The scourge of web analytics
stavros.io
The scourge of web analytics
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Re: The scourge of web analytics
#2> You’ll notice my hypocrisy in having social buttons at the bottom of this post...the Facebook button likes the page directly, which can’t be substituted with a simple link, but I encourage you to use Privacy Badger...
This nukes the argument. At least for this page alone, trust your users to copy and paste a URL to content they like.
Re: The scourge of web analytics
#3I fully agree on the social buttons but Google Analytics is so much more than just a statcounter. Goal tracking and segmentation are invaluable tools that I believe no other tool provides.
And before you complain that 'spying on your users isn't needed to make money', try working at a large corporation. Things just don't work the way you (ideally) want to. You can only say "no" so many times before someone else steps in and does it for you.
Re: The scourge of web analytics
#4I fully agree on the social buttons but Google Analytics is so much more than just a statcounter. Goal tracking and segmentation are invaluable tools that I believe no other tool provides. And before you complain that 'spying on your users isn't needed to make money', try working at a large corporation. Things just don't work the way you (ideally) want to. You can only say "no" so many times before someone else steps…
My point wasn't so much "never use Google analytics", it's more "don't use Google analytics if all you need is visitor counts and referrals", though.
Re: The scourge of web analytics
#5> You’ll notice my hypocrisy in having social buttons at the bottom of this post...the Facebook button likes the page directly, which can’t be substituted with a simple link, but I encourage you to use Privacy Badger... This nukes the argument. At least for this page alone, trust your users to copy and paste a URL to content they like.
You're saying it doesn't matter if it's as easy as possible for people to share content?
EDIT: Reword.
Re: The scourge of web analytics
#6It's odd to keep Google Analytics because you don't have access to logs while being able to provide self-hosted comments. Just add a self-hosted small image on each page.
Re: The scourge of web analytics
#7> You’ll notice my hypocrisy in having social buttons at the bottom of this post...the Facebook button likes the page directly, which can’t be substituted with a simple link, but I encourage you to use Privacy Badger... This nukes the argument. At least for this page alone, trust your users to copy and paste a URL to content they like.
You're saying it doesn't matter if it's as easy as possible for people to share content? EDIT: Reword.
Not right after claiming such buttons "do nothing for the user that a simple link wouldn’t" and assess their cost in "tracking and slowness". You apparently think they do something good. Otherwise you wouldn't include them.
My complaint isn't with your using social media buttons. (I hated them enough to block them; they no longer bother me.) It's in using them right after claiming they are useless and parasitic.
Re: The scourge of web analytics
#8It's odd to keep Google Analytics because you don't have access to logs while being able to provide self-hosted comments. Just add a self-hosted small image on each page.
Hmm, that's actually a great idea! Let me try that right now, thank you.
Re: The scourge of web analytics
#9> You’ll notice my hypocrisy in having social buttons at the bottom of this post...the Facebook button likes the page directly, which can’t be substituted with a simple link, but I encourage you to use Privacy Badger... This nukes the argument. At least for this page alone, trust your users to copy and paste a URL to content they like.
You're saying it doesn't matter if it's as easy as possible for people to share content? EDIT: Reword.
I want to build and refine and improve and make useful and a lot of things, but not add credibility to such practices. And I want people to know what an URL is and how copy and paste works. Everything I write is secretly about wanting people to know what an URL is, anyway, so it would be kind of self defeating for me.
That Facebook ever offered these buttons without warning about the privacy implications in bold red letters put them clean outside any sort of human history I can be arsed to care about. Don't get me started on Twitter, they don't even need to snoop for that, haha. They're toys. Some people can't fit that together with reach or money or whatever, but all FB is proving is that toys can have success, too. We knew that, so in the end there is nothing there, except something with which we can diminish ourselves and those who visit our sites. This is my personal outlook and I know I'm deluded to think this holds any weight in the real world; but my inside weighs more than the world so that still doesn't move the needle for me.
Re: The scourge of web analytics
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're saying it doesn't matter if it's as easy as possible for people to share content? EDIT: Reword.
Not right after claiming such buttons "do nothing for the user that a simple link wouldn’t" and assess their cost in "tracking and slowness". You apparently think they do something good. Otherwise you wouldn't include them. My complaint isn't with your using social media buttons. (I hated them enough to block them; they no longer bother me.) It's in using them right after claiming they are useless and parasitic.
The argument was "social buttons are bad for privacy. The ones that don't do anything a link wouldn't are especially egregious". The Like button doesn't fall in the latter category, as it does something a link won't.