Hi there,
are we talking about the first item under Summary in the Visitors panel? In this case, I changed the way they are counted.
Before:
visits from browsers not known as search engines or bots.
Now:
visits from browsers with javascript enabled.
Not sure which one is more accurate 🙂 What’s your take?
Camu
Yes, the first item under Summary in the Visitors panel is correct.
I don’t think only capturing visits from javascript enabled browsers is getting the bulk of my visitors.
Based on previous years’ stats for my site (pre-slimstat), with regard to human visits, the previous method was more aligned with my historical data.
My opinion, it’s the better way to go. 🙂
Thanks!
As an aside suggestion….perhaps a config option so we could choose which way to count them??
Just a thought…
Well, who said your previos tool was right? 🙂 Jokes aside, I must admit I was leaning towards the same approach. The point is that user agents can be easily manipulated, so that a search engine can be mistakenly identified as “human” by relying on that information only. JavaScript engines, on the other side, are typically things found on regular browsers, really few crawlers implement them. That is the reason why I decided to switch.
As you can understand, the debate is open to interpretation, the only way to make sure humans are identified as “humans” is to add captchas and such, but this is not a viable option in this case.
Camu
Agreed. Glad I’m not in your shoes 🙂
By the way, I decided to switch also because tools like OpenTracker are using the same approach
http://www.opentracker.net/article/hits-or-pageviews
Your idea of adding an option and let users decide is really interesting, I’ll add it to my todo list:)
Ps: a vote for my plugin would be a nice way to say thank you…
Also, I had already planned to change this: the next version will rely not on JAVASCRIPT enabled, but on COOKIES (it is already partially this way). But the option you suggested is probably the best idea.
Cheers,
Camu
Excellent. Looking forward to seeing what comes next. Great plugin, by the way (forgot to mention that earlier).
Thanks!
There are some interesting new features I’ll be implementing soon 🙂 And if there’s anything you’d like to see added, do not hesitate to speak up!
Cheers,
Camu
while on topic figuring out whats accurate ….
how does slimstat counting differ from google analytics ? Is google more accurate or is slimstat ?
just trying to understand the difference :X
As long as no caching plugins are enabled, WP SlimStat is more accurate than GA, hands down.
ah… thats good to know :}
sadly google only trusts their own google analytics when it comes to adsense i reckon :{
guess if it were too accurate they’d go bankrupt :d lulz…
I have Adsense but not Analytics on my site, and I have no problems at all…
