Cheaters defraud the Napier Life Challenge
We entered the “Napier Life” competition.. the objective was that non-native Napierians would record an intro and “extro” to a promotional video for the City of Napier, the videos would be uploaded to YouTube, and the video with the most views by 31 Dec 2008, would win an awesome prize.
The flaw in the competition model here is that anybody with a computer can just sit and refresh the video over and over again (there’s actually software which does this even more efficiently) to increase their views.
Within the first few days, I watched one of the competitors jump over 2,000 views within half and hour, and shortly thereafter, jump up another 12,000+ views.
Discouraged at my chances to compete with this, while respecting the rules and the “spirit” of the competition, I emailed Ron Massey, Economic Development Manager for the Napier City Council. This was Ron’s response (to all the participants):
… Remember we are able to detect where your You Tube views have been originated from and we are only accepting ‘genuine’ views. Anyone using software programmes that generate non genuine individual You Tube views will be disqualified from the competition….
…The Napier City Council reserves the right to disqualify any participant who we deem breaches these rules or the spirit of the competition….
I have a YouTube account, and have access to the same statistics (”YouTube Insight”) for MY videos that Ron and his team have for the NapierLife videos. After poking around with the Insight interface, I can’t see how “non-genuine” views will be detected. YouTube is only able to give a graph of views over time, broken into countries. It doesn’t provide a means of reporting unique views, or any sort of breakdown between browser user-agents.
Daily Graph
Hourly Graph
To this end, I used the YouTube API to write a little script to capture statistics on all the NapierLife vidoes on an hourly basis, to detect suspicious spikes in viewership.
There are currently two graphs, one which shows daily views, and one which reflects the past 24 hours.
Graphs are updated every hour.
Kia Ora David
I have just come across your website and am dismayed by the implication of your article regarding cheaters defrauding the Napier Life competition.
I can assure you that every step of the way we have clicked our way to our achieving success. You are correct in that the refresh button was initially used to do this as suggested by Ron but more recently we would close it down and go to favourites and click on it as. As were not sure it was counting all the other clicks. We are not technically savvy enough to have our own website nor know what a generator does - Ron was clear that that was a no-no.
We have been in direct correspondence with Ron throughout the competition. For a variety of reasons incl. when our clicks didn’t seem to be counted to then see our numbers go up at once.
My sister, Frances and her best friend Tamara in awhi of Fran & us are the two wahine who notwithstanding their 7 children, ranging in age from 11 month twins to a 14year old, have spent HOURS clicking on our link. Additionally they kept a record of how many each had done which they used to chase Ron up when the numbers didn’t seem to be increasing accordingly. We have also learned since winning that our extended family throughout the US had been clicking as well as ours and our whanau friends in the UK, Europe & here in Aotearoa (which also includes Mum’s Girl Guide association friends)..
As mentioned in the article that came out to day, in winning we have been able to make my 40th & my Graduation (on the same day) super special by being able to share it with my sister as well. Who while living in the US survives with the aid of food-stamps so there is no other way she would have gotten to come & visit us ever. With me being a student we wouldn’t have had the funds to bring her here. Hence Fran took it as her job since September to win and Tamara began spending more and more time in support of Fran’s chance to visit us. They both made a concerted effort to achieve in the last week or so of the competition; with long hours of clicking. I was unable to do as many hours as I have spent all my free time & more in awhi of a dear friend who is loosing her battle with cancer. We have abided by the rules at every step of the way.
We now have the fortune of figuring where everyone will sleep and how we will be able to provide for all her expenses while with us; cause Ron advised that this Napier Life competition only included the air fares (I had though admission etc would also be to). Not withstanding, we won fairly and with lots of commitment and we are looking forward to hosting my sister & nephew (who doesn’t remember us) thanks to the Napier Life competition.
We are also truly grateful to my sister’s friend Tamara for her awhi and commitment in this competition; without self gain. I know she would be horrified that her loyal hard work was being viewed as anything else but loyal.
Ka Kite Ano Jacqueline