Hi
Just installed pMetrics a few minutes ago.
First thing. I can't see an option to block your own visits. Am I missing it? I'm used to using Statcounter's blocking cookie so that my statistics aren't skewed by own visits. That's what's stopped me using several statscounters. Even the ones that offer blocking by IP aren't much use when you have one that frequently changes.
Second thing. It's showing me as being US when I'm actually in the UK. There's nothing unusual about that - I'm with AOL and use Firefox. If you don't use their horrible browser (that routes you through proxys), sites see your true IP which can often be one assigned from the US. I don't expect pMetrics to be able to figure out where I really am, but for non-proxy Aol IPs it might better if it could log you as 'not know' or something similar.
Apart from that I'm really loving it. looks amazing!
Thanks for the comments,
Thanks for the comments, anderzky. Great idea on both accounts. We'll see what we can do to build them in.
thanks
I don't think I can really use it without a blocking cookie.
I like statistics to be accurate. Without a way to block, I feel too concious about visiting by blog knowing that I'll be messing the statistics.
You can ignore visits either
You can ignore visits either by IP address or by setting a cookie. This is available from your user homepage - http://pmetrics.performancing.com/user/. Click the 'ignore' link next to any of your registered sites to get started.
The AOL proxy stuff is a real PITA, although I didn't know that AOL had service outside of the US, and since they do, I'm also surprised they route them through the US proxies. AOL does a lot of things that make life very difficult for us web developers. This is one of them. Another is encrypting their URL's for searches so that services such as Metrics can't figure out what the actual search queries are without scraping their site. (You will see referals from aolsearch.aol.com/?enquery=9asdff9adfsads9 - this is that in action). Old school Clicky used to scrape AOL to get the actual search term but it slowed things down too much, especially as we grew. Grrrrrrrrr AOL >:(
Great thanks about the
Great thanks about the ignore thing.
Aol have been in the UK for quite a while. Since British Telecom has to allow ISPs to use their network, I think ISPs are relatively easy to set up here.
Until recently they were very good value for money because they were one of the few to give almost completely unlimited bandwidth, but a few months ago they sold their UK division to a rival, but parts of it are still administered by AOL. So we still have AOL support, AOL IP, AOL software, but now there's one of those 'fair use' policies where they punish you if you use too much, but they won't tell you what too much means (so we've essentially got the worst of everything).
From what I understand about their system, if you use their browser then it routes you through their weird proxy system that gives you the correct IP address for your country. If you connect with another browser then websites see the real IP your computer was assigned - often from the US. They don't see this as a problem as from their pov you should be using their wonderful browser (which makes me feel quite ill).
It's a real pain as most sites do something to recognise that you're in the UK, but some that just rely on IP won't let you in with 'this is only available to users in the UK'
If you've ever looked at your stats and seen a single AOL user, that's probably an AOler using IE or Firefox or another browser.
If you see 4 or 5 entries at the same time, it's still probably a single AOler, just that they're using the AOL browser - which seems to use several IPs at the same time.
WordPress
For WordPress it's quite easy to stop tracking the administrator(s) of the blog. I have my Pmetrics code in my blog footer and have it between this conditional:
<?phpglobal $user_level;
if( $user_level < 10 ) :
?>
<script src="http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/metrics/clicky.js" type="text/javascript"></script><noscript><p><img alt="Performancing Metrics" src="http://pmetrics.performancing.com/XXXXns.gif" /></p></noscript>
<?phpendif;
?>
I didn't knew about the ignore cookie AND I can't be bothered to set the cookie for every computer I'll update my blog from. This is a much more elegant solution IMHO.
By the way: I just stumbled upon Performance Metrics today and was really impressed with the feature set. Installing was without a hitch (I choose to host my own clicky.js, since I'm in Amsterdam, The Netherlands). I'm already totally hooked on the Spy functionality and will definitely consider buying the paid subscription. It's the first statistics program for WordPress I've tried which doesn't immediately bog down my weblog. I've tried Wp-ShortStat, Wp-Slimstat (lighter port of Shortstat), Wp-Slimstat-Ex (port of port), but once installed they will grind the database to a halt in less than half an hour. Kudos to Performance Metrics for an elegant solution and a clean and professional looking statistics dashboard.
Unfortunately I'm not able to write a review on pMetrics on my blog (since that would be totally unrelated to the blog's topic), but maybe this glowing story from an enthoustiactic newcomer counts as well ;). I *did* include the little banner icon though ;)
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