Behind the scenes the shorts are just normal YouTube videos. You can change the /shorts/ to /watch?v= in the URL and they work fine.

There are addons to do this redirect automatically, but I haven't bothered.

Why they force the terrible UI on desktop is beyond me though.

I use an extension to remove them - no affiliation but it seems to work. Chrome: "No YouTube Shorts". Between that, a plugin to remove already watched videos and my ad blocker, youtube is a way better experience!

I use Remove YouTube Suggestions: <https://lawrencehook.com/rys/> It has settings for a lot of customizations, including removing shorts. (You can keep suggestions if you want to.)

You can remove Shorts with this uBlock Origin script https://letsblock.it/filters/youtube-shorts

I'd like the option to filter out cable tv news designed to emotionally outrage from my recommendations.

I'm well aware there is a land war in Europe right now, when I turn on the TV at 6pm on a Thursday to watch cooking videos I don't need reminders pushed in my face.

Out of all the issues with youtube, this is probably the one that has the most real negative cognitive impact for me.

Lot of replies to this describing hacks/workarounds/scripts for something that should really just be an option in the official interface. I get that this is hackernews and everyone's just trying to be helpful, but I'm sick of needing to do work on my end to work around crap UI decisions.

As a stopgap, you can use a URL redirector:

    Redirect: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/*
    to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=$1