From 9b984b14f60e13db1fecf07612175111459dd097 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Amolith Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2023 22:11:22 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] add analytics draft --- content/posts/dopamine-dispensers.md | 8 ++ content/posts/privacy-respecting-analytics.md | 76 +++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 84 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/posts/dopamine-dispensers.md create mode 100644 content/posts/privacy-respecting-analytics.md diff --git a/content/posts/dopamine-dispensers.md b/content/posts/dopamine-dispensers.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8084b9a --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/dopamine-dispensers.md @@ -0,0 +1,8 @@ +--- +title: "Dopamine dispensers" +author: ["Amolith"] +published: 2023-02-26T23:09:00-05:00 +categories: ["Meta"] +draft: true +toc: true +--- diff --git a/content/posts/privacy-respecting-analytics.md b/content/posts/privacy-respecting-analytics.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c773ec5 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/privacy-respecting-analytics.md @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +--- +title: "Privacy-respecting analytics" +date: 2023-03-03T18:05:11-05:00 +categories: ["Technology"] +tags: ["Privacy", "Web"] +draft: true +toc: false +--- + +For a long time, I was so vehemently opposed to analytics on personal websites +that I condemned people using privacy-respecting systems like [Plausible] on +their blog, shouting about mUh PrIvAcY and saying that these platforms only +boosted the bloggers' ego and they would end up writing for their readers rather +than personal enjoyment. I'm realising that I was kinda dumb 🤔 + +[Plausible]: https://plausible.io/ + +One of my clients recently asked if I could add analytics to the website I +created for them. I said yes and asked whether they had a preference as to which +analytics system. They said no, they just wanted to see how many people were +using the website and whether they were actually looking at the menu and store +pages. I decided to set them up with [Umami,][umami] because it has a very +simple UI, it's not affiliated with Big Tech™ companies, [it's +GDPR-compliant,](umami-gdpr), and the script is only 2 KBs. + +[umami]: https://umami.is/ +[umami-gdpr]: https://umami.is/docs/faq + +Analytics on a business's website is a no-brainer. Business websites should be +pleasant, ergonomic, and useful for their customers and analytics do assist with +that goal. But what about on personal websites? The big reason Google Analytics +is so often condemned is because of Google; you bet your ass they're aggregating +the data they collect from all of their properties and associating that +information with your visitors' profiles (yes, even if they don't have a Google +account). Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, etc. do exactly the same thing with all of +their like/share buttons. They're ingesting as much data as they can to feed +their advertising engines and I don't want to further their mass surveillance of +the internet. + +The privacy issues with analytics primarily apply to the big providers that +aggregate everything across their customers' properties in order to surveil +everyone everywhere. Systems like Umami are different. The minimal data that's +collected is anonymised and stays in-house, on your (preferrably) self-hosted +server. When you really give it some thought, there's nothing inherently wrong +with knowing how many visitors your site has, what pages they're viewing, and +what website they came from. + +I enabled Umami on my website shortly after coming to this realisation and [made +the analytics page public.][public] + +[public]: https://umami.secluded.site/share/7PNXq2e8/Secluded.Site + +The referrers section is fascinating when you bump the period from "Today" to +"All time". There are some unusual search engines, a couple onion addresses, +another of my own websites [(scratchanitch.dev)][sai], and even some personal +ones. After seeing other individuals link to my website, I had the idea to use +GitHub's [Code Search] feature to poke around and see [where else it was +mentioned.][cs-results] + +[sai]: https://scratchanitch.dev/ +[Code Search]: https://github.com/features/code-search/ +[cs-results]: https://github.com/search?q=%22secluded.site%22&type=code + +A suprising number of people seem to be referencing my _[Vim as a Markdown +Editor][vme]_ post. I haven't thought about that post since I wrote it, much +less updated it. Taking a look at Umami indicates that it's by far my most +popular one. Maybe I should have another look at it and see if there's anything +that needs to be improved ... + +[vme]: https://secluded.site/vim-as-a-markdown-editor/ + +Knowing that there are people visiting my site and that some of the things I've +written are useful is, frankly, quite encouraging. That's why I'm writing this +post, that's part of what inspired my next one, and it's why I intend to start +writing more. I do enjoy writing, but the idea of tossing something I've spent +hours on into the void of the internet isn't exactly motivating.