Defending against 'ghost' guests

[ImageConstrux]

I moderate a board where, about a year ago, a member set up some kind of bug attached to a graphics file attached to a post.

The result was 10-12 guests showing up at any given time all 'watching' that same thread and post.

While I think the intent was positive (the member wanted to make it look like the site had more traffic than it did), it sure would hurt in terms of hosting $$, and in terms of credibility if advertiser, paying by the impression, were paying for ghost impressions.

Anybody have any experience with this?

[Freddie Bingham]

Originally posted by ImageConstrux
I moderate a board where, about a year ago, a member set up some kind of bug attached to a graphics file attached to a post.

The result was 10-12 guests showing up at any given time all 'watching' that same thread and post.

While I think the intent was positive (the member wanted to make it look like the site had more traffic than it did), it sure would hurt in terms of hosting $$, and in terms of credibility if advertiser, paying by the impression, were paying for ghost impressions.

Anybody have any experience with this?

I am not aware of any way that this could be accomplished via uploading of an attachment. Some users will visit through proxies that change their IP address on every page view so they can quickly multiply your guest numbers though since each page view will look like a new guest due to the different ip address.

[ImageConstrux]

Hmmm... Unfortunately, the former administrator of that forum passed away earlier this year, so I can't ask. Maybe there was some sort of proxy bot that someone set up, to open new window after new window on his own PC. But I thought the admin said there was something attached to the jpeg itself.

Ok. Good enough for me.

Thanks for your help.

Jeff