My channel has been attacked

[AltavistaFootball]

hey that is pretty bad but your videos are highly ranked now right?

[Castaa]

Most are still much, much lower rated than they were before the attack. This one is one of the few exceptions sadly. Thanks.

[Sctartaglia]

That really sucks man, sorry to hear that happened to your your channel.

[ReliableInsider]

People who write computer viruses or who write votebots and their ilk must have emotional problems.  They should log off and get therapy.

And the same goes for haters. They are just unhappy people spreading unhappiness. Don't let them. Their unhappiness is obviously not in any way our fault.

[ryancap97]

That really sucks!! And I agree it is unfair that 1 person can do all that damage.Please subscribe to some of my channels.

[dumbestbaka]

Oh wow I just search for vids and I come up on this one.... WOW I didn't know people were this evil. Man that sucks. I hope everything worked out in the end man. o_o

[RepInteractiveLLC]

thanks for the solid videos

[joedpwd]

People should stop wasting time doing stupid things like rating a video 1 star like a 1000 times. At least you know the person who did this doesnt have a life.

[ntnrecords]

That sucs man I hope youtube fixes that for you don't worry you have supporters

[Castaa]

Thanks

[IJUSTSUBSCRIBENOW]

I think that sometimes you get the odd person who believes that the best way they can get their videos up on the top of youtube is to damage the competition.

It seems to me that the fact you got attack may actual prove that someone out there is threatened by your presence. It maybe hard to agree but it could be seen as flattery if it wasn't so silly. Youtube should really do something about that! And of course there is always joining the competition...which is more beneficial ;)

[Ryan2142]

Hey I love your vids and got your back through Moral support. =]

[Dachshund62]

woah! that really sucks! i feel so bad! what satisfaction do you get out of clicking one star? thats malicious.

[TheGrizzlyB]

Hey Jon, very informative. Thanks. I noticed many of your outstanding videos are still at a one or two star rating due to this malicious act. I'd be interested in a video perhaps on how YT handled this case.

[cealabeala]

I make up my own mind about video's, I rarely even look at rating's but they don't mean anything to me anyway. Your video's are rad, so don't worry about it.

Why did they pick your channel, is it just random or does someone choose the ones to target?

[Castaa]

I was attacked for my religious beliefs, or lack there of.

[JESUSISAMERICAN7328]

What are your religious beliefs? How did they get these?

[ElementaryPhysics]

That is so shitty, I was wondering why your videos had low ratings!

[chickNchoke]

Is this an issue that Youtube intermediates?

[RandomCastaa]

Sadly no. I've talked with people at YouTube directly and as far as I know, they have done nothing.

[likizmase]

Ok man. I know that it's hard for you. But you have so good videos,so keep up the good work. ps. 5+ to all videos and sub.

[skinNDbones]

ok or its a bot lol silly me

but keep up the good work man

[skinNDbones]

Whoever it is honestly has no life

I appreciate your videos

I mean I subscribed to you now didnt I =]?

And i dont really subscribe much on here

[Castaa]

Hey, thanks for the support.

[critanime]

Man that's harsh. You were one of the contributors that made me think i could start making vids on here. I am really sorry about your loss man. Really sorry :(

[NoMoneyNoQuality]

It really it unfair, and I'm sorry for you.

I'll do my best to bring some of your videos back up to speed, every rating helps. :)

[Castaa]

Thanks. I appreciate the message.

[Surathan]

Allo allo

Have you contacted EdibleNapalm?

Watch enough Votebot related vids and people just pop up in the damn reccomended section... yay? :-P

[RandomCastaa]

Thanks. Yes he knows about my channels that have been hit recently.

[terrarising]

Also, contact eimajuno for help as well.

[NoMoneyNoQuality]

really is unfair*

Stupid typos.

[YourTubeAdvocate]

Thank you for making this video. I have put Thunderf00ts video on top of the Advocate channel. YouTube did find a way to filter out the old vote bots but it looks like new programs were created. It is a never ending battle fighting these things. As for me I have given you 5 stars.

Advocate 20

[Castaa]

Thanks, I appreciate the support.

