Review Queue numbers on banner

Question

Often I find that there is a little number (against a brown background) next to the Review link on the banner at the top of the page. Allegedly this is the number of posts awaiting review according to the hover text.

However I often see a non-zero number there even when there are zero items awaiting review in the review queues. Whether I click on the 'Review' link, or on the number, they both take me to the Review Queues page where there may, or may not be anything to review, even when the number is non-zero.

I have checked the help pages but I couldn't (easily) find anything about handling the review queues (I am at work so I didn't look hard).

What is the meaning of the non-zero little number when the review queues are empty?

Answer 1

There are two possible culprits here:

1. Caching is in place to save the database from unnecessary load.
2. Review counter is not personalized. You may have reviewed everything but all those posts may still be waiting for other reviewers.

References:

It is also cached, so may or may not be very accurate depending on the amount of ongoing activity in /review at any given time.

and

The topbar count is every review in the system, not just the ones available to you (ie ones you haven't skipped or already otherwise acted on). – Anna Lear♦

Some users have commented on Meta Stack Overflow that it makes the counter useless.

• Unfortunately, the caching makes that page pretty useless now - you have to check manually whether there is really something in the queues

• For me, both pending review count in the top bar and review page are almost always incorrect

Related post on the Meta Stack Exchange: Wrong posts number on Review section.