I have been tracking a particular thread on this forum to see how often it is being looked at. Been doing this for about 9 weeks now (wish I had started doing this when I first posted the thread 6 years ago).
I can understand the "Views" count showing more views per day when it is on page 1 of the list of topics and was just updated by someone posting to it and I can understand the number of views per day being higher on the weekends when it might be that some people only access the forum on weekends... but this particular thread is now on page 6 of the list and it is showing the number of views changing from 30 to 50 views per day for the last 5 weeks!
Are there that many "Bots" out crawling the web for search engines (such as Google and Bing) looking to catalog content?
Or are there that many people that don't understand the list shows when the last update was made and look at the thread anyway to see if there was a change?
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
It was my understanding of the Telligent software that it only moves an item up when a new post is made, but viewing the old topic increments the 'view' counter but leaves the thread on whatever page corresponds to date of the last actual post.
Exactly... so why am I seeing 30 to 50 views per day on a thread that is 5 weeks old?
Someone or something is selecting it to read. But choosing not to reply in a post.
The back end of the software can be configured to capture all kinds of information about the IP address, hardware configuration, etc. in each logged request, but we won't see that information. Your best bet would be to PM Dave Lassen and have him look into what the system is detecting.
Given that a web search for whatever topic will show links to this forum, I'm sure there are bots involved. How many is a good question that someone with access to the info mentioned might be able to answer.
I'd just about bet that if you Googled "views counter" in a few days, this thread would show up.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Excellent topic Semper Vaporo, the statistics of "total views" compared to "total posts" has always been an area of interest to me. Especially when weighed in context with the overall age of the thread.
Controversial threads will get a lot of attention from people who, while emotionally charged by the topic discussed, will not post to the topic because they do not wish to "fan the flames" or otherwise give the topic legitimacy. Sometimes the ratio of "new posts per day" compared to "new views per day" for a particular thread can be very telling, especially how this number changes over time. Threads about engineers waving, NIMBYs suing, grade crossing safety, open access, and boxcars with shackles come to mind.
Comparing how the metrics for the thread you are interested in change in comparison to the thread types listed above, might tell it's own story. Also, how do these figures change in comparison to the other threads immediately above and below the thread you are interested in? Does the change in the count of total views increase for threads surrounding your thread change by the same amount as your thread?
Then, as you mention, there definitely is the Bot issue. Threads having the word "conspiracy" prominently within them are bound to get more Bot attention than more benign topics such as paint schemes ( Thread titles such as "The great barfbonnet conspiracy" might be interesting to watch over time, no one here would look at it more than twice, but I'd bet that the search engines wouldn't be able to leave it alone)
Your questions do, imo, overlook one very relevant aspect, that being that the value of advertising "space" on the web is almost always based upon page views and click-thrus. (**cough-cough**)
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.