Fake Community Statistics

[ConqSoft]

If users seeing higher numbers (and not seeing any good content) causes them to go to another site instead of yours, then you may need to work on your own content.

High numbers, with no content to back it up, shouldn't be any threat to you at all...

Having said that, I still agree that this type of hack has no business being released.

[Spinball]

High numbers, with no content to back it up, shouldn't be any threat to you at all...
It's not and I never said it was.
My point - which you missed completely - is that one site (e.g. our competitior I mentioned) publishing false stats besmirches all forums/websites.
Look, any large forum requires an expensive server or servers. 3 in our case with a fat pipe. How do we pay for this? Subscriptions are one model but in the age of free content, the most common way is banner advertising.
Now my experience is that most advertisers are on the ball and will cancel their campaign if they don't see the impressions/clicks they are paying for. But some are not. And the only stats they may have will be those presented by the forum in question. It would be nice to think that as a whole, the vbulletin forum running community was recognised as being trustworthy. This hack will have the opposite effect. By publishing false stats, a forum owner calls in to doubt our genuine stats.
Not everyone can afford independent reports (like Hitwise at over ?1000/$1770) each and every month.
P.S. Wish I still had my black Blade!

[bada_bing]

Wow weird I installed this on my 3.5.4 site and in admincp under vb options-Fake community statistics options these are the only options I have

Amount of additional (fake) registrations:
The value added here will be added on top of the real value.

Amount of additional (fake) threads:
The value added here will be added on top of the real value.

Amount of additional (fake) posts:
The value added here will be added on top of the real value.

Amount of additional (fake) active members:
The value added here will be added on top of the real value.


What is going on?
can someone help me on this please

[Shazz]

^Yes what other options do you want?

[wiredinoc]

mmmmyeah... I just found this hack, and I am totally shocked that is is being written by a VB dev, and advocated by vb.org. What the heck are you guys thinking? Us admins work incredibly hard, and some of us put in over 100 hours a week to create something better in our respective hobby's or areas intrest. Now we need to have front and center stage, a hack that allows any $8 bozo to intentionally deceive new members about their size and gain market. NOT because of quality of content, or building a better mouse trap, but instead because of this product.

I don't know about you guys, but the first thing I look at on any new board I visit is the numbers. All of this "you're just cheating yourself" yadda yadda is a bunch of nonsense. IMO, VB.org is blatantly advocating and promoting lying and cheating through the creation of this product. This is horrible.

For some of us, this is our job, and puts food on the table. And then a company that I trust to my hard work with comes out with a POS hack like this, and sticks it to me. Wanna know why I'm pissed? I have a competitor who is now using this lovely product.

Good work guys, probably one of the best written hacks to date. Make sure you keep ignoring all of the other vital projects that need work like the multiple forums/one user database issue, and keep working on garbage like this.

[Nathan2006]

Hi,

This hack has been really great!

But now after a while and members have started to come to my board and sign up I don't need it anymore:D

The only problem after uninstalling it and trying to Rebuild Statistics in the admincp I receive the following error:

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /admincp/misc.php on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


Also now there are more users online today than it says on the board

Most users ever online was 43, 31-05-2006 at 12:35.

But there have been 63 members who have visited today:confused:

Is there anyway to fix this problem

Thank you for any help :)

[tienkhom]

How can I delete the first comma when I dont add online member
, xmember,

[rogersnm]

Don't add the variabel next to $activeusers

[duskdawn]

I will take a try. Thanks.

[rogersnm]

/me doesn't use this anymore but he will contiue to support the thread

[bada_bing]

^Yes what other options do you want?
The same options that this hack claims to have as listed here
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=48951&d=1149686472

[bada_bing]

The same options that this hack claims to have as listed here
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=48951&d=1149686472
Any updates???? or will ininstall

[bada_bing]

support suck for this hack...

[Nathan2006]

Hi,

This hack has been really great!

But now after a while and members have started to come to my board and sign up I don't need it anymore:D

The only problem after uninstalling it and trying to Rebuild Statistics in the admincp I receive the following error:

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /admincp/misc.php on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


Also now there are more users online today than it says on the board

Most users ever online was 43, 31-05-2006 at 12:35.

But there have been 63 members who have visited today:confused:

Is there anyway to fix this problem

Thank you for any help :)

Any help please?

Its still not updating at all with this hack uninstalled

[bada_bing]

Any help please?

Its still not updating at all with this hack uninstalled
Read my post above

[FReeSTER]

If ther wont be any support then why not close the thread and delete it. :tired: :confused:

[bada_bing]

If ther wont be any support then why not close the thread and delete it. :tired: :confused:
Amen

[BaldNut]

Nice Hack!

