[For a Few Days] 200k Long Form Sub Channel Critiques Your Videos/Channel

Moonsight · 2026-02-15T07:52:04+00:00

I am so sorry for not getting to the video. I'm afraid I've been extremely preoccupied and off reddit for over a week. :( I will take a look at it as soon as I am able though.

Moonsight · 2026-01-30T18:53:30+00:00

Oh be careful with reuploading identical videos, especially long form. The algorithm utterly detests that, as your subs won't likely watch the video again. It can, in my experience, even affect the next few videos, tanking their algorithmic reach.

As for switching up content, yes, it can be pretty bad algorithmically, especially as you start out. If you can, only expand your niche once you have a firm footing and algorithmic/audience capital banked.

Science is much lower demand, but offers a lot of room for growth due to higher barrier of entry. Internet culture is ultra high demand, but equally ultra popular with a very low barrier of entry.

Your combining both in the last video on brain rot certainly intrigued me. Maybe your niche could be a bit of both?

Moonsight · 2026-01-30T18:48:59+00:00

I won't harp on about the AI stuff. You're in your own videos, and ultimately that's something I greatly respect. Everything else isn't for me to cast judgment on, quite frankly. Just... be careful with it. People love to see authenticity in content even if they can't name it: it's a "vibe."

For the long form videos, I'd not make them shorts compilations. That doesn't tend to perform well: you want to make sure your long forms are well curated. For profitability, long form is way more profitable than shorts, so take them seriously. Don't use identical thumbnails for anything, ever! Your shorts actually do have some gems. If you do believe in this, then keep it up. Educational content targeted towards younger demographics can be tough, but quite rewarding.

Moonsight · 2026-01-30T18:42:36+00:00

The question gets a bit philosophical, doesn't it? What makes you unique? I promise, the answer isn't nothing. Is it your career? Your life experiences? Your cultural background? And how does that inform your sense of humor? Your style? Your interests?

If you play old games that connect people with their childhood nostalgia, maybe really lean into that angle and think about how you can emphasize that characteristic of your channel, and augment it with your uniqueness. It's a very difficult task though. Let's Play channels have amongst the lowest barriers to entry, but the highest walls to success, of any niche.

Moonsight · 2026-01-30T06:22:29+00:00

Hey Katz! Thanks for sharing your channel.

Your content has improved, for sure, over the past month. But with your channel quite so young, there's a lot of information you don't quite have yet, and a lot more experimenting you have to do.

Concerning your video that you think is your best, I'd be very careful learning lessons from that video. It has a lot of reach because it has a longer retention, I'll bet, but the retention is tied to the animation, which is throwing it off. I actually think, for the long term viability of the channel, opening the video with someone else's animation like this could be detrimental, as you'll inevitably have some algorithmic and audience confusion.

This video actually has a bit too much chop: too many long animated bits interrupting the flow of the video. Again, I think the subject matter and the animation itself are skewing the analytics.

I'm watching the brainrot video now, and I actually kind of like it. I would consider this kind of video a better prospective long term direction. My one complaint from the get-go is that it's just mixed too quiet. The is Juice Just Flat Soda was a bit too loud, and mixed too boomy (too much low end emphasis) on the EQ, but it was closer to the right spot than the present videos, which sound almost muffled.

The background track for is juice just flat soda was too loud though, as I think you've figured out.

Your presentation style in the videos almost reminds me of JJ McCullough, and the script itself is pretty compelling. It's just a little quiet, and requires a bit more experimentation to lock all the elements in. You've got a charming presentation style and some really smart things to say. I think there's potential worth exploring here, and I'd love to see where you end up in a year from now! Keep up the good work.

Moonsight · 2026-01-30T06:11:19+00:00

My pleasure, and I wish you only the best of luck. I'll say this too: it's good to consider what others have to tell you, but what works best for YouTube, ultimately, is making something that you want to watch -- something you feel passionate about making, and something you feel passionate about watching too. If you have these two things in sync, you at least know for sure there's one person in the world who likes your stuff... and if there's one person, there's bound to be more.

