Promote · Phase 5 of 5
Audience, Community & Membership
The relationship with the people watching. Subscribers, members, comments, community posts, and what happens when viewers become a group.
Category 14 of 16 in the creator glossary · 74 terms
A
Abbreviated subscriber countaka rounded subscriber count, public subscriber countThe rounded subscriber figure YouTube shows the public. Your exact number sits in Studio, which is why the public one looks stuck.Appointment viewingaka appointment contentPublishing to a fixed, known slot so the audience learns when to turn up rather than waiting to be recommended.Approved usersaka always allow commentsA channel list of accounts whose comments skip your filters and publish immediately.Ask Me Anythingaka AMA, Q&AAn open session where the audience asks whatever it likes and you answer. Reddit's format, borrowed everywhere since.Audience captureaka captured by the audienceWhen a creator's output, and sometimes their identity, drift towards whatever the audience rewards until the audience is doing the steering.Audience entitlementaka fan entitlementWhen viewers start treating your output, your access and your private life as things they are owed rather than things you offer.Audience segmentationaka segmentation, audience segmentsSplitting your viewers into groups such as new, returning, subscriber or member, and then treating each group differently.Audience surveyaka viewer survey, community surveyAsking your viewers questions directly, through a form or a poll, to learn the things analytics cannot show you.Audience tabaka Studio audience tabThe Studio Analytics tab covering who your viewers are, when they show up and what else they watch.
B
Binge viewingaka binge watching, binge sessionOne viewer watching several of a channel's videos back to back in a single sitting, usually after one of them landed well.Branding watermarkaka subscribe watermark, channel watermarkThe small image a channel pins into the corner of its player, working as a subscribe button while a video plays.Brigadingaka dogpiling, comment brigadeA coordinated wave of hostile comments, dislikes or reports arriving from a group outside your normal audience.
C
Casual vieweraka casual audience, drive-by viewerSomeone who watches your videos now and then without following the channel or particularly caring who made them.Channel loreaka lore, running bitThe in-jokes, recurring bits and shared history that accumulate on a channel and reward people who have been watching a while.Channel moderatoraka mod, moderatorAn account you trust with comment and live chat moderation on your channel, and with nothing else at all.Circleaka Circle.soHosted community software creators use to run a paid or brand-owned space away from Discord and Facebook.Comment miningaka mining the comments, comment researchReading your own comments and a rival's with a purpose, to pull out video ideas and the words the audience actually uses.Comment moderationaka moderating comments, mod queueThe ongoing job of approving, hiding, removing and filtering comments so the section under a video stays worth reading.Comment sectionaka commentsThe public discussion under a video, and the most visible part of a channel's community to anyone deciding whether to watch.Comment sentimentaka sentiment analysis, audience sentimentThe overall tone of a video's comments, read as soft feedback on how the audience actually received it.Community manageraka CMThe person who runs moderation, replies and community programming for a channel so the creator is not living in the comments.Community pollaka poll, YouTube poll, image pollA multiple-choice post on your channel's posts tab. The cheapest audience research on YouTube and a way to stay visible between uploads.Community postaka post, channel postA text, image, poll or video post from a channel that can reach subscriber feeds and Home without a video attached to it.Community tabaka Posts tab, community sectionThe channel surface where a creator posts text, images, polls and quizzes between uploads, now generally labelled the Posts tab.Core audienceaka core viewers, base audienceThe reliable group who watch most of what you publish and set the floor a new video starts from.Creator Awardsaka play button, silver play button, gold play button, YouTube plaqueYouTube's physical trophies, the play buttons, sent to channels that pass its subscriber milestones and clear a policy check.Custom emojiaka member emoji, channel emojiChannel-specific emoji that paying members unlock and use in that channel's live chat and comments. One of the standard membership perks.
D
Disabled commentsaka comments turned off, comments offComments switched off on a single video or a whole channel, either by the creator's choice or automatically because the content is Made for Kids.Discord serveraka server, guildA creator's own chat community on Discord, divided into channels, frequently with a members-only area gated behind a paid tier.
F
Facebook Groupaka FB groupAn off-platform community space that still works for older audiences and hobby niches, though the reach sits in Facebook's hands.Fake subscribersaka bought subscribers, sub bots, purchased subsBought or bot subscriptions. They breach YouTube's fake engagement policy, get stripped out anyway, and leave your figures meaningless.Fan artaka fanartArtwork viewers make of a creator, their characters or their running jokes, often shared back and featured on channel surfaces.Fan mailaka PO box, viewer mailPhysical post sent in by viewers, usually to a PO box, and often turned into a recurring on-camera segment.Fan nameaka community name, audience nicknameThe collective nickname a creator gives their audience, so a view count becomes something an individual can say they belong to.Fan theoryaka theoriesAudience speculation about what a creator is doing, planning or hiding. On narrative channels it drives a great deal of comment volume.Fandomaka fanbase, the fansThe self-organising culture that forms around a creator or property: its in-jokes, its names for things, and the work it makes itself.
