Stats Pageview Counts Fluctuate Daily, Not At Midnight

One of the many controversial issues about Stats involves the daily pageview counts, which are reset daily.

Most blog owners accept the daily count reset, in principle - they just don't understand why the counts should be reset during their day, instead of at midnight.

My pageview count goes up during the day - but in the afternoon, it goes to zero, then starts over again. Why is Stats so unreliable?

The pageview count reset would be better understood, were it to happen daily, at midnight, for each blog owner. Unfortunately, there are over 24 different time zones, worldwide - and Blogger blogs are surely owned by some persons, in each of the time zones represented.

There are 24 time zones which roughly follow longitudinal lines - plus specific countries which have their own national clocks. WikiPedia identifies a total of 40 time zones.

Some countries span multiple time zones, adding to the 24 longitudinal zones.

Some countries span and divide into multiple time zones, others span multiple time zones and use one time zone. India, for instance, spans 3 time zones, geographically - but observes one time zone, offset by 30 minutes, as "GMT+5.5".

Most people observe a twice yearly 1 hour clock shift.

Many countries observe a seasonal variation, "Daylight Savings Time", when they shift local clocks ahead or behind, by an hour. DST beginning and ending dates vary by country, irregularly.

Also, countries south of the equator start summer, when countries north of the equator start winter. People south of the equator move their clocks forward, when people north of the equator are moving theirs backwards. If you ever try to communicate with somebody in Australia, from the USA, you'll notice how much relative fluctuation this causes, during a year.

To reset Stats at midnight for everybody, there would be pandemonium.

If the daily Stats pageview count reset were to be scheduled according to the local clock of the blog owner (which would be impossible, for multi owner blogs), there would have to be as many reset process schedules as there are countries / time zones. Additionally, twice a year, most reset schedules would be shifted, according to the local DST offset.

The only practical solution is to reset at the same time, worldwide.

Considering the almost inestimable number of rules required to schedule a local midnight count reset for all Blogger blogs, during the entire year, I suspect that the only practical design involves scheduling the reset, for all blogs, at midnight GMT. This means that no blog owners will see their pageview counts reset at midnight, during the entire year.

Everybody simply has to accept their count being reset sometime during their day - with the reset time varying according to the twice a year local clock shift.

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Some #Blogger blog owners claim that Stats daily totals seem to go up, and down, during the day. They do not understand why Stats counts are reset during their day, instead of at midnight their time.