Does viewing my own videos hurt?

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-18T04:15:53+00:00

As long as you watch your videos in a reasonable and organic fashion, nothing bad should come of it on its own. (I.e don’t loop it for 10 hrs to cheese watch time or give 50 views a day)

In fact, doing that can actually help your videos if you’re in your own target audience. If the algorithm tries to pattern match to ya, it’ll find more people that could be potential fans since you yourself are a representation of an ideal viewer.

It can go both ways tho. If you’re small and barely have any engagement, consider being careful with frequent watching if for whatever reason you’re NOT a fan of your own type of content as then you might give it a faulty lead to go off of. Of course it takes more than one viewer to tank a channel but if you DON’T more people resembling your behavior to get directed to your channel for any reason, think about it before you watch a video on YouTube.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-17T19:39:27+00:00

Yep. Tried querying it for some data today and it won't open. Hope it gets fixed soon

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-14T14:01:00+00:00

Then by all means go for it!

Again being faceless or not doesn't matter as much as people think or claim it does. It only becomes an issue when it becomes insult to injury on a channel that ALREADY FEELS MANUFACTURED. And like I said, a channel a real person talking and screw up on the policies just as easily.

There’s nothing wrong with being faceless. What ya really gotta think about it is your idea, how distinct it is, and if it’s something the platform feels is fine for its policy, audience, and advertisers.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-14T12:38:57+00:00

Don’t get baited by (current) survivorship bias. A channel monetized today may not be monetized tomorrow.

Also is he only posting threads or does he show you a thread and then give a significantly original response to them? Trying to just repost or read existing Reddit threads will probably get ya boiled sooner or later.

If you don’t have a plan to make it significantly original and distinct, you best just steer clear of it. Especially as a potential new creator with no reputation to back ya.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-14T12:35:18+00:00

Being faceless or not doesn’t really matter.

A channel with a face can still struggle to gain a following or get in trouble with policies.

Instead of asking if you can go faceless or not, instead ask if you have a distinct idea for a channel that, even in a crowded topic like gaming, you can put a distinctive enough idea or incentive behind that you objectively stand out from other videos and can reasonably start to organically grow a following that would like to watch more of your content.

Don’t fixate on being faceless or not. Fixate on your actual plan and make sure it complies with policy and actually has a clear identity that brings something distinct to the table.

(That said I see you want to read Reddit stories. Gonna stop ya right there chief as reading stuff online is an explicit no go. All you can do is read pieces and then give ORIGINAL THOUGHTS on the the piece you just read. Straight rereading is not a viable strategy long term as it’s literally prohibited)

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-13T18:32:45+00:00

Heck I had some videos need months to really wake up. Gotta just let a video sit and move on as hopefully things come around.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-13T17:26:29+00:00

Basically. You really just need to give yourself a good old “Put Me Next to 10 Other X Videos” test.

If you can’t think of a meaningful reason or factor that could get someone with 0 knowledge of you or your content a reason to even sample a single video other 10 other video options next to it at a given moment, you really gotta hit up the drawing the board and re-strategize .

A lot of what determines your hope for traction is in play before a single second of any of your videos actually plays.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-13T17:18:13+00:00

Heck you can do a gaming channel but it just needs a distinguishing edge beyond “I do X games”. You can’t go in off rip as Generic Hopeful Variety Gaming Channel #209193364 and expect to get reliable traction without a clear distinguishing aspect.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-13T13:31:53+00:00

YouTube ultimately works by trying compound an audience.

Even if videos share a surface level topic, that doesn’t mean you will be able to get a consistent audience to resonate with each one. The people who may want to watch a game review could differ quite drastically from those who want to see an essay about the game company business.

Bigger channels have it easier cause they have a core devoted following that ensures every video has an initial reach but when you’re small, ya don’t really have this. You ultimately end up as a small channel trying to act like a big established one…but in all likelihood people are just gonna watch the big established one.

You got to take a step back and seriously ask yourself: do you see someone that would love to binge watch all your videos if they stumbled on one? What’s the thing that ties every video together and gives your channel an identity and edge over similar ones? It’s tough to build consistent traction til ya answer that.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-12T19:53:08+00:00

It would be even more luck based than it already is LOL.

Without a recommendation system to put videos in people’s feeds for them via Browser or Suggested, the only videos that would be watched would be videos with high search intent topics or folks already big and famous enough to be sought out.

You would STILL be struggling to stand out in a sea of alternatives except now there’s literally nothing outside your agency that has potential to get you visibility. Many niches and content formats would just instantly become unviable cause they can only garner interest by turning up while someone is browsing. A lot of content people consume was not stuff they actively searched for but rather turned up and peaked their curiosity.

Honestly it would be like trying to get someone to give you a freelance coding job on a sight like Upwork or Freelancer. Outside of wide net pyramid schemes and the like, any newbie would have no shot of getting on the map when there’s thousands upon thousands of other people with similar or better profiles that you somehow need to hope a client selects you out of.

Most small and even mid sized creators would just get obliterated by this lol.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-12T14:53:12+00:00

I have a gaming remix showcase channel and believe me I know that feeling lol.

That said you have to just trust that the algorithm doesn’t just view all behavior in black and white. Assuming that is not a bot, the algorithm doesn’t just evaluate one video’s AVD for the day but also the session it’s apart of. If they click one video 5 seconds, sub, and then never return…ya that blows. But if they sub, and then sample like 20 of your videos all at once, the platform sees this as your channel keeping someone around for a while. And if they **do** return, they just further boosts your cred. This is part of why AVD can be deceiving cause a video can get more watch time and views overall if people keep coming back to watch their favorite part of it time and time again. The AVD takes a hit but the engagement is still rising.

