One of the more nefarious practices employed by some Youtubers is the use of bots to artificially inflate their "likes", favorites and numbers of views along with the "mis-categorization of Youtube videos". Why is this a problem? Well, when bots are used, and a video gets a lot of positive feedback it might get featured on the front page of Youtube. This gets the content creator more and more views, subscribers and ultimately revenue - money from the ads featured on video.
Why do some people cheat on Youtube? Pretty obviously it is because of money. There will always be those who will do anything and everything in order to get a little more money and some on Youtube have no qualms about using whatever methods will give them just a little bit more each month.
Take a look at the following video by TheGUNNShop, primarily a gaming channel from Niels, aka GUNNS4HIRE (that's a link to his Twitter) who eloquently speaks about one of the latest scams and mentions a few names (such as Whiteboy7thst) and gives examples of this practice. Whiteboythst defends himself in a video at the bottom from his 2nd channel.
Not being quite as active a gamer as many, I was not aware of TheGUNNShop's channel and probably would not have spotted this if not for someone who I am subbed to, namely TheArchfiend who has a lot of videos where he slams top youtubers who he feels take advantage of their position and subscriber bases to rake in a lot of money through the Youtube Partnership Program. I don't agree with 100% of what The Archfield says most of the time but I do watch a lot of his videos because he does explain his position intelligently and thoughtfully. Plus I love when he skewers the fanboys who try to defend his latest targets when he trains his eye on those who are unethical or appear to be trying to generate money from the misfortune of others.
Really, if you are unfamiliar with TheArchfiend take a look at his channel and videos. You might agree with what he says or you may violently disagree but you are entitled to your opinion and so is he. He also posts some humorous vids like a recent one where he ambushes a hornets nest (sort of like when he takes on the fanboys of one Shane Dawson).
The bot controversy and inflating stats is nothing new on Youtube and a constant problem that I would like to see the website address. The problem is how to do it without hobbling the community. Your thoughts on this latest scam?
As a sidenote I spotted that the Whiteboythst states he has been hacked which does happen from time to time, even to the top Youtubers. What I'm thinking is that he is trying to buy some time to change stuff around in order to perhaps hide or remove the links that show what he did to get the bots to help him. Dunno, but maybe he actually did get hacked. Usually when the hackers get into your account they delete your videos, not make them private. Tempest in a teacup.
If you watch this video he admits to have used some questionable tactics in the past but now he's not. One statement I had a problem with was "look on the favorites. If I was using a bot for favoriting would I be number 4? No, I'd be number one." Well, by being consistently number one you would draw the gaze and scrutiny of others but by slacking a bit and being number 4 you may fly a little under the radar of some. It does seem all this may be orchestrated to again increase Whiteboythst's notoriety. Or maybe not.
It does seem that he will probably emerge from this latest bout of silliness with yet higher visibility, more subs and more money dropping into his bank account each month. Look at the results of all this type of activity down the line rather than being misdirected by what is going on now - sleight of hand may be what is happening here.
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