An approximate and inaccurate pageview counter is better than none. Currently, we have none, and the only reason I've heard is that the fact that we use squids makes it impossible to count all pageviews reliably. Surely it would be useful to have a counter that does not aim to be precise, but at least give an approximation.

Would it be possible to re-enable the pageview counter and rephrase the message so that it says something like, "This page was viewed approximately <x> times."? The <x> is a value calculated from the non-squid pageview count. Perhaps with an "(explain)" link next to it that sends the user to a Help page that explains why the counter is approximate and how the estimate was calculated.

Do we have any statistics that allow us to estimate an approximate number of pageviews given the number of pageviews that came through to the servers?

Timwi