What's with the numbers?

[redcoon2]

I've been watching this for quite some time with bemused concern.

There seems to be a recent radical increase in the numbers of "Currently Active Pilots" under the "What's Going On" banner toward the bottom of the Forum page.

For the past several years it has indicated active pilot and visitor numbers that maxed at about 1800 sometime in 2012.
But recently those numbers have exploded somewhere past incredulous...this morning it listed as somewhere over 18000, yes, eighteen thousand, but when I scroll through the listings for each category there are no indications of anywhere near those numbers.

In the midst of some recent update to the software did we get a new line or two of code that has bolloxed the counting system?
The current numbers just seem outlandish based on historic tracking.

Anyone else curious or have any insights on this phenomenon?

[Teaticket]

This has been mentioned recently. The site has probably been hacked.

[flash]

Herr Oberst is aware & believes it may be bots rather than humies - he is keeping an eye on it.

[Jager]

The Robot Revolution starts on the internet!
Karl

[TALLY HO]

martians ?