Wednesday 23 October 2013

Stats Don't Matter



It was recently expressed on a blog (I forget whose, sorry) that, what with various bots, visitor stats don't matter.  Given the frequently of vampirestat as a traffic source in mine, it's a view a can sympathize with.

Despite that, I can't help having a warm feeling when I see that the blog has passed the 30,000 hits mark.  It doesn't seem too long ago that I celebrated 20,000 with much hoo-ha (in fact it was April).

A little number-crunching shows a nice steady rise

To go back to the original point, it was suggested that a truer mark that one should celebrate is the number of comments; as a measure of 'community interaction'.  All bloggers like to know they are being read and prompting thought in their readers.

In that light, I'm happy to say that the number of comments stands at 493 - a smidge off 500.

Why we should like round numbers is another question.

Thanks for visiting.  Thanks for following.  Thanks for all your comments and feedback.

10 comments:

  1. Very nice. Stats are interesting on the blogs. I was obviously getting hit by a spam bot as the numbers were hugely inflated recently.

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    1. Yes, you were getting odd spikes of dozens of hits coming and going in a couple of seconds, weren't you?

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  2. Hi Edwin, good trend. As I've quoted before "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics." My other favorite is "57.4% of all statistics are completely made up."

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    1. "Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination."

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  3. Well I'm with you in so much as I get a warm fuzzy feeling as the numbers go up. Yes I appreciate that many may be spam and that in the great scheme of things they mean little to anyone else, but hey you need an active blog to encourage the spam in the first place!

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  4. Just to add weight to the theory of bots pinging labels, my hit rate went up dramatically after I added the labels 'Naked Limbo Dancers', 'Preparation H' and 'Toffee Apples' to a recent post. The rate of hits subsided when I removed the labels.

    I consider the low number of comments I receive to be a tribute to the superb quality of the prose I post and not simply evidence that nobody bothers to actually read them . . . .

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    1. Congratulations Gary, your's is the 500th comment. Ah, the irony of it all!

      Rest assured, I always read your posts...

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  5. I like stats as much as anyone else. If the hits and comments drop, I don't take it personally, though. I post and comment because it's fun. If either becomes a chore, I'll have to evaluate what I'm doing.

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  6. Well here is another comment.
    My stats show a big spike recently. I think it is robot driven.
    Measuring by amount of comments is not a bad idea really.
    cheers

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