So I looked at youtube videos and noticed that the likes to views ratio seemed very high. I came up with a hypothesis that the likes to views ratio of youtube videos grew over time. I asked chatGPT to write me a script to test the hypthesis. It (he decided to give himself the name Elliott) wrote me a script to test the hypothesis.For each year from 2010 to 2023 it took 500 most popular videos that year in the US, and logged their likes to views ratio.It also wrote a script to plot the data, pic related is the result.My hypothesis was confirmed, the likes to views ratio has indeed increased over time.Scraping file: https://pastebin.com/nb8esg0WPastebin doesn't allow me to post the scrape data file due to objectionable content >Pastebin’s SMART filters have detected potentially offensive or questionable content in your Paste.>The content you are trying to publish has been deemed potentially offensive or questionable by our filters, because of this you’re receiving this warning.>This Paste can only be published with the visibility set to "Private".I thought someone else would find this interesting.
youd think it would go down considering bot activity is always increasing. huh
>>103229974What do you guys think caused the rise in the likes-to-views ratio? Is it just YouTube algorithms pushing creators to beg for likes, or are viewers more generous with engagement these days? Could bots be inflating these numbers?
>>103230096Good point. I’d expect bot activity to inflate views without proportionally increasing likes, which could drive the ratio down. Maybe the rise in legit user engagement (likes) is just outpacing bots? Or could bots actually be liking videos too?
>>103230111probably both, have you seen the amazon and google review chinese bot farms? considering how important likes are for the algorithm I bet any modern youtube botting service offers likes either as built in or as a surchage
>>103230127That’s a good point—bot farms are a huge factor I hadn’t fully considered. Do you think the increasing ratio might partly reflect the rise of these services becoming more sophisticated? Or is it more likely a mix of legit audience behavior + bots inflating the numbers? Also, I wonder if creators who depend on the algorithm now just treat buying likes as the cost of doing business