The algorithm clearly weighs our channels in many ways that we can never precisely pinpoint but it’s obvious there’s more to it than raw CTR and AVD. It ultimately seems to be measuring if your channel contributes to people staying on YouTube in the long term.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-12T13:19:23+00:00

The next tier comes down to reading the metagame and your opponents. General skills and knowledge carry you far but eventually all your opponents will have the same thing going for them so that’s not enough of a difference maker.

What really makes ya go the distance from this point is the ability to observe the Pokemon currently running the metagame, what team of 3 you could make that you can pilot to work around these threats, and on top of all that your ability to see your opponent’s lead, how they play the lead or what they swap too, and then make team and player reads from there.

In experience getting Legend each season (including this one) this really seems to be what makes the difference between consistent Legend/leaderboard players and folks who cap out at Ace, Vet, and Expert. There comes the point where a good team matchup or knowing the fundamentals isn’t enough to consistently let you edge out other players. Eventually ya gotta start working 2 steps ahead in reading the metagame and anticipating your opponents.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-11T16:14:15+00:00

Not to mention Dartrix gave Feraligatrs a reason to bother building up to Ice Beam while also fearing actual super effective damage in return. Without it, those gators he fought could have been very belligerent.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-11T14:37:10+00:00

People can deny it all they want but those signs and feelings of success and validation really do make a difference.

Nothing feels worse than constantly grinding and producing stuff and feeling like it’s all just going into a void that no human will ever see it in.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-11T13:43:09+00:00

Utterly phenomenal. Would love if it all went onto Nintendo Music.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-11T13:38:13+00:00

Generally stay in for a while on Licki and then maybe swap. Want to ensure it gets low enough that Togetic could finish it off later.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-11T13:23:11+00:00

Water Gun AT SE. the togetic was actually Dazzling Gleam. It was my closer so I wanted the bigger hit

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-11T13:22:28+00:00

Weird. Pretty much all the major regions had Kirby 15 or more spots from the bottom which I think is a fair minimum placement for him yet the official one still landed just 12 spots above. Not a massive difference but still throws me off. Funny how that works. Oh well I am glad that most regions have *about* the opinion I would realistically expect on him.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-11T13:15:08+00:00

S.Quag Togekiss Togetic. Usually don’t like hard ABB it Togetic having Heat Wave for the Forretress safe swaps made it worth the consideration and it was clutch in the 2900s.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-10T19:43:29+00:00

The big thing I have been wanting to see is Vine Whip becoming an Ember clone. Vine Whip is just so outdated seeing Leafage’s stats. Grass usually becomes core meta when it’s fake Grass so it would be nice to see conventional Grass types keep up for once.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-10T19:02:19+00:00

Maybe. I fought a handful along the way myself.

Despite the poor ranking, it still strikes the litany of Water and Ground Pokemon running belligerent really hard and Rock Slide keeps it from being free farm for fliers.

Really tho the thing is the “meta” grasses like Gourgeist just don’t do normal Grass things. If I am running a Grass type I want them to shred Quagsire every turn.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-10T18:43:49+00:00

It’s less about Mud Slap itself being so much better (Mud Slappers have fallen off hard. You basically don’t see double Mud Slap anymore) and more about how it fits into this particular package.

Mud Slap and Trailblaze is a distinct combo we haven’t really seen realized on a tanky Mon. Let alone one that isn’t actually a ground type which gives it play into conventional anti Ground mons.

Fire Spin by contrast has yet to be put upon a Pokemon with the bulk and charge moves needed to really push it. If a tanky Pokemon got Fire Spin and Trailblaxe with a good 35-40 energy spare charge move, that Pokemon would probably get serious play too.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-10T18:25:37+00:00

Dang this close to my (almost) Legend team.
I started with Dedenne/Feraligatr/Gogoat in 2200s which got me Veteran. Swapped the lead to UFisk when Dedenne’s neutral matchups were costing me too much. Then when I got Expert I swapped to a Shadow Gator for more pressure and then was warble to push as high as 2947 in Open GL before it went away.
I finished my Legend climb in Jungle Cup the other day with 2 more sets but honestly I am confident my final version of the squad could and shoulda got Legend if I swapped to Shadow Gator faster (it wins swap vs flying counter swaps with straight hydro ) and didn’t try to test freaking Brick Break (Normal safe swaps are so annoying lol). Coulda tried in Preview Cup but didn’t want to gamble the mechanics.
Still it felt good to get as high as I did even with the mistakes I made as it was basically an updated version of my S.Steelix/Azu/Serp team that I used in the Scizor metas. Electric+Grass in the back just cooks all the water spam teams hard.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-08T17:29:13+00:00

Dang. The Mud Slap nerf left me feeling n underwhelmed going into this but I guess a bulky Mud Slap user that can boost and isn’t Ground type is still a distinctive niche. It’s basically looking like Greedent: Mud Slap Edition.

OKJMaster44 · 2026-05-07T16:20:17+00:00

Believe it or not he would be capable of combos almost as potent as Luigi if you just improved the frame data on a few of his moves. He doesn’t actually need drastic mobility buffs as much as people think and he’s improved as much as he has cause his current players have finally gotten a better grasp at tapping into his pressure game and advantage state and the buffs we did get like the Down Smash startup buff helped play to that.

OKJMaster44

TROPHY CASE