Yes, it is great to see what people are reading. I wondered why a couple of my most recent reviews have such high numbers, then saw that the stats are effective only from April 24, 2008. There's no data prior to then. That accounts for the fact that some reviews have more "Yes" votes (formerly "Good points") than they have reads. A truck tire review of mine from a few months ago has 102 reads in a week... that's a lot of activity!

--Bob

One other thing to note: I think some of the data from this week may be heavily skewed toward "movies" since we had an email go out on Monday telling people to review movies... so more may have been reading the movie reviews! And, Bob-- you got it. The good points are for the lifetime. (or should I say, helpful votes!)

These are some interesting stat pages.  It's a really cool feature already, and I am looking forward to putting up more reviews to see more stats...lol  :)

They are looking good!   I think this is a great feature for us, especially for those of us who dig stats!!

LOL, yeah the more reviews, the more stats!

I would like to see my overall ranking though. I think it is a good thing for people to work toward moving up in the ranks and seeing their number change monthly or whatever is a great motivator to keep writing. But maybe that's just me...

Edited to say: Maybe the top 1000 could be broken into small chunks so they can see themselves jump to the next level. I know  from elsewhere that I really love working toward a goal. I think goals of any kind keep people writing. I'm just thinking aloud...er atype.

I like the stats very much!  It was sort of strange and interesting to see that the two highest ones for me were panda software and temple univeristy .... go figure. I also like being able to see how I measure up in the rankings.  I for one am glad that the information is for me alone.  I would hate for good reviews to go unnoticed because people thought that someone with "low stats" was not a good reviewer. 

Glad to see the reaction is positive.  My suggestion to you is allow the stats to inform what your write about but not dictate what you write about.  Sometimes you just never know what will resonate or when it will become popular.  It helps to have a wide variety of reviews that change in popularity with the seasons and changing consumer needs.    Keep the feedback coming!  We love it.

I absolutely love the ability to see my stats! It is so much fun to actually see that people are really reading. The tags for the top 5, 10, 50, 100 etc. are a nice bonus! Not only do they benefit us but we now also know better what our readers are looking for.

I like the ability to see the # of times something was read but it is also a let down seeing a high number of reads and no helpful votes. I guess that's how it goes though, tells me my best category is not my best. I get the reads but not many helpful votes. Overall it is a good thing to at least see what's going on.

Ron

I need different colors for different levels. I think the 100 and 500 are both orange. See if Kyle has some more crayons OK? I've a visual learner/thinker.

But yeah, stats are kinda cool. I'm not a big numbers person. Nice to see people are reading (love all 1 and 2 of them on some) and happy bubbles or orange and some other color I forgot. I get the idea with the bubbles beside (-:

So, yay stats. I'll never be spreadsheeting them, but I may see areas where folks are needing/wanting info.

Oh that was orange for higher hits - and green for the 100, 500 etc. It's still kind of grouped under the colors though.

Ok, I get the stats, but what are the "top 50" "top 100" tags for? Sorry a little slow.... I just recently figured out we have stats now! lol! AND message boards! I guess I need to check in more often!

There's a list for the site overall on one side and then a list in the category. So you might have a top 100 for a review on something in books under books. And, it might be in the top 500 for the whole site with all categories and reviews combined (though it's rare for a book to get so many visits).

Those buttons can vary in terms of total visits. You might get 100 visits to a movie review but not have a rank - due to a lot of people writing movie reviews. Then you get something in health and wellness and only have 15 visitors but it's a top one for that less visited category.

Hope that makes sense.

Woo! Thank you! I was trying to figure out how that worked :)

Cyndi,  glad you like them.  Remember that the stats are only since April 24th, so some of those reviews with low numbers will surely go up as time passes.  That is the fun of it! 

Oh yes! I got that (-: I actually do appreciate the one or two on some. Much better than none - for sure.

I'll look forward to watching them go up, up, up.

Dont be bummed... Some people just never click even when it is really helpful. :)  But, the good news is that since we changed from good point, more and more people are clicking.....

Hopefully it goes up but I am not holding my breath on it. ;)

If they'd just let me click it more than once, I'd make your day (-:

I hear ya...;)

Definitely love the stats... I like how the layout is crisp and easy to read.  Everything is laid out right there for you.

I do wish the "coins" were different colors though. Everything is orange but one grouping. It's kind of hard to read the numbers. But I'm being REALLY nit picky. I enjoy seeing the numbers of page views rise and seeing that my profile page is picking up hits as well.

Yeah, there's cool.

I noticed that I have written more reviews than are listed on the stats. Why would that be? Does it mean that some of my reviews have zero reads?

i have mixed feelings about overall rankings. I like the idea in principle, but I worry about the "dark side" of the competitiveness it might bring out in some people.  I still have some not-so-happy memories of my early reviewing career at Amazon, where the only incentive was, and still is, ranking.  It often got pretty nasty, particularly in the Amazon Discussion Boards, with reviewers feuding among themselves and all sorts of nonsense. 

I'm not saying I'm dead set against the overall ranking notion.  I just want to make sure Viewpoints' happy community remains happy.

The overall rankings could be just for our own benefit (private). I worry about competitiveness and such as well but people do like goals. I know I do. I work really hard to reach certain milestones and goals and I think others also like to see themselves move up in the ranks.

I do know what you mean though about pettiness and such. I have experienced some of the same elsewhere. It's a tough call for sure.

My stats echo the pattern from another review site where I write. My most-read review is a list of movies, and my second most-read Viewpoint is a book review.  Movies and Books are a constant in my universe, I suppose.

 I suppose that if I were to tailor my reviewing output to match the stats, I'd be writing more lists.

I do find the stats rather interesting, but I have one question... are they outside hits only, or are they a combination of member visits and outside hits?

I love goals! Especially when it comes to writing, and super-especially (I made that one up) when it comes to online writing. When I wrote for Miami-Dade Community College, South Campus' student paper, it sometimes was pretty hard to gauge whether or not my articles were making a ripple in readers' consciousness unless I got some feedback. I did, a few times, get some of that, more notably when the College President wrote me a letter about a column I wrote about intolerance on campus, but most of the time....

I suppose if the rankings were private, it would eliminate the possibility of the nastier side of competitiveness....

I'm not thinking about competitiveness at all I'm worried about the small numbers of readers on any one review - or all of them. I'm not used to seeing 12 people having read a review on a popular item - NOT on a competitive site. Kind of surprised me but then again this is new so maybe the wheel has to roll around a few times until the numbers are totally accurate. Jo

PS I love the spell check feature here.