Popularlity modules statistics spikes

I'm opening up this support request for this page: http://drupal.org/node/329620
The question was posed as a comment to the page and I want to roll the comment.
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How do you explain spikes?
AlexisWilke - February 28, 2010 - 22:55

Hi guys,

I have seen, on some modules, huge spikes. For instance, the stats may go from 105 to 1252, then the following weeks, it is "back to normal", so around 110 or so.

Would you say that this happens when a large number of people all find out about that module at the same time, test it for a few days, and then uninstall it? It seems bizarre to me that such a thing would be happening...

I have a "live" example here:

http://drupal.org/project/usage/InsertNode

You can see that the stats went from 569 in December 27th, then jumped to 3,947 on January 3rd, then back to "only" 701 the following week...

Thank you for your time.
Alexis

Alexis Wilke
Made to Order Software Corporation
http://www.m2osw.com
http://www.m2osw.com/drupal
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