I have an app with numbers such as this:
Lifetime Installed Users: 244
Monthly Active Users: 2,994
The app has a regular canvas view as well as a page tab. The only way I can explain the numbers is if people who see the tab are counted as "active users". The FB documentation (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/insights/), however, states the following:
Visits to your app by users who have not granted permissions to your
app are not considered 'active users' but are counted in other metrics such as impression data.
This definition (http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=219375581424410), on the other hand, makes no mention of permissions.
A user is active when they view or engage with your application or your application's content. The "Key Sources" displayed on the Insights Dashboard indicate how many users are considered active for each activity source. Activity sources for applications include:
Users that visit your application's canvas page
Users that view your application tab on a Page
Users that published to news feed (stream) through your applicaiton
Users that "Liked" a stream story form your applications
Users that commented on a stream story from your application
The tab users of my app have not necessarily granted permission, but it seems as thought they are being counted.
Any ideas? Additionally, are users counted twice as "active" if they engage twice?
Thanks!
The second link appears to be out of date, the counting methodology was changed a few months ago to what's described in the note in the insights doc ('users who have not granted permissions to your app are not considered 'active users'')
I think the users who haven't authorised the app but are being counted are probably due to the other cases (users that liked a stream story from your app, users that commented on a stream story from your app, etc)
MAU/WAU/DAU counts refer to unique users, someone using the app twice is only counted once