A boring topic about visitors to our site

buster · March 02, 2024, 02:26:41 PM

The views we are getting are far beyond anything that has occurred before by at least a factor of ten. The number of views is astronomical, and the numbers confirm it.

If you go to Forum Stats just above 'most recent posts' and open it, you can scan down to the bottom and see dates on the left and views on the right.

The month of February 2024 had 1,325,991 views. And the month had only 29 days.

The whole year of all but two of the rest had a lower number of views than the one month February.

We also are only two months and a bit into 2024, and already we have more views this year than any year in our records.

Speculations welcome. The weirder the better.

BusterE · March 02, 2024, 03:05:23 PM

Don't think anyone is listening brother. Obviously our website is going to be a portal for the invaders, and Peterborough Linux member's homes will be their base to conquer the world.

Once they have a base on earth, they will be unstoppable.

Humans can't see what is right in front of them!

ssfc72 · March 03, 2024, 03:54:47 AM

My conspiracy theory is that some hostile foreign country is trying out, bringing down the internet, with DOS (denial of service) attacks. :-)

Jason · March 03, 2024, 10:24:44 AM

I could just disable the stat collecting if you it makes you feel more comfortable, Buster.

My theory is that the hackers from the Ministry of Truth just adjust the numbers as a social experiment.

buster · March 03, 2024, 10:54:56 AM

"I could just disable the stat collecting if you it makes you feel more comfortable, Buster.

"

Please don't do that Jason. This is fascinating. Here are some interesting facts:

1. In fewer than 3 days, this March has accumulated more views than any March in our history, even though every one of those months had 31 days.

2. The year 2024, all two months and 3 days of it, has had more views than any year in our records, and in a few days will reach 2 million.

3. The views are not random. One of my stories keeps gaining (almost 300 in 2 days), two have stopped gaining any views at all, and two get a few views once in awhile.

One article I found suggested that a website might 'link' another website. For example a Linux site might link a few other local Linux sites.

Jason · March 03, 2024, 11:00:03 AM

Yep, it's very likely that someone linked an article here resulting in a boost in views. Unfortunately, I don't have that data showing where the traffic is coming from. One of the ways you can find this out is to look up your topic title in google and see what other sites are top responses and then look at those websites to see if they've linked to us.

I hereby appoint you, Buster, as our Chief Statistician. You've earned it.

buster · March 04, 2024, 12:21:59 PM

Fascinating problem to figure this out. Here are some things I do know.

1. Jumps in views have taken place periodically over the years, but they tended to be short term, even just one day. The latest jump took place on January 16th of this year, and what makes it different is that each following day has now a considerably larger number of views. The most number of views that any full year had received was in 2023 with approximately 1.8 million views. 2024 has already (2 months 4 days) approximately 2 million. People or machines are certainly visiting.

2. Certain threads are being viewed more than others. My least popular story thread has been viewed 166 times more in March, while the most popular has been viewed 473 times. That's almost 3 times the views, which to me indicates human choices. And it raises the story's views to 18,319 after languishing for quite awhile as an unpopular story.

3.Threads by others are moving up too. One of my stories is passing and being passed by one of Bill's threads, and another is in combat with a thread of Mike's. Jason is in the mix too.

I hope our site has been opened up to others, but I have to keep in mind that our most active thread isn't in the universe of a cute kitten on TikTok.

buster · March 04, 2024, 09:23:55 PM

We are registering about a million viewers per month on our site, or a quarter million per week, which makes no sense to me, unless the world has finally recognized we have the most interesting Linux threads available written by the most literate writers in the world. At this rate we'll have about 12,000,000 views for 2024. (Someone should check the math.)

Maybe there are billions of bored people on the planet looking for something to read.

ssfc72 · March 06, 2024, 08:32:01 AM

Maybe Jason should put up a paywall, as an experiment, in order to view the various posts on the PLUG website?
Jason might become a millionaire. :-)

The paywall could only be a very minimal amount, but with that huge number of views, the dollars accumulated could be substantial.

Jason · March 07, 2024, 06:02:54 PM

Quote from: ssfc72 on March 06, 2024, 08:32:01 AMJason might become a millionaire. :-)

I would definitely split it with you guys. Maybe not evenly, but I'd split it, probably according to income like a good socialist. Fox might get the least. I don't know what Bill's and Harry's income is like. Maybe I'd have to take assets into account, too. Ugh. Mo' money, mo' problems.

You're not serious about the paywall are you, Bill? Nobody would come here even if it was a dollar. But advertising... hmm, maybe.

Jason · March 07, 2024, 06:04:01 PM

Quote from: buster on March 04, 2024, 09:23:55 PMMaybe there are billions of bored people on the planet looking for something to read.

That's crazy talk. But thinking about the cute kitten on Tik Tok, what about a cute baby penguin?

Or maybe you could do one of your dances, Buster.

Jason · March 07, 2024, 06:09:40 PM

Seriously, though, it's possible that we were linked from a site with a lot of views and then readers went looking around to see what kind of stuff we have. Remember you did get a review on Distrowatch, Buster. Maybe they had a surge in traffic on that page. It just takes the right person or website, rather, to link you and you explode in views. It's the same on the app formerly known as Twitter. Most people have a tiny amount of followers but if you get one celebrity or popular user to share something you posted or your account and you surge in followers. Mark Hamill, known for his role as Luke Skywalker, sometimes offers on his X feed to share someone's tweet as a favour. You can image what results.

I need to see if there is software I could install on our server to see where the traffic is coming from. If any members reading this post can recommend something, let me know via private message or post here.

buster · March 07, 2024, 09:47:12 PM

An oddity in the views. The most popular story is getting, in March, two and one half times as many views as any of the other four, and has moved in 7 days from the high 17,000's to the low 19,000's. It leads the next story in popularity by almost 7,000 views. And it had never before the surge started been a popular story.

20,000 views would be pleasing.

buster · March 08, 2024, 12:35:22 PM

"I need to see if there is software I could install on our server to see where the traffic is coming from. If any members reading this post can recommend something, let me know via private message or post here."

Sometimes when changes are made we lose things. I'd like to keep these numbers for awhile Jason.

Please be careful.

Jason · March 08, 2024, 04:49:28 PM

Quote from: buster on March 08, 2024, 12:35:22 PMSometimes when changes are made we lose things. I'd like to keep these numbers for awhile Jason.

Please be careful.

I would be using another program that would look at the traffic and generate its own stats so it will be fine. And I always do backups when I change something so I can roll things back if necessary. The website, including the forum, is also automatically backed up once per week on Sundays.