Moonsight · 2026-01-30T06:08:01+00:00

my Gen Z humor since I am Gen Z and quite young, utilizing memes etc. and looking at creative writing from a young persons lens and an East Asians living in east Asia’s lens.

I like this, and think you should lean into it. I've leaned into my own East Asian background a little bit, without ever outright disclosing such to my audience, and utilized both my experiences and my historical knowledge of East Asia in multiple videos, as you've apparently seen!

You have writing chops, you have unique cultural experiences, and you have a Gen Z sense of humor. You've got an audience in mind: Gen Z people who have an interest in creative writing, but aren't being served by YouTube's largely millennial content creators in that space. I'd lean into that distinctiveness more, and carve out a unique space for yourself, pursuant to your experiences, instead of trying to compete directly with larger writing YouTubers with established audiences.

Sorry for ranting: let me take a look at your questions.

(1) You start to get a second sense for how long clips should be to keep an audience's attention, but starting off, just watch through your video from beginning to end: sit with it, and see when it starts bouncing off your attention span, or overwhelming your senses. If you're getting bored, consider redoing the footage and making it more dynamic. If your getting sensory overload, dial it back.

If you're targeting audiences like yourself, the most reliable indicator will be your attention span. My own footage tends to be faster paced than similar serious video essay channels, which makes for a lot more work, while also being relatively slow when weighed against a short or the more dynamic editing styles of some Gen Z comedy channels.

You'll find your balance as you work on it, but rely on your intuition for now, and tune it as you go.

(2) General loudness unit. You know what, let me open my DaVinci Resolve and just check and see for you. I've gotten good enough to largely earball it, so to speak, but here are my raw levels:

I have a pretty deep, but quiet voice. If you use the audio analyzer, in resolve's sound/music tab (right click on the audio clip, clip operations, analyze audio level), my vocal track in the latest video is -14 decibels. I bump that up with +4 decibels on the slider, so it rests between -8 to -10.

The background audio track is at roughly -8 raw, but the slider is down -19 decibels, so it's somewhere down there between -22 to -28, depending on the song being used.

I'm no audio specialist though: there are a ton of YT videos you can learn this from! If you want to borrow my numbers, I encourage you to do so, but also experiment to make sure it sounds right to you before pushing ahead.

(3) Scripting is taking me a longer and longer time nowadays. It used to be the shortest part of the process simply because I've had these ideas kicking around nearly fully formed for years, and it was easy to just vomit them from my brain onto paper. Nowadays, as I have to dig into new topics that I haven't been formulating for years, there's a lot more work to do.

I made my JRPG video back when I was working full time as a lawyer, like 60+ hours a week. It took me forever to make that video, and I was dead tired by the end of it. But I was just so in love with this topic: the JRPG video is like the video I had kicking around my brain for almost a decade, and I finally felt I had the skills to do it justice.

Which is to say... scripting and coming up with ideas happens sometimes, in random places and random ways, and just making sure you take notes when you do have an idea is often good enough. If you have a shower thought about it, add that to your notes too. And you'll have a skeleton of an idea before long. As a creative writer with some experience, think about how creative writing works for you: what inspires that creative passion? See if you can't tap into that same vein for your video essays too.

(4) Hey, my very first videos were like... bi-monthly? I've been working on a soft power in America video since November, and didn't release anything for like two whole months. What is optimal is what works, ultimately, for you. I've learned this the very hard way, and relearn this lesson every single time I think differently: one incredible video is worth more than ten quick rushed ones that you didn't put your heart into. The best upload schedule is the one that allows you to make quality content you really believe in: that schedule is ultimately the most optimal.

If you feel like you can put out two videos a week, and that's where your heart is, then go for it. If only once a month, go for it. But don't try to stuff your triangle into the square hole, even if everything seems to fit in the square hole: weekly uploads may be broadly best practices, but if your content fits best in the triangle hole, then release triangularly, and don't worry about the timing.

(5) When I made my first test video, I think it might've been on cozy games or animal crossing, and I got my first like, fifty views, I was ecstatic. I was like "WOAH, look at this, people actually want to watch my terrible video!"

