"X number of people viewing "

I thought trending was supposed to be the threads that were getting the most views, but there are posts which have lots of people viewing compared to other threads, but which don't appear in trending.

Isn't, therefore, people 'viewing' just really 'people clicking on this thread'? This is generally just a reflection of how clickbaity the thread title is. It's not about where the active discussions are at all, because lots of people might click on 'what is this alien being that just fell out of my vagina (pic included)?' But then as soon as they've seen what it is, click away. Lots of views, not very many posts. Boring.

I had a reply from MN recently which stated exactly that.

I had queried a thread that was 4 hours old and had no replies being at the top of Active. It was "bumped" by MN to try and spark some interest.

I can't say I've seen them discussing such a policy, but these days I'm sure 90% of their changes are made without any explanation until someone asks about it so it could well be a policy.

Although it wouldn't make much sense as surely the whole point of active is to see what threads are currently being posted on. Not that this means they haven't implemented such a policy because realistically lots of what is implemented here makes no sense.

Didn't @MNHQ say there was a new policy to keep threads that hadn't had many replies in active convos to avoid threads going unanswered?

Or did I make that up?

And yet some threads have multiple 100s of replies, (even a thousand sometimes,) often by multiple dozens of posters. So I don't think Mumsnet is that quiet. Some threads are yes, but as a whole, not really.

On that thread about moderation, JustineMN says that:

‘One thing that really helps is reporting. There are around 25,000 posts a day on here, so we really don’t see that much in real time. If something feels off, please do report it.’

25,000 posts a days sounds such a lot. So much so that I can’t quite reconcile it in my head with the stated ‘viewing’ figures of a few dozen here, a few dozen there.

It’s a mystery.

And all of this is going to self fulfill.

I could spend hours on here, even just a couple of months ago…now I scan active and my notifications, to find very little new information and leave.

I'm just no longer engaged.

Feels like the start of the end!

You can tell the site isn’t particularly busy though, my Active is full of threads that have been there 2/3 days already. I’ve scrolled past them several times.

Exactly. There are currently 3 threads on active with more than 20 people viewing them.

Knowing there's only a handful of people actually viewing the threads is making me click on the threads less than it did before when I could only see the amount of replies.

Problem is, I've just looked at active threads and there is hardly anyone on. So little point in me checking threads as unlikely to be any interesting posts added as no one is on.

So it actively puts me off.

I don't think anyone thought the site had millions of users but for active threads at a busy time on a Friday evening when you'd expect the site to be busiest to show less than 1400 users viewing threads and that's presuming all the other 44 threads in active has 19 viewers which seems unlikely is incredibly low.

If even the most active threads aren't getting over 20 viewers, the trigger for the view counter to show, then I hate to think how quiet the rest of the site is.

It also seems statistically unlikely there are 25,000 posts a day if there are only a couple of thousand users accessing the site which is the impression the viewing metric gives.

Well, yeah, that's what she says. But are they real people or bots? Who knows.

For 25,000 daily posts, you'd be looking at roughly 10,000 active users, plus a heap of lurkers. It's not millions. That's fantasy.

Justine’s message says there’s 25,000 posts a day on here

@DallasMajor excellent news thanks! I was one of those that moaned when it was altered, I didn’t know mn had listened and allowed us to revert back to the old way.
And yes I feel like MNHQ are introducing changes as a way to stay relevant but all they are really doing is alienating those of us who are happy with it the way it is (which I suspect is the majority)

I think some of you have over-estimated just how busy MN really is. There's probably a few thousand people online at any one time during peak periods, which is quite a lot for an old forum like this.

And really, what does it matter if these figures are shown or not?

@Okiedokie123 if you go to settings you can change the colour back- there was a lot of people complaining about the change.

Bit of a theme- MN doing stuff to alienate those that do like to spend time here

I hate it mnhq.
May as well go full on nethuns and introduce tickertapes as well!

btw please can we have our colour preferences back? Blue for the op and mnhq posts is so stupid and annoying.

Could we have a tally of the number of responses a post has?

So the number of 'thanks', 'love', 'agree' and 'support' a comment/post has recieved (of course, who has reacted can only be seen by the poster, as it is now)

xx

Wow. That is very few people

Yeah I can see it this evening too

But no response from MN.

The new additions all seem so old fashioned, watchers, lurkers, it all comes from a time gone by.

This time next week we will be having countdown tickers in the footer.

But an aside. I've just looked on Netmums as couldn't remember the right word for the footer graphics that they were so keen on. It is completely dead. Replies are months old.
Just feel sad about it.

Spot check on the live viewing numbers via this new feature @ 10pm Friday night.
On the entire first 50 threads on Active:
Total viewers showing on the new icon = 515!
Total number of threads displaying a viewer number icon = 6

So, 44 out of 50 threads had less than 20 viewers at that point in time.

It is eye-opening, isn’t it @Luxio . Personally, I don’t give a about this new features, doesn’t bother or excite me, but I think it does some serious harm to MN. UK’s most popular website for parents only has 20 views on so many threads! Makes you wonder if they are still popular.

Whoever suggested or approved this feature should remove it asap.

I think it's awful. It reminds me of those bloody annoying boxes in online shopping that pop up across the thing you're viewing declaring "28 people bought this today" or some such twaddle in an attempt to pressure you into buying it.

I would love it, though, if they could flag up threads that are being derailed by some petty side - argument between two or three posters. Now that would be a feature worth having!

The views are miniscule compared to what you'd imagine for a site as large as they claim MN to be. On active right now at what is arguably a busy time on a Friday evening for people mindlessly perusing there are only 10 threads which had more than 20 viewers and only one thread was in triple digits.