Editing 1224: Council of 300

{{comic
| number    = 1224
| date      = June 12, 2013
| title     = Council of 300
| image     = council_of_300.png
| titletext = 'And hypnotize someone into thinking they've uploaded it and passed it around.' 'But then won't the uploader get suspicious that it pauses at 301+ for a while? Why don't we just forge the number entirel--' ::BLAM:: 'The Council of 299 is adjourned.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|YouTube}} (a video sharing site) used to have an odd quirk in its view counter. When a video hit 301 views, the view counter briefly stopped updating. This meant that YouTube was checking the views to make sure that no foul play was going on. The choice of the number 301 is due to a harmless off-by-one error; Numberphile produced a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIkhgagvrjI video] that explains all this very well (and has comically its view counter frozen at 301). At times the number 301 would catch some YouTubers off guard — for very popular videos, it might appear that the video has more likes than views. However, this bug is no longer present{{Actual citation needed}} (although very new videos having more likes and comments than views IS still present).

[[Randall]] plays with the near coincidence of this number, and a conspiracy theory entity known as the {{w|Committee of 300}}. In this case, the video's first 300 views come from each of the Committee's council members who determine if the video will go {{w|Viral video|viral}}. The video is then released to the public by sending it to a regular person ([[Cueball]] in this comic) making the total number of views 301.

The title text elaborates on this by explaining that the council also hypnotizes somebody to make him think they uploaded and shared that particular video.

According to the title text, the council does not seem to tolerate contradiction, because the member that suggests changing 301 to a random number to avoid suspicion is shot, silenced permanently, and removed from the council, therefore bringing the total number of people in the council down to 299.

==Transcript==
:[A secret society meets in a darkened chamber; a kitschy video involving two people and an RC helicopter is projected onto the background.]
:Master: ...Then it is settled. We the 300 members of the Secret Council, decree that this video meets our standards, and shall "go viral".
:Master: Send it to one of our agents to be leaked to the common folk.
:Steward: Some of them are noticing the number.
:Master: ...Add a plus sign to throw them off.
:Steward: Very well.
:Soon...
:[A communication sent to Cueball, one of the many unsuspecting plebeians of the world.]
:Email: Ooh! check out this great video I found!
:[Zoom in on the viewer count of a YouTube video.]
:View count: 301+

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:YouTube]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theory]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]