G
H
Hate commentaka hate comments, negative commentsAn abusive comment aimed at the creator rather than the work. A moderation and wellbeing problem, and useless as feedback.Hate-watchingaka hate watchWatching something you dislike so you can criticise it, which still registers as watch time and pollutes the feedback you get.Hearted commentaka creator heart, heart a commentA creator's heart on a comment, which stamps the channel avatar on it and sends the commenter a notification.Held for reviewaka comments held for review, review queueThe Studio queue where comments wait for a creator's approval before they appear publicly.Hidden subscriber countaka hide subscriber countA channel setting that stops your subscriber number showing publicly. Studio still reports the real figure and thresholds still count it.Hidden useraka hide user from channel, block a user, ban, perma-banAn account whose comments and live chat are invisible to everyone else on your channel, while looking perfectly normal to them.Hypeaka hype, hype button, hype leaderboardA button letting viewers boost a recent video from a smaller channel onto a ranked leaderboard, weighted so the smallest channels gain most.
I
Impersonation commentaka scam comment, fake creator reply, giveaway scamA scam reply posted under a clone of the creator's name and avatar, telling viewers they have won something and to message an off-platform account.Inactive subscribersaka ghost subscribers, dead subs, dormant subscribersPeople who once subscribed and no longer watch. They still count toward your subscriber number, so it drifts away from your real audience.
M
Meet and greetaka meetup, fan meetupAn in-person event where a creator meets viewers face to face, usually attached to a convention or a tour date.Members-only live chataka members-only chat, sub-only chatA live chat setting that lets only channel members type, used to keep a busy stream readable while everyone else still watches.
N
O
P
Parasocial relationshipaka parasocial, parasocial interactionThe one-sided bond a viewer forms with a creator they know a great deal about and have never met. It feels mutual to one person only.Personalised notificationsaka default bell setting, some notificationsThe default bell state on a new subscription, where YouTube decides which of a channel's uploads are worth notifying that subscriber about.Pinned commentaka pin a commentOne comment fixed to the top of a video's comment section, used for context, corrections, a link or a question to the audience.Pinned postaka pin a postA community post fixed to the top of the tab so it stays visible above whatever you post afterwards.Potentially inappropriate commentsaka hold potentially inappropriate comments, increase strictnessYouTube's automatic filter that holds borderline comments for the creator to review before they appear publicly.
Q
S
Server roleaka Discord role, roles, linked rolesA named permission set in a Discord server, shown as a colour or badge, and often granted automatically to paying YouTube members.Shout-outaka shoutoutNaming a viewer, member or fellow creator on camera as recognition, thanks, or a nudge to go and watch them.Skoolaka Skool platformA paid community platform combining a discussion feed, a course area and a points leaderboard, used by creators as a members' hub.Spam commentaka comment spam, bot commentBulk or automated comments pushing links, crypto scams, fake giveaways, or impersonating the channel owner to fleece your commenters.Stanaka stans, stan accountAn intensely devoted fan. From Eminem's 2000 song about an obsessive letter writer, now ordinary internet vocabulary.Sub for subaka sub4sub, subscribe for subscribeTwo creators subscribing to each other purely to trade the number. YouTube classes it as incentivization spam and prohibits it.Subredditaka sub, r/A single topic community on Reddit, written as r/something, with its own moderators, rules and culture.Subscribe buttonaka sub buttonThe control that turns a viewer into a subscriber, and the thing every subscribe call to action is pointing at.Subscribe confirmation linkaka sub_confirmation=1, auto-subscribe link, one-click subscribe linkA channel URL with ?sub_confirmation=1 on the end, which opens the subscribe prompt as soon as someone arrives from off-platform.Subscriberaka sub, subsA viewer who has opted in to a channel, so new uploads reach their Subscriptions feed and can trigger a notification.Subscriber milestoneaka sub milestone, 100k, 1k subsA round subscriber number a creator marks publicly, usually with a thank-you video, a stream or a giveaway.Subscriber purgeaka sub purge, subscriber removalThe creator term for a sudden fall in subscriber count that arrives without a matching wave of people actually leaving.Superfanaka superfans, top fanThe small share of an audience who watch everything, buy what you sell, and bring other people in without being asked.
T
Top commentsaka sort by top, newest first, comment sortingYouTube's default comment ordering, which surfaces comments by engagement and creator attention instead of by the time they were posted.Trollaka trollingA commenter who wants a reaction rather than a conversation. Moderation tools handle them; replying rarely does.
V
Viewer personaaka audience avatar, ideal viewer, audience personaA written profile of the one person a channel is made for, used to settle decisions that taste alone would argue about forever.Viewer submissionaka fan submission, audience submissionMaterial sent in by the audience, questions, clips, photos or problems, that becomes the raw content for a video or a segment.