Work well done!

I can see were all moaining members are coming from, but for a small board with 600 posts and 40 members this is ideal, ill use it until i hit around 500 members and 3000 posts

People have to realise its a catch 22 situation, you have a quite board and no one will post, so by giving the appearance of a busier more active forum will promote others to join and help build that community.

[BaldNut]

only people on this thread moaning are the ones who already have the "bigger boards" getting all macho and defensive cause they sweat blood and tears to get their members!!

Take a chill pill, and relax, everyone here is admins looking to improve their forums, if that means for small new boards letting the visitor think that they are more succesfull than they are then is that so bad? they wont hang around if it is a poor board either way, but if you worked hard at getting visitors you should be allowed a helping hand to get them registered.

[geevest.com]

how to make Currently Active Users is random?
default is not for good.
maybe if u can make curently active user is random its looking BEST =)

uhm how to make fake (x Viewing) in forumhome Mr?

thx before

[Ncturnal]

This would make a great April Fools mod! :) Great product! :)

I like that idea.

[Shazz]

I like that idea.
April is so far away :(

[Nathan2006]

BUG!

Now there are more users online today than it says on the board

Most users ever online was 43, 31-05-2006 at 12:35.

But there have been 63 members who have visited today

Is there anyway to fix this problem https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2010/09/3.gif

Thank you for any help

[geniuz14]

PLZ...SOMEONE ANSWER ME THIS QUESTION....IS THERE any WAY IN WHICH ONLY i CAN SEE AND USE THIS HACK...AS IN THE (SUPER ADMIN) AND NOT REGULAR ADMINS?...ITS URGENT..

[BaldNut]

support is no longer on this hack i dont think?

Too many people dissing the hack so Floris lost interest i would guess?

[geniuz14]

kk....i understand.. :)

[Sexy PV]

How would you change the post count for other forums? As this hack only allows you to do it for one forum. Would changing the number directly in db work or cause problems?

[bada_bing]

Yes great question how can I change the post and thread count on more then just one forum?

[geevest.com]

how to fake viewing in forumhome?

[kellee88]

Does this hack effect the "members who have visited in the last 24 hrs. or today hack"?

Also, I know someone who uses this and his forum will show 15 members online but the actual count may be 10 names.

[Dannyboy1]

Thanks for the hack. I am testing it right now but one question I have in mind, I have noticed other people are asking the same thing and I am not sure if there is already a solution for that or it is not working on my test board.
When you add some usernames that should appear online and you put your mouse on over the fake usernames that are online you don't get a link to their user profile but a dead link.
Is there a way thatcould be actually members I register manually and the names can point to there profiles?

[JohnBee]

Awesome hack!

It's a tough world out there for newcomers and this is exactly the kind of help they need to help them get by. I applied to my own forum and it looks great.

Question.. about the WOL, I noticed if the numbers are low, it does not look very realistic ex: 16 users online 8 members & 8 guests but only 3 of each are visible.

[angkor408]

Hi, i just download but it does not work for vbadvanced. Can someone tell me what template to edit? Thank

[JohnBee]

I just wanted to add a few things.
I have been running this hack for a few days now(works great!) and I thought up of a few things that might improve this hack.


1) random display from fake names list - this would be great if we created a dictionary of fake usernames which exceeded the total no. of fake online users, then the hack would randomly pick that number from the list to display.

2) link fake online users to basic profiles. - even if they had no posts etc. it could prove better to have a basic profile to view than simply popping back to the forum front end.

3) Randomly show users browsing assigned forums - assign forums and then have the system display the fake online users randomly in those forums.

3) show users in the WOL. - Same as above except in the WOL it would show them browsing forums (randomly assigned)

Thats about it , I just wanted to share these ideas because I noticed that many people noticed the same names on the forum all the time and that the member profiles don't work etc.

Hope some of these features will be considered :)
Love this hack btw. - thanks for a great addon

[Hexemer]

Hi, i just download but it does not work for vbadvanced. Can someone tell me what template to edit? Thank
Yes, can someone help us? :cross-eyed:

[salata]

Yes, can someone help us? :cross-eyed:

if you read posts made in this thread, i dont think it works in vbadvanced. i may be wrong.

[salata]

......

[Eagle Eyes]

Need improvements. The IPB guys have the one which takes the users from the database, and make them online, also they will be showed as browsing different things and threads.

[geevest.com]

how to fake viewing in room category?

[geovadim]

How can you see that a forum is using fake stats? Which are the signs?

[rogersnm]

I don't see why that information is necessary.