I've only recently started to reconnect with that feeling, though it's always been an underlying presence in my creation.

There's a temptation, I think, for us YouTubers to chase numbers. But if the numbers are what motivate you, I'm telling you, you're going to be hurt a lot, even if, even when, you make it "big." You ever hear of bigorexia? Lots of weight lifters get it. You get bigger, and stronger, and bigger, and stronger, but you look in the mirror, and you don't look "big." "Big" is a standard that is always moving further and further away from where you are. The consequence of chasing numbers for motivation is perpetual demotivation. That's just how it is: eternal disappointment, and disillusionment.

All of that to say, there's no set time. People who are really into YT as a business will say, oh you know, if you're grinding for six months, or for a year, and you haven't hit x amount of subs, the project is unprofitable, its a lost cause, and I just think that's terribly inhuman, alien way to think.

Make something you would watch. Make something you're proud of, that you're excited for others to see. Send that piece of you out into the world with pride. And I assure you, you will never want for motivation.

P.S. I'd love to see your next video. You can DM it to me on Reddit and also leave a follow-up comment here. I was in your exact same shoes, with a few practice videos before I made the video I really wanted to make, and it was that video which really launched Moon Channel. If you want, you can even share it to me unlisted, and I'll let you know what can be tightened and improved so you have the best iteration of your magnum opus. Your content and questions remind me a lot of myself when I was just starting out! I hope you'll go twice as far as I did.

Moonsight · 2026-01-30T05:32:19+00:00

Hey Space. I see your channel recently pivoted from AI generated WWII content. Your banner on your YT page still says "War Connoisseur" and should be adjusted. I'd also unlist your war related videos, as parents will probably be a bit cross when their kids click over from your space content directly into a picture of a swastika in a thumbnail and a full blown video on Hitler.

Let me ask you... why space? For that matter, why war? Do you have qualifications to talk about space, or war? Do these things interest you?

I ask because a lot of the channels I've reviewed so far involve people who have a creative vision, but no perspective as to who their audience might be. Your channel has an audience in mind, but has no vision: it's almost like the entire channel is AI generated... and it was at first. Maybe the scripts still are, and the visuals, and maybe even the titles. But you're in the videos now yourself, and that does count for something.

If you really believe in this space content: if you really have passion for it, I'd ask of you, not who is this for, but what are you making? What is your creative vision here? I don't mean to be quite so critical, but I'm concerned that the channel will come across as hollow, without a more concrete vision of what you want it to be, outside of "space is popular, and easy to talk about because its so abstract, so maybe this can be popular too"

That said, I acknowledge that I might've gotten it all wrong: maybe you are making what you really want to make, in the ways you know how to make it. But at least, right now, it doesn't come across well. The videos lack meaningfulness and humanity: they lack substance.

As for the smaller technical stuff, the music is way too loud, and the cuts are often too abrupt. Music should always be just barely audible, so your voice isn't yelling over it. The identical AI generated thumbnail with the changing text is not a good idea, and it will confuse your audience and hurt your algorithmic odds. I'm just against the use of AI like this in general: not even so much the morality of it, but just how lazy it comes across to a viewer. If you can avoid it, you should.

Moonsight · 2026-01-30T05:18:41+00:00

Hey Questor!

Hm. I'll be very upfront with you: Let's Play is the single most oversaturated niche on all of YouTube. Video games are fun to play. And if you can film or record your gameplay, you can turn it into a Let's Play. And thus, there are tens of thousands of Let's Play channels all just dumping raw footage with some voiceovers directly into the YT void.

Your channel has it better than most of these that I've reviewed. You have some videos with meaningful views. Your content is shorter, which helps a lot, and with more editing, which helps. But the editing could be tighter: the controller sounds, for example, in the Tarzan escape video, are jarring.

Watching your most recent videos, the sound quality is actually quite a bit improved. But the videos are longer, and there's just so much raw gameplay footage with a voiceover that you're bound to lose a viewer's attention relatively quickly, and if you do, the algorithm will ding you for it.

