Interesting theory! I imagined that to count as a read, someone needed to spend enough time (I’ve seen my printed read times change by a minute, and I assume that was based on data of how long people actually took to read) and also scroll all the way to the bottom. (Once, right after posting something, my husband read it and clapped, and my stats said zero reads and one fan, and I imagined that, while he had taken the time to read, he must not have scrolled past my self-promotion link at the bottom or something.)

So much guessing!