Guest number bug/DDOS concern?

[OurLadyOfWires]

I don't know the first thing about technology and numbers, and to be honest I don't even know if I wrote the "ddos" acronym correctly.

But every now and then, when I go to my thread, I see that the guest number is in the upper hundreds. And for all that I used to host this story in another site, the number of readers had never been that large. Especially simultaneous readers.

I say that because at the moment I am writing this, the guest counter is at 300+ readers. I sincerely mean it when I say that this feels wrong.

So, I wanted to ask whether this site has some botting problems that need to be addressed, or if the guest counter is just bugged, or if this is some other concern that staff would like to put on their radar.

I have checked a few other threads on the public/sfw section, and I have not seen anything similar. And if this is not something that can negatively affect the site, then there is no problem. Still, I wanted to bring this concern forward. (I took a print-screen of it, but I have no idea how to post it here without using a third-party hosting site).

Thank you for your time.

 

[tacobowl8]

My guess? Somebody posted a link to your quest somewhere; maybe reddit or someplace. And they are all now checking it out. Users who are not logged in (whether they have an account or not), would show as a guest.

 

[OurLadyOfWires]

I understand that guess, and it is possible. But this has already happened for enough days, and enough times, to raise an eyebrow.

Still, if it is not a technical problem or risk to the site, I legitimately do not mind. I don't think those guest numbers are real, but it is what it is.

Thank you for your response!