Question Top Posters statistics is outputting phantom accounts

I just finished a search here and found several posts about problems with the statistics output. One of the more recent reports (4 days ago) mentions upgrading from 1.7. That situation applies to me, so I am stating that now in case there is a connection that proves useful in the debugging process.

I first noticed the problem when several entries in a stats module did not have an avatar, name, or profile link. I had assumed this was a "lazy coding" bug being exposed when users don't have an assigned avatar--which is fairly common in my experience.

A few days later, I was looking at Kunena's own back-end statistics report, and I saw the same problem: The Top Posters list contains both real and fake entries! Thus, I am now assuming the problem is more directly linked to Kunena housekeeping (not the aforementioned module).

Here's a diagrammatic example of what I'm seeing reported. "[+_+]" represents an avatar image, and "Name" represents a known member.

[+_+] Name... 399 posts

...329 posts

[+_+] Name... 241 posts

[+_+] Name... 208 posts

...118 posts

So I'm getting a list that is properly sorted, but one which contains a mixture of actual post statistics and statistics associated with phantom accounts. Using the previous example, there is NO registered user with a 329 post count; and there is NO registered user with a 118 post count. Thus, it's not even a case of some accounts being misidentified.

If I had to guess, I would think there might be problem with orphaned data (e.g., from old, deleted accounts), duplication (i.e., some account instances being sampled twice), some data distortion introduced during database upgrade, or a coding bug which allows the stats generator to terminate prematurely.

Go in Kunena Configuration and do a Recount Statistics and a Synchronize Users

I did try Kunena's built-in database tools first, but to no avail. Recounting and sync'ing has no effect on these phantom entries.

It's also worth adding that the topic hits counters are severely underestimating the actual numbers. For example, one old forum topic has +3,000 "views," but the statistics system will report that topic has been "hit" only 500 times. It's like Kunena is calculating conflicting data and contradicting itself.

Are you reporting a defect following the upgrade from K 1.7.x to K 2.0.4?

can we see your configuration report please?

I don't know if the defect is specific to 2.0.4. It only came to my attention when I decided to make use of the Top Posters module. But as I explained above, the incorrect data reporting is occurring within 2.0.4--and this does follow an upgrade from 1.7.

I'm not certain how config settings could impact how Kunena internally tracks and reports its own statistics in the backend, but here they are for your amusement:

Database collation check: The collation of your table fields are correct

Legacy mode: Disabled | Joomla! SEF: Enabled | Joomla! SEF rewrite: Enabled | FTP layer: Disabled
htaccess: Exists | PHP environment: Max execution time: 30 seconds | Max execution memory: 128M | Max file upload: 10M

Kunena menu details:

Warning: Spoiler!

ID	Name	Menutype	Link	Path
461	Forum	mainmenu	Itemid=452	2013-03-02-06-45-56
462	Recent Posts	mainmenu	view=topics&layout=posts&mode=recent&userid=	2013-03-02-06-45-56/recent-posts
244	Account Credentials	mainmenu	view=user&layout=edit	services/account-credentials
469	Account Profile	mainmenu	view=user	services/account-profile
468	Account Presence	mainmenu	view=user&layout=edit	services/account-presence
452	Forum	kunenamenu	view=home&defaultmenu=453	forum
453	Index	kunenamenu	view=category&layout=list	forum/index
454	Recent Topics	kunenamenu	view=topics&mode=replies	forum/recent
455	New Topic	kunenamenu	view=topic&layout=create	forum/newtopic
456	No Replies	kunenamenu	view=topics&mode=noreplies	forum/noreplies
457	My Posts	kunenamenu	view=topics&layout=user&mode=default	forum/mylatest
458	Profile	kunenamenu	view=user	forum/profile
459	Help	kunenamenu	view=misc	forum/help
460	Search	kunenamenu	view=search	forum/search

Joomla default template details : shape5_vertex | author: Shape5.com | version: 1.0 | creationdate: January 2012

Kunena default template details : Nova - Kunena 2.x | author: www.TemplateKunena.com | version: 1.0.0 | creationdate: 15.12.2012

Kunena version detailed: Kunena 2.0.4 | 2013-01-18 [ Pharmacopoeia ]
| Kunena detailed configuration:

Warning: Spoiler!

