Counting Ghosts: A case for abandoning web analytics

#1

Post by pcmaffey » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 2:53 PM UTC

Counting Ghosts: A case for abandoning web analytics
pcmaffey.com

Re: Counting Ghosts: A case for abandoning web analytics

#2

Post by apolymath » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 3:01 PM UTC

Can't scroll or read the article from my phone...

Re: Counting Ghosts: A case for abandoning web analytics

#3

Post by vpaulus » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 3:06 PM UTC

Whatever it is about, I refused to read because of this silly scrolling/paginating

Re: Counting Ghosts: A case for abandoning web analytics

#4

Post by notpushkin » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 3:09 PM UTC

vpaulus wrote: post #3

Whatever it is about, I refused to read because of this silly scrolling/paginating

Came to say exactly this. I can read it if I try hard enough to scroll exactly as the author intended, but it feels super weird.

Re: Counting Ghosts: A case for abandoning web analytics

#5

Post by floodle » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 3:11 PM UTC

notpushkin wrote: post #4

vpaulus wrote: post #3

Whatever it is about, I refused to read because of this silly scrolling/paginating

Came to say exactly this. I can read it if I try hard enough to scroll exactly as the author intended, but it feels super weird.

Sometimes it scrolls down, sometimes it pages left. And if you want to go back using the browser you will have to click click click through each page!

Re: Counting Ghosts: A case for abandoning web analytics

#6

Post by CharlesW » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 3:12 PM UTC

notpushkin wrote: post #4

vpaulus wrote: post #3

Whatever it is about, I refused to read because of this silly scrolling/paginating

Came to say exactly this. I can read it if I try hard enough to scroll exactly as the author intended, but it feels super weird.

I thought it was neat, but scrolling broke at page 4 so I had to use the widget along the left edge to get to page 5.

Re: Counting Ghosts: A case for abandoning web analytics

#7

Post by Veuxdo » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 3:12 PM UTC

For those on mobile: scroll right (that is, swipe left) to read the article.

Re: Counting Ghosts: A case for abandoning web analytics

#8

Post by firecall » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 3:12 PM UTC

vpaulus wrote: post #3

Whatever it is about, I refused to read because of this silly scrolling/paginating

What the actual heck is going on there!

Maybe they should run some analytics and check the bounce rates!

Re: Counting Ghosts: A case for abandoning web analytics

#9

Post by malfist » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 3:14 PM UTC

Perhaps we shouldn't be taking advice on how to build better websites from an absolute garbage of a website from a usability perspective.

Re: Counting Ghosts: A case for abandoning web analytics

#10

Post by kqr » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 3:16 PM UTC

This sounds more like a case for using analytics intentionally, rather than abandoning it. Which is great! We should do more things intentionally.

One of the reasons I wrote a Perl script to analyse my access logs was to find discussions of my content that I can learn from and participate in. Hard to do that without some sort of analytics!