JOURNAL10 Sept 20262 MIN
What 5,829 videos taught me
I matched Oesnada's entire YouTube archive against the news database: the volume trap, the power of Turkish, and the zero link between editorial score and views.
Last night I did something odd: I pulled all 5,829 videos on Oesnada's YouTube channel and matched them one by one against the news database. Views, likes, comments, duration, hour, language, category — everything. I was curious: what does this mountain we've produced for two years actually say?
The volume trap
The clearest finding is also the most painful. December 2025: 245 videos, 178 views each. June 2026: 1,011 videos, 7 views each. Output quadrupled, yield fell twenty-five-fold.
It stung a little writing that down, honestly. But numbers aren't polite: the March–April 2026 peaks were never reached again. Producing more was never the same as being watched more. Still, knowing beats guessing — no excuses left, time for strategy.
What gets watched?
The answer is uncomfortably clear: Turkish, contested, curiosity-driven. Nine of the ten most-watched videos have Turkish titles — a trial, a Trump ruling, Chinese robots, Musk's gamble. Conflict and curiosity get clicks; no point denying it.
But there is a second list, the one I love more: watched little, loved a lot. "Bir Yalanın Anatomisi" tops engagement at 8%. There is a small audience that wants depth, and they press like. A quiet loyalty next to the big numbers — I think the real treasure is there.
Product videos beat everyone on average too: 95 views per video, triple the overall mean. People open the video that answers "what is this thing good for." Noted.
The most honest finding: score and views aren't married
Correlation between our editorial AI score and views: 0.06. Zero. No relationship between what we call "important" and what the algorithm chooses to show.
I wasn't offended — relieved, actually. Because these are two different jobs: one is journalism, the other is distribution. Trying to run both on the same number was the mistake. The score is for editorial pride; views are for distribution experiments. From now on, two separate tables.
Hours and small levers
Videos posted around midnight (UTC 00–03) lead on average — probably landing in morning feeds. Long titles do double the short ones. Small levers, but free.
5,829 videos, one sentence: produce less, speak Turkish, poke curiosity, stay loyal to depth. I pulled the data from the Oesnada pipeline and passed the verdict myself — both from the same workbench.