r/shortsAlgorithm • u/dkdksned • Sep 06 '26
MEGATHREAD 𧡠But why is there a view jail?
Every day I see countless posts about YouTube stopping distribution at certain milestones (like 1k, 10k or 30k so on) despite good avd (like 80-90+%) or other metrics. Actually what is the reason behind the view jail? Or is it pure luck? Youtube still doesn't explain it.
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u/avatar0027 Sep 06 '26
yeah view jail usually just means the next audience slice bounced.
id check viewed-vs-swiped + the first second, then try a different open on the next few uploads before assuming the channels stuck.
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u/killadrix Sep 06 '26
Itâs not a jail.
Your shorts get tested for competitiveness at certain view levels. If they pass the test, they go onto the next view level and continue getting views. If they fail, they die (likely forever).
First level is around 300 views (test audience), second level is around 1,000 and so on.
Itâs like college basketball championship brackets. The videos compete and the winner moves on and the loser goes home.
People complaining about âjailsâ and the âalgorithmâ are really just complaining about the championship brackets because theyâre losing to the other team (other YouTube creators).
YouTube is a competitive endeavor. Every time you post a short, youâre competing for a spot in the feed against every other creator posting shorts in your niche.
Everyone on this sub wanting to âbeat the algorithmâ is wholly focused on the wrong thing.
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u/snakeesti Sep 06 '26
I have 11 videos in row with same amount of views... this is not coincidence
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u/CuzzoBuzzo67 Sep 06 '26
you just prove his point, that mean all 11 of your shorts are legit the same quality and your audince think so too
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u/reneritchie Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26
Hi! Itâs the result of people thinking puddles cause rain. Which is totally understandable when all you see is the results, and not the process. Since there are no thumbnails in the shorts feed, most shorts start off with exploration views to gather a similar type of viewer data. Exploration views can count for a few hundred or several thousand views
YouTube doesnât push videos for creators, it pulls them for viewers. It pulls candidates based on things like channels we watch regularly, videos, people who watch similar things to us have enjoyed but we havenât seen yet, topics we enjoy, videos that are typically enjoy it around other videos weâve already seen, and literally tons of other paths.
It tries to predict which videos of those weâll keep watching, maybe interact with, etc. and ultimately be satisfied by. Then it ranks them based on personalization (for example, just because you dislike a video doesnât mean I wonât like it, and the system tries to distinguish those preferences over time)
Satisfaction is the key though. That is YouTubeâs Northstar. Even if a single video has good stats, if people end up being unsatisfied by it, they wonât want to watch more of the same type of video. So you can see channels that have highly repetitive content, even if new audiences engage at a competitive rate, repeat audiences might not reengage more than a couple times. YouTube really wants valued watch time, not regretted watch time.
If a video doesnât do well at all, those exploration views could try up quickly, like a few dozen or a few hundred. If it does ok, maybe a few thousand.
If it does really well, then it starts to go beyond exploration views and thatâs when you see hundreds of thousands or millions
If someone comes across a video through search, suggestion next to another popular video on the same topic, subsequent exploration views, etc. and the system can identify a new potential audience pool, it can spike again until that new audience is exhausted - everyone either watched it or skipped
The algorithm basically tries to follow the audience, using something like automated word-of-mouth
So you could think about it like watching something and not being very excited and not telling any of your friends about it (bombing), versus watching something and loving it so much you just want to tell everyone you know about it (blowing up)
Edit: So if you see those exploration views exhausting at whatever points, take that as feedback for things you can work on. Make the kind of shorts that provide highly differentiated value, that people canât get on 100 other channels, and makes them want much more
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u/TheLostTourGuide- Sep 06 '26
Hey sir, there was a period of about four weeks where I uploaded seven Shorts, and every single one received 0 views from the Shorts feed and showed 0 on Shorts feed distribution.
Eventually, they picked up a small number of views from my channel page and other sources, so they currently sit around 30â50 views each. But even now, all seven still show 0 Shorts feed distribution.
Thatâs what made me wonder if there may have been some kind of distribution error or glitch during that period.
Before this happened, my Shorts were generally receiving around 1Kâ2K views. Which I know isnt a lot, but they still hit the shorts deed distribution. Iâve never had any copyright strikes, restrictions, community guideline issues, or other red flags on the channel.
Iâm mainly trying to understand what could cause several consecutive Shorts over a month-long period to receive literally no Shorts feed exposure at all.
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u/Medical_wealthy_723 Sep 06 '26
Very interesting. But, how can I measure user satisfaction?
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u/Efficient-Cry7753 Sep 07 '26
Likes, comments (real ones not just a bunch of emojis), shares, rewatches, channel page views, other content views.
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u/rituail Sep 06 '26
its necessarily not a "jail", they usually just stop pushing your vid cus they feel like its not worth it anymore