How kind of you to omit the Bertie Bot and World Domination takeover plot.Marshalrusty wrote:
- 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.
However, it is a very likely option #5 or a covert operation in option #4 (very possible also).
It is regrettable, but some of our rogue Berties do have a mean-streak and go clicking on topics for no other reason than to escalate the "views" count substantially.
This has has the desired consequence of effectively "freaking the admin out", which subsequently causes the admin to go post on phpBB.com and use a thousand question marks after each sentence. -- This further proves the theory that the admins get infected with freakoutaphobia over high view counts.