Community questions value of analytics and discusses alternatives
2 Sep 21 3:09 AM · 3d ago · 7 comments · 1 source · development 2 of 2
Lobsters commenters debated whether analytics are necessary at all, with one noting a 12-year blog without analytics, while others discussed NixOS module details and systemd isolation approaches.
“I had a blog for 10 years, with analytics. Now I have a new one that's been running for 12 years without, and I don't miss the numbers.”
benoliver999Vincent Bernat Blog author and developer
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What people said 8 voices · verbatim
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Flooded by AI scrapers masquerading as regular users.
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I like that you have considered the user. I like goatcounter as a project. I would ask, have you considered no analytics at all? I had a blog for 10 years, with analytics. Now I have a new one that's been running for 12 years without, and I don't miss the numbers.
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I didn't have analytics for quite some time after Google Analytics, but when I focused a bit more on writing a couple years after, I tried to get it back with server logs. I was OK with the information I got from that, it's just that today, it does not work anymore.
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Even if you obfuscate the tracker, the fact that people submit it for inclusion means they don't want it. It will, in other words, get submitted and blocked again. I'd just let it be.
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Hey! I'm the one who originally added that anemic NixOS module for goatcounter to Nixpkgs. It was (still is) good enough for my need. Other people have since improved it, but it is still quite basic as far as I see. That said, I'm curious why you chose yo wrap the whole thing in a container and not use a systems service directly? IIUC systems…
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About the NixOS module, I didn't mean it negatively! Small is not bad. Thanks for your work. As for systemd isolation vs containers, containers are an easier concept for me. Maybe `ProtectSystem=strict` would provide the same isolation, but I'll need to investigate.
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No shade taken. Great post, I might just steal couple of ideas in there. Thanks!
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... why don't server logs work any more?
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