Are page views a reliable statistic? ;-)

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warmweer
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Are page views a reliable statistic? ;-)

Post by warmweer »

The topic
Known issues in 3.2.2 by Marc » Mon Jan 08, 2018 4:48 pm
has been posted 14 and a half days ago (counting from today = date of this post) and has at this time been viewed 2183 times.
That's ±150 views per day.
I have viewed that page as a guest from 3 different locations, and al least twice logged in, and I know for sure that some regular members here have viewed that page, and have even linked to it in support topics.
Seeing the number of support topics for 3.2.2 I can only conclude that page views must be way off because one would expect that topic being read by everyone who had a problem updating, or who is thinking about updating, or who updated and didn't have a problem but wants to find out what it's all about. And probably anyone who notices an official "announcement" reads those before reading anything else anyway.

Sometimes I feel as though I'm abnormal and am holding on to outdated practices :evil:
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Jodi-86
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Re: Are page views a reliable statistic? ;-)

Post by Jodi-86 »

Well right now apparently 700 people are online.

It's important to remember, bots and things make up a percentage,
Some people may look at a topic and then go back to it later, or have it set as a bookmark and it to open the forum and navigate to the page they want.

In short, on a forum that doesn't have any "post to social media" plug ins - the counter is most likely accurate - not forgetting that the author editing that post means another view added on to it.

But forums that share to social media or members who share the content across social media platforms will experience up to 20-30 page views a minute.
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warmweer
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Re: Are page views a reliable statistic? ;-)

Post by warmweer »

There's a smiley in my topic title and my sarcastic comment on pageviews not being reliable reflect my feelings on the low number of pageviews, not that I doubt that this number is unreliable. I find it incredible that a) people who have problems don't read it, people who are planning to upgrade don't read it, etc. Now there 2228 views, that's only 45 new views.
And it's not only those page views. The number of support topics started which are nothing but a repeat of a previous support question?

The outdated practice I was referring to is the practice of looking for information already available.I accept that one can't always find the necessary info immediately but not that one doesn't look for it. Seriously , that is one topic with a very clear topic title which I would expect to have been read (or viewed at least) over 10.000 times.

edited for spelling mistakes, missing and doubled words
Last edited by warmweer on Tue Jan 23, 2018 8:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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david63
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Re: Are page views a reliable statistic? ;-)

Post by david63 »

In answer to the OP - yes it is a reliable statistic of the number of views - however the question should be "does it really have any meaning?" the answer to which is probably no.

If page views was to be unique then that may possibly be a more valid but then there would be someone arguing the opposite.

The age old adage seems appropriate here - you can make statistics say whatever you want.
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warmweer
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Re: Are page views a reliable statistic? ;-)

Post by warmweer »

david63 wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2018 8:31 am In answer to the OP - yes it is a reliable statistic of the number of views - however the question should be "does it really have any meaning?" the answer to which is probably no.

If page views was to be unique then that may possibly be a more valid but then there would be someone arguing the opposite.

The age old adage seems appropriate here - you can make statistics say whatever you want.
david63, I know all that and I'm not questioning the reliability of the phpBB calculated pageviews (that would have been a topic in another subforum - phpBB related then).
I was just commenting with sarcasm about people not looking for information, and even when it's flat out in front of them, not even reading it.
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AmigoJack
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Re: Are page views a reliable statistic? ;-)

Post by AmigoJack »

The "view" count is increased per topic access, which includes one increment per page on a topic of i.e. 5 pages. This applies to both members and guests. Only if bots are recognized the count is not increased, but a default installation is rather useless in detecting enough bots - thus a lot of topic views are not made by humans.

As for "people": there are also persons clicking a topic, seeing more than 3 lines of text and then thinking "oh no, that's too much for me" - so while they viewed the topic they haven't read it. And even less likely they read it fully.
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Ibedejo
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Re: Are page views a reliable statistic? ;-)

Post by Ibedejo »

There's even one further "step" in the process not mentioned yet: view > read > understand ... ;)
I sometimes wonder where in this sequence the "old school/fashioned" part sets in ... 8-)
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warmweer
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Re: Are page views a reliable statistic? ;-)

Post by warmweer »

Ibedejo wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2018 6:17 pm There's even one further "step" in the process not mentioned yet: view > read > understand ... ;)
I sometimes wonder where in this sequence the "old school/fashioned" part sets in ... 8-)
True
I didn't mention the "understanding" part because that requires some basic "knowlegde" about phpBB and/or PHP. I regularly realise that I don't fully understand what I read but that stimulates the urge to learn (and not to experiment on live forums 8-) ).
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Re: Are page views a reliable statistic? ;-)

Post by AmigoJack »

warmweer wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2018 11:25 pmI regularly realise that I don't fully understand what I read but that stimulates the urge to learn (and not to experiment on live forums
Those are 3 rare abilities, almost talents.
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warmweer
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Re: Are page views a reliable statistic? ;-)

Post by warmweer »

AmigoJack wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2018 8:19 am Those are 3 rare abilities, almost talents.
Agreed 8-)
The problem is not the urge, the problem is lack of time, and sometimes also not being able to relate to a certain coding language (although that usually disappears the more one uses that particular language).
The thing is that the (low) number of views of certain (important) topics show a lack of urge in many users + the questions posed show that no search has been made, or to put it bluntly : everything has to be given on a silver platter.
The moderators and support team show extreme patience when dealing with these situations - that's one talent I don't have. :mrgreen:
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AmigoJack
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Re: Are page views a reliable statistic? ;-)

Post by AmigoJack »

warmweer wrote: Wed Jan 24, 2018 11:24 ameverything has to be given on a silver platter
Looking at other aspects of life I understand that behaviour - when using the metro I also just want a working thing without needing to dig thru details why one train is too late or why another is too short or why the line can't have more thruput. However, I'm also expected to pay money for that service (so to me it seem unfair to then still have to deal with details).

A non-capitalistic example: I just want other people to be respectful and thinking in advance (something which cannot be paid). I'm not interested in the details of why someone shows disrespect and/or makes his problems mine (while I could then understand their situation it's still not something I have to accept, since then it virals into everybody needing to know details - hence behaving by default to not interfere with others seems more efficient to me).


The majority of people are not interested in details - I can live with that by implying that they don't care for the full effect either. Of course there are people wanting to invest nothing (reading, research, training...) and wanting to get everything - and I don't feel ashamed to think of those as idiots (which doesn't exclude they're able to improve - but, again, the majority of those just move on to their next failures).
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