Viewer counter for threads.
 

Would it be possible to have a counter on every thread indicating how many people have actually viewed the page? The type of counter would be like similar to the ones used on Ebay. Often times you will find threads with only a few posts, due to the content, but they were actually read by many people. A counter would be an interesting addition to the threads on FT.

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I agree that it would be useful. I've seen this in some other bulletin boards as well (e.g. DVD Talk forum).

... but depressing for 'owners' of unpopular threads http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

More seriously, wouldn't this be difficult to implement reliably (e.g. excluding multiple visits by the same visitor) without forcing the acceptance of cookies?

FT, unlike ebay, works even if cookies are rejected, and this is a feature appreciated by some privacy-conscious users, myself included.

Leaving one's cookies on a public, shared, or company machine is not a good idea, and many users do not know how to delete them.

Nice idea if technically possible. Other travel BB's with as much, indeed a lot more traffic that FT have such a feature. See HERE for a sample Forum page that demonstrates how this works in practice.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif Not possible in UBB 5.47 (running this board)

I would like to know if the counter concept is possible to achieve on this board from the FT staff.

You don't beleive what I type? Perhaps they aren't answering because what I typed already sums it up?

The only way to do this is to edit/hack the code running the board and rewrite parts of it, by doing this the software isn't original anymore and the manufacturer will no longer support it.



[This message has been edited by ScottC (edited 06-13-2002).]

Scott, I was not questioning your knowledge or your post. Please do not take it personally. FT staffers have in the past discussed improvements for the boards, some in the near future and others further out. If a counter is possible to add, do to a enhancement or change to the board, I would like to hear from them.

Rssrsvp, thanks for the clarification...

I replied because I installed this on some of the boards we run ourselves, the amount of hacks and rewrites needed are quite large and considering the size of FT is could prove to be a problem, but as you say, perhaps Dan could reply if FT has looked into this? (info about the hack can be found here: http://www.ubbdev.com/db/ultimatebb....c;f=8;t=000061 (need to login to view)

Scott, I think that you would agree that we are all curious how many hits each of our threads really do receive.

True, but I think certain other posters wouldn't be to happy http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Check out this earlier discussion:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum73/HTML/000240.html

and the 'hacking' by ff-staff would be a problem at/for future updates.