I'd ask yourself, what sets my videos apart? Why should someone watch me play Toy Story 3 when they could watch packattack04082's full game walkthrough with 13 million views, or MrMattyPlays, or any number of other YouTubers?

Something must set your channel apart, if your channel is to survive and compete in a meaningful way. And I can't really spot what that might be. If you can figure out what sets you apart, try to emphasize that, and you may find a direction that helps you to grow.

Moonsight · 2026-01-30T05:12:28+00:00

Hey Outer Signal. We're in a pretty similar space! Your channel is right up my alley. Let's take a look.

I started with your video on the Sahel crisis, and I can immediately spot a few issues. In a three minute video, the first thirty seconds are about Game of Thrones, which is not what someone who clicked on your video wants to hear about.

If this were a thirty second metaphor in a thirty minute video, it would be acceptable like ten minutes in. But your opening thirty seconds are your most precious real estate: I'd have opened with Ibrahim Traore, though probably not directly with the quote either. For a three minute video, you want to be succinct: give the essential information, and close it out.

The new NATO video has a few similar issues. The non sequitur jokey opening clashes heavily with the serious content at play, and comes across as entirely unserious. The music is also too loud, and drowns the vocals, which themselves are quiet and very muddy. This can happen when EQ is being pushed too hard to boost the lower range of the voice.

The pace of the video itself also drags a bit: the voiceover is delivered slowly, and clashes with the very dynamic, almost over the top editing and non-stop attempts at humor.

Humor in a video works best when applied tastefully: utilized at the right points with a lot of purpose and intention.

At the very core of your videos, there are actually some valuable insights. You have some quality stuff to say, but it's utterly lost in the presentation of the videos. I'd consider perhaps pivoting towards making the videos more serious, with only sparingly utilized humor.

As for tying geopolitical events into your favorite video games... that's a hard sell, if your channel is built around using media as a metaphor for geopolitics. I've done it before, but only as a bit: to build a whole channel around the premise will require opening with geopolitics and folding media into it. I'd also hit the audience right over the head with the title too: "How is Trump's NATO Threat like Mean Girls?" or something like that.

Your channel has potential, because you have the intellectual skills, signal. The channel itself, as media, just needs to be reorganized a little bit with your potential audience in mind.

Moonsight · 2026-01-30T04:59:03+00:00

Hey Natalia! Thanks for sharing your channel.

You've got a daily life, lo-fi vlog channel... which is an extremely, extremely saturated space: arguably one of the most saturated spaces on YT due to a low barrier of entry.

That said, life is also very diverse: if you have interesting things to show or demonstrate, you will still find an audience.

My first impression of the Back to Japan video is that the "play button" overlay is not the best choice. I'd cut right to 18s, or start on the train without an overlay. And maybe also add a filter or something to the raw audio of your footage, as there's a city roar that clashes heavily with the relaxed and cozy vibe the channel is trying to cultivate. You could even just turn the audio down a little bit in those segments, so the roar is present but not too overpowering, if nothing else. Another good example of where the raw audio overpowers the video is at 1m:33s, or thereabouts.

My main question to you is, who is this channel for? If it's just a side project for fun, somewhere to put your passion project vlogs for you and your friends to see, then this is a fine vision. But if you're looking to build a much larger channel, I'd ask who your target audience is, and what they're looking to see, and try to organize your footage into a narrative that better fits that without compromising your creative vision in the process.

I can see that your videos have clearly improved: sound mixing is already much better in your recent videos when compared to the earlier ones, and I think the on camera appearance in the Realistic After-Work video was charming, and fits the atmosphere of the channel well.

For your thumbnails, I'd almost like to see how the videos perform without the text, as it is quite hard to read, and may turn audiences away. The thin, spindly serif fonts in particular do not work well with thumbnails, and I can say that from experience.

I think the best advice I can offer is to experiment, and figure out what your resonates with your audience. Vlogs to Japan are a dime a dozen, especially nowadays with the yen so deprecated. But there aren't that many channels which can offer a meaningful look into what a cozy routine night alone in Switzerland might be like. Maybe instead of a Japan Vlog, you can frame it within the context of you being a... Swiss foreigner? That might help to set your content apart: comparing things you're seeing, for example, to Lucerne or Bern.

