Do view counts accurately portray how many different people view a thread?

There are members who concern themselves with the view count their thread receives and portray this as having relevance.

The same group of viewers checking a thread multiple times a day gossiping amongst themselves could quickly drive up the view counts into the thousands misleading a troll and allowing himself to think he has a much bigger audience...

my questions are
Are views counted only once per log in despite how many times that thread is clicked on by said member?

Is a view counted as many times as the thread is clicked on despite if it's the same group of people?

Is it counted as once per member despite if you have logged off and then back on?

Are non members clicks counted?

Clarity from the moderators on the tabulation of the view counts would be appreciated.

Heaven forbid but damn it would be hilarious if people find out they have been nothing more than dogs chasing their own tails...

Heaven forbid but damn it would be hilarious if people find out they have been nothing more than dogs chasing their own tails... Originally Posted by Stock Trader

You're asking if they are "unique" views. No. If you refresh it 20 times, it adds 20 to the view count.

Prolly about 30 viewers refreshing it 40 times to catch up on the drama.

Yep, I have no official knowledge of it but the site runs a modified version of vbulletin. Unless they've customized that portion (which I do not believe to be the case) it's not unique views so every time anyone refreshes the page it adds to the views of the thread.

Actually I'm pretty sure it goes one level more inaccurate than even that because the view count gets updated every time showthread.php gets loaded which means every time someone switches from say Page 1 to Page 2 it adds another tick to the view count.

It may not show up right away as viewcounts get updated at an admin specified interval, but that's my understanding of the way it works.

So basically the view count is only useful as a measure of the activity on the thread not on the number of users generating said activity.

Now I'll just check back waiting for them to explain how they are actually relevant and how much they accomplish despite this information.... I guess one has to tell themselves this if they have spent years spewing their vitriol.

So many threads that amount to nothing more than a circle jerk of trolls on an escort site while hundreds of ladies wait around for a man with cash to show interest... Lol

Same as it ever was. Welcome to the internets...everyone entertains themselves in their own way.

Now I'll just check back waiting for them to explain how they are actually relevant and how much they accomplish despite this information.... I guess one has to tell themselves this if they have spent years spewing their vitriol.

So many threads that amount to nothing more than a circle jerk of trolls on an escort site while hundreds of ladies wait around for a man with cash to show interest... Lol Originally Posted by Stock Trader

I just read this thread... Opened a 2nd browser window and checked and found the review count at 22 views.

I then refreshed this page 25 times and in the other window refreshed and the view count stayed at 22

Both windows are running Opera without any caching allowed.

edit added - I launched Fire Fox and checked the view count and it remained at 22

edit added - I am posting this thread now and will try a couple more things to see if I can affect the view count

Interestingly enough...... The number of the posts increased by 1 but view count did not change

Yes, that's to be expected. As I mentioned, the viewcounts get logged and then are updated at an admin specified interval. Instant updates are more server intensive.

Of course I could be completely wrong also, this is a heavily modified version of vbulletin. Seems like an odd thing to waste time customizing but who knows really.

Yes, that's to be expected. As I mentioned, the viewcounts get logged and then are updated at an admin specified interval. Instant updates are more server intensive.

Of course I could be completely wrong also, this is a heavily modified version of vbulletin. Seems like an odd thing to waste time customizing but who knows really. Originally Posted by SpiceItUp

It would be unusual, I would think, hat advertisers would allow such a practice as I am sure that page views are important to advertisers who would not want to pay for clicks that were not unique and could be gamed so easily.

I ran a similar test a couple of years ago after someone suggested it could be gamed and thought I had found that I could not affect the view count

True, but the ads need not, and likely do not, use the same methodology/mechanism for counting hits. It's more likely that the ads filter by session cookie or some such thing.

I'm just saying that unless they modified vbulletin from its default state that's my understanding of the way the forum portion works. I'm by no means an expert though so, like I said, I could be entirely wrong.

I just read this thread... Opened a 2nd browser window and checked and found the review count at 22 views.

I then refreshed this page 25 times and in the other window refreshed and the view count stayed at 22

Both windows are running Opera without any caching allowed.

edit added - I launched Fire Fox and checked the view count and it remained at 22

edit added - I am posting this thread now and will try a couple more things to see if I can affect the view count

Interestingly enough...... The number of the posts increased by 1 but view count did not change Originally Posted by Whispers

edit added - I have refreshed, left the page, opened another thread, left that thread, returned to this thread now 25 times in an Opera Window and 25 times in a Firefox window. I am not logged into the firefox window.

The View Count just popped to 77

edit added - I have refreshed, left the page, opened another thread, left that thread, returned to this thread now 25 times in an Opera Window and 25 times in a Firefox window. I am not logged into the firefox window.

The View Count just popped to 77 Originally Posted by Whispers

Yep, makes sense.

edit added - I have refreshed, left the page, opened another thread, left that thread, returned to this thread now 25 times in an Opera Window and 25 times in a Firefox window. I am not logged into the firefox window.

The View Count just popped to 77 Originally Posted by Whispers

Big boy just shit his pants! Lol

Interesting.....

I don't know about others but I log in a few times a day and check threads I started or am interested in and usually go through responding to others that addressed me or if I find a post interests me enough to comment. It may add some view it seems...... But the disparity of some threads with thousands of views vs others less than a hundred seems improbable to not represent additional viewers.