Plz explain the fluctuating numbers….

[bgarthe33 51]

Just curious…….
I am newer to this great site, but have noticed two unique numbers things.
1. In the lower area (see pic for reference) where there are Avatars of reactions with tally numbers, the numbers will go up as people receive reactions to posts. Then, without apparent reason, the tally number will go down. For example, when I retired last night, this area showed me having 164 or 165 reactions and when I got up this morning, it was at 161. Numbers have risen, too, with no apparent reason. Now, this is not the end of the world, but it perks my curiosity as to why or how such fluctuations happen. And, it does happen with other member Avatars as well. Is it, by chance, something like reactions in the last month where there is a built in site timer?

2. I have noticed that my reactions number in the above page (pic) is sometimes different than when I click on my account.

3. I post into a thread and receive an increase of one to my postings count. Later I then post into that same thread and the posting number remains the same. I am not talking about posting two consecutive posts, but maybe post #2 in a given thread where I answer a few questions and again I will post in the same thread perhaps asking a few questions with pics (say post #7) and the postings number remains the same. Again, it is not a big deal, but curiosity killed the cat. I belong to a few Forums and they’re each unique.
This is not urgent and if you’re busy, answer it down the road when things are slow.
Thnx, Bill

 

[Essjay33 148]

The reactions in that strip at the bottom of the page are the number of reactions received in a certain number of days. It used to be 7 days but I'm not sure how many days it is now. And different types of reaction have a different number. For example the 'useful' reaction gets more points than 'sad'.
As the days pass, older reactions within the time frame fall off the count while new ones are added so the number in that strip vary as time passes and is not the same as the total number of reactions received. At the time of typing this post, my number in the strip is 83 while my total number is over 20,000 received during the last 20 years.


#3 It does depend on where the post was made. Those in General Chat aren't included in the post (message) count. (Well, they didn't used to be, the recent upgrade may have changed that)

 

[bgarthe33 51]

Thank you. It makes sense now.

 

[Naughts32 104]

it is possible that people undo their reactions as well..

 

[Essjay33 148]

I hadn't thought of that

 

[gimme301]

The message thing happens all the time to me, which is unfortunate as that's the only stat that should be accurate. It appears to just stop counting for no particular reason at all, but I haven't paid enough attention to it to know if it's only happening in general chat. Which doesn't make any sense either.... a post is a post is a post.....

 

[Essjay33 148]

Posts in General Chat are not relevant to fish keeping, so they are not included in the post count.

 

[GaryE]

We had some kids who made a game of posting one word messages in general chat because they wanted to run up their post count. It got annoying, so general chat stopped counting to stop the fad.

I like that feature as posts about cars and baseball are interesting to many, but fish and aquarium posts are where the reason for the forum exists. I pay attention to the balance between posts and reactions, as that tells me how the info is being accepted, and how it's flowing. You can have 10,000 posts and a reaction score of 13, and that says your work isn't appreciated, where a fairly equal balance says you generate something.