[NWCollapse419]

sorry man ill start rating 5 for your videos..

hope it help.... anything i can do let me know. later

[llam89]

wow, I'm sorry about the attack. Youtube is full of mean folks

[Castaa]

Thanks Linda. :)

[karenergy]

that's scary! Glad you made a video about it.

You make some of the best and most interesting videos on YouTube, Great content. I would hope YouTube would care about hardworking individuals, like you, and recify the damage done to those channels, and all channels really, as well as prevent this happening to anyone else.

Your good work is greatly appreciated! xo :D

[Castaa]

Thanks for the support.

[Brianswers]

I hope youtube deals with this problem. removing the ratings system altogether would be nice

[Castaa]

People can disable ratings for a video but I do find the rating system useful for my own videos when they aren't being exploited. ha

[fallingcryss]

this has happened to so many people.

this happened to one of my videos, but i just let it go.

however, this is a HUGE problem in the youtube community.

[Castaa]

Thanks for the support. :)

[RandomDirectors]

Crap some of your videos with less than 80 ratings have dropped to 3 stars.

[Castaa]

Ya, it's a bummer.

[uheardmebitch]

it's a hrad battle for toob. a hundred programmers versus 10's of thousands of people trying to exploit the system. young people today are very inventive, they will beat any system they can make.

[IplayGUITARI]

dude .. that sucks. There are some mean people out there....

[CraigTube]

I hope you notified youtube about this. They could probably prevent it and maybe even wipe out the last few days of ratings for you. :(

[Castaa]

I hope that eventually happens but I think that's unlikely given YT has little incentive to spend the time on an individual like myself. I do hope they fix this exploit and prevent it from happening to others like myself. Thanks for the support.

[19Becka]

Crazy... sorry that happened!

[Castaa]

Thanks Becka

[KennyWrites]

Sorry to hear that some script kiddie hit your vids. Your work has always been high quality. Sad that people get their kicks doing these things to other people.

[Castaa]

This was a premeditated and coordinated attack on people of a certain religious (or lack there of) persuasion. I learned this today in seeing the responses to thundf00t's video.

Thanks for the support!

[BGenerous]

Hopefully that fact that rating info is now available on Insight is a sign that YouTube is putting the code structure in place to deal with this problem. Maybe? :)

[Castaa]

Hi. I'm certain they keep track of the info. However, it appears they have little incentive to do much about my individual case. I'm more than anything making this video and joining the cause so that they'll put into place measures that prevent this from happening to others in the future.

[rounderst]

hey man

love your channel

dont pay attention to those ratings.

your channel is quality, and at the end of the day, quality is what your are giving to others.

i really learned a lot from this channel ... th for all the work u put in here.

[Castaa]

Hey, thanks for the support.

[TruthIsBliss]

Wow, that's insanely unfair! I hope youtube fixes this quickly. And for the people who do this?... talk about needing a life coach... or therapy... or punching in the teeth.

Hope you're otherwise well, Castaa.

[Castaa]

Thanks. My other friend as already offered to punch them in the kidney. And she herself is a kidney donor. So I think I'm set. For now.

[SaraCares]

Wow, does that mean a single individual sits down and creates numerous accounts for the purpose of rating videos low? Talk about wasting time!

If that is the case, can't youtube trace it using the IP addresses of the raters? If numerous accounts belong to the same IP address that could be a good sign.

I am merely speculating here - I could be wrong about how votebots work.

[Castaa]

Certainly there are heuristics that YT can apply to at least mitigate the problem and auto-ban groups of accounts. The only semi-work intensive part is creating the YT accounts. Once they are setup, I'm sure there are scripts out there that can do the rest quite easily. I've seen pay services also offer this "cheating on demand". :-(

Thanks for the support though!

[PennyRoyaleTea]

Castaa, that isn't just a problem on the internet, but in the world we live in.

1-2% of the population manipulate the whole world! The Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, etc. etc. >:(

[SameeSunshine]

votebots?

oh man, that sounds horrible!

is there any way to recover from that? or would someone just have to sit and re-rate all your videos?

gah.

some people...

some people... tsk

[Castaa]

I'm doubtful that YT will fix the problem for those already effected. I'm hopeful YT will close the exploit so others in the future won't be effected. Thanks for the support though. :)

[Castaa]

I was originally not going to make a video about it but then thunderf00t made a video that asked people effected to make video responses to help raise the profile of the problem. He has been successful it getting Youtube's attention in the past in fixing problems. Thus this video.

