I heard back from the youtube people, by way of Ronald Coleman, and the problem, as youtube describes it, is thus: they concluded that I was somehow “gaming the system” — that massive traffic to videos was coming from relatively few IP addresses.
Does anyone know how this might be done? Would a link to a video from this site produce such an effect.
Because as any of you who have emailed me with technical questions in the past will testify, I haven’t the first clue about such things.
In fact, it’s all I can do to get posts up here, or videos uploaded to youtube in the first place.
YouTube is open to working with me on this, but we need to figure out how this might be happening. It’s not on my end, that much I can assure you.
Ideas?
Comment by Dan Collins on 11/5 @ 11:48 am #
I don’t think it’s possible for you to have accidentally created such a situation, Jeff. I think that it’s possible that someone else might have bots that could take any linking information from your site and drive it there, to create the impression that it’s you.
Comment by SarahW on 11/5 @ 11:48 am #
Were they kind enough to provide the IP addresses?
How do they track visits from embeds?
Comment by Jeff G. on 11/5 @ 11:51 am #
They did not provide that info. And I don’t rightly know. They said this happened on 48 or so of the videos.
Not from my end, though.
Comment by Matt on 11/5 @ 11:51 am #
Charles Johnson at LGF is a tech wizard, and perhaps he could shed some light on the problem.
Comment by happyfeet on 11/5 @ 12:08 pm #
It kind of make sense that people would replay more than the usual clips if they were trying to learn how to do their wrassles.
Comment by Lisa on 11/5 @ 12:10 pm #
That sounds like a crock of fucking bullshit. Of COURSE you would have a lot of repeat viewers if the content is INSTRUCTIONAL.
There was some guy who had a series of instructional videos on playing guitar. He was immensely popular. Anyone know if he is still around or whether he was banned for “gaming the system”?
Cuntwhores.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 11/5 @ 12:13 pm #
Yeah sounds like bullshit to me too.
Comment by mojo on 11/5 @ 12:18 pm #
that massive traffic to videos was coming from relatively few IP addresses.
We need to define “massive” and “relatively few” here. Numbers would be nice, as would example access logs.
Comment by SevenEleventy on 11/5 @ 12:20 pm #
Jeff, Lisa is correct. I constantly view the same guitar instructional videos to learn how to play the songs. WTF difference does it make anyway?
Comment by Jeff G. on 11/5 @ 12:30 pm #
They won’t give out the IPs, or release any proprietary information on how they measure.
But I did notice at one point that viewership for some of the videos was increasing exponentially. I just figured that they had been picked up by a number of martial arts sites.
Nothing I did. Tony thinks somebody did it to get us caught and banned.
Me, I haven’t any idea. I wrote Charles. Will see if he writes me back with any ideas.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 11/5 @ 12:35 pm #
Who is Ronald Coleman anyway? Is that your lawyer?
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 11/5 @ 12:38 pm #
Ronald Coleman: This Goldstein guy won’t quit…he has one of “those” sites.
Supervisor: Make him figure the square root of something.
Ronald Coleman: I did that already. He keeps calling, phoning, emailing…and faxing.
Supervisor: Christ! He actually faxed?
Ronald Coleman: 6 times.
Supervisor: Fuck it then. Give him the Gordian Knot.
Ronald Coleman: IP nonsense?
Supervisor: Yes.
Comment by Dan Collins on 11/5 @ 12:42 pm #
Ron Coleman is this guy, unless I’m much mistaken.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 11/5 @ 12:46 pm #
Jeff, why don’t you give the select few around here you know (personaly) all Tony’s videos, have those folks upload them on their own YouTube accounts under one agreed tag, and see what happens.
Move this motherfucker toward a class action suit baby.
Comment by Sinner on 11/5 @ 1:01 pm #
Looking for an innocent answer, though it isn’t likely.
It is a relatively simple matter to spoof an IP address in a page request, but I would think it way more likely that some group that uses a portal or anonymous service is using them. Perhaps a wrestling school with a decent student body that uses a gateway system to the internet.
Comment by mellow-drama on 11/5 @ 2:19 pm #
Sounds like crap to me. They ought to at least be able to put the videos back up provisionally while they investigate. Especially since they’ve been put on notice that they’re interfering with a business.
Comment by geoffb on 11/5 @ 2:26 pm #
This is what I don’t get.
When there is a video on youtube or anywhere else and I want to view it multi-times I download it and then convert it from .flv to an .mpeg or .wmv and then watch it whenever I wish. I don’t get why an IP would bother burning all that bandwidth when 1 download is all you need.
Comment by slackjawedyokel on 11/5 @ 2:37 pm #
I thought Ronald Coleman was the Prisoner of Zenda.
Comment by mojo on 11/5 @ 2:46 pm #
Nah. Stewart Granger.
Oh – you meant the OLD one…
Comment by Ron Coleman on 11/5 @ 3:04 pm #
I am that guy but I am, for present purposes, mainly this guy, if you don’t mind — I have to make a living.
The Prisoner of Zenda was Ronald COLMAN.
YouTube is being right friendly to me but I am on the Jeff “side” of this, not their side. And I don’t curse. Hardly at all.
Comment by Dave E. on 11/5 @ 3:06 pm #
I’m not a youtube user, but they appear to have, or had, something called Insight as part of their account features. From some help posts there it appears it gives some geographical and demographic data on viewers. Can you still get into your account or will they let you at least view that data?
Comment by Daryl Herbert on 11/5 @ 10:17 pm #
Nothing I did. Tony thinks somebody did it to get us caught and banned.
That was my first thought upon reading your post. Somebody did this to you . . . probably somebody with experience being BANNED for using that system to pump up their own rankings.
Maybe YouTube knows some other wrestler video account belonging to a competitor of Tony’s that was previously banned for using this system from the same IP addresses?
Comment by Jeff G. on 11/5 @ 11:42 pm #
No word back from Charles Johnson. Of LGF. And PJM.
Comment by JHOward on 11/6 @ 6:25 am #
Jeff, are all your readers AOL subscribers? Rhetorical question because they aren’t, I’m sure. Or is all your blog traffic coming from some mega-corporation?
Both use single IP systems. It’s the only thing I can come up with.
Comment by moviegique on 11/6 @ 5:09 pm #
OK, here’s what I don’t understand: Does it matter if the videos are under your account? Do you get paid for that? Is that why anyone _cares_ if you’ve “gamed” the system?
If not, why not jut have a bunch of other people upload the videos with pointers to whatever monetizing internet location you have? Hell, I’d do it, and I’m just a lowly lurker.
Comment by Gen on 12/2 @ 12:05 pm #
We do have custom made software that can increase youtube video view count.
http://scrappingexpert.com
Data Extraction Specialist.