4 ms·

This may be relevant: "Don’t mark it as private or disallow embedding on YouTube, or we won’t be able to see it. Please note that because of how our system is b

This may be relevant: "Don’t mark it as private or disallow embedding on YouTube, or we won’t be able to see it. Please note that because of how our system is built, YouTube’s view count will not increase even though we do watch your video." [1] [1] https://www.ycombinator.com/video/ https://www.ycombinator.com/video/

martin_e 6y ago
I checked, they are both unlisted and embedding is enabled. Thanks for the suggestion.
- cjbprime 6y ago
  Did you read the second sentence, though? It seems like it applies here.
  - Google234 6y ago
    Is that actually technically possible? I don’t think so
    - Asuchug4 6y ago
      Why not? YT view counter is famous for being stuck on some low value like "300" when thousands of people are watching. It just isn't something worth updating in real time.
      - Google234 6y ago
        That’s a thing from like 2015 that was in place to to make sure that the views were real. I’ve uploaded videos that have gotten 10s if views. Really, how hard do you think it is to make a counter?
  - martin_e 6y ago
    > Did you read the second sentence, though? It seems like it applies here I guess I didn't! :) That's interesting because I looked around to see if that was possible and did not find it to be so. I wonder if they have some back door access to YT videos due to, well, being YC? Interesting.
    - banachtarski 6y ago
      .. more likely, the youtube view counting algorithm doesn't include embedded views.
      - gnicholas 6y ago
        In general, it does. https://boostlikes.com/blog/2014/08/youtube-video-views-embeds-count https://boostlikes.com/blog/2014/08/youtube-video-views-embe...
tpetry 6y ago
How can they watch a video without its view count increasing? I am really interested.
- the-dude 6y ago
  Does anybody know if youtube-dl increases a video's view count?
  - m00dy 6y ago
    why not ? :)
    - the-dude 6y ago
      I guess the video count is updated by the player and youtube-dl does not use this player. Also, YT view counts may not be as straightforward as you imagine, as they are a hot metric for advertisers.
    - detaro 6y ago
      Because Youtube uses some measure of actually played video time to count a view. Depending on how it is implemented, downloads likly do not trigger that (since data loaded doesn't mean it was watched)
      - nefitty 6y ago
        Hm, seems like that would leave a mechanism open for blocking those kinds of sites. One reason I can think not to is if other apps, like YT for Roku, have to access the data directly and then process the relevant view count/ad stuff client side
- martin_e 6y ago
  I don't think there's a way to watch a video on YT without the count being incremented. Actually, the only way is if you watch your own videos with some frequency (not defined anywhere I could find).
- 6y ago

martin_e 6y ago

I checked, they are both unlisted and embedding is enabled. Thanks for the suggestion.

cjbprime 6y ago
Did you read the second sentence, though? It seems like it applies here.
- Google234 6y ago
  Is that actually technically possible? I don’t think so
  - Asuchug4 6y ago
    Why not? YT view counter is famous for being stuck on some low value like "300" when thousands of people are watching. It just isn't something worth updating in real time.
    - Google234 6y ago
      That’s a thing from like 2015 that was in place to to make sure that the views were real. I’ve uploaded videos that have gotten 10s if views. Really, how hard do you think it is to make a counter?
- martin_e 6y ago
  > Did you read the second sentence, though? It seems like it applies here I guess I didn't! :) That's interesting because I looked around to see if that was possible and did not find it to be so. I wonder if they have some back door access to YT videos due to, well, being YC? Interesting.
  - banachtarski 6y ago
    .. more likely, the youtube view counting algorithm doesn't include embedded views.
    - gnicholas 6y ago
      In general, it does. https://boostlikes.com/blog/2014/08/youtube-video-views-embeds-count https://boostlikes.com/blog/2014/08/youtube-video-views-embe...

tpetry 6y ago

How can they watch a video without its view count increasing? I am really interested.

the-dude 6y ago
Does anybody know if youtube-dl increases a video's view count?
- m00dy 6y ago
  why not ? :)
  - the-dude 6y ago
    I guess the video count is updated by the player and youtube-dl does not use this player. Also, YT view counts may not be as straightforward as you imagine, as they are a hot metric for advertisers.
  - detaro 6y ago
    Because Youtube uses some measure of actually played video time to count a view. Depending on how it is implemented, downloads likly do not trigger that (since data loaded doesn't mean it was watched)
    - nefitty 6y ago
      Hm, seems like that would leave a mechanism open for blocking those kinds of sites. One reason I can think not to is if other apps, like YT for Roku, have to access the data directly and then process the relevant view count/ad stuff client side
martin_e 6y ago
I don't think there's a way to watch a video on YT without the count being incremented. Actually, the only way is if you watch your own videos with some frequency (not defined anywhere I could find).
6y ago