# View counts & guests
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/view-counts-guests/237092
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [March 29, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/view-counts-guests/237092 "2004-03-29T15:54:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/view-counts-guests/237092/1 "2004-03-29T15:54:01Z")
Is the view count broken? Or does it not count views by guests?
Earlier I viewed a new thread. After I viewed it and after reloading the page, it still had a view count of 1, which is what all threads start out with. Is it not counting my view because I haven’t paid my five bucks yet?
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### Author:  [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/view-counts-guests/237092/2 "2004-03-29T16:09:14Z")
I was under the impression that it only counts views by unique users - I’ve never seen a view count go up when I reenter a thread… I could easily be wrong though.
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/view-counts-guests/237092/3 "2004-03-29T16:33:19Z")
But I wasn’t the originator of the thread. Threads start off with a view count of 1 because the originator sees the thread first thing.
I’ve checked some other threads and the view count is not being incremented by my viewing them either.
This may just be some kind of optimization in the new version of the bulletin boeard software to not update the view counts immediately.
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### Author:  [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/view-counts-guests/237092/4 "2004-03-29T19:55:20Z")
VBulletin has an option now to NOT update the view counter immediately. It saves on CPU.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2004, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/view-counts-guests/237092/5 "2004-03-30T06:01:13Z")
And to expand on that, the Powers that Be here are very keen on any vBulletin option which can save on resources. So they’re probably using that option.