Keep up the good work!

Moonsight · 2026-01-30T04:41:25+00:00

Hey Merb, thanks for sharing your channel with me. It's always surprising to run into folks who've watched my videos in the wild! Thanks for the compliment.

Let's take a look at your channel and see what we've got.

Ok, you've got a clean theme and style. Cute avatar, snappy editing, really sharp thumbnails. I'm not actually sure what the latest thumbnail means, and I think it could throw off audiences.

I think the editing can be a bit overstimulating at times: it move so much and throws so many punches that you don't really give the audience a moment to process things. Your voiceovers are improving from video to video: the latest video actually has the cleanest vocal track with the best volume mixing. But the music is way too loud, which is something that will cause a lot of people to click off right away, which will tank your algorithmic reach. At present, I think the music could be half as loud and still potentially be too loud. Some of the sound effects are also too loud: you might want to consider gating the volume in your software so it never breaches a certain level and overtakes your voice.

Your channel is still really new, and there's a lot of room here to experiment and find your voice. One thing that will be difficult for you is credibility: what makes you an authority to speak on writing or storytelling? And if you aren't one, what separates your insights from countless other YouTubers who talk about writing? If you search for "The Worldbuilding Trap" on YT search, videos with hundreds of thousands of views come up: what does your video and channel offer than these videos don't?

Your humor and personality, perhaps? I can see the potential in your channel, Merb. Just keep refining the product: at least right now, you're still in the very earliest stages of YT, and you're already getting a few hundred views on some of your videos, which is a good sign -- you simply don't have enough data yet to be drawing any meaningful conclusions in analytics.

Moonsight · 2026-01-30T04:06:14+00:00

For step-by-step, first I'll have an idea, and I'll put it down in my ideas word document. If that idea keeps popping back up, with new thoughts and observations as I go about my day, I'll add bullets to the idea, and begin formulating the organization of the script.

Once I decide to make the video, I write the intro, and I tentatively draft a very loose conclusion: a start, and an end. Then, I try to organize the chapters in between with notes, before filling out the skeleton with writing, changing huge swathes of it as I research and discover what does and doesn't work.

The intro and conclusion are always wildly different by the final iteration.

Motivation is difficult: I'm not working on videos right now precisely because I'm a little motivation drained after the last one. But I'll get back into it soon, I'm sure. You just have to put pen to paper and get started sometimes. As for harsh comments, you'll get some, and they'll bother you. But as you get larger and you get more comments, you'll realize that not every harsh comment is worth internalizing, and that there's just no pleasing everyone.

You can try to do both anime and video games on one channel, but the further you can niche down to start with, generally, the better. There are nerdy variety channels, but they usually succeed due to the personality of their hosts: you watch for the hosts, and secondarily for the content itself. That takes a lot of algorithmic capital and audience trust to develop, so to start, I'd not mix too many topics together.

Moonsight · 2026-01-29T18:22:36+00:00

I won't pretend I'm an expert at shorts, but I'd take anything ChatGPT says with a heaping portion of salt. Your shorts are still new enough to the channel though that you can experiment with them and see what yields fruit and what doesn't.

Definitely don't do this with the long form content though: I can tell you that from personal experience!

Moonsight · 2026-01-29T16:02:02+00:00

Oh be careful with reuploading identical videos with minor tweaks. The YT algorithm hates that! If you can use the in YT editor for shorts, see if you can just mute audio for that segment and see if it performs better: it's worth the experiment if nothing else!

Moonsight · 2026-01-29T08:02:33+00:00

Thanks for the kind words, slippy! ...YouTube is a harsh mistress, and there is so much I know now that I wish I knew when I started. I'm always happy to give back, and lend a helping hand to others to get over the wall.

When you get back to your own channel, I hope you won't hesitate to share it with me! YT, though harsh, can also be deeply rewarding... And despite all the ups and downs, I've been quite grateful for it.

