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Other & Off-Topics => Bar & Grill [Public] => Topic started by: TimothyEllis on March 27, 2019, 02:50:20 AM

Title: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: TimothyEllis on March 27, 2019, 02:50:20 AM
I keep tabs on the number of people accessing the forum during my day, and it seems we had a big jump not long ago, which seems to be increasing. The increase is mainly Guests.

Anyone know why?

I'm assuming someone has mentioned the forum somewhere, and we're getting a lot of lookers as a result.

Registrations seem to be about normal though, so I'm not sure what the guests are thinking they will see.

Just curiosity on my part.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Bill Hiatt on March 27, 2019, 03:02:58 AM
I don't visit Kboards anymore. Could this be indicative of some new nonsense perpetrated by the new owners? That might account for more people looking for a new home.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Post-Doctorate D on March 27, 2019, 03:04:56 AM
Could some be bots?  The forum is probably old enough now to be getting various bots searching it and maybe those are being counted as guests.

I started a forum last September.  There are only two registered and approved members (myself and another person) and neither of us has posted since September, so no new, fresh content being added.  But, the number of "visitors" took a bump in February and another bump in March.  Since it's not advertised anywhere and I'm sure no one is talking about it, I figure that traffic is coming from assorted bots and spammers and such.  I get maybe three to five registrations a day on it, none of which I've approved yet.  I figure most are spammers.

Possibly WF is experiencing a similar bump, unless you're getting a huge surge or something.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Post-Doctorate D on March 27, 2019, 03:13:37 AM
I don't visit Kboards anymore. Could this be indicative of some new nonsense perpetrated by the new owners? That might account for more people looking for a new home.

Activity there today is among the highest I've seen it since the exodus.  I think some of the never-going-back-there people are even posting there again, though I can't be sure on that because I don't remember for certain who all had said that.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Becca Mills on March 27, 2019, 03:20:13 AM
It's weird and a little disturbing, but apparently the internet is mostly bots these days. The more Google-indexed threads you accumulate, the more bot traffic you attract ... that's my guess, anyway.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/01/bots-bots-bots/515043/
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: David VanDyke on March 27, 2019, 04:24:22 AM
Things get mentioned. TOP used to be "THE" place for indie publishing information. WS is now roughly its equal in the number of posts and information, and its superior in policy and moderation.

I think it's simply attracting its due attention, in a virtuous cycle.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: TimothyEllis on March 27, 2019, 12:27:45 PM
Like holy sh*t!  :haironfire

Most Online Today: 333

That's almost double yesterday.

And that's in a 1 hour period.

 :icon_think:

TOP used to be "THE" place for indie publishing information. WS is now roughly its equal in the number of posts and information, and its superior in policy and moderation.

I think it's simply attracting its due attention, in a virtuous cycle.

 :banana:
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Michelle Louring on March 27, 2019, 05:14:39 PM
Do you have Google Analytics set up on the site?
The Referral stats might be able to shred some light on the matter.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: TimothyEllis on March 27, 2019, 05:47:17 PM
Do you have Google Analytics set up on the site?
The Referral stats might be able to shred some light on the matter.

Not GA, but the site stats seem to be saying about 50% of hits are for less than 2 seconds. So bots.

Still indicates a lot more guests, even if half are bots.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Bill Hiatt on March 28, 2019, 12:49:28 AM
Yeah, bots are inevitable, but if we have that much new, real traffic, that's a good sign.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Lu Kudzoza on March 28, 2019, 02:51:26 AM
As Michelle says, if you install google analytics on the site you'll be able to see how people get here. I.e. referrals from other sites, search engines, etc. The other thing it will show you is bounce rates, number of pages viewed, landing page, how often the visitor visits the site, etc. It's a powerful tool to find the answer to your question.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Post-Doctorate D on March 28, 2019, 02:58:33 AM
You're probably better off installing something like Matomo (https://matomo.org/) (formerly Piwik) which can be hosted on your own server rather than installing something from Google and letting Google know all the behind-the-scenes information on your website.  I think there would be greater privacy protection with something like Matomo than with Google Analytics.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Bill Hiatt on March 28, 2019, 06:07:07 AM
You're probably better off installing something like Matomo (https://matomo.org/) (formerly Piwik) which can be hosted on your own server rather than installing something from Google and letting Google know all the behind-the-scenes information on your website.  I think there would be greater privacy protection with something like Matomo than with Google Analytics.
As well as fewer GDPR issues--or so I'd think, anyway.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Bill Hiatt on March 28, 2019, 06:08:01 AM
It's funny that we were just wondering about why the number of posts seemed to be declining. Now my unread posts since the last visit list is getting longer again. Hmm....
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: RappaDizzy on March 28, 2019, 06:16:52 AM
Drive-by bots! Can a terminator robot be far behind?

 :haironfire
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Mark Kelly on March 28, 2019, 10:17:46 PM
I was one of the non-bot guests yesterday who became a member. When you're looking to procrastinate (like me), KB just doesn't have enough interesting posts anymore. Now, I have to spread my time-wasting around a bunch of sites.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Michelle Louring on March 28, 2019, 10:38:03 PM
I was one of the non-bot guests yesterday who became a member. When you're looking to procrastinate (like me), KB just doesn't have enough interesting posts anymore. Now, I have to spread my time-wasting around a bunch of sites.

Welcome, fellow time-waster!  grint
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: littleauthor on March 28, 2019, 11:08:54 PM
There was a question on KBoards about Washington state taxes and Amazon and someone posted a link to one of the threads here regarding the same problem. could account for the increased traffic.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Anarchist on March 29, 2019, 12:16:57 AM
I was one of the non-bot guests yesterday who became a member. When you're looking to procrastinate (like me), KB just doesn't have enough interesting posts anymore. Now, I have to spread my time-wasting around a bunch of sites.

KB is currently being dominated by nutjobs and newbies with a surprising number of rational vets engaging them.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It's just the current makeup of the community.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Mark Kelly on March 29, 2019, 01:22:43 AM
KB is currently being dominated by nutjobs and newbies with a surprising number of rational vets engaging them.
I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It's just the current makeup of the community.

Not ironically that seems to pretty much describe the internet in general. In any case, glad I finally got off my butt and signed up here to get access to the secret and dark forum posts. That said, I mostly lurk because I don't have anything useful to add, nor many questions to ask.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Jeff Tanyard on March 29, 2019, 04:43:07 AM
I was one of the non-bot guests yesterday who became a member.


Welcome aboard, Mark.   :cheers
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: She-la-te-da on March 31, 2019, 05:04:20 AM
KB is now like a "have to drop in and see the mess" sort of thing, like the KDP forums and a political board I used to be on. Sometimes I need to see how crazy other people are so I can accept that I'm normal.

I guess.
Title: Re: Anyone know why the number of guests has jumped dramatically?
Post by: Simon Haynes on April 01, 2019, 09:49:57 PM
Google Analytics won't track anyone using NoScript (ie many humans).  At least, that used to be the case. I have GA on permanent untrusted block.

They could still get me by using a pixel or something, which is how web tracking used to be done.