'counter' attribute of the $list widget not working?

I believe that the default value for the syncFilter when you created the wiki did not exclude the StoryList (which it does now) so that may have been the change that you made.

See the following commits: Fix syncing issues with external JS template · Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5@f74c49f · GitHub and Exclude $:/StoryList from syncing · Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5@707e9d8 · GitHub

Doesn’t ring a bell, but possibly. Thanks for the help at any rate!