Ship of Fools: Mystery visitors

Thread: Mystery visitors Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=70;t=027577

Posted by Yorick (# 12169) on :

I was mildly impressed to notice, just now, that the number of recent visitors to the boards was a vertiginous 208, but when I looked at the individual totals for the boards it didn’t seem like there were that many, so I added up the totals from each board and it came came to 96 (including ‘lurkers’). Yeah, I’m at that much of a loose end.

Are the missing legions ‘bots’?

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Included Oblivion, Glory and Limbo? Plus repeat visitors whose names appear more than once, i.e. on Heaven as well as Hell? Included all the visitors to the private boards?

[ 15. May 2014, 12:15: Message edited by: Ariel ]

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

The total number of visitors (our unlikely to be beaten record is 290) is for everyone who access the boards. The breakdown per board is for those who visit each board. There will be people visiting unlisted boards (ie: private boards) but that will be very small, same with Oblivion and the like.

The most reasonable explanation I have is that lots of people load the board home page, but then don't go and look at any particular board. Though, why look at the Ship and not read any threads is a mystery. It's possible people are reading the "Todays active threads" and not seeing any threads to actually open up.

Posted by RooK (# 1852) on :

I assumed it had something to do with that deal we have with the NSA.

Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
The most reasonable explanation I have is that lots of people load the board home page, but then don't go and look at any particular board. Though, why look at the Ship and not read any threads is a mystery.

One thing that has occurred to me is that when people load the boards main page in order to log in, the software might be counting them twice - once as an unidentified lurker and once (when the page reloads a few seconds later) as an identified Shipmate.

I have no idea if that's true, or how we could test it, but it's a possibility.

Posted by JFH (# 14794) on :

quote:
Originally posted by RooK:
I assumed it had something to do with that deal we have with the NSA.

NSA - the only governmental authority that truly listens to you.

Posted by Yorick (# 12169) on :

216 now. I fear the record is under threat! No doubt posting the three letters NSA has precipitated a flurry of interest.

Seriously, though, something's afoot...

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

A sudden increase in visitors and people joining usually means that either Simon or the Ancient Mariner (or both) have done something.

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

Are you saying they have done something the NSA have noticed?

begins deleting histories, reformatting hard drives, creating plausible storyline a that it was a different lilBuddha which accessed the Ship

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
(our unlikely to be beaten record is 290)

Would it be indelicate to enquire when and why that was? Was it when we were doing the virtual church?

It is a bit odd at the moment ... especially the number of lurkers. But I don't care, my life's a burned book.

Open book. I mean open book. Officer. Honestly ... [Paranoid]

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

If you click on the link that says Ship of Fools recent visitors you'll get the current total and board breakdown. Also the text

quote:
Our visitor record is 290, set on 16 November, 2008 00:39 . It may never be broken.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
If you click on the link that says Ship of Fools recent visitors you'll get the current total and board breakdown. Also the text

quote:
Our visitor record is 290, set on 16 November, 2008 00:39 . It may never be broken.

Was anything special going on on that date?

Moo

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

It was too late for Church of Fools or Laugh Judgement.

The Ship has been getting progressively less active over the last 5 years or so, it might just be the highest point of a broad peak in activity.

Posted by comet (# 10353) on :

looked in my journal. I was in rehearsals for my first ever sketch comedy show and living in the tent. didn't make any comments like "OMG RooK finally posted his stripper pics on the Ship!" So I can't help.

Also, Yorick? can I suggest a hobby?

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

I've been told the RPG thread in the Circus is the place to be at the moment. Not that I'm cool and trendy enough to ever be at the place to be, at least not until at least a year after it ceases to be the place to be.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

The Geek is strong on these boards...

Been trying to sort out how to tell the following tale-- after we finished the Ark project, I snuck back to the separate message board opened for that, and discovered 1. the board was still open and 2. Nobody seemed to be using it. So I would go occasionally and post weird messages in the hopes of annoying the Hosts.

Here's the weird thing-- I would post in one area and go back through the main board page link to get to other threads. each time I passed back through the link, the "lurker" count at the bottom would increase.

I thought some bot was informing the admins when visitors came on and I tried chatting with Erin, Scot and the gang. No answer. But the lurker number kept building, every time I went back to the main page.

I think after about a month of this nonsense, Scot finally caught me at it and gave me some explanation I barely remember about a glitch in the visitor counter that kept counting me repeatedly as I ran through the main page over and over again. He also begged me to get a life.

I then recieved an invite to join the Host team, which really negated Scot's message, if you asked me.

All this to say, maybe some similar weirdness is happening with our counter.

[ 16. May 2014, 07:02: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posted by St Deird (# 7631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
The most reasonable explanation I have is that lots of people load the board home page, but then don't go and look at any particular board. Though, why look at the Ship and not read any threads is a mystery.

I do that all the time.

Most days, I open up Purgatory, Hell, and Dead Horses, and check if
a) the threads I was reading have made any progress
b) the new threads have interesting titles that merit a look

As a rule, I'll open Purgatory every day, but only open a Purgatory thread once or twice a week, depending on how much free time I have.

Posted by Arrietty (# 45) on :

We have a ludicrously high record number of visitors on i-church which doesn't relate to our usual number of daily visitors at all, we can only assume that it coincides with one of several spammer attacks we've had.

There seems to be a lag in most systems between you logging in and stopping showing up as a lurker.

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0