Who answers site questions? | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Who answers site questions?

caneaddict

caneaddict

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Why is the "# of people viewing" a forum so random and wrong these days?

So I've noticed that now on Finheaven when you look at the forum list it just seems like the # that is shown for the amount of people viewing a forum is random and certainly false.

I KNOW the number has to be off because I've been on here for over 4 years and I know what it feels like in a forum when there are 1000 people on at the same time. It's crazy with posts popping up faster than anyone can refresh. The viewing number shows that there is generally 2000 people logged on and viewing at almost all times. Oddly the number goes even higher sometimes late at night. Last night at 3:00am it showed almost 2000 viewing this forum and the draft forum. There's no way there were more than 150 combined based on activity (the 150 is assuming most wouldn't even be on, just were logged in).

So what's the deal. The number used to actually mean something.
 
I think it accumulates how many people have visited it that day. When i go on in the early morning before school it only has about 85. When i get home around 3 the number is over 1000. That is my only explanation
 
I posted a question asking why the #of viewers for forums is so random and wrong (It shows there are over 3500 people viewing this forum right now). The question was moved to the "Questions and Suggestions" forum. That's fine, but it's been several days and no admin has answered. I even PM'd an admin asking if someone could answer the question.

Why is there a "questions" forum if no one answers the questions?

What member should I PM to find the answer?

If a mod moves this thread. please post the name of the person to ask when you move it. Or just answer the question. Thank you
 
caneaddict said:
I posted a question asking why the #of viewers for forums is so random and wrong (It shows there are over 3500 people viewing this forum right now). The question was moved to the "Questions and Suggestions" forum. That's fine, but it's been several days and no admin has answered. I even PM'd an admin asking if someone could answer the question.

Why is there a "questions" forum if no one answers the questions?

What member should I PM to find the answer?

If a mod moves this thread. please post the name of the person to ask when you move it. Or just answer the question. Thank you
Click to expand...
The number displayed doesn't always reflect the number of users. About the best answer I can give you. :thanks:
 
caneaddict said:
I posted a question asking why the #of viewers for forums is so random and wrong (It shows there are over 3500 people viewing this forum right now). The question was moved to the "Questions and Suggestions" forum. That's fine, but it's been several days and no admin has answered. I even PM'd an admin asking if someone could answer the question.

Why is there a "questions" forum if no one answers the questions?

What member should I PM to find the answer?

If a mod moves this thread. please post the name of the person to ask when you move it. Or just answer the question. Thank you
Click to expand...
I was not the Admin you PMed, but I will chime in. It is possible we didn't get to your question right away because there was a little thing called the draft that happened this past weekend. Sometimes we get busy with more important site related issues and can't always answer questions right away.

Anyways, on to the question asked. Yes, the number does not always reflect how many users are online. I believe the number you see also includes web crawlers and spiders. Basically, they are robot users that go all over the internet searching for updated information. There are Google Spiders, Yahoo Spiders, etc, and they give an updated view of your site in their search functions. So, if somebody created a thread today called "Henne will win us a Super Bowl", if you search Google later that day or at the latest the next day, you will find that thread. You type in that title or something similar and a link on Google will appear with direct access to that new thread.

So, it is possible there may actually be only a few hundred viewing the main forum at one given time, but there could be 1000 spiders also. Go to Google and type in the word "FinHeaven". Hit the images tab and you will 726 image results. Those spiders pulled alll those photos and created links in their image section.

The fact that FinHeaven has been around since 2001 and is the biggest Miami Dolphins fansite on the internet, we get a lot of spiders.

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks Nublar,

Appreciate the response. I guess the spider thing is fairly new. I've been on this site for 4 years and the viewer # was never SO far off as it is now.
 
caneaddict said:
Thanks Nublar,

Appreciate the response. I guess the spider thing is fairly new. I've been on this site for 4 years and the viewer # was never SO far off as it is now.
Click to expand...
We changed serves not too long ago(just over a year I believe), so that is likely when we started picking up many more spiders. Bigger server = more traffic = more spiders = even more traffic.
 
I just want to expand on the answer. Nublar is correct that the number reflects various bots and spiders from search engines. This is just how VBulletin determines this and it has been in place for several years with that software.

We do use Google Analytics to track traffic. FinHeaven currently averages 12,000 to 15,000 visitors per day. During season that number is averages 25,000 or more and with big events (trades, etc) pushing that number over 30,000.

These are all record highs for the site.
If you have any questions feel free to ask me directly.

-Matt
 
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