[Feature Request]: Add shuffle mode / random sorting to subscriber view

[ell1e]

Guidelines

• I have searched the issue tracker for open and closed issues that are similar to the feature request I want to file, without success.
• I have searched the documentation for information that matches the description of the feature request I want to file, without success.
• This issue contains only one feature request.
• I have read and agree to follow the rules.

Problem Description

Sorry if this issue already exists, I went through the ones mentioning "sort" but perhaps I missed one. I would like to propose a shuffle mode or random sorting to subscriber view.

What is my problem:

Basically, I'm subscribed to a ton of channels since I like diversity and variation, and I find youtube's own suggestion algorithm too harmful to rely on. I don't like watching many things from the same person all the time. So what I like is seeing a list of videos that is as random and from as many different people as possible, but from a curated list of people, hence my subscriber count is very high.

Sadly, the current sorting of the subscriber view gets in the way of variety. I've noticed it sort things by time, which in practice means that the youtubers uploading often are almost always at the top.

Proposed Solution

I suggest a "Subscription" setting that offers a "random" sorting mode for the subscription view, rather than by default showing the newest uploads at the top.

I feel like this is a natural extension of "Limit the number of videos displayed for each channel": It's already possible to reduce the videos shown per subscriber, which boosts variety to have mass uploaders dominate less. Random sorting would boost it further.

Alternatives Considered

I actually can't think of any good ones, I'm open to ideas.

Issue Labels

new feature, new optional setting

Additional Information

No response

[absidue]

Sounds like an easier solution to your issue of only seeing channels that frequently upload is to use the already existing profile feature to divide your channels into groups. You can also use the hide watch setting to cut down the list a bit.

Also just to be clear IF someone were to implement this it would not show random videos from the channels, it would show the same data that is currently fetched (first page of the videos tab on each channel, which is 30 videos with the API and 15 with RSS) in a random order.

[ell1e]

channels into groups

I want as random as possible, so I don't want to pick a group. I think just a random shuffle would be best. Imagine the Youtube starting page that boosts something seemingly random, except now I control the pool.

it would show the same data that is currently fetched

That would be perfect for me! I tend to refetch it daily with automatic refetch disabled. And I limit the list to one per channel anyway, so I'd expect a random list of the single newest video per channel. In my opinion the randomization should work on exactly the contents the "Subscription" tab would have showed anyway, and just affect sorting, so hopefully that shouldn't be too hard to do.

Edit: I understand if you have no time to implement this, however. But I think it'd be useful.

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

This is definitely a niche (power user kind of) usecase and unfortunately wont be implemented

[ell1e]

Would you perhaps be interested in a pull request, if I happen to get around to it? I understand if you would reject it based on the maintenance burden. However, to me it seems like less of a power user use case than folders, but it might just be me.

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

Maybe a bit related #677

[ell1e]

I would probably enjoy #677 but I prefer somewhat up-to-date content, so I don't think it's a full substitute.

[absidue]

This feature request is also a lot more realistic to implement than #677, #677 would require scraping entire channels, this would use the data that we are already fetching. The only concern I have here is how to make it clear to users that it will only shuffle the first page of videos per channel and not fetch more data.