View counter - bots vs "real people"

[sakic92710]

I would love for someone to explain, when my view count was much higher due to "bots", why were my sales much better?  Since the elimination of said bots regarding active viewers, why do my sales compare to a computer code? - 000100001100000100001011000.   lol  Does not seem like a coincidence that they coincide.  

[yuzuha]

Views in general are completely meaningless. I would say probably 97% of the things I sell have fewer than 10 views on the view count when they sell.

[chapeau-noir]

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@yuzuha wrote:

Views in general are completely meaningless. I would say probably 97% of the things I sell have fewer than 10 views on the view count when they sell.

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I have a watcher on something with no views.

[yuzuha]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@yuzuha wrote:

Views in general are completely meaningless. I would say probably 97% of the things I sell have fewer than 10 views on the view count when they sell.

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I have a watcher on something with no views.

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Oh, I have a few of those too. I figure they just hit the little heart button from the search without ever clicking on it.

[sakic92710]

I do change & that is why I concentrate more on Marketplace.  Funny how I can sell MORE with LESS eyes on local FBM compared to millions of potential buyers on eBay.  Yep!  I'm doing something wrong.  lol  100% rating on eBay.  5 star rating on Marketplace.

[chapeau-noir]

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@yuzuha wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@yuzuha wrote:

Views in general are completely meaningless. I would say probably 97% of the things I sell have fewer than 10 views on the view count when they sell.

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I have a watcher on something with no views.

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Oh, I have a few of those too. I figure they just hit the little heart button from the search without ever clicking on it.

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That's what I figured, and shows why views aren't always reliable.

[luckythewinner]

I would love for someone to explain, when my view count was much higher due to "bots", why were my sales much better? Does not seem like a coincidence that they coincide.  

It is a coincidence. 

[luckythewinner]

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@yuzuha wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@yuzuha wrote:

Views in general are completely meaningless. I would say probably 97% of the things I sell have fewer than 10 views on the view count when they sell.

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I have a watcher on something with no views.

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Oh, I have a few of those too. I figure they just hit the little heart button from the search without ever clicking on it.

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Yup.

I watch items like that all the time. 

I watch them from the search results, then wait for the seller to make an offer.

They only get a view if they have the lowest price than any other offer or listing. 

[yuzuha]

And to prove my point, all 4 of the things I've sold today had under 10 views on them.

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@tobaccocardyahoo 

Excellent post and interesting. 

[sakic92710]

Over a year ago, I tried an online auction business & they posted items for me 4-5 times.  I did very well.  A few months ago, I tried again.  It was horrible.  Highest price I got for anything was $13.00  It should have been in the $35-40 range. I will not make another attempt.  After shipping costs & their 30%, I ended up with $57 for 47 items.

[krazzykats]

Competition will have its casualties.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Just a general point about bots:

"If you sometimes feel that the internet isn’t the same vibrant place it used to be, you’re not alone. New research suggests that most of the traffic traversing the network isn’t human at all.

Bots (software programs that interact with web sites) have been ubiquitous for years. But in its 2025 Bad Bot Report, application security company Imperva claimed this is the first time traffic from bots became more prevalent than human traffic.

The rise in bots is down to generative artificial intelligence (AI), Imperva said. This is the same technology that now flirts with people online for you and automatically writes heartfelt consolatory emails on behalf of heartless administrators. This tech has made it easier to create bots that do your bidding online. While some of those bots are benign, not all have your best interests at heart.

The rise of bad bots
Traffic from “bad bots”—those created with malicious intent—first surpassed good bot traffic in 2016, Imperva’s research said, and it’s been getting worse. Bad bots comprised 37% of internet traffic in 2024, up from 32% the year prior. Good bots accounted for just 14% of the internet’s traffic."

source: 

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/uncategorized/2025/04/hi-robot-half-of-all-internet-traffic-now-au...?

[simply-the-best-for-you]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques   Sure, but the bots that eBay is trying to guard against when you see the error message abt bots on the website are 'bad' bots.  The ones that used to be counted as the first couple of views are 'good bots', generally speaking.