[A0007]

yep ! well done

[fishhub]

i do not want to turn on the today most users online function, How do we input the date and time of most users online instead of all time today online?TIA

[fishhub]

anyone can assist?:o

[MTVSlick]

I like it, LOL how can we make it look more realistic? like do these name just stay on all the time or do they rotate on and off thru-out thr day/night? also other mods don't work with it, they keep real statistics while the fake ones are up still, LOL

I am strictly using this mod for getting advertisers to advertise on this forums/site, I hope it helps. It also makes alot of members feel better as they think "oh lots of people on today i better look at whats new".


example: www.guelphsfinest.com


Mark,

[BaldNut]

I am strictly using this mod for getting advertisers to advertise on this forums/site

So basically gonna rip them off?

[Shazz]

Never thought you could use this for money wise.. Interesting.

[Silverstangs]

Interesting hack, I think I might use it for April's Fools day as well as turn all of my forums Barbie Pink...and very girly.

I can see how this would be helpful for a site that is having issues durring start up. I think thou.. a forum dies because it is stale or there is not enough new blood coming into it.

[s0lidgr0und]

What sense does it make to have statistics that don't accurately reflect anything?

[Neo_Angelo]

this is a great hack for beginner boards or those with slow activity, my only concern to this is the big givaway of how many users would choose not to appear on the member list. if i saw on a board that 5000 members chose not to appear on the list and only 4 did i'd be suspicious lol.

other than that a great hack as ever floris, i might give this ago actually.

[fishhub]

i hope to see add-ons for fake no of viewers in forum sections.

[wickedstangs]

Question under:
Currently Active Users: 62 (2 members and 60 guests)
Most users ever online was 65, Today at 07:34 PM.
gmntmare, 04screamingyellow, wickedstangs, goonies

Fake Names

How can I change members to 2 members to coincide with the fake members?

[Ncturnal]

Question under:
Currently Active Users: 62 (2 members and 60 guests)
Most users ever online was 65, Today at 07:34 PM.
gmntmare, 04screamingyellow, wickedstangs, goonies

Fake Names

How can I change members to 2 members to coincide with the fake members?

If you can't get 2 more people to visit your forum, maybe you should close it?

[Floris]

This modification still works on the 3.5.x branch, but I have no intention in giving support, or keeping it up to date, or to include more features. If any .. it will be for 3.6.7pl1 or higher, and through this thread: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?threadid=117933

I recommend everybody to upgrade to vb 3.6.7pl1, and upgrade to the latest build of this modification (see other thread).

Thank you all for your support and for the positive (and negative) feedback.

[mihai11]

This should have never been release. What is worse is that a VB team member is behind this.

Like you said, Floris: some people will enjoy themselves with this. The problem is that you should not envoy yourself in all circumstances. Personally, I reject relations with people that "envoy themselves" in this manner, and guess what: I still have a lot of friends. It's just a matter of choice.

There are a lot of people that steal (I mean in real life), but inventing a system that permits them to steal more easily (for example by automatically detecting old people, which are easy targets) is even more immoral than the actual act of stealing.

The web is still in its infancy. I hope that in the future will be laws against this kind of behavior.

Besides the moral priciple, there can also be implications on the long term:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=232188


Regards,
Razvan M.

[HuangA]

This should have never been release. What is worse is that a VB team member is behind this.

Like you said, Floris: some people will enjoy themselves with this. The problem is that you should not envoy yourself in all circumstances. Personally, I reject relations with people that "envoy themselves" in this manner, and guess what: I still have a lot of friends. It's just a matter of choice.

There are a lot of people that steal (I mean in real life), but inventing a system that permits them to steal more easily (for example by automatically detecting old people, which are easy targets) is even more immoral than the actual act of stealing.

The web is still in its infancy. I hope that in the future will be laws against this kind of behavior.

Besides the moral priciple, there can also be implications on the long term:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=232188


Regards,
Razvan M.


If you don't want to use it, by all means don't use it.
Bigboard compliance was also coded in so if you want to avoid forums using this you can. Simply check the HTML near that area for comment which starts with "bbcompliance".

[ru55ian]

is there a way to add fake info to "Members visited Today" mod?

this mod:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=121883&highlight=members+visit

[rooney72]

is there a way to add fake info to "Members visited Today" mod?

this mod:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=121883&highlight=members+visit


Good Question - I'm going to start a new forum and faking 100 members is no big deal. Once I get over a 1000 members, this hack will be useless. However yes Members visiting today do not correspond with total number of users on board. ANy modifications?

[Fox2k]

This should have never been release. What is worse is that a VB team member is behind this.

