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Front page auto-refreshing results from yesterday. Also - anyone want to grab a beer tonight around 9:30pm?
Posted by Drew at 2008-01-15 12:54:56 PM (60 comments) | Permalink
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11618 clicks; posted to Main » on 15 Jan 2008 at 12:54 PM (14 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



Yesterday we ran a quick test to see what impact refreshing Fark's main page every 10 minutes would have on traffic. Here are the results, comparing yesterday to Monday last week.

Pageviews
Jan 7th - 2,249,117
Jan 14th - 3,114,311

Traffic Gain: 38.4%

That's pretty good considering we only put the 10 minute refresh to the main page, nowhere else.

At any rate, the test is over, the code is gone. It won't be back.

Wish I had some other updates to give but that's pretty much it. I've got a soccer game that ends at 9:15pm tonight, if anyone in the Lexington KY vicinity wants to grab a beer someplace around 9:30pm I'll be out. Drop me an email - Drew@ this website url.
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60 Comments     (+0 »)


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Orallo [OhFark]
2008-01-15 12:57:31 PM  
TaDaaaa!

/BTW those numbers mean close to nothing.
 
MiKelly
2008-01-15 12:57:33 PM  
That's a good jorb.
 
EKU Colonel
2008-01-15 12:57:37 PM  
/peasants rejoice...
 
lexnaturalis
2008-01-15 12:57:50 PM  
Obviously a lot of people park their browser here. Excellent.
 
iodine
2008-01-15 12:57:57 PM  
Next time please refresh with fresh boobies links.
 
Zulgaines
2008-01-15 12:58:03 PM  
That's the greatest thing ever in the history of everything.
 
AlwaysRightBoy [recently expired TotalFark]
2008-01-15 12:58:31 PM  
Thanks....now I can go on with my life
 
theuntested
2008-01-15 12:58:59 PM  
Well I hope you've had your fun! NGBTW!
 
Rev. Skarekroe
2008-01-15 12:59:33 PM  
I have no idea what any of that means.
 
ZachF81
2008-01-15 12:59:45 PM  
My website had 17 page views yesterday, I wonder what an auto refresh would do for me...

I could probably even get my average up to 20 eventually.
 
ZAZ [TotalFark]
2008-01-15 1:00:36 PM  
I did not leave my browser on the main page long enough to auto-refresh. Like Drew, I am annoyed by auto-refesh.
 
BalugaJoe
2008-01-15 1:00:42 PM  
Drew is totally cool!!
 
vernterv
2008-01-15 1:00:50 PM  
I actually didn't mind it. Then again, I just keep a main page tab open in Firefox and check it out on occasion. It was nice not to have to refresh it.
 
rppp01a
2008-01-15 1:02:42 PM  
I saw it happening on the Politics page. I was curious as to what was up. I actually went into my profile to see if this was an option- something to consider, Drew.
 
labman [TotalFark]
2008-01-15 1:03:10 PM  
Good luck getting more ad money out of advertisers.
 
Five Frozen Fish Fingers
2008-01-15 1:03:58 PM  
Drudge uses auto-refresh. Auto-refresh is bad.
 
Cerebral Ballsy
2008-01-15 1:04:29 PM  
lexnaturalis: Obviously a lot of people park their browser here. Excellent.

Haha, I always have a tab open to Fark.
 
gatsome
2008-01-15 1:06:23 PM  
Rev. Skarekroe: I have no idea what any of that means.


Means one line of code will increase your advertising worth 38.4%
 
SherKhan
2008-01-15 1:08:38 PM  
Just curious: What does traffic gain mean in this context? Does it mean discrete viewers or reloaded electrons?
 
keygrip
2008-01-15 1:14:05 PM  
Wow....what a shock....this one got greenlit!
 
bighairyguy [TotalFark]
2008-01-15 1:18:29 PM  
I'd love to grab a beer with you Drew, but my arms aren't long enough to reach all the way from Virginia. Thanks for asking though.

/We did have beers and conversation a year ago when you were at a DC Fark Party
//Good times
 
MachoGrande
2008-01-15 1:21:00 PM  
Are the other tabs (Sports, Business, etc...) also considered the Main Page? They were auto-refreshing as well.
 
Five Frozen Fish Fingers
2008-01-15 1:23:02 PM  
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -Benjamin Franklin
 
baka-san [TotalFark]
2008-01-15 1:24:29 PM  
Well I would, but living several hundred miles from you might put a kink in things.
 
DaBishop
2008-01-15 1:27:44 PM  
Five Frozen Fish Fingers: "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -Benjamin Franklin

"Why the hell is that drunken idiot flying kites during a thunderstorm?" -Thomas Jefferson
 
keygrip
2008-01-15 1:29:54 PM  
DaBishop: Five Frozen Fish Fingers: "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -Benjamin Franklin

"Why the hell is that drunken idiot flying kites during a thunderstorm?" -Thomas Jefferson

"I drank what???" - Socrates
 
luckybastard
2008-01-15 1:58:12 PM  
I can see the Fark Gods want us to stay on topic...

Even if I knew the page auto-refreshed every ten minutes, I'd still press F5, because I want to see the VERY LATEST greenlit story, damnit.

/anal retentiveness FTW
 
Th3Guy
2008-01-15 1:58:56 PM  
Five Frozen Fish Fingers: Drudge uses auto-refresh. Auto-refresh is bad mmmmmmmmkay
 
JuniorII
2008-01-15 2:18:50 PM  
I'll check back too but as a "refresh" thread it's a yawner.
 