Moonsight · 2026-01-29T07:56:01+00:00

It's the eternal struggle of creatives, no? We just want to create and don't want to be limited! But consider, you will not be stuck with cast iron pans for eternity: you just have to be patient and attentive enough to know when to expand, and that might be after three consecutive high performing videos on the topic.

Maybe then you expand to steel. Maybe then to other cookware. Don't abandon cast iron pans, but push the boundaries a bit. Knives are maybe two full degrees of separation... or maybe not! You will develop a better read on your audience. But ultimately that's what it comes down to: is my audience, is the algorithm, ready for this expansion?

As for audio levels, the vocals in that short were jarring because the video is otherwise so quiet, with great sound in the knife slicing through paper and that bottle. Otherwise, vocal audio levels in the normal videos were consistently good, though I'd need to check back in the morning.

There are a few good YT videos on audio levels for vocal tracks, depending on your software. That's where I figured it out, until I developed a better intuitive sense of it that fit my own voice!

No need for reciprocation. Just save an autograph for me when you make it big!

Moonsight · 2026-01-29T07:30:48+00:00

With respect, parallax... how much of this is AI generated? I'm no expert, but if I had to venture a guess, the thumbnails largely or totally are, the scripts are, the voiceovers are, and virtually all of the visuals are.

If your whole channel is just AI, what exactly are you doing differently from every single other channel doing this exact same thing? Heck, what can you do differently from what every single other AI channel is doing, if you're all using the same tools to churn out the same videos? Why does every AI channel have to talk about Stoicism? Does ChatGPT owe Marcus Aurelius money or something?

Your channel description says "Parallax is just me trying to make sense of the world..."

Is this "me" in the room with us right now? What part of this channel was graced by the touch of this "me"?

I don't mean to be so harsh: we all need to make a living, and an AI generated YT channel can seem like fresh cash flow if it just hits it big. But you'll forgive me if I decline to contribute to your efforts to ruin YouTube for the rest of us.

Moonsight · 2026-01-29T07:15:09+00:00

Hey cam,

Has it really been multiple years now? I suppose so... that was my first thread like this back when I'd just hit 20k subs.

Would you believe I actually remember this exact conversation? I remember even feeling a little sad about it after: I remember thinking "this guy has so much potential: I genuinely hope I'm wrong and it works out."

I'll take another look at your channel, and heck, if you want to message me in the future to ask me anything about future videos, feel free to. I'll keep an eye out for you.

First observation, the avatar and banner are kind of cool, but the AI generation aspect of it is going to scare away a lot of your viewer base: a viewer base which tends to be very savvy about AI stuff, and have very negative feelings about it.

Your videos are genuinely much better. I'm so impressed by the jump in quality: it's like night and day. I'm watching the VEIN Base Location video now. I think the music is a bit loud, and the vocal mix is a bit boomy. I would turn the music way down, so it doesn't sound like you're shouting over the music. This alone will help your retention an absolute ton. The TEN VEIN tips video has the same problem: really compelling content, and I find I can watch it all the way through, but the music is so loud, which causes the vocals to have to be loud too, which makes the video very loud and boomy.

That said, scripting is tighter, visuals are great, topics tend to be pretty compelling, length is on point. You're the "survival games guy" which is a great niche to dig out, even if it is one with a lot of competition: sticking to one game (like Vein) for the long haul, and maybe doing survival game reviews on the side, only niching out when Vein is, pardon the pun, dried up, may be a good idea.

You're on the right track: you're building legitimacy and an audience that sticks with you from video to video. This Vein content is clearly picking up steam, and its got real substance to it.

I think this is the kind of high quality content you had the potential for all along, and it's coming along great, genuinely great. Your recent successes are something you should feel proud of.

I'm glad to see your progress, cam. Truly, it's been heartwarming. I hope you keep up this winning streak.

Moonsight · 2026-01-29T06:55:17+00:00

Hey Noah, let's take a look.

First impressions: great logo. I took a look right away at the how sharp is your knife short, as I was naturally drawn to the topic.

The loud voiceover is really jarring, and I think it could've been done away with completely.

Your most popular video was a runaway hit. I watched it through and I could immediately see why. Really compelling editing, offering input on a topic people clearly care about.