Like you said, Floris: some people will enjoy themselves with this. The problem is that you should not envoy yourself in all circumstances. Personally, I reject relations with people that "envoy themselves" in this manner, and guess what: I still have a lot of friends. It's just a matter of choice.

There are a lot of people that steal (I mean in real life), but inventing a system that permits them to steal more easily (for example by automatically detecting old people, which are easy targets) is even more immoral than the actual act of stealing.

The web is still in its infancy. I hope that in the future will be laws against this kind of behavior.

Besides the moral priciple, there can also be implications on the long term:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=232188


Regards,
Razvan M.

Just a short note to everyone flaming Floris for this mod. If you are so upset about the concept of fake statistics then it would apepar to me that you are simply insecure about your site's ability to retain its members with original content. If a site is able to start up, use this mod to entice membership, then after a few months they have become a thriving community, well I have news for you - This mod didn't cause it. It may have accelerated the process a bit, but nobody in their right mind will register with a forum that has inflated numbers, then hang around if nothing interesting is going on. Your mentality is akin to stating that nobody should make a 6-figure income unless they have worked at mcdonalds for 10 years, no matter what their qualifications are. If this mod bothers you, don't use it. If you are running a large community site, then you are not a part of the target market, anyways.

As a side note I would also suggest that, having been in the position of a starting webmaster trying to create a community, do you not remember how difficult and time consuming it was? Would you not then be happy to discover a product that may decrease some of this burden for others? Or is it some sort of elitist mentality in which you feel that 'I went through the hardships, everyone else should go through it too'. If that's the case, then you have my pity.

</rant>

I can definitely appreciate the value that this mod would have both to sites just starting out, and those in other circumstances such as undergoing a database migration. Very nice work!

[PAKIDIL]

hi there nice hack but does this also show like in forum " Intorduction" (16 viewing) and so on to other forum ?
waiting for reply
thanks

[enjoyyaself]

yeaaaaaaaaaa...sick hack!

[Dave Hawley]

Just a short note to everyone flaming Floris for this mod. If you are so upset about the concept of fake statistics then it would apepar to me that you are simply insecure about your site's ability to retain its members with original content.Err, the only insecurities would be from those that feel the need to deceive their visitors. Those that don't, are the most unlikely to feel "insecure".

Lying and deceit ARE 2 main factors in insecurity.

I believe most running a serious above board business, see no long term value in being deceitful. But, each to their own :)

[fishhub]

ok, lets all try to stop argueing over this. Be happy.:)

[nickypoooo]

i think it would be an even better idea to be able to have fake viewers. where it says (## viewing) in the forums. you would be able to set the number of "fake" people viewing. i think this would make people sign up a lot faster if they know (think) theres a lot of people viewing

[tobaro]

we had a HDD crash and lost roundabout 20.000 threads and aprx. 230.000 postings. That hack helps to get real stats back and therefor I like it. Sure, if you wanna fake your stats it makes it easy now. Otherwise, in my community we have about 3 million page hits a month and huge amount of posts each hour. What sense makes it to fake a page with 45 users online if they do not post one word in 2 hours ;)
so, keep cool, everybody will see soon, if a board is busy or a stat-faked deadzone ;)

[mihai11]

we had a HDD crash and lost roundabout 20.000 threads and aprx. 230.000 postings. That hack helps to get real stats back and therefor I like it. Sure, if you wanna fake your stats it makes it easy now. Otherwise, in my community we have about 3 million page hits a month and huge amount of posts each hour. What sense makes it to fake a page with 45 users online if they do not post one word in 2 hours ;)
so, keep cool, everybody will see soon, if a board is busy or a stat-faked deadzone ;)

This is insane man ! You lost 20.000 threads !! When you have such a big board you should backup daily.

This is such a pity ... so much information lost in the blink of an eye.

[Dave Hawley]

Yep, rather than installing a hack like this, you should be looking into automatic database backups.

[nickypoooo]

Thank you, this is great plugin.
It helps small forums become big

[azn_romeo_4u]

How do you uninstall this from the db manually?

[IUD]

worky vBulletin 3.7.3 ??

[Shazz]

How do you uninstall this from the db manually?

phpmyadmin

[Shazz]

worky vBulletin 3.7.3 ??

Theres a 3.7 version of this on vb.org

[ebp123]

what about version 4+?

[wayne.richards@]

Works With 4.0.2 As Far As I Can Find

[Floris]

Should with with every 3.6 to 4.1 but has a few obvious known issues with version 4 due to the way templates are handled. It's scheduled for this year to re-release this with new features and third party plugin integration, and version 4 support. But it all depends on my free time. If people know of a 'fix' or additional and can contribute code, that's great. Post it in this thread and I will include it in the next build.