Time spent on ukcaving.com!

[zomjon]

I had a quick look at the stats page earlier and was quite shocked to find I've spent 7 days and 14 hrs staring at this site (more than a week - Wow!)
Got me wondering, so I checked on a few of the mega contributors and found both cap'n chris and graham to have both spent 94 days on here, Peter Burgess - 91 days, and whitelackington, a mere 64 days - does make you wonder how long we spend on these machines altogether now, and what did we do with the time before?! 

 

[graham]

It's a bit of an artificial statistic, though.

This computer is virtually always on, as it runs maintenance scans and backups over night and is on through the day for email and other stuff. That means that I can leave a browser window open most of the time and it will get logged as "on" even though I might only glance it at every so often.

 

[cap n chris]

How long do most people spend watching TV?

I do not own a TV; on getting rid of it many years back I found alternative fun via t'interwebnet. I'm pretty sure that over the years I've spent considerably less time "wasted" here than otherwise would have been the case if the Wazzock's Lantern (aka TV) was still sat in the corner.

 

[Peter Burgess]

I changed the way I check the forum using ""Show unread posts since last visit" - this requires you to be logged in. I used to just browse "recent posts" which you don't have to be logged in for. Like Graham says, leaving it logged in is just for convenience.

 

[gus horsley]

I'm the same.  I look at posts at work during my lunch break as my computer's on all the time and I have to be near a phone so I'm permanently logged on.

I agree with Cap'n Chris, the telly's sh**e, even with all the freeview channels and I don't watch it more than a couple of hours a week.  T'internet's loads better.

 

[khakipuce]

Usage stats of websites are very difficult to calculate accurately. It would be interesting to know what algorithm Simple Machines Forum uses, but a quick look at there site does not seem to give an explanation.

What the web server sees is a request from your browser for a page, and subsequent requests for any linked content on that page (style sheets, images, flash, etc). All of which normally happens within a second or two .. then nothing until the next request. You could shut down your browser or turn off your computer and the web server would not know, it only knows when a request for content is made.

One approach is to assume that there is a time limit between requests which defines a current session. So if nothing has happened for say 20mins assume that the session is over, if a request is made within the time limit, assume it is a continuation of the same session - and so add the time between requests to the overall total.

So the longer the time limit the longer you will appear to have been "active". I.e if the time limit is 20 mins and I visit at 12:30 and 18:00 that would be two sessions, but if the time limit was 6 hours, that would appear as one 6 hour session, even if I didn't look at the site between 12:31 and 18:00

 

[tony from suffolk]

I do not own a TV; on getting rid of it many years back I found alternative fun via t'interwebnet.

But Cap'n, that means you don't watch Strictly Come Dancing! It doesn't bear contemplating!

 

[graham]

I do not own a TV; on getting rid of it many years back I found alternative fun via t'interwebnet.

But Cap'n, that means you don't watch Strictly Come Dancing! It doesn't bear contemplating!

Don't contestants get their own DVD sent to them?

 

[Lurker]

I bring my laptop over to the sofa so that I can browse UKCaving whilst watching TV, so I get the best of both worlds. In fact I'm doing it right now.  :

 

[khakipuce]

Just took a look at the code for the site and the max session time would seem to be 15 mins. So if there is more that 15 mins between requests it is not added to your total time on the forum.

 

[graham]

I bring my laptop over to the sofa so that I can browse UKCaving whilst watching TV, so I get the best of both worlds. In fact I'm doing it right now.  :

You are watching daytime TV? Good God!!!

 

[hippie nixon]

i watch alot of tv especially now as i am not working but dont sit n watch the low life jezza kyle

always got the history channel or some kind of documentary on unless it late and i watch commedy on dave.

so far ive spent 14hours 7min and i am rarely on this site long just loggin see whats been said reply to what i can then bcak off

 

[bubba]

The forum doesn't attempt to time the time that you have spent actively using the forum, it's just a measure of the amount of time that you have been identified to the server as "logged in".

When you log in, there is a dropdown box that defaults to "forever". Your action will almost certainly be stored in a cookie which will eventually expire at a time according to your choice.

If you left this as "forever", then unless you manually log out, each time the forum hears from you on the same computer,  it will assume that you are still logged in, no matter whether you've had your computer on or not.

If you're that worried about a large figure, then log out and whenever you log in again, select the "1 hour" choice from the dropdown box.

[mod]This post is incorrect - see below[/mod]

 

[khakipuce]

Sorry to be an anorak about this, and I don't know what version of the forum you are currently running, but in the current release of SMF line 2559 of Subs.php has

// Don't count longer than 15 minutes.
     if (time() - $_SESSION['timeOnlineUpdated'] > 60 * 15)
		$_SESSION['timeOnlineUpdated'] = time();

and 2562 has

$user_settings['totalTimeLoggedIn'] += time() - $_SESSION['timeOnlineUpdated'];

So what this is doing is adding up the time between hits on the forum if the length of time betweeen hits is less than 15 minutes.

So I don't believe it has anthing to do with logging in or out. I have been permanently logged in since I joined months ago and I have 4 days on line time.

 

[owd git]

Hail all anoraks. good call!
how else would we know ?
I wouldn't have bothered. Thank you
Owd Git

 

[cap n chris]

FWIW it would appear (having done some basic maths) that I have wasted just under an hour a day of my life on UKcaving since registering.

My guess is that most people who own a TV spend longer than an hour a day sat in front of it.

Therefore I have no guilt. Shame, perhaps, but no guilt.

 

[Peter Burgess]

As a moderator, you wouldn't be doing your job properly if you didn't read every single post that gets written, discuss it for ages with the other mods, edit it to make it acceptable, and then read it all again to make sure you got it right. No shame there, I think.  :bow:

 

[bubba]

Sorry to be an anorak about this, and I don't know what version of the forum you are currently running, but in the current release of SMF line 2559 of Subs.php has

Ok, good call - not sure what you mean by "current version" but this forum is running v2.0 RC1.2. I'm sure it'll be the same.

My theory is obviously incorrect so thanks for putting the record straight. I'm not really a PHP coder at all btw.

Anyway, I'm not sure how important this statistic is - it's just a vague measure of time spent isn't it?

I'm at over 53 days...

 

[khakipuce]

Yes it's vague, but assuming most people use the site in a similar way, i.e. visit the site and read unread posts, post some replies and then get on with tele watching, reading the daily wail, discussing the previous/next caving trip over a pint etc. then the stats are comparable between users (wot? actually go caving  :doubt.