How Does FT Count Forum/Thread Views?
 

One thing comes up during the discussion on TB current motion to close Religious Travelers Forum. I believe the inquiry on view counts is more or less Technical than TalkBoard, so I am raising my questions here.

I would think both reply counts and view counts are accounted for in terms of FT's online traffic. It's easier to identify the number of replies in each thread/forum. Technically speaking, each reply should be unique, so it won't get counted twice.

What about view counts? How does FT count views? There's speculation that viewers had to log in in order for their views be recorded (in another word, only registered members' views count). Is that true?

If the view counts serve as one measure for the online traffic/activities in FT, I would like to know the following:

1. Is each view unique?
For example, if there are 3400 views in one particular thread, does it mean 3400 different viewers see (or visit) that thread?

2. Does FT include "random visiters" to the view counts?
"Random visitors include both non-members and registered FTers who don't log in when browsing FT.

3. Does FT conduct the (quantitative) metrics differently from other online fora?

I am not sure if this technical clarification will help strength (or weaken) the argument/discussion in the TB motion in terms of "online activities." But I surely want to know the answers, just to feed my curiosity. :)

Every view is counted, whether the visitor to the thread is registered or not, or whether they are logged in or not. If a thread has 3,400 views that could mean that one person visited the thread 3,400 times, 3,400 people visited once each, or anywhere in between.

It's impossible to say if we're conducting the metrics differently than other fora, but I don't believe we've changed any of the standard settings related to views so we're probably treating them similarly to other vBulletin-powered forums at least.

Thanks for the clarification, Mikel.