XenForo's View Counters

[Teapot]

I've only just noticed that due to the way XF's view counters work, you can raise the thread view counter artificially - even on your own threads - by just mashing F5. This is probably pretty irrelevant for threads, but I'm implementing view counters using the same method for a creative content (gallery/literature) system I'm creating where the views may end up working as part of a popular/trending content system.

My question is a general one, really: Has anyone had trouble with people abusing view counters on websites they own or visit? If so, how is best to combat that that's still fairly cheap to implement?

 

[HWS]

You can make it harder but not completely prevent it. If you make a contest out of it (which content has been seen most) people will abuse it almost for sure.

 

[Teapot]

If you make a contest out of it (which content has been seen most) people will abuse it almost for sure.

That is definitely true - if we have any "contest" stats at all, which upon further thought might prove to be an overall bad idea, they'll be based on metrics much harder to abuse, like Likes. Thanks for your answer

 

[Sage Knight]

How about keeping the "trending" criteria confidential? They won't abuse if they don't know, who, what, where, how..