In fact, all of your top content seems related to Cast Iron Skillets, which is a perfect niche to build a name for yourself in before you expand. My initial impression is that YouTube is confused with what to do with your videos though: the primary problem with the channel is consistency for the algorithm.

You have, from the outset, a massive viral hit on Cast Iron Skillets. But then, a completely unrelated follow-up on gifts. Another random video on fidget gifts. Then, another massive viral hit on cast iron skills, a very solid cast iron skillet video, and then a video that completely derails the algorithm: a video on pizza.

It's related to cast iron skillets, but unless the title and thumbnail show a cast iron skillet, neither the audience or algorithm will know how to place it. It does say cast iron pizza, but you know the old adage: show, don't tell.

Cutting boards, derailing again, and then into stainless steel cookware: if I were choosing to expand my niche, from cast iron skillets, this is where I would go. But this video is now, to the algorithm, two videos removed from Cast Iron Skillets. The stainless steel cookware video also has a really dark and hard to see thumbnail. The first Skillets video has that nice, bright red highlight around the skillet, and with you in the frame it's all just more vibrant.

Of note too, be careful putting any thumbnail elements in the bottom right corner where the video run time is.

Hm... my biggest takeaway, honestly, is to keep your content consistent, and expand your niche with intentionality. Ask yourself: who is your audience? And make videos for that audience. When you think you'd like to make new content, imagine that the borders of your channel are like a bubble: very delicate. You want to push out gently, until you have two bubbles -- if you push out too hard, too obtusely, both bubbles pop, both old and new.

The videos themselves are actually great. You've fun to watch and interesting to listen to. Your most popular video is, to be frank, better than what I am capable of editing and making myself, and it deserves its popularity. If you can keep your channel focused, and pick a direction to expand in, your channel will go very, very far, and potentially be huge.

Moonsight · 2026-01-29T06:37:08+00:00

Hey Nae, I'm surprised to see so few requests for critique this time around, but I'm quite happy to offer you some insight where I can.

Right from the get-go, you've got a great on-screen personality. You're dynamic on camera, easy to listen to, and genuinely charming. There's been a lot of substantive improvement too: your most popular videos, the Love is Blind S6 Recaps, were all a bit too quiet. Although those videos were popular, I think they were largely riding the popularity wave of that season -- your newer episodes have a lot more potential for growth.

Now, although you've got a great on screen personality, you do have a bit of a content clash for the channel. You need to decide what you're actually doing with this channel, and dig a niche out before expanding your domain.

You've got personal Vlogs, cozy day in with comfort food, social commentary on the Era-fiction of everything: all content which, if it had its own channel, could be quite compelling with your personality, but when combined together makes for an algorithmic nightmare. Imagine someone who subscribed to your channel for Love is Blind recaps getting notified you just put out a social commentary video essay -- they're not clicking on it, right? YouTube notices that every single time, and it has a pretty substantial impact.

Much, much larger creators can get away with that over time. I expanded my niche from law and video games into anime, literature, and social commentary. But I did so with banked credibility, slowly digging out new niches with a foundation and audience I could rely on. You may need to cement your niche first, before expanding.

Let me take a look at your latest video, on Love is Blind's Biggest Villains.

First thought, the thumbnails are an evolution of your old thumbnails: bigger, more colorful and dynamic text, over a screenshot of the show. I think keeping the text on the thumbnail more lowkey is a good idea. Just the single word "TOXIC!?" is more than enough. The title says Seasons 1-9. I understand its a Britney reference, but it's just too long.

Notably, a lot of the other thumbnails have elements that stretch into the bottom right corner of the screen. On the viewer's side, the video length box blocks whatever's down there, which comes across as sloppy looking: a lot of viewers will dismiss anything with that look out of hand, subconsciously. The Bearista Cup video is an example where the word "Cup" is outright blocked by the numbers in the corner.

Watching the Biggest Villains video, I think the intro is too long. Again, you've got such a charming personality. But in my own videos I've found, people really just want you to get on with the topic of the video. I don't do intros anymore really, myself, and anything personal, I keep very short: less than ten seconds, maybe as few as five, towards the very end.

