Would make a lot of sense to me, Alfred!
The main difficulty is still the fact that Google never defined what exactly they are counting and when and where it is published. So there is no guaranty, it will always continue like it does since March last year.
Agree, same here!
@Rednewt74 @Yaryman @AdamGT
Congratulations all the LGs in the list and the participants 
@WilfriedB , I think it would ensure a level playing field for everyone.
Thank you for the year end Star Photo leaderboard @AdamGT.
Welcome to the Boards, @TonysLists, way to make a splash!
Wasn’t suggesting to use the “Takeout” method to continue counting for star boards, just using to point out the views of star photos from before the Feb 7th change will NEVER be caught.
I to believe the new system is more accurate.
I could never figure out how my star photo of a Mexican restaurant in Reno, NV was getting 40K views a week.
Here is a though for a new star board.
Only photos that show being uploaded MARCH 2024 or after can be included.
My top photo would have 194K views. ( in 10 months )
Just a point of reference, my star photo before the change had 1.5 million views in 6 months.
@Yaryman I think @Rednewt74’s suggestion “Subtract everyone’s numbers as at February 7th” makes more sens.
@Yaryman I think @Rednewt74’s suggestion “Subtract everyone’s numbers as at February 7th” makes more sense.
How would you do that?
Even if you could do that, I think you would find out everybody’s star photo was now below 500K and more likely below 200K.
The reason for “my plan” was that everybody could check the results.
I know A LOT of WORK went into making all these lists.
I know A LOT of WORK went into making all these lists. ( I typed that twice )
But they no longer represent anything that has happened since Feb. 7th.
Everything I have seen shows page views are now 90% to 95% lower than what happened before Feb. 7th.
I have no idea what Google’s reason for the new system was.
Did it bother them to give out free page views that cost them nothing?
Why are they still tracking photos using old system in Google Takeout?
Why did Google change the search results for “French Military Victories” 
" What does French military victories mean?
I’m sorry, no results were found. Did you mean French military defeats?
Thank you for the warm welcome @AdamGT! Appreciate you taking the time to do this for us!
31,498,686 Views is an astronomical number, Congratulations @TonysLists
@Yaryman @Rednewt74 @WilfriedB @PrasadVR I’m enjoying the discussion and noting the valid issues and suggested ideas for going forward however, I don’t have a firm view yet.
Some more great discussion here guys, keep it going. Yaryman you got me thinking (Oh Oh) and of course I had to check my numbers. I have had high views for a long time and of course was disappointed like everyone with the Feb 7th crash. But I have come to terms with it, and my view is ( it is what it is).
Since Feb/7/24 I have only 10 photos and 2 videos that have achieved over 100k Views. the highest has 461k and was uploaded on April 7/24. All the rest are yes in the 100k range.
In comparison my star photo Walmart with 9.7 M views has had 3 increases since then totalling 330k, similar #s.
I like Alfred’s idea, I’m not sure how we could incorporate that into Adams leaderboards and the top 100 stats.
Yes keep the discussion going @TerryPG and stay tuned for what might possibly be some interesting possibilities 
You could set up a test Leaderboard for uploads starting March 2024.
Sadly I think it would prove my point. ( View are 95% to 90% lower )
TerryPG just mentioned his highest viewed photo from March 2024 forward has 461K views, and his star photo photo has 330K views since Feb. 7th.
My star photo ( with 1.5 million views in 6 months before Feb. 7th ) has had about 150K views since then.
I to have come to terms with the new system. I upload far fewer photos.
I make no effort to take photos in an area that already has a pin.
I am quite sure Google will survive without me uploading as many photos.
I am now a map filler. Here is the map from my 2024 Sept to Oct European trip.
I’m at work so need to be brief. Yes one could but would this change the Leaderboard rankings and if so by how much?
You might be interested in the High Density, Blood Red topic
I love statistical calculations. My Star Photo Average Views/Day finally dropped below 1000. The number is not increasing, but every month there’s another 30 or 31 more days added to the number used to calculate the average. Same numerator divided by an increasingly larger denominator equals a smaller quotient.
Realistically though, my average had long since dropped to 200 views per month before the February 7th fiasco, so I don’t look at this number as anything meaningful.
@Yaryman @Rednewt74 @WilfriedB @TerryPG. Next month is a whole year since the new Google view count system, so I agree the old stats are practically obsolete now. Under the old system I only ever had 3 photos with over 1 million views, and the 4th was at just under 700,000. In January, photo #4 gained 30,000 views, lost 10,000 in the February fail, and regained 36,000 in March. From April to December, it has seen increases of 0, 0, 7000, 0, 7000, 5700, 7000, 0, and 7100. This will NOT become my 4th million views photo any time soon.
There’s no rivalry for position by photo #5 as the gap was 122,000 at the end of December and the gain for that month was only 5900, which is 1200 less than #4’s gain.
Good Lord, I wasn’t serious about going back to zero. @tony_b, I haven’t had time to do any number crunching, and it may be a couple more weeks until I do, but my take on the recent movers and shakers and the Delta views of star photos is that many are still performing in outstanding ways. Some old, high count photos are still increasing. Who knows why? My star photo was knocked out of the top tier a couple years ago. I have scroll down hundreds of photos and have been not been able to find it; so any increase in views would be a total shock. On the other hand my star video has been consistently getting 10,000 views a month since the date that shall not be mentioned. As @WilfriedB pointed out, we will never have enough data to be doing anything but making wild guesses about what going on. Even when I do have time to do the calculations, I’m not sure there’s even really a point in it.
If they were not pushed down in the list, the views continue to increase. Most likely with a lower daily delta compared to last year, though.
However, if a photo was the cover or among the first ten (“featured”) for some time and than got pushed down in the list, so you need to scroll forever to find it, Tony’s calculation applies that it may take years, to see any increase.
What comes in addition, that we do not know, if the media is featured at a geographical pin and also can move up or down there.
Meanwhile I found several photos, which do not appear at the list where I posted it (“semi hidden”), yet they gaining some views. But this is something, you only recognize by tracking all changes daily.
It would wipe out all the old leaderboards.
They are all based on a counting system that was most likely TEN TIMES HIGHER than the current system and no longer exists.
Let me say again, I realize HOW MUCH WORK you did on the leaderboards.
But they are counting something that no longer exits.
Putting up a test board for Star Photos posted in March 2024 or Later would just completely prove my thesis that the new counting system reflects 90% to 95% fewer views.
I understand everybody who has taken the time to post on those lists, and is doing well on those lists has no interest in finding out they no longer represent what is happening.
@Rednewt74 @WilfriedB
I wasn’t suggesting a complete return to zero, but the new high is certainly different to the old high.
I did a further check on my two other “million views” photos and the result was similar to my earlier comment on my highest non-million photo. Before February they both got an average of 60,000 views per month. Now that has dropped to approximately 15,000 views per month from April to December.
