"Most users ever online" counter reset

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VeskoP
Posts: 580
Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2004 8:10 pm

"Most users ever online" counter reset

Post: # 6342Post VeskoP »

Because of the self-induced overcrawling by search engines last year, the number rose to 170, and it hasn't reflected real visitors since then. To be userful again, I've reset it to 0.
"Man exists physically for the sole purpose to develop spiritually" -- let us all really remember this when we think what to do next.
VeskoP
Posts: 580
Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2004 8:10 pm

Post: # 7995Post VeskoP »

Since recently, I have reset the counter to 0 again, but also made the following change: only logged in members are counted by this counter now. The text label of the counter has been updated to reflect this. Thanks to Aisin for making the point to me that the counter as it was didn't make much sense; at the time, the counter had gone to about 30-40 again, something unrealistic for our forum for the time being. New search crawlers that the forum software does not recognise and thus cannot handle properly without its modification***, as well as other non-human visitors, such as virus and hack bots, are causes why the counter is occasionally and suddenly increased to an unrealistic number. These have greatly lessened the value of having a number that reflects the maximum number of any visitors.

*** The necessary modification is eventually done but usually after the problem is already well in progress, as otherwise one has to monitor for this daily or even hourly. There are workarounds that can lessen the need for this, and some may be implemented in the future, but none are perfect (at least for the foreseeable future).

This is actually a deeper problem with the Internet, i.e. crawlers are opt-out, not opt-in. For more information, read http://preview.tinyurl.com/yxmepq. The link is very much worth checking out, be sure to look carefully at some of the other articles, they are written for popular audience and are about real problems that concern everyone on the Internet.
"Man exists physically for the sole purpose to develop spiritually" -- let us all really remember this when we think what to do next.
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