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| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 05:19 #783 | |
UKTrainMan
1803 posts |
I could be getting this totally wrong here and wasting a couple of minutes but when looking at the list of topics some of them appear to have a rather high number of views. For example, this thread (which is in the restricted/private 'Notification of Hosting' area) seems to have had over 1,607 views yet there are only 579 people registered on the forum. To me, those numbers don't seem to add up (unless I am missing something). I've had a wealth of experience as either an administrator, moderator or member on many different online forums from those for some well known record labels/bands to other 'private' forums and even those, some which have more than 600 members, have never received anywhere near that many views on just one thread alone. Please confirm to me that I am not going crazy or missing something perhaps glaringly obvious. Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for. Log in to reply |
| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 05:19 #6987 | |
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UKTrainMan
1803 posts |
I could be getting this totally wrong here and wasting a couple of minutes but when looking at the list of topics some of them appear to have a rather high number of views. For example, this thread (which is in the restricted/private 'Notification of Hosting' area) seems to have had over 1,607 views yet there are only 579 people registered on the forum. To me, those numbers don't seem to add up (unless I am missing something). I've had a wealth of experience as either an administrator, moderator or member on many different online forums from those for some well known record labels/bands to other 'private' forums and even those, some which have more than 600 members, have never received anywhere near that many views on just one thread alone. Please confirm to me that I am not going crazy or missing something perhaps glaringly obvious. Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for. Log in to reply |
| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 08:14 #6988 | |
northroad
872 posts |
UK, Is that the number of views to the main topic you are looking at...mind I must admit the way I look at it the Peterboro thread already seems to have had 5000 views which I would agree does look odd. So in answer to your question I can confirm you are not going crazy Log in to reply |
| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 08:20 #6989 | |
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northroad
872 posts |
Correction the P'Boro thread has the number of views you are talking about 1600 and not 5000 as I stated. It would appear that you may be correct re the number being high Am I going crazy? Geoff Log in to reply |
| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 08:30 #6992 | |
Peter Bennet
5402 posts |
I was just about to say that too, having just increased the number by 5 proving the point. Peter I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs! Log in to reply |
| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 08:33 #6993 | |
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northroad
872 posts |
Try saying that at the end of the P'Boro meet day Geoff Log in to reply |
| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 16:29 #7003 | |
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UKTrainMan
1803 posts |
Thanks for all the replies so far and thanks to northroad to confirming my sanity. Special thanks to admin for the reply however as stated I have had a wealth of experience on online forums and already knew this. What I am trying to get at is that it just doesn't seem right. This other thread has had a massive 28,645 views. At the time of posting this, this thread has only had 5 replies yet apparently 610 views. I could quite easily see this thread hitting 1,600 views or more in just a couple of days which also doesn't seem right. Looking forward to more replies on this matter. Thanks. (P.S: This post was posted on 27/02/2010 at 16:29 / 4:29pm) Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for. Log in to reply |
| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 17:21 #7005 | |
GeoffM
6376 posts 
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The referenced thread has had 82 replies and 28700 views. Divide the latter by the former and you have approximately 340 people following the thread. This is a very approximate number as some people may read several replies at once, and others may have gotten bored and moved on. But the figure of 28700 is perfectly understandable for a thread of that size, particularly as it's public and anybody can view it so the actual number of registered users is irrelevant for that thread. So the number you see is the count of how many times that thread is VIEWed (the clue is in the name). It is NOT the number of users that have viewed it. Forums that use this method include airliners.net, trainorders.com. All phpBB forums use this technique (see http://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=29673), as do vBulletin (see http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=628867, and also YaBB. Some count individual post views; some count entire thread views. [Edit] Add Drupal to the list, and in doing so ratchet up the view count for this thread. Can you show me a forum that doesn't use this method? SimSig Boss Log in to reply |
| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 17:46 #7006 | |
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UKTrainMan
1803 posts |
Follow-up During a 50 minute period, this thread went from around 610 views to at least 720 views. A quick calculation; 740 views subtract 610 views equals 130 130 views divide by 50 minutes equals 2.6 2.6 views a minute??? Little Experiment After posting my previous message in this thread I noted I had two tabbed windows opened on the forum, one being the forum itself (on topic view) and the other being the thread, having just posted in it myself since it takes you straight to your new post after posting. As a little experiment I left the thread tab open and turned to the other tab where I refreshed it a number of times. During this time I noted that every couple of refreshes the number went up, and up, and up. I have now tested this on both my current/main browser (Google Chrome) and also IE7 and both yield the same results. I have just noted that I was posting via 'Quick Reply' instead of having pressed the 'Reply' button. I am now writing this reply in the actual reply area instead of the 'Quick Reply' and the view count doesn't seem to be rising so rapidly. As such, I firstly would wonder if the Quick Reply feature could be disabled (It certainly can on the forums I have worked on). I realise this may not be ideal as it would mean people had to click the reply button to reply instead of just using Quick Reply but it might (although unlikely) actually fix this matter or at least give a slightly more realistic view count for each thread. Either way it should be an interesting test. Having just consulted someone else they suggested it could be an incorrect setting somewhere or just a bug however I wouldn't really know if this is the case as I do not have any experience with Agora so do not know the internal workings in 'the back office' of the forum. Whilst I do appreciate all these replies, etc, I am sceptical about the view counts. Some threads in the 'Notification of Hosting' area have had a high number of views counts and that is a 'protected' / 'private' area. Taking this thread as an example it has had 2402 views but only three posts (two replies)? I'm sorry but I genuinely believe that something just isn't right somewhere. I'll finish this post with a check on the view count.... 857 views and that is just before I posted this message. Many Thanks. Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for. Log in to reply |
| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 18:05 #7007 | |
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GeoffM
6376 posts
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UKTrainMan said:During this time I noted that every couple of refreshes the number went up, and up, and upSo you're saying that the view count went up every time you re-viewed the topic? Sounds correct to me. It went up again after posting the topic? Quite likely, since you've requeried the page which affects the hit counter. 130 views in an hour doesn't seem unreasonable given that there are around 50 people online at the moment with a couple of new replies posted, and the two of us merrily hitting the view counter for testing purposes. SimSig Boss Log in to reply |
| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 19:50 #7009 | |
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Peter Bennet
5402 posts |
I'm a little confused as to why it matters what the count is- personally I don't care. Peter I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs! Log in to reply |
| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 20:33 #7010 | |
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clive
2789 posts |
I have a script that is scanning the forum for new posts on a regular basis. This may be affecting the numbers.
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| Numbers don't seem to add up 27/02/2010 at 21:36 #7011 | |
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UKTrainMan
1803 posts |
GeoffM said:UKTrainMan said:Sorry I could have perhaps worded that post a bit better.During this time I noted that every couple of refreshes the number went up, and up, and upSo you're saying that the view count went up every time you re-viewed the topic? What I mean is that I was refreshing the forum itself (viewing it via Topic View) and the View count was going up and up whilst I was leaving the other tab open and viewing the thread...although I was not refreshing the tab with the thread on it, I was only refreshing the list of topics. Peter Bennet said: I'm a little confused as to why it matters what the count is- personally I don't care.That's true but I was only really posting it in the first place to let you know of this. clive said: I have a script that is scanning the forum for new posts on a regular basis. This may be affecting the numbers.I don't think that is what is causing it but thanks for the reply. Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for. Log in to reply |
| Numbers don't seem to add up 28/02/2010 at 20:27 #7017 | |
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GeoffM
6376 posts
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Even if there was a bug then I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. I suggest you put your money where your mouth is and post on the jvitals forum as to your suspicions. I'm not going to do it on your behalf without at least some evidence to back up the claims. Let me know the thread so I can follow the discussions.
SimSig Boss Log in to reply |