What are the results of removing non-human bots?

[herbaearth]

Can we get the results of what the effects are after removing bots from views?

Ebay had 180 million customers, which went to 150 million after a review. Research shows non-human bots make up 60% of the internet, which connects 40% of humans from search engines to websites and products. I'm afraid If it's micro-management with targeted traffic, only a 5 dollar stock price will start the conversation.

Is it possible ebay cut the customer base by 60% after removing non-human bots? Can we address results?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques · Accepted solution]

@herbaearth  ebay did NOT remove the bots. The bots are still here, doing their bot thing. ebay no longer includes them in the view count that it provides to its sellers, but I'm sure ebay almost certainly keeps track of bot traffic internally. 

So, as sellers, we no longer see them mixed in with the human views in our views report. That's it. No other change.

[southern*sweet*tea]

Ebay is not stopping bots from checking out your listings, they've just removed them from the view counter.   It doesn't mean they're not there, you just won't see them anymore.

The only view that matters is a human view, an actual set of human eyes looking at my listing, and even that doesn't seem to matter because over the years I've sold plenty of items that supposedly had no views at all.

The view counter has always been messed up and I don't see this update to the view counter as making a bit of difference.  It's still going to be messed up.   Save yourself the angst and ignore the thing, that's what I do.

[lepke1979]

The fact that bots even affected view counts was sloppy programming.

Was the view count just messed up with the item? Or was it in the review traffic page as well? The counts on the traffic page doesn't seem to have changed much (if any) on my end.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

I'm not sure what you're asking.  The result is that they are no longer in our totals.  Nothing more, nothing less.  

[femmefan1946]

Viewers view.

Watchers watch.

Buyers buy.

[itscalledapostingid]

An example of a bot view that may have been counted in the past is when you Tweet a link to your ebay item - the process of the actual tweet and twitter verifying the link and probably checking it with something like Google Safe Search would count as a view.

Do you want something like that counting as a view? No.

So this was obviously an improvement to the way views are counted.

[chapeau-noir]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

Viewers view.

Watchers watch.

Buyers buy.

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Bots boogie.

[katzrul15]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

Viewers view.

Watchers watch.

Buyers buy.

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Bots boogie.

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Sellers Sell.

[kalyoth]

No company will openly admit to its revenue source that the user base that they advertised to them has significantly decreased due to false buyer traffic. It damages their ability to attract & retain sellers. In this case, it causes damage regardless of their response because they admitted there was a problem & the solution left a large uncertainty in the community. Once it does start impacting stock price, they will have to address it in a more official capacity.

[herbaearth]

I feel much better now reading that the bots are still here roaming the platform for search engine buyers, but are just hidden from view counts. My ebay stock holdings are more secure knowing these details, without thinking contingency orders will execute on an avoidable downturn. 

Thanks for all the comments

[femmefan1946]

Once it does start impacting stock price, they will have to address it in a more official capacity.

EBay no longer depends on its stock price. It has replaced gamblers who want to buy low and sell high, with investors who want the dividends they started getting a couple of years ago.

As long as eBay is profitable, the stockholders will be happy.

[stainlessenginecovers]

Are there 'Human Bots' ?? 

[femmefan1946]

I've had jobs like that. 😎

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

Bots presumably would be using the eBay API services, anything that's performing a page view even if a bot via automation of a browsing control still announce itself as such just as search bots announce themselves.

Views dont tend mean much here as the environment is disorganized, I can't even begin to tell you how many folks I know that now shop here as "last place to try find things" vs the Orange Box and other venues.  Heck my neighbor cross the way was showing off two laptops he bought that cost him nearly $250 more than if he'd bought em' here.   When I asked why he didn't he told me what I've heard from many, the environment is not "fun" to shop at anymore, he bought em' via Big Box store online third party which then he picked up at the box store.

eBay should be making significant alterations to many things but they don't appear to care about ideas.  I'd sent off communications a year ago of how eBay good significantly increase sales and its on deaf ears.