In a diary there is a link at the top left (list) which brings up a compact display of the author's diaries, with numbers for comments, recommends, hot listing, and "VIEWS".
This last number can be very helpful in judging whether a diary has had any effect if it doesn't make the rec list, and most don't. I noticed that "VIEWS" had a hyphen in a diary of mine posted today and I reported it to Help.
It then occurred to me that maybe I wasn't jinxed. Maybe "VIEWS" was just broken. That appears to be the case. Going back over several people's diaries "VIEWS" broke sometime on October 11th. OllieGarkey has two diaries that pin it down more closely. His diary at 2:09pm that day had 109 comments but only 3 recorded views, suggesting that "VIEWS" broke shortly after he published.
Take the poll! Seriously - please take the poll because right now it's the only way I know someone has read unless they leave a comment (which is delightful, too).