How does it work? Does it go up everytime a single person views the thread? If I refresh, does it count as another view? Does it only count once per user? Once per session? Once per user per post?
Inquiring minds want to know
Based on my vast vB experience (crowd drops to the floor laughing), combined with a bit of WAG, I’d say it goes up every single time a click is made on the link. Like a pagecounter for your homepage does, kinda.
I’m sure one of the more skilled Mods or Admins is going to come in and make fun of me now. 
You do appear to be correct.
Huh, fancy that. Common sense at the SDMB.
While rolling on the floor laughing, I hit reload a half a dozen times and sure enough the view count was up by 7 (one for my initial click and then 6 more for the reloads). I tried it two more times with the same results, although someone else looked at this thread a couple of times too.
So, since these aren’t static pages, any request for the page seems to increment the view counter.
Jim