by Katherine Dunham. @kathdunham.
SAN BRUNO, CA - According to a report by YouTube’s senior programming team, YouTube’s suggestions page is never, ever going to let you forget that one time you watched a Broadway.com vlog, the team confirmed today.
“Our algorithm works in such a way that there will never be a time when a Broadway.com vlog isn’t featured on your home page,” explained programmer Jackie Rodriguez. “Our thinking is that, since you watched a part of one two years ago, you’re going to absolutely love all of them forever.”
Broadway fan Fran Jessup spoke with The Broadway Beat about her experience with the never-ending, skewed list of suggested videos.
“Yeah, I watched one episode a while back because I wanted to see how they do Elphaba’s makeup,” noted Jessup. “But ever since then, every single vlog they’ve made has been recommended for me on the suggestions page. Every one. And it’s never the first episode of the vlog, it’s the third or fourth, so it’s not even like they want me to start from the beginning.”
Area man Travis Wilkinson noted a similar phenomenon, with an added feature that he certainly didn’t sign up for.
“I’ve watched thousands of videos on YouTube about all sorts of different things,” reported Wilkinson. “But they truly will never let me forget that day I watched one episode of their Waitress vlog. And then at the end of every day, I receive an email blast with all of the vlogs, to both my work and personal emails. I didn’t know I was signing a deal with the devil when I watched that video on fake pies.”
At press time, Broadway.com was reportedly releasing three dozen new vlogs all at the same time, once an hour, every hour until you die and even after that.