Viewers????????????

Magpie1 · Post by **Magpie1** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:16 am

It is hard to give this a title. I run a soccer forum <eddymarra.com/The Real Newcastleunited Forum> and one particular posting intrigues me.......Its title is Heerenveen. What is the problem........it has over 48,000 views!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!this is next to impossible. So someone is up to a bit of no good. I have contacted the ISP host, and he has no idea and suggested I contact this site. Ok, I know you can jump the number of viewers up by hitting the left mouse a few times, but this may only be a few. But we come back to 48,000!
This is preposterous. It is a Dutch posting, and no one is really interested in it. The last posting was the beginning of March 08! So how are they doing it...........and what can I do to put the figures right?

The only title I can give it is Viewer Cheats...........the ISP host suggested some program may be used, but what he has no idea..............I really would like some help on this!

I also contacted the writer, and the writer just says a lot of people must view it. I told her we have only about 20,000+ on record by Google.........that is on the Intro page, so it is not possible to get that number.

ric323 · Post by **ric323** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:41 am

That topic has way more replies than any other on your board, so why do you think it is odd that it is the most viewed. Any guest viewing that topic adds to the count.

Magpie1 · Post by **Magpie1** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:31 am

I have seen this particular Posting jump by the thousand in a week. OK, so it has a great number. If you look at the average posting, you will see straight off this number is really abnormal. The ISP host, Australian Websites agrees with me, but can give no answer as to how it is being done, but agrees, there is a lot of no good afoot. I agree with him.

It is a small Dutch football team, and in no way could warrant such a vast number of viewers. I have ran the forum long enough to know there is something wrong here. Even looking at its placing, it is well out of date in any case.

To say it warrants this number is living in the world of Walter Mitty...........have a look at any single posting you have on this forum and see if you have anything that matches it. I think the problem needs addressing, it is very unusual. I have written to the poster and all knowldedge is denied, and get the same answer as I have from you.........a lot of people read this! There are many postings on the forum that even wonder why it is even on the forum, which deals with the Magpies only! Apart from General points of interest.

Given that SCH Heerenveen all read this OK? There are only 22,000 who attend the matches for a start, and next, it is in English, not Dutch or Friesian!

dellsystem · Post by **dellsystem** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 5:55 pm

It doesn't seem impossible at all. As ric pointed out that topic has quite a few replies - 247 - and it is very possible that it's just been viewed a lot. A sticky topic in that forum has 22185, which is an entirely feasible number, and this topic is more than 2 years old so it does make sense. Take a look in the Announcements forum here, even, and you'll see that a topic that's only about a month old has 60,000+ views.

Magpie1 · Post by **Magpie1** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:23 am

I accept that on this website the viewer's can be high, but then so are the members and posters, bearing in mind we are talking about David and Goliath here. My forum is a small one, and comparisons with this one is ludicrous to say the least.

The very nature of this website goes around the world and warrant's the attention it is getting.

I see some wiseacre jumping in on semantics, very clever sonny!We are not all good at English, but to score off it shows the childish approach which in no way addresses the problem, nor does the needles and mindless praising of the Mod: on this section.

There is an answer, there has to be. This is one place I was advised to try by Australian Websites. I tried!

It requires and answer. There is as I said one...................if you don't know, don't post. Get the facts right,and comparisons and see the reason for the posting.

The ISP insists there is some program or cookie inserted. This man is well versed in the setting up of websites............and knows of no answer, and advised me to try this one as I said earlier.

ric323 · Post by **ric323** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:40 am

Well you have two members, feenfan and eddy, who keep posting in that topic.
If it really is of no interest to anyone else, then either ask them to stop, or lock the topic.

The ISP insists there is some program or cookie inserted. This man is well versed in the setting up of websites............and knows of no answer, and advised me to try this one as I said earlier.

ISPs are nearly always clueless as to how forums work.
If you really want to know who is doing all the page viewing, just have a look in the web server's log file for lines containing:

Code: Select all

http://eddymarra.com/therealnewcastleunitedforum/viewtopic.php?t=862

and see what IP address is doing the accesses.

Magpie1 · Post by **Magpie1** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:25 am

As you say, my self and feanfan appear to be the only posters. OK I agree with this. The reason being, I try to encourage postings that are decent and that is what the forum is for. No violations have been committed that warrant a lock up!

Someone compared the postings on your forum with the one's made on mine. This is ludicrous. There is and can be no comparison.

You have 308,456 members. I have in the area of 2,500! On a pro rata basis, taking the 48,000 viewers as being logic is the height of idiocy. For a start, it is about 1.5%+ of mine which are 19%, this demonstrates the sort of thinkers you have on this forum.

Can't you lot come up with something more intelligent? An answer? That is what this forum is about. Not nit picking.

ChrisRLG · Post by **ChrisRLG** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:37 am

Magpie1

You have had two team members reply giving you thier opinion.

That it does not agree with your opinion does not warrent you giving out harsh un-called for remarks.

If you continue like this you will get an offical warning.

So cool it, take your time to post and do so with respect of others.

ric323 · Post by **ric323** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:49 am

Magpie1 wrote:Someone compared the postings on your forum with the one's made on mine. This is ludicrous. There is and can be no comparison.

You have 308,456 members. I have in the area of 2,500! On a pro rata basis, taking the 48,000 viewers as being logic is the height of idiocy. For a start, it is about 1.5%+ of mine which are 19%, this demonstrates the sort of thinkers you have on this forum.

