[Totally OT] Anyone know how "profile" works?

[finarvyn]

At the top of the boards is a profile section, and a number is displayed. My assumption has always been that if someone quotes you, it adds to your profile number. I think if you check your profile it resets the number. I find that on many of these proboards forums that my number can go up and down, which is counter intuitive because I assume that no one is un-quoting me. 

I'm not convinced that the profile number means anything, but it's confusing when a number is displayed and then changes at random. Anyone know how it works?

[Falconer]

Click on Profile and then click on the Notifications tab.

[finarvyn]

Yeah, that made it reset to zero.

I'm still curious why it might go DOWN without me looking at my Notifications. I get the fact that folks might be hitting "like" or quoting me, but those things should make it go up. Why would I look one day and see a 4, and the next day a 2?

[Falconer]

Likes clear when you load the thread in question. So if you are getting likes from an ongoing thread, chances are you’re loading that thread and “seeing” the like (even if you don’t actually scroll to it… if it’s on the page, then it gets cleared).

Whereas some notifications stay on until you go to the notifications page, because they are likes from ancient threads, or notifications of new users or something else.