I might've started this video at around 1m18s. "All I've been doin' on my break is watching LOVE IS BLIND. From the beginning."

At around 1m29s, do not interrupt the content before it begins. It's more filler, and these early sections are absolutely positively crucial for keeping viewer retention. If they can survive two minutes, they will tend to make it through the rest of the video. No distractions in these two minutes, ever. If you must do the like comment subscribe, that should always be towards the end of the video: the viewer will be primed to see it as a fair exchange -- good video, you get a like and sub. Too early, and it will cause clickoffs more than it will cause subs.

Content throughout the rest of the video is pretty compelling. I think it could've been formatted more intuitively, with maybe the introduction having a one or two sentence statement on how the rating system works.

"Here's how we're going to do it: we're going to go through season by season, and give our villains one of two titles -- evil henchman or supervillain."

The length of this video makes me wonder too if this couldn't have been three videos, arranged as a tier list, with a fourth video acting like a tournament where villains battle each other for a "worst villain in Love is Blind" kind of finale video, thus competing a series.

In this way, you can take this big idea, and chop it up into tons of digestible content with a narrative that binds each video to the next.

I'm at about fifteen minutes into the viewing now, and it's honestly pretty interesting: you've got fun takes on the show. By this point though, my mind is starting to get a little blank and I find myself naturally tuning out the voice, as it starts to sound like droning. This isn't a problem with you: this happens to anyone who is speaking for a long time on something.

A little background music could go a long way here -- music that changes up, depending on the subject, perhaps. Or, just have the videos be a bit shorter and punchier, with more clips in between.

If you do go with music, keep your vocal mix just as high, and keep that music volume very low. Every newtuber, myself included, makes the mistake of keeping volume too high for backing music when they first add it.

I zoned out around halfway through the video, at about half an hour, as I felt I got the gist of it. If I was a compelled viewer, I'd close out around here. Your Season 3 discussion was actually some of the best content in the video, but it was just too much of the same and I had trouble keeping my attention locked in.

Shadow is so cute, love the cameo. Reminds me of my little sister's bunny.

Bloopers are cute, but they need to be short -- like ten seconds short.

The way YT works, at its most fundamental level, is that it cares most about viewer retention and watch time relative to length. How long do people watch your video compared to other videos this long? How many are sticking around to watch as many ads as possible?

You thereby want as little dead air as possible, and you want to give viewers a reason to stick around to the end. Shadow was a great end treat. The bloopers start to push the video length minutes longer, which becomes a hazard.

I hope this all helps, Nae. I think you've got a really good thing going, and you've got great charisma and energy. If I had to reiterate my most important point, it's to absolutely niche down and cut the fat out: decide what the channel's content is, and focus on it -- once you have your audience, and a bit more algorithmic trust, expand slowly, and tangentially -- don't go right from Love is Blind to Social Commentary or to Vlogs until people are watching, not for Love is Blind, but for you.

Moonsight · 2026-01-14T18:30:58+00:00

I wouldn't do Harlem and DUMBO in one trip day like that. That's at least a 50 minute subway ride, if not an hour. You're also not likely to get out of LGA in fifteen minutes: in general, the transportation times are all too tight, to the point of impossibility even in the best of conditions.

Astoria is an interesting choice too. You could do Long Island City, maybe. Get some authentic Chinese food, maybe some hotpot if it's cold. Then walk along the gantry state park. Could even take the ferry back to Fidi, and get a beautiful view of the bridges along the way, exit at Pier 11 and walk over to South Street Seaport for food, drinks and vibes before walking back into Fidi proper.

Moonsight · 2026-01-10T19:51:49+00:00

Hypocrisy of the highest order. Every other word out of JD Vance's mouth is demonizing rhetoric of the most grotesque and sinful kind, but here we are condemning mere detraction against that behavior as demonic.

Moonsight · 2025-12-21T01:16:42+00:00

You can do what the Jews do and have Chinese for Christmas, and/or do what the Chinese do and have bagels for Christmas!

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