On May 4, 2021, I published a long-known default club search. The results of this search showed which shows were promoted at the time. I was told it has nothing to do with Creator First nor promoted clubs, so let’s take a look back at that list in retrospect of the same list from today.

Clubhouse Promoted Clubs May 2021

To find this list back then, you simply typed a single coma or period to show all clubs that are promoted. These clubs are considered “above the fold” as they’re manually placed above the default clubs that rank using organic methods.

At the time, there were only 94 promoted clubs, so you could still see the top 6 clubs in the 100 item limit: Human Behaviour, Startup Club, Bitcoin, Tech Talks, Instagram Marketing Secrets, and Financial Literacy.

The company swears up and down that it’s not a promoted club list, but it was also removed on May 5, 2021, only a day after I published it.

Now we’re going to look at what this list looks like compared to over 90 days later. You can no longer find it using a single period or comma. You must type two periods or commas. Here’s the list in no particular order:

Clubhouse Promoted Clubs August 2021

The big difference you’ll see is the addition of both Creator First shows like Jury Duty, Comedy Courts, Sex Profiteers, Clubhouse Squares, and Inside Kpop, along with non-Creator-First promoted clubs, like Hot on the Mic and Dot Dot Dot.

Of course, you won’t find Creator First shows like Sphere from the Frontier Psychiatrists promoted. They’re stuck doing their shows in Human Behaviour for visibility. Facial Recognition Comedy from Fizaa Dosani and STAR from Henry Kaiser are also on their own.

Meanwhile, Clubhouse is clearly playing favorites by promoting these clubs above the fold. It means that while your rooms are hidden, these clubs get visibility for anybody following any topic. They have an advantage over you, and that’s why people like Corey and Lavender can just hang out and still gather a bigger crowd than you.

Of course, they’ll likely still be promoted after thier $5k/month stipend runs out this month.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens when creators like Pork Chopz (who swears up and down he gets paid to take part in Comedy Courts) can no longer get paid for their role. Will these shows hold up as well as those created by influencers like Josh Constine and James Andrews during the first Creator First in September 2020?

Both are still promoted through The Authenticated and Press Club. This means everything promoted here is likely to stay here until the creators give a reason to have them manually removed.

The big question is whether any of this is enough to save this failing platform.