Kunena config settings:
board_offline	0
enablerss	1
threads_per_page	15
messages_per_page	20
messages_per_page_search	15
showhistory	1
historylimit	6
shownew	1
disemoticons	0
template	nova
showannouncement	1
avataroncat	1
catimagepath	category_images/
showchildcaticon	1
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rteheight	320
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askemail	0
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showuserstats	1
showkarma	0
useredit	1
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useredittimegrace	900
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imagesize	2048
filetypes	txt,rtf,pdf,zip,tar.gz,tgz,tar.bz2
filesize	2048
showranking	1
rankimages	1
userlist_rows	30
userlist_online	1
userlist_avatar	1
userlist_name	1
userlist_posts	1
userlist_karma	0
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latestcategory
showstats	0
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trimlongurlsback	20
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ebaylanguagecode	en-us
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rss_type	topic
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rss_specification	rss2.0
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imagetypes	jpg,jpeg,gif,png
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imagemimetypes	image/jpeg,image/jpg,image/gif,image/png
imagequality	75
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topic_subscriptions	every
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image_upload	registered
file_upload	registered
topic_layout	flat
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hold_guest_posts	0
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article_display	intro
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credits	0
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spoiler_image
enablepdf	1
jmambot	1
annmodid	62
userlist_username	0
rules_infb	1
help_infb	1
onlineusers	1

| Kunena integration settings:

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Kunena - AlphaUserPoints Disabled
Kunena - Community Builder Disabled
Kunena - Gravatar Disabled
Kunena - JomSocial Disabled
Kunena - Joomla Enabled: access=1 login=1
Kunena - Kunena Enabled: avatar=1 profile=1
Kunena - UddeIM Enabled: private=1

| Joomla! detailed language files installed:

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Joomla! languages installed:
en-GB	English (United Kingdom)

Third-party components: UddeIM 2.7

Third-party SEF components: None

Plugins: None

Modules: Kunena Latest 2.0.4 | Kunena Login 2.0.4

My hunch is that attention needs to focus on the possibility of Kunena either creating false data records during upgrades, or coding flaws that trigger Kunena to critically mishandle data pulled from its tables.

Perhaps a simple utility to scan and obliterate anything that should not exist in the current DB tables might be needed?

The fact that I am seeing phantom accounts listed in Kunena's backend reports makes me suppose the problem might be traced to orphaned or corrupt account traces. Inactive accounts are frequently deleted by the administrators. [And yes, I've already instructed Kunena to removed profiles from deleted users.]

This specific issue is very difficult to diagnose because it requires us to have a reliable data set with this specific circumstance to observe this behavior. I will ask the team to take a look into their own installs to double check this behavior. As for the cause it could be a variety of things, but my suspicion is a coding bug that was just not obvious.

The users which you can't see name in stats list are anynomous ?
The categories where the message has been posted is anynomous ?

xillibit wrote: The users which you can't see name in stats list are anynomous ?
The categories where the message has been posted is anynomous ?

You have to understand: There is NO user listed. No avatar, no name, no link to a profile.

From a coding perspective, I often find it helpful to look at the actual page output when trying to isolate a bug. Below is a snippet from the backend statistics listing. I'll show the first three Top Posters results. The first and third are valid entries; but look at the second one. I can see now that Kunena is trying to create a statistic for phantom, "Guest" users. Have a look:

Maybe what's happening is that Kunena is accumulating post counts every time a user account is deleted. I think this for two reasons:

(1) If a user really had 438 posts, their account would not get deleted. We only delete accounts from inactive members--people who post 0, 1 or 2 messages and then disappear.

(2) Guests are not permitted to post, so technically a "Guest" should always have zero posts.

Please also check if it's possible for a "banned" user to create this kind of problem. I haven't checked if there's a banned member with exactly 438 posts, but it's another possible situation to investigate.

I have understtood and reproduced the issue, i need to find a fix now

What is the nature of the problem, exactly? Maybe I can apply a temporary bandage until a permanent solution is available.