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The section near the start about the alleged shadow ban on the author's Youtube video poking fun at Google I wasn't really convinced about and imo detracts from

The section near the start about the alleged shadow ban on the author's Youtube video poking fun at Google I wasn't really convinced about and imo detracts from the rest of the article which focuses on user criticisms. The author started a new channel exclusively for a single video after prompting from some users on LinkedIn but paints the plateauing of views as a shadow ban rather than just perhaps only the moderate follow-through from LinkedIn, lack of existing subscriber numbers to bolster spread, own promotion, etc. This is isn't something unique to that video, it occurs for any number of benign videos.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
semking 2y ago
I'm the author and I can tell you what happened. You are right: I did start the YT channel exclusively for this video and here's why. I was on Linkedin, I posted my parody/trolling video with my small audience. Virtual friends told me they wanted to share the video on other platforms but they were unable to do see because LI didn't allow external video thumbnail —or something like this. The video almost instantly reached 200 views on YouTube (and you are right, I had no followers)... and then it was suddenly shadow-banned. I know how to detect when growth (or lack of growth) isn't organic.
- majewsky 2y ago
  If the traffic was coming in from people clicking a link on LinkedIn, how can it be shadowbanned by YouTube? If anything, if you shared the link on LI and people don't see it, that would be shadowbanning by LI. When you look at your YT video analytics, what is the distribution of click sources over time? In my experience having grown a small YT channel this year, I could see the first few 100 views coming in from external sources where I posted the link (Reddit, Discord, etc.), and then the source "Browse features" came in and rapidly took over the main source. That's the YT algorithm itself. If you never saw "Browse features" appearing at all, you are not shadowbanned in the narrow sense of the word. You were just not interesting enough to get picked up by the algorithm at all (which, granted, could be "shadowbanning" in a wider sense).
  - semking 2y ago
    Traffic was NOT coming from people clicking a link on Linkedin. Linkedin allows you to upload videos, which I did. My video post was about 3 minutes long, yet people watched the Linkedin video for dozens of hours. At this stage, we are still on Linkedin, we never left. There are no external/outbound links. Next, a few virtual friends ask for YouTube link to share the video on Facebook. I'm exclusively on LI and X, I don't like Meta products (except when they are open-source). But they insisted, and I uploaded the video to YouTube. When I published the article 2 days ago, the total view number was 209. It had been static for months. Today, the video has gotten 372 total views since it was published. As soon as I shared my article on HN, the view jumped from 209 to 372. Here's the breakdown of the cumulated views after upload. Day 1: 44 views (most of which probably came from external sources. But that's just 44 views. Day 2: 170 views. At this stage, the video ranks at the top for its keywords on YouTube and in Google SERPs. Day 3: 173 views. Day 4: 173 views. Day 5: 173 views. Day 6: 173 views... Keep in mind I'm sharing the total number of views here. Here's the original Linkedin video post if you want to check the comments: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/organic-growth_parody-the-way-googles-ceo-answered-bloombergs-activity-7194705159514464256-C2YB https://www.linkedin.com/posts/organic-growth_parody-the-way...

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

semking 2y ago

I'm the author and I can tell you what happened. You are right: I did start the YT channel exclusively for this video and here's why. I was on Linkedin, I posted my parody/trolling video with my small audience. Virtual friends told me they wanted to share the video on other platforms but they were unable to do see because LI didn't allow external video thumbnail —or something like this. The video almost instantly reached 200 views on YouTube (and you are right, I had no followers)... and then it was suddenly shadow-banned. I know how to detect when growth (or lack of growth) isn't organic.

majewsky 2y ago
If the traffic was coming in from people clicking a link on LinkedIn, how can it be shadowbanned by YouTube? If anything, if you shared the link on LI and people don't see it, that would be shadowbanning by LI. When you look at your YT video analytics, what is the distribution of click sources over time? In my experience having grown a small YT channel this year, I could see the first few 100 views coming in from external sources where I posted the link (Reddit, Discord, etc.), and then the source "Browse features" came in and rapidly took over the main source. That's the YT algorithm itself. If you never saw "Browse features" appearing at all, you are not shadowbanned in the narrow sense of the word. You were just not interesting enough to get picked up by the algorithm at all (which, granted, could be "shadowbanning" in a wider sense).
- semking 2y ago
  Traffic was NOT coming from people clicking a link on Linkedin. Linkedin allows you to upload videos, which I did. My video post was about 3 minutes long, yet people watched the Linkedin video for dozens of hours. At this stage, we are still on Linkedin, we never left. There are no external/outbound links. Next, a few virtual friends ask for YouTube link to share the video on Facebook. I'm exclusively on LI and X, I don't like Meta products (except when they are open-source). But they insisted, and I uploaded the video to YouTube. When I published the article 2 days ago, the total view number was 209. It had been static for months. Today, the video has gotten 372 total views since it was published. As soon as I shared my article on HN, the view jumped from 209 to 372. Here's the breakdown of the cumulated views after upload. Day 1: 44 views (most of which probably came from external sources. But that's just 44 views. Day 2: 170 views. At this stage, the video ranks at the top for its keywords on YouTube and in Google SERPs. Day 3: 173 views. Day 4: 173 views. Day 5: 173 views. Day 6: 173 views... Keep in mind I'm sharing the total number of views here. Here's the original Linkedin video post if you want to check the comments: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/organic-growth_parody-the-way-googles-ceo-answered-bloombergs-activity-7194705159514464256-C2YB https://www.linkedin.com/posts/organic-growth_parody-the-way...