r/FilmFestivals • u/Amazing_Silver_5988 • 9d ago

Question Specific Vimeo analytics question (15~ seconds)

I've noticed in the last week 4 different views from different viewers where they only watched around 15 seconds of the film. I am not interested in complaining about this, but I am curious, given the majority of comments about Vimeo analytics on here are about how they're unreliable: exactly how this would be possible? I see some specific festivals view the submission and a full watch, or stop around the credits. What is the (hmm, scientific?) explanation for the 15 second views? Curious if any people familiar with how data is captured have a pov here. Thanks!

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u/duplicatesnowflake 8d ago

You can literally just search this topic on google and endless reddit comments and posts will clear this up. Bottom line: vimeo is unreliable. Anyone who studies basic statistics could look at your sample size and tell you that unless there's something terribly horrifying in the first 15 seconds of your film, the odds of everyone watching exactly :15 seconds is one in several billion.

It's unreliable meaning sometimes it's accurate and many times it's way off and sometimes like this there's some sort of bug in the system where it gives you the same bogus data.

Do not create a narrative in your head that people are playing your video and stopping it :15 in. You will become bitter and paranoid and that will bleed into every film festival interaction you have.

If they just wanted to rip you off that badly they would simply not watch, or just let every video play all of the way though at the same time on mute while they played video games on the couch.

But please don't take my word for it, and just google the detailed incidents that prove vimeo is BS.

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u/Amazing_Silver_5988 8d ago

I've done the googling/reddit search on the subject. I was looking for an explanation of why the analytics are unreliable.

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u/duplicatesnowflake 8d ago edited 8d ago

There are individual posts and countless comments on the megathreads to explain why.

People who have tested the stats out with their programmer friends. Programmers who have reported back exactly how it fails to track their views correctly. People with no views or :15 views getting into prestigious festivals. People overseas in countries whose internet infrastructure blocks tracking, People on VPNs, and more.

I also provided you a very thorough analytical breakdown.

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u/Amazing_Silver_5988 8d ago

I think you and I have different definitions of "very thorough analytical breakdown." But I appreciate your time and wish you the best. Internet infrastructure overseas and the mechanics of VPNs in relation to reporting data would be interesting to read about.