I know how much you dudes get off to pushing YouTube Frontends so here is YouTube recently replacing the comments section on desktop, Cheers

Is this for real? Every year they find a way to enshitify the platform. I use youtube mostly in browser and read comments all of the times.

I miss the 2014 days when you could customize your channel with custom full-page backgrounds, flexbox organization, and transparency customization. I think at one point you could use your own CSS, although it was pre-CS3 so not great but still way better than the scraps we have now.
- There are plugins for this, like Enhancer for YouTube. :)

I think that's a problem with your user agent; I don't see that

The other possibility is that you've been screwed over by an A/B test and we're all doomed...

Yeah, looks like the mobile web version of youtube, but on desktop.
Yeah not seeing that either. His recommendations seems broken aswell. Just political videos

Use those frontends while you still can folks. What happened to nitter is inevitable with other services...

At this point I won't be surprised if they add DRM on the whole site.
- Some videos already have basic DRM; mainly music videos. However, yt-dlp, Piped, and NewPipe can play them just fine.
  
  When a platform is as second-to-none as YouTube, people will always find a way to use it the way they want.

why is everyone making decisions in tech completely fucking bereft of sense

The moves only make sense if you know what game they're playing. In this case, there aren't any ads in the comments, so why would they want you to spend time there?
- Of course there are ads in the comments, everything from sketchy plastic surgery links to even sketchier porn links to somehow less sketchy dick enlargement pills. The dick pill thing will still take over your PC and make it either a bot net or Bitcoin miner.
enshittification.
Money
- The amount of times that this is the answer is honestly worrying.
They're bereft of sense if you consider the goal of a good user experience. If you set the goal as to have your user addicted and stay on the platform as long as possible, they're perfectly logical decision.

if they actually remove comments, I'm done. the API scandal got me off of Reddit and the comments being gone will get me away from YouTube. I only really watch it while I'm eating as is.

I think they just swapped it over to the bottom right side and swapped the video feed to center left, but it's still super scuffed imo.
- I see. Well, at least my local rehike front-end won't break then. but still that's so bad. I hate the new trend of every desktop site pretending you're on an iPad in terms of layout.
If they get rid of comments I will find a way to visit them more. Video comments are freaking toxic I can't say I've ever found anything useful in them either
- I disagree, and maybe my tastes are niche. I'm a very amateur gunsmith and look up how-to's on weird shit I can't figure out. Often the answer is in the comments.
  
  "This guy has mostly got it, but do step B before A."
  
  Or:
  
  "I had this issue and fixed it with $X."
  
  I'd guess a lot of technical/mechanical/niche stuff works like that? I don't look at the comments on popular stuff.
- I generally agree with you, but if you have a moment, go check out the comments to this one song. I dunno what weird human resonance it hit but all the comments are incredibly sweet and endearing even at 55m views https://youtu.be/tSv04ylc6To?si=0SNNfvvsI2aBFnWa
- I don't visit the comments often, so I can see what you mean cuz a lot of times they can be quite toxic. But I think choosing between having them or not having them, I would choose having them just for the ones that do like the system, cuz I can just easily ignore the comments section. I also felt the same way with the dislike button though and you see what they did with that lmao

Videos!! Videoooos!! Watch more videooos!! frothes at the mouth

Honestly, it's very frustrating because I rely on YouTube as a Creator and avid Commentator and I absolutely won't give out the credentials used to post things to another party.

I’m not a content creator, do pay for premium, and this looks like hot garbage.

Why? (Do you pay for premium)

You are still watched and surveiled and your mostly could've gone to a third party platform instead
- One for the ad free viewing. Two, premium members pay more to the creator per watch than ad viewers believe it or not.
  
  Did it mostly for the ad removal though. Didn’t know #2 until watching a few creators explain their income on YouTube.

John Oliver, Linus, and The Daily Show? We have a very similar taste in YouTube videos.

Maybe you're wrong and the YouTube Algorithms are just shit, ever think of that? You're not wrong, though.
- I keep my watch history off, and no subs. I use bookmarks. The algorithm has no clue

This just happened to my YouTube interface today as well and after a quick search, people have been complaining for over a year. Must be a rolling test across groups of users, but if they have not figured out no one likes it after a year, it means the whole thing must be on autopilot.

Qualitative feedback is not interesting to Google. They have metrics in place to measure enganement and ad revenue. If those go up, they keep going. That's all there is. Stop believe that complaining about what corporations do actually matters to them.

YouTube comments have been taking a nose dive since the Google+ integration.

It's slowed down significantly; but I'm so sick of getting a reply to every comment I post, disguised as the video creator, trying to phish me over to telegram or some other external bullshit.
- I solved the spambot problem on my channel by blocking every single emoji as well as some common forms of url extension

That's terrible, the frontends are kind of ugly in many ways but that's so much worse

I haven't visited youtube with anything except Youtube (Re)Vanced in at least 6 years...

The recent Apple TV interface update is TERRIBLE too. They’re taking up more space with less content so I can’t see more than two or three saved videos in my playlist at a time. And it’s a pain in the ass to even get to a playlist now. Really terrible, but I love some of the creators, so I don’t know what else to do.

Yes, but might I say you have fine taste in content. I know those hands!