Headline
Alright, I have just noticed this. Steemit has removed the “number of views” feature on a post. I have no clue why did they do that..
Synopsis
Some time ago, i made a contribution on @utopian-io that number of views can seriously make or break growth / popularity of an article.
Why??
Because if someone has got 500 views on a post with only 20 upvotes, that generally means public did not like the post and after reading it, they chose to ignore it.
However there was a catch, a single user can refresh a link to a post multiple times to increase the number of views.
So my contribution aimed at using a technique that would allow one view per user no matter how many refreshes are done by that particular user.
I know few people have also contributed who suggested that names of viewers must also be visible and some even said to remove the feature altogether due to its benign nature.
Steemit has finally gone in a direction. I am not sure how i feel about this to have this feature entirely removed.
Conclusion
I am still not sure whether it is a glitch or steemit has really removed the feature altogether .. would love to get some insight from a credible witness or an elite user like @acidyo @lukestokes @themarkymark or @transisto.
The house is open for discussion in the comments section..
Update
Here is the link to my utopian contribution related to number of views. Link. The same has been added in the post as well..
Hmm, you guys think Steemit will ever implement some form of analytics to Steemit, so that we can get a better understanding of what's working, and what isn't?
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Humbled you think I'm an elite user, I think that's far more than generous. But I think it was done for a few reasons. It was easily gamed (just download a chrome extension that refreshes the page), wasn't global (busy, and all other condensers had their own view counts as it isn't stored on the blockchain), and in the end is meaningless considering.
I haven't seen the disucssion around it, so just guessing.
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First of all i consider you both i.e a credible witness and an elite user due to all the work that you have done for the betterment of community and the blockchain. :)
Now coming towards the discussion, i think you are right. The feature was prone to manipulation even though it had no direct impact on steem ecosystem / rewards or the blockchain itself.. so good riddance (i think)..
Thank you @themarkymark for your insightful and quick response..
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Very strange. Wasn't it just there earlier today?
Now it's harder to see who purchased votes. It was much more obvious if there were lots of votes and few views.
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You can still do that.. if the number of upvotes are 10 and payout is 100$, you know the author has purchased votes. Also you can see who has upvoted the post and we know a lot of bots by name so there is that..
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I was thinking more of the low value purchased votes to make a post look more popular. Like one would get from smartmarket or minnowbooster. Something that would produce a lot of low value upvotes.
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Is there a list somewhere of the common bots so we know who is spamming/buying votes to flag them?
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May be they find it no more interesting. Post is popular due to the upvotes and comments. Other features donot tell about the popularity of post due to self viewing people easily attain high views number.
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You are very much right my friend...sounds about right..
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I wonder why they have changed this :( , it was the only way we can see how many people have visited the blog. May be it is a glitch or they are working on more accurate way like you mentioned that only 1 view from 1 user even user refresh many times.
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May be.. but for now it seems that we have waved goodbye to this feature for good..
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I actually like that it was removed! This number could only show how many times the post was loaded using steemit.com and the metric could easily be gamed. Any views from other interfaces (steemitstage/busy/utopian/esteem/custom/...) were not registered. Steem is more than Steemit, a Steemit view count is misleading.
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Very well written.. you are right..
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Well as u mentioned the view feature has drawbacks too, one can increase no. of views by just viewing the post no. of times and if no. of views are more than upvotes clearly this indicates that people just ignored it, the post is not interesting...
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But if that was the case then steemit should have come up with an algorithm that doesnt count more than 1 view per person on a post.. but you can be right. Removing the feature is easier than tweaking it..
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Thanks sir @jbn for informing us that steemit removed the number of views, I think no need to remove it. If our post don't get more votes as people ignore it then try to create better content. No matter, we all respect steemit all decision.
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Nice post...
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Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by jbn from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.
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I can understand them not wanting to make the views public or remove the influence it has on popularity, but removing it entirely is very disappointing. as we have no way of knowing what posts were popular now, very sad. :(
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I know im a bit late to the party but has there been any progress with the page view counter? It would be nice to know how many views i get even if we had our own private analytics for our blogs :)
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Is there nowhere to see how many views privately? It's an important metric from a business standpoint...
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I guess @themarkymark owes you a big bigggg flag for plagiarising his comment.. man cmon.. use some brains.. it almost seems like that you intentionally dont want to be a part of this blockchain...
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We have a list for that :)
He typically spins comments (automated changes words around to make it hard to detect), this time it didn't spin so well.
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Lmao.. being both a stupid and plagiarist is never a good mix.. thats what i like about you.. keep that list updated sir.. you are doing well.. however i dont allow plagiarism on my post (may it be of any sort), hence i flagged him.
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There will be some flags coming along, he's on a list.
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