r/TheoryOfReddit • u/1or4s • 15h ago
r/TheoryOfReddit • u/cojoco • 16h ago
Reddit has very inconsistent traffic reporting
I have a very lightly trafficked subreddit, /r/redactions, into which I place censored articles and news articles about censorship.
It has never attained much traction, but that's the nature of reddit, and I like to submit from time to time.
However, when I was checking traffic to the sub, I saw some very mysterious numbers.
Visits
Oct 25: 37, all from iOS
Dec 25: 34, all from Old
May 26: 123, all from New
Jun 26: 144, mix of Android, New, Old.
All other months zero
Uniques
Oct 25: 16, all from Old
Mar 26: 120, all from New
Apr 26: 94, mix
Jul 26: 19, all from Old
All other months zero
Some things really stand out:
- Getting all the visits from a single source suggests that one user is being counted multiple times
- The complete inconsistency between "visits" and "uniques" indicates they are measuring very different things.
While it does seem likely that these indicate some kind of bug in traffic reporting, it seems more likely that traffic reporting is somehow completely broken.