Most users on the forum....573 !

Well I assure you that the man behind the curtain has done nothing besides basic SEO to manipulate traffic.

I'm starting to see a pattern though. The recent spikes in traffic have been around the time most people check their email....right before bed and once they get to work.

Yeah, that sounds right. (rolling eyes)

Well, if you must know the truth...it's not really a phenomenon, it happens all the time. I didn't want to be the one to break the news to you but I knew it was just a matter of time before we all got caught. You see, after you leave, everyone meets in the "secret area" of the forum to conduct our "secret meetings."  The "secret area" can be accessed by everyone except users with "mogul" status. The other day when there were 583 people on the site, you surprised us and since there is no way for me to manipulate the user counter, we all got caught red handed. 

Well, if you must know the truth...it's not really a phenomenon, it happens all the time. I didn't want to be the one to break the news to you but I knew it was just a matter of time before we all got caught.

You see, after you leave, everyone meets in the "secret area" of the forum to conduct our "secret meetings."  The "secret area" can be accessed by everyone except users with "mogul" status.

The other day when there were 583 people on the site, you surprised us and since there is no way for me to manipulate the user counter, we all got caught red handed. 

Well, there certainly an easier way to go about it than that. Software add-ons are available to allow extensive manipulation of user count.

Also, one could take the route (if one knew how) as expressed in the two forum posts below which came from a forum specifically aimed at forum adminstrators who want to tweak their site.

1.The users online is counted by the number of users accessing the site in a specified period of time, correct?. To specify the pd. of time, go to AdminCP>Options>Who's Online Options. I believe the stock refresh is one hour (3600 seconds). I would think if you increased this setting to say, 10,000 seconds the number would appear higher.

2. The refresh time controls how often the page is refreshed. You'd want to increase the cookie timeout, if you _really_ wanted to fake your users online

 

A forum adminstrator has many "priveleges" that members do not. Admins can 1) edit member's posts 2) delete member's posts (or threads) etc, etc. It's a digital world after all and manipulating 1's and 0's doesn't have to be done at that level anymore.

I was just being facetious but thanks for the tutorial. 

Actually, my little tale above did inspire me to create a hidden area on the forum reserved for it's elite. Although, I'm sure you've figured that out by now.

I was just being facetious but thanks for the tutorial. 

Actually, my little tale above did inspire me to create a hidden area on the forum reserved for it's elite. Although, I'm sure you've figured that out by now.

Yep, already posted there, but am on my way to some auctions so will have to check "The Upper Room" later.

You see, after you leave, everyone meets in the "secret area" of the forum to conduct our "secret meetings."  The "secret area" can be accessed by everyone except users with "mogul" status.

Kind of reminds me of this old Eddie Murphy SNL skit:
snotr.com/video/422/Eddie_Murphy_goes_undercover

24 hours later....

Only 10 minutes until 7:45 pm (Pacific) when the number of guests online here should jump to over 500 as it did last night (1/22/2013).  Meanwhile, it's at about 32.

Then of course tomorrow morning (1/24/2013) it should jump from its usual 30s status to over 250.

It's kind of like watching the ball drop on New Year's Eve, but it could happen every day according to one theory presented. 

It's been 24 hours since yesterday morning's high user count of around 275 and this morning it's back to its usual 30 or so.

With a high count of over 550 two nights ago and the yesterday morning count of over 250 one has to question what happened.

Personally, I can't subscribet to the theory promoted by Travis that "people checked their email and then the forum".

I think something happened at the server end. I don't know what that was, but it brings to mind the theory of "Occam's Razor".

Simply stated that says if there are two or more reasons for something happening, the simplest explanation should be the one considered correct.

Here's a more dictionary definition of Occam's Razor:
Occam's razor (also written as Ockham's razor, Latin lex parsimoniae) is a principle of parsimony, economy, or succinctness. It states that among competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions should be selected.

Personally, I can't subscribe to the theory promoted by Travis that "people checked their email and then the forum".

For someone that posts here so much, you sure seem to be going out of your way to try and trash this site and Travis's recent accomplishments.

For someone that posts here so much, you sure seem to be going out of your way to try and trash this site and Travis's recent accomplishments.

Posting here a lot has nothing to do with being honest about what I am seeing. I am only reporting facts. Sure, maybe I don't have to report them, but I think honesty is an important thing in this business, whether it's buying at auctions or reporting about buying at auctions.

If you can HONESTLY think that Travis's idea about email checking and checking the forum afterward is a LOGICAL explanation for a 500 + and 250+ peak in the number of users online during that 24 hour period, please feel free to post that SUPPORT.

If you can HONESTLY think that Travis's idea about email checking and checking the forum afterward is a LOGICAL explanation for a 500 + and 250+ peak in the number of users online during that 24 hour period, please feel free to post that SUPPORT.

Perhaps you misunderstood me. My theory was that there could have been a Tweet of Facebook post from a C- list Storage Wars celebrity that caused traffic to spike. I know you're anti-social media/anti-YouTube so I'll break this down for you. When someone is following a celebrity and that celebrity releases a statement on a social media site, the user will usually receive an email from said social media site. It is fact that the most popular times for people to check their email is before going to bed and once they arrive at work. The two times that we saw the spikes in traffic correlate with the times that people are most likely to check their email. Like I said, it's just a theory. The site could have even been mentioned on a minor TV, Radio or a news website.

Perhaps you misunderstood me.

That's certainly possible, and there are usually MULTIPLE theories for things that happen. Determining the cause of some of them is not always possible without the resources or time to do so.

Well, whatever caused it, it was certainly inspiring for me. I can't wait until the day we have 500 +/- users on the forum at any given time.

We had a nice little spike in users online on Wednesday. 194 at one time.

433 people online on February 2nd. These traffic spikes are starting to happen more often. I wish I could figure out where they are coming from.