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A blog does not need “analytics”

thisdaysportion.com

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101–110 of 113 posts

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#101

Post by closewith »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #99
closewith wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you're wrong. You need consent to use IP address for analytics, even if lawfully collected for another reason under a different legal basis. Lots of precedent on this and it's clear cut.

But you don't need to use the ip for analytics. Aggregate the data and throw it away.

You still need consent for that, as you processed the IP for that purpose and it is explicitly never allowed under other legal bases.

Again, this is a completely settled matter in the EU, so you can easily look it up if your don't believe me.

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#102

Post by baobabKoodaa »

phartenfeller wrote: post #41

Can we start distinguishing between basic stats and surveillance? It sounds like this author also disabled web server logs as any knowledge of traffic is deep surveillance. Is this really the way? Maybe some people get motivated or improve content by knowing what gets actually clicked. There is a huge difference between reading web server logs and adding third party services to the websites that track everything.

I did. I saw in analytics that an april's fools thingie was by far the most popular page on my blog. I then decided to expand it into a web minigame. Now that web minigame has more visitors than my entire blog. I would never have pursued it without analytics.

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#103

Post by karmakaze »

> You do not need “analytics” for your blog because you are neither a military surveillance unit nor a commodity trading company

I also don't need a post to tell me what I or my blog needs.

[I gotta stop engaging on low-bar content.]

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#105

Post by joshcsimmons »

dragonwriter wrote: post #92
joshcsimmons wrote: post #90

I mean - it's fine to not have analytics if you like to write but be honest about it at least. You don't care about what writing your audience engages with. If you were giving presentations you'd get questions and comments at the end. Since a blog is typically read/delivered in async fashion distributed across regions the only feedback you get is via analytics. Seems to just be one more link in the kooky "everyone is…

> If you were giving presentations you'd get questions and comments at the end. Since a blog is typically read/delivered in async fashion distributed across regions the only feedback you get is via analytics If only there were a way for readers to post questions or comments back to the authors of blog posts, there could be feedback without the indirection of analytics. Too bad no one has, in the history of (either st…

Comments like this (snarky, posted behind a pseudonym) are generally why I turn off comments on my blogs and rely on analytics :)

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#107

Post by QuantumNoodle »

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,…

On the contrary, you need imagination and discipline to create and maintain something that is simply for enjoyment and not something to be bought/sold.

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#108

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

closewith wrote: post #101
Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you don't need to use the ip for analytics. Aggregate the data and throw it away.

You still need consent for that, as you processed the IP for that purpose and it is explicitly never allowed under other legal bases. Again, this is a completely settled matter in the EU, so you can easily look it up if your don't believe me.

Cool, then ignore the ip and just consider the amount of requests to a given endpoint. Counting that should be sufficient

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#109

Post by unsungNovelty »

I write because I have something to share. It's not just for me. But also for others in the hope that they would find it useful.

I can corelate my rushed writing and writing that I took enough time with, using analytics. There are so many things for which analytics are useful for. A lot of them doesnt have anything to do with tracking and doing surveillance on users. It is mostly for giving you a signal and direction on the things you write etc.

And I use GoatCounter analytics specifically cos it is client side and doesn't collect PII. It can be turned off by folks. Server logs doesn't give any option to users so I don't use them.

https://www.unsungnovelty.org/about/#privacy

Re: A blog does not need “analytics”

#110

Post by righthand »

chongli wrote: post #87
righthand wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful, upvotes and karma are analytics.

They aren't. They're feedback. Analytics is demographic information used for marketing purposes.

If I can see the number of votes and replies and their affect on my account (karma count), those are analytics of my comments and stories.

Demography is the genre of analytic.

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