Erin, who owns and controls the server, or the situation at the end of a long game of virtual "Telephone*" or "Chinese Whispers?"

Proxy caching is not controlled by users, but by the sequence of interactions between the user and the ultimate server. The most reliable way to get through to the real server is to log out and then log back in since it forces an actual interaction and generates a unique page that won't be cached. But that doesn't mean that other pages won't be cached. It's all the luck of the draw. Even if the "count" goes up, it doesn't mean that you've reached the actual server, but only that the page you reached was cached more recently. Proxy servers are clever enough to disregard hit counters entirely, since it's obvious that every page with a "hit counter" would otherwise never be cached and the Internet would drown in excess traffic.

Proxy caching also affects the page counts that people make so much of. If your request for a particular page can be fulfilled by a proxy server anywhere along the chain, it will be, and the "hit count" won't be affected. This is tough on the authors, but good for Erin, since Internet service is sold by bandwidth, and bigger glops of bandwidth cost more money. From the standpoint of economy, the more pages that can be fulfilled by proxy servers the better.

The takeaway from this fact is that "hits" are essentially meaningless except as a very rough measure. Whatever the "hit counter" reveals, you can rest assured that the real figure is greater. How much greater depends entirely on the browsing patterns of the audience for any particular story. If intentional hits are generated slowly, or are widely spaced, the counter is more likely to be closer to accuracy. If they're generated in close proximity to other such requests, the less accurate they're likely to be, since cache data has "time to live" values set by the proxy hosts based on their own bandwidth and service requirements. If proxy servers are being inundated with requests by other users accessing other pages, the time to live values are adjusted upwards, so browsing at busy times of day is more likely to be served by proxy servers.

If everyone in the world read any particular story more-or-less simultaneously, the hit counter for that story would not bump up to six billion, although the Internet might crash. (Kids, don't try this experiment at home!) Almost all those requests would be served by proxy servers, and Erin (thank heavens!) would neither see nor have to pay for them. On the other hand, these requests would neither generate any advertising payment, but advertisers discount hits appropriately, so payment rates are based on the average number of actual hits, which can be calculated statistically.

Cheers,

Puddin'

* The children's party game in which the fun is had by hearing how much a short message changes after being whispered around a circle of party-guests. The game is highly subject to manipulation by the participants, since every new whisper is an opportunity to secretly affect the outcome.

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
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