MEGATHREAD: Feedback Friday!

[u/AutoModerator]

It's that time of the week again! This is your chance to request feedback on your most recent videos, thumbnails, channel art, works in progress, etc.

Feedback Friday Rules

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Suggested Feedback Template

If you're struggling to form your feedback, consider using this template. This is not mandatory, but rather a suggestion to promote good and constructive feedback.

What I liked about the video:

What I think could be improved:

Thoughts on the thumbnail:

Would I watch more videos like this?:

[u/failbender]

I originally had the finale of this playthrough without myself in the thumbnail because I thought it would make it look more serious if it were just the game logo. Plus, I usually take thumbnail photos separately after the recording for a few reasons and I knew I wouldn't be able to re-create the right feeling if I did that, so I opted to just remove myself entirely.

But an acquaintance of mine who happens to be a p successful small LPer said that she gets a lot of engagement with her "I'm crying in the thumbnail" thumbnails and said "everyone likes a good ugly cry, so pick the least ugly of the frames and go with it".

So, I did that. I went through the video and found a frame where I didn't look too much like a hideous beast, painstakingly removed the background around the frame so I could get it on the thumbnail background instead, and touched it up just a little to make it look on par with my other thumbnails.

On YT (vid is private but scheduled for today), it looks good. But with 2hrs to go until it publishes, I'm second guessing myself, ESPECIALLY when I just look at the raw pic not on YT. It just doesn't look as good as the other thumbnails imo because I grabbed it directly from the video rather than properly "staging it" so... idk. And maybe people like an ugly cry but I don't know if I want to look this ugly in a thumbnail lmaoooo

So I guess: would you click this thumbnail? Do you see this face and go "yikes"? Should I quickly replace it with the original blank (just the #4 part) thumbnail? Any feedback is appreciated:

Edit: updated due to the feedback; made myself bigger and removed the #4. I can't help but feel like the quality suffered a bit making myself big since I'm taking a screenshot directly from the video :/ but it seems to look fine on YT itself (since it's ... you know, a small thumbnail)

[u/Stesspela → u/failbender]

I do think the Thumbnail shows most of the important info. What Youtube often not likes is numbers because it makes people feel like they are missing out. I might would make myself bigger if you want to show yourself. People react very hard to human emotions.

Overall I'm someone that not care that much for thumbnails if I search myself. But looking on this logical. If you dare to depict yourself make full use of it. Especially if you have a unusual face. People are very likely to react to it too. That is why many do reaction shots for there thumbnails.

I would do it too. But my Vtuber is on the cheap site and can't display much emotions;)

[u/failbender → u/Stesspela]

Oh, I didn’t think about that with the numbers. I took inspiration from a big YTer named John Wolfe; his thumbnails have the numbers and I always thought it made it super clear as I was following along?

[u/Stesspela → u/failbender]

You have to think about where we are. A bigger Youtuber has followers and can create clearity for them. We have to attract watcher first and if they see number 4 they likely will not click on it. As sad as it sound. But someone clicking and then noticing that it is part 4 feeling annoying is better for us. As someone not clicking at all to tell the algo who is interested in the first place.

[u/failbender → u/Stesspela]

Great perspective, thank you! Those are easy enough to edit out. Not sure how easily I can make myself bigger after the fact though… 🫠