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Are thread views on forums always related to real traffic?

by stewie-Y
5 replies
So I pose this question because I am a member of many forums and have wondered this.

For example, right now on this forum it says 3131 members and 26434 guests are online. I'm going to assume that the majority of those guests are bots or something, but when I compare page views on most threads in this site an average thread will have 10-20 views per post.
In another forum that I'm a member there is significantly less activity but an average thread will have usually 100-200 views per post. Do you think that most of those views are from bots or perhaps just lots of lurkers reading every single thread?
#forums #real #related #thread #traffic #views
  • Profile picture of the author blueclcl
    What's the other forum?
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  • Profile picture of the author stewie-Y
    UtahConcealedCarry.Com is the one I was referencing but the question is about all forums in general.
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    At one time, it was estimated that there are probably 3-4 people lurking on this forum for every person logged into the forum at the time.

    But it is hard for anyone but the moderators to say how many people are actually logged in at one time and what exactly they are doing while here, and honestly, I doubt they would even know.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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    Originally Posted by stewie-Y View Post

    For example, right now on this forum it says 3131 members and 26434 guests are online. I'm going to assume that the majority of those guests are bots or something
    Not necessarily (though some will be, certainly).

    That doesn't mean "online now".

    The forum administrator has to set the duration of time over which that's measured, and it can be as long as they like. Thus it tends to overstate the number of people who are actually online at any given point.

    I have the same thing in my little forum. I've set mine to 5 minutes, but I could set it to a week, if I wanted, and then it would show some huge number.

    (A lot of "guests" might actually be members not currently logged in, of course.)
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  • Profile picture of the author 8j++
    lack of experience on this subject limits my response, but the use of "bots" is what intrigued me. Since I do know software wouldn't that level of automation only appear for a short time regarding a harvesting methodology? You said "Do you think that most of those views are from bots or perhaps just lots of lurkers reading every single thread?"Lurkers reading every single thread is an interesting assumption based on the impact of the original topic. As Alexa said, The forum administrator has to set the duration of time over which that's measured, and it can be as long as they like. Thus it tends to overstate the number of people who are actually online at any given point.


    While I would agree settings could have something to do with it. We have nothing to define the scope of activity, ie we have no analytical data to really dig deep here. I have often myself not bothered to sign on when I visit the site just to see if someone has replied to a post or a question, all of a minute or two. I apologise if I have made a simple question murky. I happily defer to the esteemed responses you already got back.
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