I am inclined to agree with Bob and Stan with regard to linking of photographs which result in inflating Hits.
I have argued this for a long time with the Owner and IT man and whilst Webmaster tried very hard to to get this changed and my point was that HITS to photographs should only be allowed by registered members of this Website and not influenced by outsiders.
When I joined this Website it was a Small Community, I have a membership number of 75, the most recent member's number is 138097 which is an indication of how the Website has grown over the years and we have to remember this is basically and I use the word loosely a "Hobby" Website for sharing Ship Photographs and general discussion on shipping matters.
I am afraid that with the advance of the Social Media we have to keep up with the times, sadly many that have joined do not support the Website with photographs but use it for their own ends to gain information and regrettably sometimes steal our photographs but as has been said so many times that is the risk we must accept.
We cannot stop progress but I feel very strongly that we should only allow Hits to photographs from Members of the Website, I also feel that a Comment should not generate Hits, I do know from experience that Comments have been used for this purpose.
I note that Bob has referred to the Old Site when we had a "Top Posters" list, a great sigh of relief went up when it was not included in the New Site, unfortunately it now has a replacement with the advance of the Social Media.
These are my personal thoughts based on many years of working on this Website and the knowledge I have gained.
Kind Regards
Ken