Text updates, polls, image-caption posts

YouTube Community Post Writer

The community tab is the channel's between-uploads touchpoint. A good post keeps subscribers engaged, seeds comments, and warms the audience for the next video. This skill writes those posts and polls.

When to use

• User says "write a community post" or "make a poll for my channel"
• User wants to tease, build hype for, or follow up on a video
• User wants to keep the channel active between uploads
• User wants a poll to source ideas or settle a debate with the audience

Why this is always copy-paste

YouTube community posts and polls have no Publora endpoint and no public publishing API. So this skill always returns a finished post as a copy-paste block for you to publish in the Community tab yourself. That is by design, not a limitation of the draft tier. (Videos and Shorts do auto-upload through Publora.)

Post types this skill writes

Type	Best for
Text update	a quick thought, a tease, a behind-the-scenes note
Poll	sourcing ideas, settling a debate, low-effort engagement
Image + caption	a teaser frame, a before/after, a result screenshot
Question prompt	a direct ask that fills the comments

Steps

1. Gather inputs, goal first. Ask (or infer) what the post should earn before picking a format, then map goal to format: tease a video -> image or text teaser with a curiosity gap; source ideas / decide content -> poll; follow up on a video -> text post replying to top comments; keep warm between uploads -> behind-the-scenes image or quiz. Then gather the topic, the channel's voice, and confirm the post type fits the goal. If the post relates to a specific video, take the URL and parse it with lib/url_parser.py.
2. Pick the type. A poll for input or low-effort engagement; a text update for a tease or note; an image caption for a visual teaser; a question to drive comments.
3. Write the post.
   • Lead with the hook; the first line carries it (the community feed truncates).
   • One clear ask: vote, comment a specific thing, or watch the linked video.
   • For a poll: a clear question plus 2 to 4 tight options. No false dilemmas.
   • Keep it short. The community tab rewards low-friction, not essays.
4. Humanizer pass. Scrub 2026 AI vocabulary by density (one marker such as "leverage" or "significant" is fine; three in one post means rewrite the post), cap em dashes (a community post is short, so at most one, never swapped for a period), break stacked or hollow rule-of-three, strip reveal bridges ("The result?", "Here's what") and sincerity openers ("not gonna lie", "let me be honest"). Never add a hedge or a confession the creator did not write. Sound like the creator, not a brand account.
5. Approval card. Show the post (and poll options) and the target Community tab URL.
6. On approval. Call lib.publish(kind="community", draft_text=<post>, target_url=<community tab url>). The wrapper returns the copy-paste block; the user posts it in the Community tab.

Hard rules

Global voice rules: see root SKILL.md Voice rules. Additional skill-specific rules:

• The first line carries the hook (the community feed truncates long posts).
• One clear ask per post. Two asks split the response.
• Polls: 2 to 4 options, mutually exclusive, no loaded framing.
• Keep it short. A community post is a touchpoint, not a blog.
• No engagement bait ("comment 1 for yes"); ask a real question.

Anti-patterns (skill will refuse)

• A wall of text where the community tab wants one or two lines.
• Two competing asks in one post.
• A poll with a false dilemma or 6+ options.
• Engagement bait ("like if you agree, comment if you don't").
• More than one em dash in a post, or an em dash swapped for a period.
• Announced candor ("let me be honest", "not gonna lie") with no dated fact behind it.
• "Don't forget to smash subscribe" dead phrasing.

Resources

• ../../references/voice-rules.md - the canonical voice rules
• ../../references/algorithm-heuristics.md - comments and session signals
• references/post-types.md - templates for each community post type

Voice profile mode (--mode profile)

yt-community-post-writer --mode profile builds or updates the user's Voice & Brand Profile at ../../references/voice-profile.md from 3-6 of their real YouTube posts pasted in (portable, no token) or, if a read token is set, from pulled activity. Once filled, every writing skill in this bundle drafts in the user's voice automatically. See sub-skills/voice-profile.md. Triggers: "build my voice profile", "learn my voice".

Optional illustration

Offer a generated image when a visual would lift reach. Draft a prompt and call lib.illustrate(prompt, kind="thumbnail"), pulling brand handle/color from Voice & Brand Profile section 6 for a pixel-exact overlay. Show the returned url + cost, the community tab has no media API, so upload the approved image yourself with the post (it cannot be auto-attached). Full workflow (incl. quote-cards): sub-skills/illustration.md. No Pixfaro key -> it drafts the prompt for you to generate manually.

Related skills

• yt-content-planner - schedule community posts between uploads
• yt-title-optimizer - when the post is teasing a specific video