A blog does not need “analytics” • Hacker News Board

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#11

Post by Bender » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 12:29 PM UTC

There is a middle ground. Maybe one need not add third party privacy invading analytics but there are simple self hosted solutions that have been around for ages and probably covers most of what people are looking for such as AWStats [1]. Logs can be merged into a centralized tiny web server on ones private network and that node can be running AWStats. Demo [2]. Main site [3].

[1] - https://github.com/eldy/AWStats

[2] - https://www.nltechno.com/awstats/awstats.pl?config=destaille...

[3] - https://www.awstats.org/

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#12

Post by elric » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 12:29 PM UTC

Back in the 90s I had old school visitor counters on all my websites (the kind that looked like an odometer). I got rid of them after I was displeased with how few visitors I got, and it felt like a badge of shame more than anything else.

IMO you lose a bit of authenticity when you start pandering to your audience to boost your numbers, which seems like a silly thing to do for a personal blog.

I'm totally fine with people who usually write about tech and suddenly write about baking, it makes life in my RSS reader that much more fun. If they optimized their "reach" they probably wouldn't include those gems.

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#13

Post by jotaen » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 12:29 PM UTC

I think there is some nuance to this: to me, it makes a difference whether you are counting page views in a coarse-grained, anonymous fashion, or whether you are going through all the hoops to find out as much as technically possible about all visitors.

I have some basic analytics on my blog as well. I’m just curious “what’s going on” on my website, in the same way as e.g. a shop owner in real life is aware of what’s going in their store. Publishing things on the internet can feel quite anonymous for the most part anyways, so at least I find it nice to have some rough insight into basic traffic patterns.

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#14

Post by stevage » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 12:30 PM UTC

chongli wrote: post #9

stevage wrote: post #3

The author lacks imagination or is not arguing entirely in good faith: > I realised that knowing about my website visitors had zero effect on anything in the real world. Perhaps that's true for them? But you don't have to try too hard to think of legitimate reasons why basic analytics are useful to any blog author who is trying to increase their reach, like knowing what topics are of most interest to their audience,…

any blog author who is trying to increase their reach, like knowing what topics are of most interest to their audience, when to post for bets result, comparing different styles of post etc. Why would I want to read a blog like that? That's hack writing 101. There's a million of those writers shovelling out that drivel on LinkedIn (which sells them all the analytics they need to do it). I want to read blogs by people…

You could make the counter-argument: Why would I want to read something written by someone who doesn't care about their audience at all?

Both of those are extreme positions.

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#15

Post by stevage » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 12:31 PM UTC

vedmakk wrote: post #8

I stopped using analytics on all of my projects for a while now. I've got blogs and actual saas (non-commercial) out there. And to this day I dont know if zero people or more are actually using it. The reason is: a) I do these things first and foremost for myself and I share them because maybe they are useful for other people (but I dont mind if they are not). And b) I always intend to publish my "products" without n…

I tend to be the same, or I roll my own very basic analytics - essentially a hit counter.

It's nice to know whether people use your stuff or not. Particularly so you don't turn off something that actually do care about.

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#16

Post by plastic-enjoyer » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 12:33 PM UTC

stevage wrote: post #14

chongli wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

any blog author who is trying to increase their reach, like knowing what topics are of most interest to their audience, when to post for bets result, comparing different styles of post etc. Why would I want to read a blog like that? That's hack writing 101. There's a million of those writers shovelling out that drivel on LinkedIn (which sells them all the analytics they need to do it). I want to read blogs by people…

You could make the counter-argument: Why would I want to read something written by someone who doesn't care about their audience at all? Both of those are extreme positions.

> Why would I want to read something written by someone who doesn't care about their audience at all?

Uh, because you find the content interesting?

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#17

Post by DrewADesign » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 12:33 PM UTC

tyleo wrote: post #4

I don’t think all analytics are evil. There’s a spectrum. Those old number of visitors stamps were fun and harmless. On the other end of the spectrum we have megacorps connecting services and building shadow profiles of people. There’s a lot of room in between.

People that want fun harmless things out of analytics usually use free add-ins that are free because they’re made by megacorps connecting services and building shadow profiles of people.

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#18

Post by Telemakhos » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 12:33 PM UTC

Knowing who links to you can be valuable, especially in a niche field, because it tells you who else has a blog or social media account or web page on the same topic or a similar one. Then you link to them and make them feel included in a community.

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#19

Post by kmfrk » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 12:33 PM UTC

They're not important, but we're also simple creatures who find it amusing when some numbers go up. And KPI's can also be fun for things like A/B testing etc. You could even rig something for some positive reinforcement to send a notification when a post is overperforming.

But I haven't found any analytics tools that strike the right balance; they either are too unwieldy, or they're absurdly simplistic.

These days, going viral is very much a double-edged sword, and getting a heads up is useful in more ways than one.

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#20

Post by lukan » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 12:34 PM UTC

littlestymaar wrote: post #6

roscas wrote: post #2

The only way is to make that illegal, and many other tracking done by Google and Facebook.

Or just ban ads. There will be no surveillance capitalism if the data wasn't monetized through targeted ads.

Current direction seems to be rather banning ad blockers.

I am still amazed how anyone can stand surfing the web without.