Photo Views Refresh Question

[MelanieRudolph]

How often do the photo reviews refresh ? My total photo views number has said the same number for the last several days. However, when I look at the individual photo views, the total views number should be higher & it is not refreshing.  Does this occur daily or or monthly or a certain day if the week ? 

[JamesPavlick · Accepted solution]

It refreshes every few days. The local views on each individual photo will update much faster than the total views. Google sends out a weekly email to me about my progress on my photos, my reviews, my edits, etc. and those views are all real-time. But for the counter on the overall weekly views that refresh every few days to update real-time like each individual photo, it would take some serious processing power for the hundreds of thousands of Local Guides to update. As to what day or days of the week the views refresh, I cannot say. It seems random to me. Although with Google, nothing is random. It probably has to do with planet alignment or something. I hope this helps!

[MelanieRudolph]

Thank You so much !!!' 

[Prdeep]

@MelanieRudolph Thanks for raising the question. I also had same question in my mind.

Also a big thanks to @JamesPavlick for providing the solution.

[kmichaelcook]

@Prdeep, @MelanieRudolph, @JamesPavlick Asked and answered! Thanks - I was just going to go post something about this. That makes sense.

It's weird, though, because there have been periods of 4-5 days at a time in which I go to sleep, and excitedly wake up to check my progress towards Master Photographer (I just need the million views) and it would have jumped by 20 or 30,000, every day. And now I'm on a four-day streak of the exact same number (582,629 - it's burned in my mind, at this point).

Clearly, I don't understand how all the moving parts intersect and interrelate, but at least I know it's normal. I guess I shouldn't have taken for granted the stretches where daily metrics updates were consistently happening.

If anyone wants to check them out and thereby help me get a little closer (shameless plug!), I have a handful of photos I'm pretty proud of. Of course, my top-10 most-viewed shots are careless, half-considered ones of random places. It's an instructive lesson on user priorities and needs, and how they differ from mine.

Kevin M. Cook's photos

• My most-viewed photo (a resale shop, in which I'm clearly visible in the reflection on the glass door; this was prior to learning how to take better photos, which I mostly did here on LGC- thanks, great community!)
• Another top-10 most-viewed photo (this is a library, if you can believe it; HPL did a major revamp after Hurricane Harvey, and the results are... interesting)
• I took photos of Buffalo Bayou during a recent storm/flood, and had a big Aha! moment when they jumped to several thousand views apiece in a single day - of course users are checking rivers, creeks, bayous etc.
• I also try to use photos that convey a clear sense of what a business is about - I was a journalist for the Houston Chronicle for years, and I am a big believer in the great power (and great responsibility) of a free press. This shot of a deeply objectionable, racist 'Love Doll' (billed as a 'gag gift') conveys a clear sense of what the shop in question is all about, and I'm pleased its views are in the thousands.

I also am a bit of a completionist, so since I went through a period during which I was taking public transportation everywhere, I attempted to photograph and review every Houston Metro transit center and since I was also using Houston BCycle to get around, ditto for those. And I actually did get all of the Houston Public Library locations documented. I awarded myself an honorary (imaginary) badge for that accomplishment.

Does anyone else have similar compulsions? Sort of like a Pokédex for Places? I'd be curious to hear what other LGs are trying to document in full. 

Thanks again for answering my question - at least I know I just have to be patient.