gaining mass from bodyweight excercises

Jani Yusef said:

What is the consensus on being able to add muscle mass using body weight
excercises? Is a 200 pound guy doing pullups the same as that same guy
doing 200 pound lat pull downs?

I don't think there is a rule. I will say that personally speaking, pull
ups, chin ups, and dips at bw. work for me. Also, IMO, pulldowns, even
at seeming the same weight, aren't as effective.

I can't explain the why of it.

Jani Yusef said:

What is the consensus on being able to add muscle mass using body weight
excercises? Is a 200 pound guy doing pullups the same as that same guy
doing 200 pound lat pull downs?\

Arnold wrote that you should strive to do 50 wide grip chins every lat
workout, whether you do one set of 50 or 10 sets of 5. I've never seen
a photo of him doing weighted pullups, although I know he could have
done them. He also supplemented with machine pulldowns.

Dips are great, but you will quickly need to add weight if you want to
build mass. Keep your reps in the 8-10 range, and hang plates from a
waist belt. One of the best tricep mass builders around, not to mention
great for the lower and out pecks.

For overall mass, you need weights. Stick to the basics...heavy barbell
bench and incline bench, heavy dumbell flys, military press, pullups
and lat pulls, heavy rows, squats, etc.

I also do dips, I think they are a good exercise. However I would like
to caution Jani that dips can injure your shoulders if you are not
careful, I did this several times back in high school. I would
strongly recommended starting light at dips (the 20 rep range). This
can be done using the weight assisted dip/pullup machine. If this is
not available be careful with dips at lower rep ranges. Maybe previous
shoulder injuries caused my sensitivity to dips, but I at least wanted
to put in a little warning.