Help me hide my YouTube shame!

January 10, 2008 9:19 PM

How do I get a specific video to stop showing up as a related link to videos I post to YouTube?

A few years ago I let an acquaintance use me in a parody video (let's call it StupidClip) that ended up on YouTube, currently with a few hundred views. (It's not porn or anything like that, but it is embarassing & unprofessional, and I absolutely do not want my professional image associated with it.) I did agree to be in the video, though, and the acquaintence put a lot of resources into it, so I can't ask her to take it down- that would adversely affect the many other people involved with the video who are proud of it. They did kindly agree never to go out of their way to publicize my involvement with StupidClip, though- I'm not listed in the tags or the blurb.

I had a YouTube username then, let's call it UserA. While logged into the UserA account, I would search the embarassing video almost daily to cringe at how many views it had gotten.

Recently, I began a new YouTube account, UserB. I am using it to post stuff that I actually want professional contacts to see. It has my name and image all over it. One of the first videos I posted had a tag that was tangentially related to StupidClip- ie, if StupidClip was tagged "Burger", my video was tagged with "Fries".

I don't recall for certain, but I probably looked up StupidClip a couple times while logged in as UserB, and also watched my UserB videos while logged in as UserA, so both of my user accounts have watched both StupidClip and the new professional videos. I guess I tainted my new UserB account by associating it with StupidClip, because within a couple days, StupidClip started showing up in the "related videos" sidebar when I watched my "fries" video. I assumed that this was because the tags were related ("burger" and "fries"), and I took down the "fries" video all together- no big deal, I didn't really care about that one anyway.

But StupidClip is now showing up in the sidebar of other videos I posted, where the tags are in no way related. I guess this is because the same users have searched for both videos (and a close friend might have searched for StupidClip a few times, too). I absolutely do not want anyone who sees my posted videos to stumble upon StupidClip, and yet, there it is right beside the clips I need them to see!

How the heck do I un-relate them, so StupidClip never shows up in my sidebar again? Do I email YouTube? Ditch UserB account and start a new account? But that won't work because the videos are already considered "related" because both UserA and UserB searched for them, right? Help, please!

posted by anonymous to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Since the relatedness of the videos (and their appearance in the sidebar) is something you have no control over, I would think that emailing YouTube (even if it's just to find out how the "related videos" feature works - and thus you could try to manipulate it somehow) would be your best bet.
posted by amyms at 9:33 PM on January 10

Is there any reason you need to use YouTube specifically? There are other video-hosting sites -- Vimeo is a personal favorite.
posted by danb at 10:03 PM on January 10

Are you sure the related video feature isn't tied to the account, but rather the browser? Have you tried to see what is linked to UserB on a public computer?
posted by phyrewerx at 10:49 PM on January 10

Alternately, you could try starting a new account, User C, from which you can post your videos, AND WHICH YOU DO NOT USE TO LOOK AT STUPIDCLIP. I don't know that that will work, but it seems as though it would require minimal effort to ascertain whether it does.
posted by dersins at 11:10 PM on January 10

Assuming you want to continue to hold your videos on YouTube, the following solution should work (n.b. there may be a less drastic solution):

Delete all your videos from your user B account.
Consider deleting / never accessing your User A account. At least stop watching StupidClip and your normal videos.
Consider never again accessing StupidClip again to be safe (you've seen it enough, right?)
Repost videos from new user C account.
Give videos different titles if possible, unrelated to burgers and fries. Look at the tags as well.
Do not user user C account for anything other than your profession videos.

I don't see how there could possibly be any relationship between your videos and StupidClip at this point.
posted by christonabike at 12:44 AM on January 11

But what about the burger/fries relationship?

When I wanted to clean up my name's Google results, I started making lots of comments on blogs using my real name. You can do something related with YouTube, by posting more videos (your videos similarly tagged will always be more closely related) and linking to/tagging/commenting on more closely related non stupidclip videos.
posted by By The Grace of God at 4:07 AM on January 11

If the steps suggested above don't work, you could try a different approach. You don't really care if StupidClip is related. You just want to make sure other videos are more related. If you can get yourself related to a bunch of videos that you don't find bothersome, they will push StupidClip off the bottom of the list.
posted by alms at 5:21 AM on January 11

If you create a channel for yourself, you can customize the page, and related videos don't show on a channel page. Then you can send the URL of the channel page around in professional contexts, and the recipients who click through to your channel won't see any related videos at all. This has the added bonus of allowing you to write a bio or add professional info to your channel page that will show up beside the videos.
Hope that helps!
posted by pseudostrabismus at 1:46 PM on January 11