Attachment download count incorrect?

[Gryzor]

Hello everyone!

I installed the (really nice) Attachment Browser extension yesterday and, of course, I sorted attachments by d/l count to see the more popular ones. To my surprise, a really obscure file came on top, managing a 15K+ download count.

I find this impossible to be true; we're a niche community (CPCWiki.eu/forum) dealing with the old Amstrad CPC 8-bit computer range and I'd bet there aren't that many users of the computer worldwide, let alone that many who run the cryptic OS this file is useful for (it's a ROM file for converting individual files to ROM files - very technical and of minimal use). At the same time, much more popular files like games have much lower d/l count. The second top file, by comparison, has 7K downloads.

Any ideas what could be the source of this? Oh, and I did do a recount of forum stats. 
Running 2.1.2.

Thanks!

[Sesquipedalian]

The attachment download counter is as simple as could be. It just increases the value by one every time the attachment is downloaded. There are not a lot of ways to screw that up.

If the value is surprisingly high, that's probably because the file has been downloaded a surprising number of times. Maybe search engines have been pinging that URL frequently for whatever reason. Maybe the file is just a lot more popular than you think. Who knows? But if the counter shows 15K+ downloads, that's because the attachment has been downloaded 15K+ times.

[Gryzor]

Yeah, that's of course the obvious answer (and I thank you for that  ) but I really, really don't believe it's possible for the specific file to have been downloaded so many times. There are simply not enough people on the planet interested in the *platform*, let alone people who are interested in this specific tool. My educated guess would be that maybe a dozen people know about it and may use it  

But, maybe, just maybe, there was a period when I didn't hide attachments behind registration, and some chinese spider really fell in love with it. I'm so happy Chinese users can now learn how to convert files to ROM so that they can use them with a ROM expansion hardware interface for all the Amstrad CPC464 and 6128s that were sold in the RPC!!!

Yeah, I'll leave it at that, thanks again!

[Arantor]

I dunno, the CPC has a pretty loyal following, though I'll admit they were never as rabidly loved as the Sinclair machines (later bought out by Amstrad, of course) or the early Commodore machines for that matter.

[Gryzor]

Well that's true, we are a loyal bunch and I would bet that quite a few people play the odd game using online emulators and stuff, but most wouldn't be part of the active community, let alone touch such a technical subject (which requires access to real hardware to be of any benefit, including VERY exotic hardware expansions)... That number would be too high even for the Speccy or c64 scene

[@rjen]

I just visited your site as a guest, and that attachement is viewable for all visitors.

https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/games/how-to-convert-a-dsk-image-to-rom/msg60403/#msg60403

So you can safely assume that for some reason a search bot is regularly hitting the download link...
Just for fun I hit it 5 times and increased the counter with 5 as well...

[Gryzor]

Hahaha thanks for screwing up my stats 😂

But also thanks for reporting on the permissions. I was pretty sure I had locked it down, hmm... 

[@rjen]

I have noticed this before: I am using the downloads system mod. The downloads that are public are hit waaaay more often then logical from the regular visitor numbers.

Spiders hit very often...

By the way, there is something funny with the menu item for the attachment browser. Language file issue?

[Gryzor]

Yes, I  have noticed that. Weird thing is, sometimes I see the correct label, but haven't had the time to investigate.

Thanks, also, for the spider information. I guess that must be it then...