Toplist glitchiness

[SimonDoom]

For years I've noticed that there are often significant disparities between the view numbers shown for stories on the story's page and the numbers shown on toplists. It's not just a matter of delay -- sometimes the numbers are off by the thousands, permanently.

But I've never seen anything quite as weird as this. The top story on the 30-day most viewed list today is Fetish Focus: A Cock Caged Cuckold. It is listed as having 137, 792 views. That caught my attention, because a) it's not an incest story, and b) fetish stories never top the toplists.

So I checked the story itself. It was posted on November 15 and it shows as having 27,100 views. That's barely enough to get it in the top 200 for the last 30 days.

How would this be possible?

 

[Lifestyle66]

For years I've noticed that there are often significant disparities between the view numbers shown for stories on the story's page and the numbers shown on toplists. It's not just a matter of delay -- sometimes the numbers are off by the thousands, permanently.

But I've never seen anything quite as weird as this. The top story on the 30-day most viewed list today is Fetish Focus: A Cock Caged Cuckold. It is listed as having 137, 792 views. That caught my attention, because a) it's not an incest story, and b) fetish stories never top the toplists.

So I checked the story itself. It was posted on November 15 and it shows as having 27,100 views. That's barely enough to get it in the top 200 for the last 30 days.

How would this be possible?

They are not using one database for all LitE stats.

When they develop a new web site enhancement, such as the "Series" or the multi-path/ending stories, I believe they are prototyping the new add-on as a separate website with its own data. Then when they go live, they develop means of transferring any data required from one database to the other, and they might have an algorithm for whatever reason to clean the data (maybe the data is in a different format such as one database allowing decimals and the other not).

Whatever data transfer they are using to feed one of those sites has a flaw in it.

Perfect costs a lot more and takes much more time to finish than "good enough".

 

[RejectReality]

On the 30 day list, The top 5 are all ranked by numbers that are significantly higher than the listed views on the story, and then #6 is dead on. I scrolled down and checked mine, and it's a little lower than my story says, which is consistent with the update delay.

The story that has #1 on the top 30 day shows even more views on the 12 month list, but clicking some of the top ones and a few other random ones show views that more or less coincide with the story listing. A few outliers were ranked by as much as 20k more than the story showed.

*shrug* Search me. LOL

 

[SimonDoom]

I sent a message to Laurel and Manu around the time I started this thread, and there's been no response, and the stories on the toplist are the same.

I can understand some delay in numbers getting posted to toplists, but that's not what's happening here, because the number 1 story has over 110,000 MORE views shown on the toplist than in the story itself. Something obviously is very wrong, and it renders the toplists completely compromised. Very odd. I'm curious why I've received no response.

 

[lovecraft68]

I sent a message to Laurel and Manu around the time I started this thread, and there's been no response, and the stories on the toplist are the same.

I can understand some delay in numbers getting posted to toplists, but that's not what's happening here, because the number 1 story has over 110,000 MORE views shown on the toplist than in the story itself. Something obviously is very wrong, and it renders the toplists completely compromised. Very odd. I'm curious why I've received no response.

Same reason they never responded to the all time lists being down, the authors aren't priority here other than when it comes to getting out daily stories to make them money. Top lists, monthlies, annuals, any other glitches that effect only them are low on the list. As long as everything works for the readers, they're not going to sweat it, and will get to it in their time.

This is minor compared to how some lists were frozen for months back a few years ago, leaving the same stories at the top even though they should have been supplanted.

 

[SimonDoom]

Same reason they never responded to the all time lists being down, the authors aren't priority here other than when it comes to getting out daily stories to make them money. Top lists, monthlies, annuals, any other glitches that effect only them are low on the list. As long as everything works for the readers, they're not going to sweat it, and will get to it in their time.

This is minor compared to how some lists were frozen for months back a few years ago, leaving the same stories at the top even though they should have been supplanted.

Even granting this logic, though, they have a compelling reason to address the problem out of concern for readers. It makes no sense for readers to be directed to stories that have no business being at the tops of the lists. The number 1 story is a fetish story with a rating under 4.0. It actually has 27K+ views, but the toplist shows it has over 137K. Makes no sense at all.

 

[RejectReality]

My last PM response from Laurel took over a week, but she's not going to respond to them all anyway. It's a technical glitch, and the most she can offer in response is "I'll have Manu look into it." You can say that's the courteous thing to do, but how many PMs has she got in her mailbox right now that would warrant a courteous response, but that's all she can offer immediately? On top of the piles of user reports from the story side. On top of piles of reports from the unmoderated sections of the forum ( GB and Politics, anyone? ) On top of approving 100+ stories a day.

It will get looked into, but likely take way longer to resolve than anybody would prefer, because it's a weird frikkin' glitch, and those are usually a living nightmare to track down.

 

[SimonDoom]

My last PM response from Laurel took over a week, but she's not going to respond to them all anyway. It's a technical glitch, and the most she can offer in response is "I'll have Manu look into it." You can say that's the courteous thing to do, but how many PMs has she got in her mailbox right now that would warrant a courteous response, but that's all she can offer immediately? On top of the piles of user reports from the story side. On top of piles of reports from the unmoderated sections of the forum ( GB and Politics, anyone? ) On top of approving 100+ stories a day.

It will get looked into, but likely take way longer to resolve than anybody would prefer, because it's a weird frikkin' glitch, and those are usually a living nightmare to track down.

I have no complaint about Laurel's responsiveness to me. I've messaged Laurel and Manu a few times and generally found them to be reasonably responsive. This particular problem is a really weird one, but it's more of a problem for the site in general than for me.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Ive noticed the stats on the leaderboard only get updated once per day. So I'd assume whatever your score and view count was at 1am is what's going to show up on the leaderboard.

 

[SimonDoom]

Ive noticed the stats on the leaderboard only get updated once per day. So I'd assume whatever your score and view count was at 1am is what's going to show up on the leaderboard.

This is a reasonable assumption, but in this case, with respect to the story(ies) I highlighted, it's completely wrong. The leaderboard obviously is completely erroneous. I don't know why, but it is.

 

[RejectReality]

Yeah, this is absolutely not some update lag. The numbers are straight up fucked on some stories on the list. Tens of thousands more than listed on the story. Over a 100k more than the story shows for the current #1 in 30 days. Something has seriously coughed up a hairball in the views toplist.

 

[SimonDoom]

Laurel acknowledged my message and said they are looking into it.