Views - Unlimited each PC

[Zxarr]

An idea from me is to make it so ONE computer can only add ONE view to a thread, making it easier to see if anyone else than yourself have viewed it

[ponylady]

An idea from me is to make it so ONE computer can only add ONE view to a thread, making it easier to see if anyone else than yourself have viewed it

since over 90% of the users have a dynamic IP from their ISP
*meaning it changes with every logon to the net* this idea would be
impossible to implement, unless somebody writes a hack for phpbbs that counts views by MAC-address.

but even if that would be the case, a lot of members check back threads when replies have been made. so the view/reply ratio will allways be skewed.

[curious_sb]

Its a bug in the forum software, i know what you mean, its very hard to implement what you suggested, so I think thats why no-one from teh forum developers has bothered persuing it.

[soleus]

a hack for phpbbs that counts views by MAC-address.

MAC addresses aren't usually preserved through routers. Unless everyone else here is on the same ethernet segment as the server, even this is unlikely to help much.

Better to count by cookies: that would at last give you stats for the logged-in viewers.

[Warlock]

Okie, as someone that knows something about this subject...

It is not feasible to make the views only increment once per computer.

Here is a quick run down of why.

First problem: identifying a "unique user"... tracking by cookie fails (expiration, cookies off ... crawlers ignore cookies anyway) tracking by ip fails (dynamic ips, proxies, nats, etc). Unique visitor stats are done over a short period by a combination of factors try and sidestep the problems

Second problem: Remembering the data... unique hits need to be remembered indefinitely. That means 1 database row per view. Not a problem for normal hit counters, but multiply that by how many threads the forum has, and you quickly start heading in the direction of millions of rows.

Third problem: It simply isn't worth doing. Unique impressions are only useful stats over a short period and give you no useful data over the long term relating to repeat traffic.

In theory it's a nice idea, but it doesn't pan out
Sorry

[ponylady]

Second problem: Remembering the data... unique hits need to be remembered indefinitely. That means 1 database row per view. Not a problem for normal hit counters, but multiply that by how many threads the forum has, and you quickly start heading in the direction of millions of rows.

it can be done. there is a hack for VB 3.x that allows you see which users
have viewed a thread. from there it would be a simple php-query to tie it inwith the thread views. however, this would still produce skewed view-counts on a board like this which can be viewed without registering.

[Warlock]

Second problem: Remembering the data... unique hits need to be remembered indefinitely. That means 1 database row per view. Not a problem for normal hit counters, but multiply that by how many threads the forum has, and you quickly start heading in the direction of millions of rows.

it can be done. there is a hack for VB 3.x that allows you see which users
have viewed a thread. from there it would be a simple php-query to tie it inwith the thread views. however, this would still produce skewed view-counts on a board like this which can be viewed without registering.

That is what I said ... the problem is that the table required would grow ... and grow ... and grow.

And, of course, every time you view a thread, the forum code would have to check to see if you have already viewed that thread, which means the forum will slow down.