Vlad2012
Elite Member
- Dec 28, 2012
- 1,845
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[Progress update] 07/31/2026 - filter hardening & SSH rescue (self-hosted FR tube)
Mostly a maintenance session, tightening the import pipeline after two weeks of daily cleanup.
The problem I was solving
Since going live with automated imports, I've been manually deleting 5-10 videos per day: AI-generated content, promotional teasers for other sites, webcam content, non-French videos that slipped through the language filter. That's not sustainable at 2 videos/day import rate, one bad import is 50% of daily output.
Two-layer filtering
The existing filter only ran on the original English title. Problem: some junk only reveals itself after translation into French, AI labels like [Généré par IA], promo phrases like bande annonce or à ne pas manquer. Added a second filter that runs specifically on the translated French title. Combined with the existing English-title blocklist, most garbage is now caught before it hits the database.
Also identified a recurring pattern on one source: two specific videos kept coming back every single run because they sit permanently at the top of a popular search query. Deleting them was pointless, they'd be back the next morning. The fix was blocking their exact titles in the exclusion list so they're skipped at import time, not cleaned up after.
SSH lockout
Lost access to the server for a few hours, forgot the passphrase on my SSH private key. Ended up using the VNC console through the hosting panel to get back in, then used PuTTYgen to reload the key and re-save it without a passphrase. Lesson: store your SSH key passphrase somewhere, or just don't set one if you're the only user.
Side issue: external hard drive was spinning down after 1 minute due to Windows power settings. Fixed via advanced power options — set disk timeout to 0.
Current state
Pipeline is cleaner. Still doing a daily eyeball check on new imports but the manual deletion rate has dropped significantly. Organic traffic starting to tick up slightly, will share proper numbers in the next Matomo update.
[Matomo update] July stats — self-hosted FR adult tube
Quick numbers check after a full month of operation.
Period: July 2 → July 30
- 3,175 visits — roughly 3x the previous period
- 16,153 page views
- 54% bounce rate (down from 57% — improving)
- 3 min 34s average session duration
- 819 internal searches, 376 unique keywords
Volume tripled without any paid traffic or new acquisition channel, just consistent daily posting on one social account and the catalog growing at 4 videos/day. The internal search numbers are interesting: 376 unique keywords tells me visitors are actively looking for specific content, which means intent is there.
One clear spike mid-July, roughly 3-4x normal daily traffic for 2 days, then back to baseline. Came from a single post that got traction. Reminder that social-driven traffic is spiky and unpredictable, one post can move the needle significantly, but you can't rely on it consistently.
What I'm watching
Organic search is still a small slice of traffic. All the SEO work done this month (clean tag pages, deduplicated titles, proper sitemap) hasn't had time to compound yet, Google is slow. Expecting to see movement in GSC over the next 4-6 weeks.
Session duration dropped slightly (-27%) which I attribute to more new visitors exploring less. Bounce rate improving suggests the ones who stay are finding what they want.
Overall: healthy growth trajectory for a 5-week-old site running on autopilot.
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(PS: already 2 months of building and fixing, and still not fully finished)
