Jack McRitchie Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 I've been noticing for awhile now that view numbers on photos don't make any sense. A picture will often amass a large number (40-50 or more) views in a short period of time and then will never add another view. I've noticed this with some of my own pictures as well as with many others. Take a look at page 2 of today's trending photos folder, about 3/4 of the way down, starting with the picture of the Spoonbill by Jerry Sundin and going on to the end of the page. Notice the number of views. I suspect view numbers recently have been artificially inflated, whether intentionally by management (I don't think this is a conspiracy among membership) or through a glitch in the programming software. Check it out for yourself. I'm not all that concerned about views but I don't like being deceived. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim_Lookingbill Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 I'm not all that concerned about views but I don't like being deceived. Do you know how to prove people are being deceived on the internet? I have yet to find any hard evidence. But then I've found no evidence to the contrary. A glitch in software can always be the excuse if evidence is presented. In fact software is being blamed for cruise control malfunctions in some current car models that can cause fatal automobile accidents. So our lives are at the hands of blind software. I wish the PN owners and administrators would post a group shot of the staff just to let us know humans are running this site. But then it could be a stock photo for all we know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Ratcliffe Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 There is another answer to some of the "views" numbers on PN2 which I don't think was possible on PN1 and that is the fact that it is possible for members to increase the total score intentionally or unintentionally. I'm NOT saying that any members have intentionally increased these totals, why would they ? but it's possible that unintentional involvement has happened. I've just tried this and it works, in either Critique Forum or your own Public Profile select an image, note the views score then (using that image), click on "View" which opens the image in a new window (I think that's the important bit), view the image, then go back to the Critique forum or Profile page and refresh the page, the total has now increased by one. This can be repeated as many times as you like and so inflate the score to any number, strange that anyone would do this to their own image but it is another answer. I suppose it could be seen that it makes the image more interesting or popular. My only other question would be do social media sites and how images are used on them have any influence on the "views" total ?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western_isles Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 There is another answer to some of the "views" numbers on PN2 which I don't think was possible on PN1 and that is the fact that it is possible for members to increase the total score intentionally or unintentionally. I'm NOT saying that any members have intentionally increased these totals, why would they ? but it's possible that unintentional involvement has happened. I've just tried this and it works, in either Critique Forum or your own Public Profile select an image, note the views score then (using that image), click on "View" which opens the image in a new window (I think that's the important bit), view the image, then go back to the Critique forum or Profile page and refresh the page, the total has now increased by one. This can be repeated as many times as you like and so inflate the score to any number, strange that anyone would do this to their own image but it is another answer. I suppose it could be seen that it makes the image more interesting or popular. My only other question would be do social media sites and how images are used on them have any influence on the "views" total ?. Ken, I accidentally did something similar and inflated the number of claps on one of my own images, cannot see a way to undo, 'unclap', my onw image Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norma Desmond Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 'unclap', my onw image Penicillin? :cool: 3 We didn't need dialogue. We had faces! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack McRitchie Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 I noticed this discrepancy even before the changeover when certain of my pictures would suddenly show nearly 1000 views when I knew damned well the picture was just not that interesting or one extremely unlikely to attract very many views. I wondered about it at the time but thought that possibly it had been re-tweeted or something on social media and that accounted for the sharp increase in views. Also, about ratcheting up the number of views on your own picture: every time you open it is one view. If you open to the larger picture/see comments page that adds another view. As far as I know you can only admire your own picture once from the same account. How this all effects positioning in the "trending" page I don't know. I would prefer to have one counted view per visitor so that I can get some kind of accurate reading on how my pictures are being received. I also realize that a true reading (one person, one counted view) might prove embarrassing to management and discouraging to people who upload photos since both want pictures to receive as high a view number as possible. It's good for business and egos if views appear to be up, that's for sure, but it's harder to screw around with comments and to a lesser extent, admires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philip_carlo_jorgensen Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 It is all a matter of credibility. If the stats are not accurate, you feel you cannot trust them. Your own or others. And then all this voting and liking becomes pretty irrelevant. And there goes some more features that otherwise could set this site apart from others, and that's a great shame. Since about October 2016 the number of views of my pictures have dropped in average something like 90 percent. In all circumstances it makes me and surely also a lot of other members wonder if all the efforts are worth while, if hardly nobody sees your work? The enormous drop in views reflects most likely the great number of members who have left and moved on to other photo communities instead. I do not understand why this does not bother PN management more than it apparantly does? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philip_carlo_jorgensen Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 (edited) Jack: I've also noticed that a few of my pictures in a relatively short time reached incredible numbers of views, quite disproportionate to what would be considered normal and reasonable. I've later found out that some of these pcitures actually have been "hijacked" and serve as illustrations on different commercial sites. E.g. one of my pictures of a parrot adornes a commercial site that sells tropical birds, futter etc. Living in Denmark and the online store being situated in another country, I have given up the thought of demanding economic compensation. But I did write the mentioned online store asking them to remove my picture immediately. Did they even bother to answer my email? Nope. And when I Google the title of my picture, I can on Google Pictures see somebody having taken my picture from PN and stuck it on Pinterest, but do I see my own picture on Google Pictures and with a link to my account here on PN? Again nope. Edited July 16, 2018 by philip_carlo_jorgensen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerald Cafferty Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 There are legitimate reasons why members would view their own photos such as checking it displays correctly this will start the view tally. Also to check who has left a comment, and if they reply to the comment they add to the comments tally. Are these members trying in manipulate and influence Trending maybe but I would like to think not. I know this does not explain explain abnormally high views but it adds to the tally's with the way the site works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack McRitchie Posted July 16, 2018 Author Share Posted July 16, 2018 As of today, I believe it is no longer possible to increase your view total by visiting your picture. This may be a small step forward if it sticks, one counted view only per picture, per individual visitor. Now if it were only possible to post pictures or comment on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Ratcliffe Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 As of today, I believe it is no longer possible to increase your view total by visiting your picture. This may be a small step forward if it sticks, one counted view only per picture, per individual visitor. Now if it were only possible to post pictures or comment on them. I've just uploaded a new image to my portfolio and submitted the image for Critique. I then viewed the image and refreshed the page, then repeated that action. That added two views to the views total, so nothing different there so far ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-P Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 No program has been devised to artificially inflate views on your photos. A view is a view, and impression is how often the thumbnail was viewed/displayed. As to why some photos have a burst of views shortly after upload then it trails off - its likely because "recent uploads" is one of the most popular areas of the site and they click on the thumbnail thus generating the view....as time goes on a less recent upload resides further down the page therefore likely generating less views. Generally speaking, the more frequent you upload a photo - the more your portfolio gets viewed because the recent upload can spark curiosity and lead the user deeper into your other galleries. I hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Peri Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 Perhaps this will do? Note that there is adult supervision... Well, we were promised more adults in the room in the Trump administration, but I see no evidence of that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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