RyanAntiHero
2008-01-15 2:19:15 PM  
I hate to say it, but the 10 minute refresh was on every tab.
I only know this because of the anger that was caused every time I was called away to do something at work, then return to find my Geek listing had jumped all the way back to the top.

/unless that fits under the heading of main too.
//if so then I'm just a dumbass.
 
madcatcasey
2008-01-15 2:22:06 PM  
If this was to increase ad revenue, couldn't you just use Javascript to refresh just the ads?
 
awooga
2008-01-15 2:24:10 PM  
If only I was still in Lebanon, I'd be beering with you in a heartbeat. You need to make another west coast swing.
 
danlpoon
2008-01-15 2:28:02 PM  
I'm obviously not an IT guy but can't you spoof a hit somehow? It seems that if every Nigerian businessman EVER can get by my filter the same mendicants could phony me up a bunch of "hits" to lord over my advertisers. No?
 
FreudulentSplit
2008-01-15 2:30:49 PM  
*snort*

ObOnTopic: How about those hit counts, huh? Whooey!
 
meshman
2008-01-15 2:33:30 PM  
"anyone in the Lexington KY vicinity wants to grab a beer someplace around 9:30pm I'll be out."

Why would you invite people for beer if you're going to be out?

"Sure, I'll come over, when will you be home?"

"I have to go to work around 6pm so 6:05 should be ok."
 
FreudulentSplit
2008-01-15 2:34:34 PM  
ObOnTopic 2: I would, but the 2 hour drive to Lexington would be a bit much @$3.00/gal.

We need to meet halfway some time in Cinci, in a van, down by the river. The beer will flow.
 
DPoem
2008-01-15 2:38:18 PM  
Drew's going to be out. That means it's time to sneak into his house and swipe all his beer.

Oh, and it would be really nice of you if you could leave out some chips and put the TV remote in a place that's easy to find.
 
Mike [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2008-01-15 2:40:56 PM  
I'll be coming from Louisville, just as soon as Drew figures out where we're meeting :)
 
shrimper
2008-01-15 2:54:58 PM  
Hate the auto-refresh. Get a little behind in things, finally get to the bottom of the day's news, and BAM - auto refresh right back to the top.
 
id10ts
2008-01-15 3:02:10 PM  
We don't park our browsers here.
We just read sloooow.

That and the boss keeps walking in so we have to look busy.
 
omega male
2008-01-15 3:03:38 PM  
No, You come here.

Don't you know who I am?
 
skink
2008-01-15 3:08:51 PM  
SherKhan: Just curious: What does traffic gain mean in this context? Does it mean discrete viewers or reloaded electrons?

Basically, in this context it doesn't matter...It means whatever you can convince the advertising buyer it means. Most of the radio ad buyers we dealt with when we had a syndicated show had some dumbass formula they used to make a buy decision...If total page views is what is in the buyers formula, that is what you want to show them.

Or, as Drew said yesterday, he can at least tell them, "Yeah, but their number is only higher because of THIS line of code", and point to it with his chewed up Bic pen.

/Just guessing
//Big fan of the SherKhan poetry!
 
Mike [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2008-01-15 3:22:11 PM  
Yeah, again, the point wasn't to inflate our stats, it was to deflate others' stats.

I hadn't expected for people to ask that it be configurable though. Can't do that easily right now but I'll put it on the long-term to-do list.
 
Cerebral Ballsy
2008-01-15 3:25:48 PM  
Yeah, I think I will grab a beer around 9:30. I'll be down here in Florida though.

/I'll raise my glass to ya though!
 
NutherGuy
2008-01-15 3:37:25 PM  
madcatcasey: If this was to increase ad revenue, couldn't you just use Javascript to refresh just the ads?

You are correct. Ad revenue based on CPM (views) will increase for the current ads placed on the page.

But, when contacted by an ad agency for ad placement, the agency wants to know the monthly unique visitors, total monthly page views and number of 'hits'. If you don't have the right stats, you don't get the business of the advertiser.

Those types of measuresments are kept in the web server log files or at an offiste statistic gathering website and can only be increased by refreshing the entire page.

IP addresses can be a NAT address or proxy used by hundreds or thousands of people. In such a case, a thousand people could view your site and appear as only 1 unique visitor, but the hits and page views would be increased by 1000.

That's why the agencies want to see more than one kind of statistic. Number of Hits (total trips from a user's computer needed to download a page of information) means nothing, but put that figure together with total number of pages served and unique visitors and you can get a general idea about the user base and what kind of traffic to expect for an advertisement.
 
Captain Gogeta SS4
2008-01-15 4:26:45 PM  
Here's an idea, an auto-refresh option on the main page!

You get in in the morning and leave it "off" until you reach the top, the you just switch it on, and park your browser.

\if you adopt this idea I expect a totalfark membership!
\\Tired... i wanna go home and sleep.
 
CaptFun
2008-01-15 4:42:17 PM  
Interesting graph (pops)
 
yotta
2008-01-15 4:45:29 PM  
I didn't like it, but it felt so good when it stopped!

Thanks for the timely update, Drew.
 
ScottTheTall
2008-01-15 4:46:20 PM  
I'll be there for the beer only if the mug has auto-refresh turned on.
 
Hill_Lord
2008-01-15 5:10:59 PM  
Mike: I hadn't expected for people to ask that it be configurable though. Can't do that easily right now but I'll put it on the long-term to-do list.

But, will we get over it?
 
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