Views versus Users ~ LB-69

Gentlemen. I did post about this re the number of views on Franck's diary.

I would suggest that you do not count/report views as it is meningless data. If I look at the diary 10 times that is 10 views. I would count/report unique User ID's - so that way you can see how many users (members) actually looked at that area.

It is a much more meaningful metric and does not affect the point system which is based on posts and pictures.

Plese consider it as the views figure is a grossly inflated irrelevant measure of interest. Number of users much more meaningful.

Rossco

actually...who cares??

if some people is happy to have a big number of "hits"...then let them.. Very Happy

but there is actually a reason for the way the forum count the wiews...and the reason is of course money...IF they can sell advertisements to other sites/companies,they need a way to count the number of times the add has been shown.... so its actually a fair way to count...and all the other boards that iam on to...count the same way... Wink

and if this board can earn some money,and keep this beautiful forum free to us...then i dont mind SOME commercials.. Laughing

Batman

I knew that as I used to work in advertising BUT there is a flaw in the arguement.

Years ago there was a publication, available to us in the media industry, called BRAD (British Rate And Data).

The data was an audited count of:

Number of copies sold - using journals/tabloids and magazines as an example. This represented "buyers" interest. This was later extended into the number of TV's tuned to a channel (not the number of people in the TV room viewing)

A secondary stat was "readership". This was pure conjecture - a magazine sits in the waiting room of a doctor/dentist surgery. Clients arrive and peruse the "free" paper. So readership could be an inflated nuber with a base of "sold copies".

Likewise with TV - the average houseld was 2.2 people. So "viewings" were a simple multiple of TV sets multiplied by average people in a household. A totally irrelevant statistic

So most companies would ignore readership (viewers) and look at sold copies (less returns - unsold copies). This was the number that really motivated their media buyers NOT readership figures.

So I have tried to explain a flaw which can be remedied and make the stats more "bullet proof" to potential advertsisers.

If I see the same ad 20 times on the same page, in the same day, do I buy with 20 times incentive? Answer NO.

I am not detracting form my friend Franck's success but trying to avoid ambiguity. Unique user ID's = nos of copies sold that day to unique individuals.

Criticism/feedback is the "breakfast of champions" from which we all learn.

This is not an attack but an opportunity to get it right.

With respect I don't see that its really relevant . Confused

I view Francks thread twice a day when I'm able , occasionally I will go back just to get a reminder of the faces , but then I also view other threads the same amount as I only look for new posts .

So I'm still trying to understand the post, if a thread is read 1,000 times (metric) and a thread is read 10,000 times we can all be pretty damm sure that the second thread was read 10 times more than the first irregardless of the actual true number of individual reads.

I'm pretty sure that the view count on Francks diary show the true interest in the thread as opposed to others topics on the forum and as a percentage of interst in the people reading the forum, and all would agree its the most read thread on the board and if your trying to disapprove this your probably barking up the wrong tree.

And yes IMHO this is a attack, it wasnt mentioned as a broad issue about how does the board count views or reads and how accurate are they BUT in direct reference to a single persons thread.

I'd also suggest that from an advertising perspective the ONLY number of interest is the guests who view the site and are the new possible subscribers/members and not the already established members who are already part of the captive audience.

And bottom line the metric on the site however they are arrived at show that Francks Diary is the number 1 read thread, I think we can all agree that this is the case, so the numbers do backup the popularity IMHO. Smile

Of course I am a good friend of Francks so thats probably making me biased on the topic and in this post.

Could not agree more. I retract all statements of IT logic.

Everyone has shown the correctness on this issue - the view count is the paramount metric as it shows clearly the number of "hits" on a very popular thread.

If a user "hits" 100 times in one day it is a measure of the satisfaction they have of that thread.

My statement was totally out of perspective and was based on pure commercial stats.

As a retired businessman I am prone to looking at aspects purely from a commercial basis.

I would, as a website owner, be more interested in the number of unique users viewing a topic as opposed to the number of times a user viewed a topic. Only my perspective of success.

I would suggest archiving this topic as null and void.

As you started it Rossco, your request to finish it is granted.

-Locked-