[JaneVlog]

wow...that's crazy.

the things that people spend their time making programs for... they must be a sad lonely person to spend all their time trying to take out youtube videos! haha.

[kurtilein3]

keep making videos...

basically, thats the smartest way to get youtube subscribers :) keep making new videos each week.

and, if you really want to get youtubes attention, ask people to send messages to youtubes advertise-channel, its the best way to reach them, use the lines of communication new advertising customers would use.

[Castaa]

Thanks kurtilein.

[SuburbanSlack]

Its kind of bizarre that someone would target you of all people. I would have thought your style would fly under the radar of the type of kids who do stuff like this.

[Castaa]

Ya, I'm a bit baffled myself.

[RationalTheism]

Why are you getting attacked?

[Castaa]

lol I have no idea. My stuff is pretty uncontroversial in my view anyway.

[YourTubeAdvocate]

Just to let you know, I did send this problem to YouTube staff, as well as pictures of the Insight stats from my personal experience. I was told that it was being looked into, but that was at least a week or so ago.

[Castaa]

Thanks KOHPelord. If they give any updates, I'm sure the next YTA will pass it along.

[rednecktrucker1969]

I got hit last night, all my older vids got down to 1-2 stars, my votes were comming from Austrailia.

[Castaa]

Interesting. I'm not sure where my votes are coming from. The region selection for vote origin in the insight section doesn't appear to work for me. Sorry you were hit too! I think it's channels that are more pro-free thought in nature. Correct me if I'm wrong. Nutty fundies.

[raycolondotcom]

This is a shame. Yours was one of the first channels to which I subscribed because you come across as a very knowledgeable and amiable guy, whose series on how to gain more subscribers was full of good ideas. I hope that YouTube 1) addresses this problem by finding a way to stop it, and 2) reinstates your ratings to what they were prior to the attack. It's just data, right, and I can't imagine that it's not backed-up somewhere on the YouTube servers. Ray

[Castaa]

Thanks for the support Ray.

[JaySkuh]

soory man i feel for you, hope they get them good luck,by way 5 stars

[Castaa]

Thanks Jay.

[WhatsABoyToDo]

I don't understand why people feel the need to cheat and bring other people down. It's really the scourge of the internet in my opinion. I'm sorry to hear that you got attacked, it really sucks!

I just hope I never get "discovered" on YouTube because it's the worse thing that could happen!  Keep making great videos and don't let them get you down!!!

[Castaa]

Thanks. The problem with the Internet is that 1% that are unethical can effect 99% of people trying to get along. Largely without any threat of retribution.

[prep4md]

This is unfortunate but do not let it get to you.

[Castaa]

It is a bit discouraging but I don't plan on stopping. :)

[imopen2]

Well first of all, it is kind of a slap in his face to have made good videos and then have the rating drop to 1 star. Second, his videos will not be on the top rated page. And third, some people might not watch because of the rating combined with the generally long length of his videos.

This is a real problem that youtube should address asap.

[Castaa]

Yes. It's a problem that can be fixed by YT. It's not terribly hard.

[imopen2]

wow that sucks

[buddhagem]

Not sure I really understand the significance of the rating system. I mean if your material is good, and I think it generally is, would it matter if all you got were one stars? I don't think I've ever not watched a video because of its rating. Do some people do that? I'm just not getting what the significance of it is I guess.

[Castaa]

The significance is overall effect of Google/YouTube search results and seeing viewers browsing a channel with extremely low ratings on every single video. Plus it's dishonest and someone scamming the system because someone could just as easily give them self or their friends thousands of 5 star ratings. Thus gaming the system in the other direction.

[xleax]

I think most people don't care about ratings - they watch what they want because of the content, not the rating.

However, under ratings there's a feature called 'Top rated' which some people use. If one can cheat on 1 star ratings, then one can cheat on 5 stars as well, and get their videos promoted by cheating.

It's wrong.