Tuomas, the most viewed photos of 24 hours are taken among those uploaded within the same 24 hours.
I am one of the guilty ones.
My by far worst photo has the most hits on this site, I guess, 30.000+.
It was shared mercilessly - and not by me, mind you, I wasn't interested in that 3 years ago.
But then I went over to the dark side of photo sharers myself. It was easy. Being a member of a large FB group, all you needed was share your photo there, and you'd get 100s of hits within an hour. (There is also a minor practical reason: uploading a photo to this site is more complicated than to, say, marinetraffic. So, after uploading, it is easier to just share it to FB, than to uploaded it there all over again.)
Sure, it's not fair. But then we cross into the territory of personal tastes, and they can not be considered as objective. I might say that I share only photos of new ships, the ones not previously on site. (Before I thought that the "new ships" would get more views - not really, they wouldn't.) So, it's back to who loves to see what. I will travel thousands of kilometers to see some old relic - but will not click on a picture of some other relic myself. I like fjord pictures, for instance, and I've never been there.
Let's face it, seeing one's picture on the first page is a goal for many of us here. Shared pictures tilt the odds significantly towards the side of the "sharers", so other pictures, quality notwithstanding, are left behind.
But the same is with comments - they will generate more views than sharing (I know, I've tested it!
). Sure, I will not make a first comment myself, but a buddy's comments is just as efficient.
Stan gave me an idea: if I want to share my picture, I will do it the next day.
....
No.
Wait.
This is all a bunch of cЯap. This site lives of hits. Hits. Shares generate hits. Traffic. So the sleazy ads I get (due to my other surfing habits) can generate more money for everyone involved.
So, we can complain, but this is a business venture. Ultimately, it cares mostly about the bottom line.
Ships...did someone mentioned ships? What ships? (Wait, I got a hot Ukrainian woman dying to meet me, only if I click here!)
Unremarkable picture which links this site to some other site is significantly more lucrative than some shipspotter's "dream shot".
...
Eventually, to keep the "true" shipspotters happy, it would really make sense not to count shared views for the "most viewed" category. Sure, there will be an order of magnitude less "views", but the most viewed category would change a bit. Not by a lot, though, because ultimately it's disaster porn what everyone wants to see.
My 0.02$.