Dellsystem just made the comment to illustrate that some topics have way more views than others, why are you fixated on that, and totally ignoring anything I am saying?

Can't you lot come up with something more intelligent? An answer? That is what this forum is about. Not nit picking.

It is your board that is getting all these views, phpBB just reports how often it has been viewed.
I have already told you how to do some research to find out who is doing that. Only you or your web host have access to those logs. If you choose just to ignore that, then I'm done here.

Highway of Life · Post by **Highway of Life** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:56 am

Magpie1 wrote:You have 308,456 members. I have in the area of 2,500! On a pro rata basis, taking the 48,000 viewers as being logic is the height of idiocy. For a start, it is about 1.5%+ of mine which are 19%, this demonstrates the sort of thinkers you have on this forum.

viewers does not equal views.
A topic view is incremented every single time you load up that topic, that means if you view that topic 10 times per day for 2 years, there will be 35,740 views from YOU alone!
That's not counting anybody else!
What if you have 25 people view that topic twice per day (not terribly outlandish)?
It's going to count a view when you view the topic, and again when you reply to it... so if you post 5 posts per day in that topic, you are incrementing the count by 10 just by yourself. Another user posting 5 posts per day in that topic is another 10 views in a single day. -- that does not count the possible dozens of other users that may be viewing that topic as well.
Even on a small board, if that post has been there a while and there have been a lot of replies to it, that's not really unusual.
If you want to find out who is viewing that topic, you could check your access logs to be sure, as Ric pointed out.

Magpie1 · Post by **Magpie1** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 4:22 am

Magpie1

You have had two team members reply giving you their opinion.

That it does not agree with your opinion does not warrant you giving out harsh uncalled for remarks.

If you continue like this you will get an official warning.

So cool it, take your time to post and do so with respect of others.

Three errors corrected here: Warrent............un-called............officail...........OK Mag1............so what!

This pal is your opinion. You consider my remarks harsh and uncalled for! You want to give me an official warning? Go ahead. If you can't stand the heat keep out of the kitchen.

I came on this 'forum' with a sincere desire in the hope that someone would or may come up with and answer.

I have had nothing but utter 24ct tripe...................One..........How the grammatical semantics of Viewer's should be!..............Fantastic. It is akin to the commander issuing the order..........sound the call.........and the bugler asking.......what tune sir? What has you remarks to do with my problem......just the same as the price of coffee in Brazil. We enter a statistical, almost political twisting of facts........facts........a fact = a lie and a half! The quote you threaten me with...............I will get a warning..............not so............!All posts have been made with respect, and nothing else. As far as I am concerned, go ahead and do as you wish........let me make it easier for you.............simply ban me for upsetting your 'funny bunnies'..........it matters little, more or less, because I am not going to get any intelligent answer..................! I will comment on one remark............'ISP's no nothing about PHPBB'! I sent this to the ISP! That was totally uncalled for.

Forget the problem...........if you want to warn me.........then do a good job as I do on my forum, I ban as many as 100 wannabe posters per day....................Via Cpanel. Don't threaten me..........do the job like a man...........just say look me old china.................you are banned. OK?

carloclaessen · Post by **carloclaessen** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:25 pm

edit the post count over phpmyadmin and problem solved

geesh what a drama queens in here, i knew football is war i didnt knew it was drama

Post by **Marshalrusty** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:42 pm

Magpie1 wrote:Can't you lot come up with something more intelligent? An answer? That is what this forum is about. Not nit picking.

You want a decisive answer to a general question based on the statement "This number seems too high. Waaaaah".

The views counter goes up when the topic is viewed. If the topic is not viewed, the counter will not go up. If you don't believe me (us), set up a local board that can't be accessed by the outside world, and do this experiment by yourself.

Therefore, there are only a couple of explanations:

People have been reading the topic.
Someone is clicking 'refresh' a few thousand times to artificially boost the number.
Someone has set up a script to automatically refresh the page to artificially boost the number.
There is a vast conspiracy involving Dr. Evil, several albino Platypuses and - of course - your hosting company. The Platypuses are expert hackers, who have managed to break into your database for the sole reason of inflating the views count on this one topic. Your host, who could have just done all that on their own, has been asked to keep this a secret, which is why they're covering it all up.

Now, the logical thing would be to take ric323's advice and look through the access logs for records of who has actually been viewing the topic. If you see the same IP at intervals of a few seconds, then see choices 2+3 above. If you want my personal opinion though, 4 seems like a solid choice.

Taniak · Post by **Taniak** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 3:17 pm

Maybe one of your users has that particular post set as their homepage or something. Every time they open up a web browser, it would incriment your view counter. Seriously, if I set your post to my homepage, you'd get an additional 40-50+ views each day, and I'm not an internet power-user by any stretch. That would account for 350+ views a week, and by that thinking, 1000 views doesn't seem like much of a leap.

ckwalsh · Post by **ckwalsh** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:21 pm

Alright, from reading, you think a post view is too high. It doesn't seem to make sense.

From your description of the rest of your board, it is fine (I'll admit I haven't checked), so it isn't a problem with the software. There aren't any bugs to find.

You haven't said it is affecting your board in any way, slowing it down, etc. Thus it isn't a performance issue we can try and work through.

It doesn't involve bots/human spammers posting in a particular thread, advertising product X. There aren't any anti-spam measures we can help you with.

May I ask what you do want by posting this? It seems clear to me that you would like some sort of answer from this community, but I'll admit I have no idea what you want.

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