# Bug or bot? A 'new' user showing as read a lot of posts

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/bug-or-bot-a-new-user-showing-as-read-a-lot-of-posts/40632
**Category:** Bug
**Created:** [2016年三月5日 22:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bug-or-bot-a-new-user-showing-as-read-a-lot-of-posts/40632 "2016-03-05T22:51:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 8

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mcwumbly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mcwumbly/32/103861_2.png) [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [2017年十一月17日 14:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bug-or-bot-a-new-user-showing-as-read-a-lot-of-posts/40632/8 "2017-11-17T14:52:48Z")

</div>

It’s probably possible to tweak how those read counts are counted to use the `post_timings` table instead, similar to how “topics viewed” are calculated in [this query](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-participation/275012) (as opposed to posts\_read, which suffers from the same issue, currently):

```plaintext
tv as (
 select user_id, 
        count(distinct(topic_id)) as topics_viewed
  from topic_views, t
  where viewed_at > t.start
  and viewed_at < t.end
  group by user_id
),

```

(In addition a minimum on the time viewed to count as “read” could be factored in).

I realize this probably isn’t something that you’d want to “just do” since there are likely performance considerations to consider. Just thinking aloud about possible ways out in the future.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bug-or-bot-a-new-user-showing-as-read-a-lot-of-posts/40632)._