I am under the impression that the view counts might just be registered, logged in readers. But don't quote me on that. Also, even if that were the case, I suppose a bot could sign up. And after making 50 posts, and being here 2 weeks, apply for Full Membership. :lol:
I know our analytics page views tell us what % are bots. On the whole it's not very many, and I don't know if vBulletin is smart enough to exclude those numbers or not. I don't know for sure whether page views on EC are all views or just members but I'm reasonably certain it is all views, not just registered members.
I'm pretty sure that it is all views as well ^^ . Threads are able to be seen by anyone browsing the internet, so I think the "total views" is just the number of times the thread has been seen by anyone (registered or not).