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I'm not sure if META is the right place to ask such a question. If it's not suitable for here please let me know and I'll just delete it.

My problem is with the "xxx people reached" thing in my Math.SE profile. I just randomly checked my profile and really got a shock from it:

enter image description here

At first glance I thought I was overlooking a decimal point, but even with effort I simply couldn't find one! So I'm almost sure there is something wrong with the estimates here. As you can see, I'm a relatively newbie on this site (I love it very much and browse it on a daily basis, though) who have been a member for less than 2 years with just <5k reputation and altogether <300 posts here. Although I like regularly dropping comments under interesting posts, I don't think that would "impact" this great many people.

For confirmation I then went to checked some other veteran users (reps 10k to 40k) who have much richer experience and contributed much more than I have here, and, to my great astonishment, many of them even have lower estimates than I do! I think it's so ridiculous..

Whatever, this is not a very serious problem for this site. But for me personally, it will be very desirable to know a reasonable estimate of how many people I have reached, which is in some way an indicator of how much I have participated in or contributed to this site. I've always been very fond of and grateful to this site for all the help I've obtained from here, therefore I also wish to have a concept about how much I have done in return.

I'd be very grateful if anybody could kindly clarify or solve this problem for me.

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You got a recent vote on a CW answer to a very popular question, which brought your answer to a +5 score. This makes all the views on the question eligible for the impact counter.

Which is why you have such impact. If someone downvotes that answer, the number will drop by a few hundred thousands.

See also: Massive change in 'People Reached' overnight and We're working on a new stat to help convey the reach of your posts here for more information.

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  • $\begingroup$ Oh I see... thanks. Though I still think it is much much over-estimated since very few of the views were actually given rise to by my post. And also thanks for the additional info. $\endgroup$
    – Vim
    Commented Apr 30, 2016 at 15:29
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    $\begingroup$ I can downvote it, if it makes you feel any better... :-P $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Apr 30, 2016 at 15:30
  • $\begingroup$ No, thanks : ) and I think I'd rather keep this secret to myself lol $\endgroup$
    – Vim
    Commented Apr 30, 2016 at 15:33
  • $\begingroup$ Well, someone apparently did. It wasn't me though. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Apr 30, 2016 at 16:35
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    $\begingroup$ I see. So sad :(. However the good thing is I can get a more realistic stat about it, which is of course more important than the pride (vanity?) I get from the stat itself. ;) $\endgroup$
    – Vim
    Commented Apr 30, 2016 at 16:44

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