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> How I implemented my study > I installed Google Analytics alongside Plausible Analytics on three sites in June. All he measured was people who load Plausibl

> How I implemented my study > I installed Google Analytics alongside Plausible Analytics on three sites in June. All he measured was people who load Plausible Analytics and not Google Analytics. Anybody running noscript (like me) wouldn't have shown up here at all.

iamacyborg 6y ago
Yup, would have been interesting to compare both vs a log analytics tool like Matomo.
chrismorgan 6y ago
Even when I run JavaScript (I don’t by default), uBlock Origin blocks https://plausible.io/js/plausible.js https://plausible.io/js/plausible.js through Peter Lowe’s Ad and tracking server list. Not sure if that’s one that’s enabled by default or if it’s one I’ve enabled. So yeah, I would expect the true Google Analytics blockage figure to be markedly higher than the 13% reported here.
- Akronymus 6y ago
  The peter lowe list is enabled by default.
- Symbiote 6y ago
  It wasn't blocked for me, also with uBlock Origin. I found that it was only added to _Peter Lowe's_ list yesterday/today, so it wouldn't have affected the statistics for this blogpost https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?showintro=1&startdate[day]=12&startdate[month]=07&startdate[year]=2020 https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?showintro=1&st...
  - pgl 6y ago
    Yeah, I added this yesterday. For the record, you can also view exact timestamps on the detail page: https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/details.php?hostname=plausible.io https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/details.php?hostname=plausibl...
- ck_one 6y ago
  Is plausible also blocked when used with a custom domain so that tracking results are POSTed to your own domain?
  - chrismorgan 6y ago
    If you use a CNAME (tracker.mysite.example → tracker.example), uBlock Origin on Firefox will still be able to block it. (I have no idea whether Plausible offers this mode of operation. I don’t see “CNAME” mentioned on their site, so probably not.) If you run some kind of proxy yourself on an unconventional name (e.g. “ads.mysite.example” may well be blocked) and make sure that any script it needs loads from your own site, again with an unconventional name (e.g. “piwik.js” would be blocked as Matomo), then your tracker won’t be blocked until someone notices. If you want to head far down this route, smuggle analytics data in with legitimate requests and separate and forward it on your server. Fortunately, taking it to this extreme takes enough effort that it’s decidedly uncommon.
    - gorhill 6y ago
      > I have no idea whether Plausible offers this mode of operation The site of the article cloaks `custom.plausible.io` as `ms.markosaric.com`.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - Symbiote 6y ago
        Sometime between the mention here of plausible.io being blocked, and your comment, markosaric.com was changed to use CNAME cloaking.
lrem 6y ago
How hard is it these days to tell humans from bots in server logs?
- markosaric 6y ago
  My idea was to use server logs too but AWStats showed more than 100% higher number of unique visitors and more than 18 times higher number in page views (both compared to Plausible numbers) so I excluded it from the study as I thought it’s very inaccurate.
  - Simon_says 6y ago
    It's a tough problem.
polytely 6y ago
Also doesn't count anyone who uses uMatrix I think. Highly recommend it for technological literate people. It's a bit more work than uBlock but you gain a lot of control on what you allow to load.
chrismorgan 6y ago
A technical note: it is possible to do limited client-side tracking of such users: <noscript><img src=//tracker.example/pixel.gif style=position:absolute></noscript> This won’t activate if some of the scripts on the page get run, only if none of them get run. Also any ad blockers that block tracker.example will still block this. Some of Google’s tracking things include (or used to include?) such a snippet. But broadly the technique has fallen into disuse. I don’t see Plausible advertising any way for it to work, and their main snippet POSTs to https://plausible.io/api/event https://plausible.io/api/event, which an image won’t be able to achieve.

iamacyborg 6y ago

Yup, would have been interesting to compare both vs a log analytics tool like Matomo.

chrismorgan 6y ago

Even when I run JavaScript (I don’t by default), uBlock Origin blocks https://plausible.io/js/plausible.js https://plausible.io/js/plausible.js through Peter Lowe’s Ad and tracking server list. Not sure if that’s one that’s enabled by default or if it’s one I’ve enabled. So yeah, I would expect the true Google Analytics blockage figure to be markedly higher than the 13% reported here.

Akronymus 6y ago
The peter lowe list is enabled by default.
Symbiote 6y ago
It wasn't blocked for me, also with uBlock Origin. I found that it was only added to _Peter Lowe's_ list yesterday/today, so it wouldn't have affected the statistics for this blogpost https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?showintro=1&startdate[day]=12&startdate[month]=07&startdate[year]=2020 https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?showintro=1&st...
- pgl 6y ago
  Yeah, I added this yesterday. For the record, you can also view exact timestamps on the detail page: https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/details.php?hostname=plausible.io https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/details.php?hostname=plausibl...
ck_one 6y ago
Is plausible also blocked when used with a custom domain so that tracking results are POSTed to your own domain?
- chrismorgan 6y ago
  If you use a CNAME (tracker.mysite.example → tracker.example), uBlock Origin on Firefox will still be able to block it. (I have no idea whether Plausible offers this mode of operation. I don’t see “CNAME” mentioned on their site, so probably not.) If you run some kind of proxy yourself on an unconventional name (e.g. “ads.mysite.example” may well be blocked) and make sure that any script it needs loads from your own site, again with an unconventional name (e.g. “piwik.js” would be blocked as Matomo), then your tracker won’t be blocked until someone notices. If you want to head far down this route, smuggle analytics data in with legitimate requests and separate and forward it on your server. Fortunately, taking it to this extreme takes enough effort that it’s decidedly uncommon.
  - gorhill 6y ago
    > I have no idea whether Plausible offers this mode of operation The site of the article cloaks `custom.plausible.io` as `ms.markosaric.com`.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - Symbiote 6y ago
      Sometime between the mention here of plausible.io being blocked, and your comment, markosaric.com was changed to use CNAME cloaking.

lrem 6y ago

How hard is it these days to tell humans from bots in server logs?

markosaric 6y ago
My idea was to use server logs too but AWStats showed more than 100% higher number of unique visitors and more than 18 times higher number in page views (both compared to Plausible numbers) so I excluded it from the study as I thought it’s very inaccurate.
- Simon_says 6y ago
  It's a tough problem.

polytely 6y ago

Also doesn't count anyone who uses uMatrix I think. Highly recommend it for technological literate people. It's a bit more work than uBlock but you gain a lot of control on what you allow to load.

chrismorgan 6y ago

A technical note: it is possible to do limited client-side tracking of such users: <noscript><img src=//tracker.example/pixel.gif style=position:absolute></noscript> This won’t activate if some of the scripts on the page get run, only if none of them get run. Also any ad blockers that block tracker.example will still block this. Some of Google’s tracking things include (or used to include?) such a snippet. But broadly the technique has fallen into disuse. I don’t see Plausible advertising any way for it to work, and their main snippet POSTs to https://plausible.io/api/event https://plausible.io/api/event, which an image won’t be able to achieve.