XF 2.2 Suspicious "views count" on new post

[creativeforge]

Hi, this is a bit unusual. A new post shows it has 1,000+ views a few hours after being posted. Not a hot topic, usually not really gets people excited, so I thought I'd investigate to find out : ► Can people "game" the views count with Xenforo?

Additionally, this post has 0 comments. This looks suspicious, any ideas?



ANOTHER post by the same member, also shows very high views count vs very low comments ratio.
▼

 

[Paul B]

If it's the same member then it's most likely them constantly refreshing.

It won't affect anything and is irrelevant.

 

[creativeforge]

Thanks Brogan, The situation was flagged by another member who is concerned as it is obviously unusual.

Is there is no way to monitor this? Like logs or something? Could it be a faulty cron job?

If not, then someone who does this is bound to do it for a reason. Not sure what these fake stats can be used for, but people who try to appear bigger than they are usually have reasons that may not be with rules of fairness. This is a movie score composers forum, so I'd like to make sure.

Thank you,

Andre

 

[ENF]

Is there is no way to monitor this? Like logs or something?

Don't you have raw web server logs? You can filter on that URL and get an accurate account of GET requests and from which IP.

Could it be a faulty cron job?

No. Not likely.

fake stats can be used for, but people who try to appear bigger than they are usually have reasons that may not be with rules of fairness.

Getting views on a thread doesn't make anyone appear bigger than they are.

I've had threads randomly targeted by bots for whatever reason, driving up the view count.... and there's no tangible benefit in doing so. (no ads involved, so it couldn't be click-stuffing.)

 

[djbaxter]

It could be that after he posts he also posts a link to the thread on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and/or a similar social media site where he has a lot of followers, so they're legitimate Guest visitors.

 

[creativeforge]

It could be that after he posts he also posts a link to the thread on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and/or a similar social media site where he has a lot of followers, so they're legitimate Guest visitors.

Ah, I hadn't considered this possibility. Thanks for pointing it out!