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#553 2020-07-06 21:37:48
Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general
i am so sick of Google’s butt ugly UI to their Analytics that i decided to try out something else. For the past two weeks i have been using Matomo Analytics. A much cleaner UI and great reports. They even send weekly emails with a full report. cool.
Now i really don’t have much use for Web Analytics as i really don’t give a arts ass on visits my sites. But our organization wanted to get some reports as we have low readership and I initially used GA, but I am now going to switch away from GA.
…. texted postive
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#554 2020-07-07 05:47:31
Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general
bici wrote #324324:
i am so sick of Google’s butt ugly UI to their Analytics that i decided to try out something else. For the past two weeks i have been using Matomo Analytics. A much cleaner UI and great reports. They even send weekly emails with a full report. cool.
Pete has some time ago recommended a non tracking analytics software which can be installed without GDPR warning.
I’m trying to find the post but I can’t. The good thing with piwik/matomo is their banned lists which excludes spam referrers from the visits. I used to use it but deleted it a few months ago as it needed updating at least once a week. The process was automatic but I just stopped trusting it. Having said that we used to have a plugin for it.
Yiannis
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#555 2020-07-07 06:32:08
Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general
colak wrote #324326:
Pete has some time ago recommended a non tracking analytics software which can be installed without GDPR warning.
We talked about it in the txp jitsi meet-up.
I think Pete mentioned AWstats or your own server’s system as a means of visually evaluating your server logs. Note: you need to set your server logs to collect anonymised data if you want to avoid displaying a GDPR consent notice. There are probably other similar logfile visualiser systems, too.
There’s also:
- Fathom
- Plausible
- simpleanalytics, which I’ve started using
They’ll all paid, although Fathom has an open-source Lite variant, which it turns out is a separate thing with an entirely different codebase and even programming language. As such it is not being kept up to date much. I had no luck in installing it either: it ran but aborted as soon as it started logging (others had the same issue, still unresolved). The open source variant uses a cookie, the paid version doesn’t.
Plausible is new to me. I hadn’t seen that when I was looking for alternatives, so I can’t say anything about that.
Simpleanalytics is simple but gives you a few options. You can use one account for multiple sites, share the overview with clients, you can include their javascript from your own server to avoid it being blanket blocked, and you can track custom events to find out if certain buttons, options etc. are clicked, but it doesn’t give you the conversions analytics of GA (which you generally don’t need unless you’re running a webshop). If you do like the look of simple analytics, I’d really appreciate a signup via my affiliate link. It gives you an extended 30-day trial period and me another 30 days free if you decide to sign up. The annual fee is half the monthly fee, so okay if you have several low traffic sites you’d like to know visitors stats of.
A benefit of systems that do not require a cookie or similar storage is that you do not need to ask for consent because you’re not collecting any personally identifiable data. As a results your stats are more meaningful because your analytics data includes all visitors, not just those who give you consent.
EDIT: * Someone else mentioned goatcounter as an open-source variant.
TXP Builders – finely-crafted code, design and txp
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#556 2020-07-07 06:44:42
Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general
jakob wrote #324327:
I think Pete mentioned AWstats or your own server’s system as a means of visually evaluating your server logs. Note: you need to set your server logs to collect anonymised data if you want to avoid displaying a GDPR consent notice. There are probably other simply systems.
It wouldn’t have been AWStats, I’ve never actively installed it but used it on client servers that I’ve inherited. I’ve used Matomo (was Piwik) and that seems to work with my brain, given my requirements. I’ve tended toward the web ops side of things rather than marketing and engagement in recent years, and there are many amazing software libraries / packages I can talk about from that, but it’s outside the scope of this thread.
GoAccess is very good, but requires some on-ramp acclimatising to get your head around it.
Last edited by gaekwad (2020-07-07 06:47:11)
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#557 2020-07-07 16:03:29
Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general
Our org doesn’t much care in knowing personal info on users; who they are, or any other demographic data; they wish to know the location of our users and pages viewed and total number of visitors on a monthly basis… Just a measurement that our webpages are being used /visited and are of value to the membership. The location is simply to judge how out-of-towners compare to the locally based groups. As for my own vanity sites, total number of visitors on weekly basis is more than adequate. Simple Stats!
…. texted postive
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#558 2020-07-08 15:52:55
Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general
Bashing the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) seems to have become one of American activists’ favourite hobbies in the tech field. Some criticism is entirely justified. But many claims that the GDPR is “counterproductive” or “misses the point” are based on misconceptions, rather than an accurate understanding of European data protection laws. – The EU General Data Protection Regulation explained by Americans
The problem with Laws is that they need to be well-written. And then they need to be enforced.
However, there are concerns that, while the framework of the regulation is solid, the EU and the European Commission is not doing enough to ensure that budgets and resources for Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) are sufficient to handle an increasing number of complaints and data privacy violations. – How EU Authorities See GDPR Effectiveness Two Years In
Europe adds a lot of complexity on top of that with each country trying to decide how to enforce it. But it is still early yet.
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#559 2020-07-08 17:17:47
Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general
bici wrote #324358:
Our org doesn’t much care in knowing personal info on users; who they are, or any other demographic data; they wish to know the location of our users and pages viewed and total number of visitors on a monthly basis… Just a measurement that our webpages are being used /visited and are of value to the membership. The location is simply to judge how out-of-towners compare to the locally based groups. As for my own vanity sites, total number of visitors on weekly basis is more than adequate. Simple Stats!
Yes, similar here too. And that is what you get from simpleanalytics.io: live demo page of their stats.
About the only thing I’ve ‘missed’ is a more detailed breakdown on the version of the browsers, though this is actually gradually becoming less relevant with the fast update cycles of modern browsers and the gradual disappearance of old IE.
One feature of Google Analytics that was useful on one larger site where I was using it is the “pathway” through the site (i.e. which page was visited next). That was useful to see how placing certain topics on the homepage directed more traffic to a sub-page as a way of verifying if steering focus helped. In simpleanalytics you can do that another way by using an event (docs) to log when a featured item on the homepage is clicked.
TXP Builders – finely-crafted code, design and txp
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#560 2021-03-09 11:10:07
Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general
Appears that some companies don’t learn from those that came before them:
The smd plugin menagerie — for when you need one more gribble of power from Textpattern. Bleeding-edge code available on GitHub.
Txp Builders – finely-crafted code, design and Txp
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#561 2021-03-09 11:15:02
Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general
Bloke wrote #329161:
Appears that some companies don’t learn from those that came before them:
Their methodology reminds me of the early gmail days.
When you’re accepted as a member, you have a chance to invite two others – and this is where the first of the privacy concerns emerges.
Yiannis
——————————
NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.
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#562 2021-03-31 18:44:43
Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general
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#563 2021-03-31 18:57:01
Re: Txp cookies, visitor logging, and GDPR stuff in general
Oh, what I meant to say, after searching to see if anyone mentioned Plausible yet, they posted this in M’don. I guess I should not be surprised Fb had analytics, but here’s to it ending.
I’m always suspicious, though, of big tech, and what they have up the sleeve after announcements like this.
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#564 2021-04-01 04:42:55
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