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Post by rick on Feb 24, 2010 8:22:21 GMT -5
In this forum, the number of people who view each thread is shown. However, unlike in other forums that are similar in format, this forum allows one to just hit the refresh button over and over and it will count it as a new view. In the other thread that I started, the "War on Big Government," there was only about 300 hits as of last night yet this morning it shows over 1,500. Someone has obviously intentionally inflated the number of views.
My suggestion to the moderators to prevent this kind of thing:
Format the "views" so that one person can only have one view regardless of how many times he/she returns to the thread or how many times they hit the refresh button in an attempt to manipulate the number of folks who have viewed the thread. That way it will be known how many people actually visited and read any particular thread.
There is no way that my thread had 1,500+ views in just one evening.
I'm sure there is a way to format it this way.
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Post by valpo04 on Feb 24, 2010 8:50:13 GMT -5
In this forum, the number of people who view each thread is shown. However, unlike in other forums that are similar in format, this forum allows one to just hit the refresh button over and over and it will count it as a new view. In the other thread that I started, the "War on Big Government," there was only about 300 hits as of last night yet this morning it shows over 1,500. Someone has obviously intentionally inflated the number of views. My suggestion to the moderators to prevent this kind of thing: Format the "views" so that one person can only have one view regardless of how many times he/she returns to the thread or how many times they hit the refresh button in an attempt to manipulate the number of folks who have viewed the thread. That way it will be known how many people actually visited and read any particular thread. There is no way that my thread had 1,500+ views in just one evening. I'm sure there is a way to format it this way. Not sure why anyone would "intentionally inflate the number of views" of your thread and not sure why you care... Also, Google bots scan this board regularly, which can slightly increase views and improves search results. In this case, a search of "Declaration of War against Big Government" puts your thread amongst the top returns, which could explain the major increase in views:  |
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Post by rick on Feb 24, 2010 10:10:25 GMT -5
If the number of views of a particular thread is of no concern, why show it in the first place? Often people will choose to read or not to read a thread based upon the number of other people who have already viewed it. It piques their interest.
Why would I care? Only because in this particular case I refuted a claim that not many people read this off-topic forum, The Lounge, by showing at that time there were about 218 or so who had read it. I can see that someone too cowardly to respond to the data I have presented and who is just a wee bit twisted would crank up the numbers in an effort to make it look like I did that myself. Other than that, I don't really care.
And you may be correct that more folks googled that and is the reason for a significant jump (5 times the average) in views.
If you don't care that anyone could attempt to inflate the views of a thread they started, that's ok with me. I was just pointing it out.
Again, if there is a good reason that you have to keep track of the number of views, and I assume there is some reason, otherwise you wouldn't keep track, I would think that you wouldn't want inflated numbers and would want only the actual number of people who viewed it, not a number that is subject to manipulation. As I've said before, there are sports sites that I visit who have over a dozen moderators and they put some thought into this issue to assure that regardless of the number of times an individual returns to a thread, it counts only once. That way they get a real sense of just how many unique individuals are reading the particular content.
There I go again thinking too much.
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Post by valpo04 on Feb 24, 2010 11:05:39 GMT -5
If the number of views of a particular thread is of no concern, why show it in the first place? Often people will choose to read or not to read a thread based upon the number of other people who have already viewed it. It piques their interest. Why would I care? Only because in this particular case I refuted a claim that not many people read this off-topic forum, The Lounge, by showing at that time there were about 218 or so who had read it. I can see that someone too cowardly to respond to the data I have presented and who is just a wee bit twisted would crank up the numbers in an effort to make it look like I did that myself. Other than that, I don't really care. And you may be correct that more folks googled that and is the reason for a significant jump (5 times the average) in views. If you don't care that anyone could attempt to inflate the views of a thread they started, that's ok with me. I was just pointing it out. Again, if there is a good reason that you have to keep track of the number of views, and I assume there is some reason, otherwise you wouldn't keep track, I would think that you wouldn't want inflated numbers and would want only the actual number of people who viewed it, not a number that is subject to manipulation. As I've said before, there are sports sites that I visit who have over a dozen moderators and they put some thought into this issue to assure that regardless of the number of times an individual returns to a thread, it counts only once. That way they get a real sense of just how many unique individuals are reading the particular content. There I go again thinking too much. Not so much that you are thinking too much, more like you are assuming too much. You assume that since there are number of views, that it is something we set up. I have put no thought into this feature because frankly, I don't care. I have not looked at or changed what Proboards has set up. Whether you see it this way or not, a "view" is different than a "visit." Any time someone refreshes a page (perhaps because they are in the thread and want to see if there are any new posts before posting) it is a "view." I just checked the code database and there are no codes to modify how views are handled. I really don't think its an issue. If someone wants to artificially inflate views, I don't really care. I don't judge how popular threads are by their view count. I care more about replies since they show just how engaging a thread is. |
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Post by rick on Feb 24, 2010 11:07:54 GMT -5
If the number of views of a particular thread is of no concern, why show it in the first place? Often people will choose to read or not to read a thread based upon the number of other people who have already viewed it. It piques their interest. Why would I care? Only because in this particular case I refuted a claim that not many people read this off-topic forum, The Lounge, by showing at that time there were about 218 or so who had read it. I can see that someone too cowardly to respond to the data I have presented and who is just a wee bit twisted would crank up the numbers in an effort to make it look like I did that myself. Other than that, I don't really care. And you may be correct that more folks googled that and is the reason for a significant jump (5 times the average) in views. If you don't care that anyone could attempt to inflate the views of a thread they started, that's ok with me. I was just pointing it out. Again, if there is a good reason that you have to keep track of the number of views, and I assume there is some reason, otherwise you wouldn't keep track, I would think that you wouldn't want inflated numbers and would want only the actual number of people who viewed it, not a number that is subject to manipulation. As I've said before, there are sports sites that I visit who have over a dozen moderators and they put some thought into this issue to assure that regardless of the number of times an individual returns to a thread, it counts only once. That way they get a real sense of just how many unique individuals are reading the particular content. There I go again thinking too much. Not so much that you are thinking too much, more like you are assuming too much. You assume that since there are number of views, that it is something we set up. I have put no thought into this feature because frankly, I don't care. I have not looked at or changed what Proboards has set up. Whether you see it this way or not, a "view" is different than a "visit." Any time someone refreshes a page (perhaps because they are in the thread and want to see if there are any new posts before posting) it is a "view." I just checked the code database and there are no codes to modify how views are handled. I really don't think its an issue. If someone wants to artificially inflate views, I don't really care. I don't judge how popular threads are by their view count. I care more about replies since they show just how engaging a thread is. Fair enough. It's your board. I'm finished with this issue now. |
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