I use YouTube Video Deck. It's a fast, efficient way to see all your subscriptions without having to go through the YouTube sub boxes. If you haven't used it, go check it out.
That being said, I usually watch the Hub for other stuff. Then, I just switch over to the Video Deck and watch stuff from there
I just subscribed to a new channel (Bad Lip Reading) and went to add it to one of my collections for easier organisation... to find collections are gone. What the actual.... Ok, calming down, hit the google and research. I find a post about the removal of the feature... a one line confirmation of what is already blatantly clear doesn't help anyone understand what's going on.
Anyway, after reading this topic, I'd like to point you towards a chrome extension that I have used for a while. I started using it to more clearly see the videos from my collections and sub'd channels when it became clear youtube activity feed was just spammed by damn vevo channels. I'll be upfront and honest, it has a free version which limits you to 2 or 3 custom columns, but there is a premium subscription service that allows you unlimited columns. I decided to pay that fee back when it was a one time charge (it's now an ongoing monthly fee I think), and I'm glad I did. I can see all my subscribed channels in a much better environment than youtube have ever provided. The service I refer to is Youtube Videodeck Hopefully the removal of youtubes collections doesn't affect this service, but it does seem to still be organised correctly today.
For anyone with this problem I recommend Youtube Video Deck, imagine a sub box that always works, is categorized properly, and is easy to read and check. I've been using it for... three years now? It's an awesome site/extension and even has automatic notifications in your browser when a channel you're watching posts a new video.
I've been using video deck lately. Seems pretty decent so far. I'd prefer not to have to use a third party app, but since they trashed the old subscription folder management system, there aren't many other options (that I'm aware of at least).
This is why closed source software, when it becomes successful starts implementing ANTI-features. This is the number one thing that is impossible to do with open source software. Someone will just clone that code and remove retarded code.
Yeah subscription management is a nightmare especially when you have thousands such as myself. And now its going to take me a few weeks to get it started and pay a premium service to have a feature that used to be free. Such as http://www.videodeck.net/ , I think there are others who started providing this. Kudo's to those guys, retarded google, I would have been WILLING to pay for that feature!! Its what made youtube manageable, and you could subscribe to a crap ton of feeds without it ever being an issue.
Just posting this here as well in case someone who wants the same thing finds this:
Ok just tried out http://www.videodeck.net. It's a nice html5 app or chrome app. It does work and you can make a custom column with multiple subscriptions and play all new. Which is nice and what I want. It also looks pretty nice overall. Looks great actually. But it's a whole different app than youtube with youtube center. Maybe I'll get used to it if I find the "stretch video to the size of my window" open.
Is it possible to group subscriptions by topics in this app?
YouTube is such a mess without an option to do so :/
On the desktop I heavily rely on Videodeck these days which is like tweetdeck for YouTube so you can throw multiple subscriptions into custom timelines. (http://www.videodeck.net/) . I wish they would have a mobile app.
If you have mail notifications for new subscriptions set up, no videos will be missing (even the ones that intentionally get hidden/deleted after a while). (One can also add the videos automatically to a playlists without missing any)
Simpler subscription-to-playlist solution (also doesn't randomly skip videos).
Some freemium solution with similar functionality to the above (not sure if skips videos, probably doesn't).
EDIT: Updated links.
Actually I think it might work the other way. Theres channels I sub that upload 2-5 videos a day and sometimes they won't all show up. Then there's channels that upload every month or two and I'll even get a notification on my phone.
No source either but a while ago thats how most people believed it worked. Either way it's not an issue with Youtube Video deck!