So overall, I believe legit users are not being punished at all since there is real people viewing the videos and they are not gaming the system.
But if they
think they are being effected?
It doesn't matter what is happening, only what they
think is happening.
Look at that blog, and those forums, I've checked some of those users out, some are certainly not using bots, some are crazy little channels, some of them with barely any views, but "frozen" at 200(ish) and in a mad panic, and unable to move on, because someones sent some fake traffic their way, and they won't get credited with views until they get hundreds more, to catch up with the fake views someone here (or elsewhere) sent them, as part of the "let's freeze YouTube" gimmick.
It doesn't matter if they've been effected, or not, it just matters that they think they have, so they stink up the blog, and they stink up the help forums, and everyone reading thinks "yeah, this new system sucks".
It's like this, if I'm President of America, and introduce a peice of new tax legislation, that makes everyone $10 a week better off, if the whole of the nation
thinks it makes them worse off, then it doesn't matter that I'm giving away an extra $10 a week to everyone, they're all going to hate me, and I'm probably going to change my system again, and/or at least think twice before changing it again, because I'll be wary of any backlash.
Go read that blog page of theirs, if you were YouTube, is that the blog page you'd want, where 75% of the comments say "you suck" and talk about YT being owned by other sites?
Is that what you'd want the public, and the press to read?
YouTube are NOT going to switch things back, but this has been a very uncomfortable 3 weeks for them, they've looked bad, and are continuing to look bad, they haven't enjoyed it at all.
That's was another reason I wasn't as uptight as some about that autumn guy (or w/e his name was) posting about this place, as it was a psychological blow, it was putting into the minds of more and more regular members that this was a bigger deal to
them than it really was, and causing more of
them to complain, and thus making it more uncomfortable for YT, and less likely they'd fiddle again, in a way that's detrimental to us, in the near future.
Of course the "let's make this section private" threads, and explanations like this, have kind of killed that advantage we were getting, from some one elses paranoia, as they are now seeing the "truth", and seeing members here as "afraid" and therefore not the big bad boogeymen they thought we were.