching, stuff like spy & pyro, or old mlp animations that i never noticed in my recommendations before. theres a fair few octavia and dj pon3 animations specifically ive noticed.
for the most part my watch history for this day consists of my little pony fan content (i specifically watched videos related to the twilight alicorn outrage from the time), aswell as portal 2 commercials (well made commercials for things you like really were the best stuff you could watch sometimes back then), and tf2 clips and commentaries and such. old tf2 muselk videos are still a fun watch even in current day.
i should clarify that i WAS using youtube during this time period, i remember using it and have specific memories of watching specific videos, but we're over a decade removed from that time period now, alot has changed both with youtube aswell as us, the people watching youtube. i promise this isnt JUST me telling people what was on youtube back then when people already very likely know. or atleast i HOPE this doesnt turn into that.
ok cool this blog is up to where i am now. first thing im realizing: wide/broad appeal videos dont exactly... exist. like sure you had random clips of life that would go viral, i saw this one guy doing crazy moves on a DDR machine which was cool, and i know just from memory that other stuff like that existed that got popular, but most videos outside of those short slice of life clips are from specific fandoms. i forgot how much people stayed in their own communities when it came to making and viewing videos. maybe this sounds obvious, but its never something i would have EVER thought of back then without the context of new youtube being FILLED with that stuff.
this isnt me calling wide appeal media bad either of course, theres nothing inherently wrong or bad about videos that appeal to a large amount of people, both freaks and average people alike.
like sure, maybe you could call something like, minecraft, or if you really want to stretch it, my little pony videos "wide appeal" due to the sheer size of their communities from back then, everyone likes minecraft! but if you were a random guy from before the internet and technology was literally required to do anything irl, whos never touched minecraft, a minecraft lets play would not really appeal to you at all i dont think. so, short viral slice of life clip videos it is.
youtube seems to be picking up on me watching only older videos, too. due to how the filter works, theres just a blank space where a newer video (or comment!) would be. this started off with literally NO videos showing on my homepage. maybe one would be there, two if im lucky but thats it. my homepage is beginning to fill out though. the music sections specifically are beginning to be totally full.
To be updated..