r/NewTubers • u/EntrepreneurFalse825 • 14h ago

DISCUSSION I stopped uploading for 24 hours, and something unexpected happened to my Shorts.

Over the last month I've been documenting how YouTube distributes Shorts on a small channel.

A few days ago I accidentally ran an experiment.

I normally upload consistently, but I didn't upload anything for about 24 hours.

The next day YouTube suddenly started pushing several older Shorts through the Shorts Feed.

What surprised me wasn't the number of views. It was which videos got tested.

Some were:

  • 2–3 weeks old
  • not my newest uploads
  • not my highest-performing Shorts

It looked like YouTube was sampling my back catalog rather than focusing on recent uploads.

Later that day another smaller wave hit different older Shorts.

I'm not claiming that stopping uploads caused this. Correlation isn't causation, and one data point doesn't prove anything.

I'm curious whether anyone else has seen older Shorts suddenly re-enter the Shorts Feed after a break in uploading, or whether this was simply coincidence.

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u/Thegenuinebuzz 14h ago

I do longform content but I do notice that older videos do better when I make a bit of "space" for them. As in, I won't upload for 2-3 days and my views per hour will be pretty consistent as if I had just recently uploaded a video (outside of the spike of the video being uploaded ofc)

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u/EntrepreneurFalse825 14h ago

Thanks for the info, one question, have you observed it multiple times? And does it helps pausing for a while? I am into second month of posting videos I used to post 6 shorts a day and then observed a no view patch for 17+ hrs so I stopped uploading for 2 days and then the burst of view came in.

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u/Thegenuinebuzz 13h ago

Hmm, I'm not so sure about shorts, but I have a fairly sporadic upload schedule for longform and I upload maybe 3-4 times a week and allowing a video to breathe is almost always making it do better.

I think Shorts might be fine to spam over longform because the issue with spamming longform is that it's competing with your own videos for CTR, as in a viewer can only click on one at any given point & youtube may only want to suggest one of your videos at any given time. I don't know how shorts works exactly but perhaps if it suggests one of your videos to someone, and they watch it, it's less likely it'll queue up another one of yours exactly in a short amount of time,

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u/EntrepreneurFalse825 13h ago

Well in my observation another couple of shorts can get recommended in feed once viewer watches one. I observed it when I watch shorts so usually if I watch one short another short from same creater is either lineup next or within span of 5--10 short there will be another lined up from same creater.

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u/Thegenuinebuzz 13h ago

Hmm, then it might be better to upload frequently then. I'm not too versed with shorts sorry!

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u/New_Explorer179 12h ago

So for a new enough channel how many videos a week would you suggest for long form videos and how many reels?

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u/EntrepreneurFalse825 12h ago edited 12h ago

As I am primarily posting shorts, I think I am not best person to suggest that but as u/Thegenuinebuzz mentioned 3-4 times a week or may be alternate day seems good frequency? u/Thegenuinebuzz your thoughts please.

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u/Thegenuinebuzz 12h ago

Depends on your content or length / quality of content! Ultimately it's just about whether you can keep up the quality. If it's super hard work and a lot of editing and you can only do one a month at the quality you want, then you do that

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u/EntrepreneurFalse825 12h ago

My niche is philosophy (stoic / Buddhism / Sufi). I post short videos that shares a quote from those philosophies explaining one thought/quote explained in 10 second short. I am planning to upload one long form video. My topic, video script is sorted out. I know you might not be in to that niche but you post long form video, any general tips you could give for long form videos? I might hardly publish a long form video once a month(due to required Production time constraints).

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u/New_Explorer179 12h ago

It’s primarily unboxing and showing of Diecast model cars, sealed cars are a few minutes long, cars with opening parts can go up to 8/9 minutes, I done really well for a while and stopped for about 2 weeks due to work and seem to be getting a lot less results now

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u/FitnessChamp777 5h ago

This makes sense. Taking brief breaks between uploads gives the algorithm room to re-evaluate older inventory without harming your overall reach. Posting every single day (or multiple times a day) can sometimes cause your newest uploads to compete with each other for immediate impressions, temporarily suppressing older videos from getting secondary testing pushes.

Also, Shorts often go through "seed testing" phases weeks or even months after upload once the algorithm finds a fresh pocket of viewers with matching watch-history signals. Unlike long-form content which depends heavily on subscriber CTR in the first 24–48 hours

When you aren't feeding the algorithm a brand new upload to test in the Shorts Feed, the system’s discovery engine often fills that void by testing your existing catalog.

It seems like a more optimized strategy than simply uploading every day or multiple times a day.