4 ms·

This is cool. I am a total hypocrite; I say I blog for the love of it and being a slave to analytics is terrible but in reality I love the sense of immediate fe

This is cool. I am a total hypocrite; I say I blog for the love of it and being a slave to analytics is terrible but in reality I love the sense of immediate feedback when I see a bunch of hits on a project I spent hours on. I did end up implementing a simple hit counter on my site just to satisfy my craven need for validation without resorting to full analytics. It doesn't beep at me, but maybe it should.

AndrewStephens 1y ago
Just to prove I am degenerate, I just threw a quick one-line shell script together that beeps when my hit counter triggers: tail -F -n 0 /var/log/visitlog | while read ; do printf '\a' ; done Now if only somebody would visit my site.
- cubefox 1y ago
  I picture this like the classic Garfield comic where Jon just stares in increasing frustration at his rotary phone for multiple panels, to finally shout JUST RING ALREADY. (His cat adds some dry remark which I have forgotten)
  - yojo 1y ago
    You probably already know this, but that comic is substantially improved without the cat. https://garfieldminusgarfield.net/ https://garfieldminusgarfield.net/
    - wholinator2 1y ago
      Now see I'm curious, would it be better if we had no context on what the comic _is supposed_ to be? Or is this only hilarious in comparison to the typical "i hate mondays, how many pieces of flair", type schtick the original goes for. Honestly i think it's the latter, cause after 20 of these or so they kind loose the appeal except for the very occasional guffaw. Though, is that still a higher laugh count than the original? I'm not about to read Garfield to find out
      - wredcoll 1y ago
        I think they mostly work as a derived work / commentary.
  - AndrewStephens 1y ago
    Hey, it's not like that at all. I don't have a rotary phone or a cat.
- DeathArrow 1y ago
  It beeps when Googlebot visits, too?
  - AndrewStephens 1y ago
    Actually no. My hit-counter uses javascript which filters out almost (but not quite) all of the bots. It probably misses some real users that have javascript turned off.
    - jofla_net 1y ago
      cool, i just visited. Did you hear it!?
- devrandoom 1y ago
  It's https://sheep.horse/ https://sheep.horse/
  - rietta 1y ago
    Just visited!
  - nemomarx 1y ago
    oh a game that uses Ink? super cool!
    - AndrewStephens 1y ago
      Ink is such a cool language. I worked really hard on that game and entered it into an interactive fiction competition last year. It didn't come close to winning (I didn't expect it to) but people seemed to like it, especially if they grew up watching Star Trek.
  - tbalsam 1y ago
    I did my part and manually reloaded the page about once a second for 5 minutes so that Andrew could get their dev validation beep quota in for the day (unless it's not naive hits, and unique user based, in which case this has a been a fantastically hilarious waste of time).
  - eyelidlessness 1y ago
    I clicked to satisfy the earnest request for attention. I even read some of the blog once I got there!
  - rietta 1y ago
    Your latest post about Google results inspired me to write on this too with a link back to your article! Google Search Results are Increasingly Disappointing as AI Results Are Pushed at https://rietta.com/blog/google-search-results-decline-with-ai-overviews/ https://rietta.com/blog/google-search-results-decline-with-a...
  - butlike 1y ago
squigz 1y ago
Why is wanting validation on something you spent hours on a bad thing to you?
- AndrewStephens 1y ago
  Good question, it is not bad to enjoy attention for a project you worked on. But I feel that, if unchecked, that same impulse can lead to deliberately doing projects specifically for validation which leads to low quality click-bait and vapid self-promotion. I think a healthy indifference for the public at large is a good thing. That is one of the reasons I got rid of detailed, real-time analytics in favor of a simple hit counter (the other is privacy). If I really stuck to my principles I wouldn't even do that but I am a hypocrite.
codazoda 1y ago
This is what I did as well. Not wanting to take away my users privacy I built my own simple counter in 2022. I wrote about The Raspberry Pi 400 in My Bedroom on my blog at the URL below. I just downloaded a click sound and I think I'm going to see if adding it drives me crazy. https://joeldare.com/private-analtyics-and-my-raspberry-pi-400 https://joeldare.com/private-analtyics-and-my-raspberry-pi-4...
- AndrewStephens 1y ago
  Your solution looks very similar to what I implemented; only logging the page and time with no identifying data. I don't even have a real database. I really hate that modern websites include multiple trackers - there is really no need for invasive analytics.
indrora 1y ago
When I was hosting a site run on bespoke PHP pages, I had a hit counter that used straight text files under the hood. It was surprisingly effective and a fun experience.

AndrewStephens 1y ago

Just to prove I am degenerate, I just threw a quick one-line shell script together that beeps when my hit counter triggers: tail -F -n 0 /var/log/visitlog | while read ; do printf '\a' ; done Now if only somebody would visit my site.

cubefox 1y ago
I picture this like the classic Garfield comic where Jon just stares in increasing frustration at his rotary phone for multiple panels, to finally shout JUST RING ALREADY. (His cat adds some dry remark which I have forgotten)
- yojo 1y ago
  You probably already know this, but that comic is substantially improved without the cat. https://garfieldminusgarfield.net/ https://garfieldminusgarfield.net/
  - wholinator2 1y ago
    Now see I'm curious, would it be better if we had no context on what the comic _is supposed_ to be? Or is this only hilarious in comparison to the typical "i hate mondays, how many pieces of flair", type schtick the original goes for. Honestly i think it's the latter, cause after 20 of these or so they kind loose the appeal except for the very occasional guffaw. Though, is that still a higher laugh count than the original? I'm not about to read Garfield to find out
    - wredcoll 1y ago
      I think they mostly work as a derived work / commentary.
- AndrewStephens 1y ago
  Hey, it's not like that at all. I don't have a rotary phone or a cat.
DeathArrow 1y ago
It beeps when Googlebot visits, too?
- AndrewStephens 1y ago
  Actually no. My hit-counter uses javascript which filters out almost (but not quite) all of the bots. It probably misses some real users that have javascript turned off.
  - jofla_net 1y ago
    cool, i just visited. Did you hear it!?
devrandoom 1y ago
It's https://sheep.horse/ https://sheep.horse/
- rietta 1y ago
  Just visited!
- nemomarx 1y ago
  oh a game that uses Ink? super cool!
  - AndrewStephens 1y ago
    Ink is such a cool language. I worked really hard on that game and entered it into an interactive fiction competition last year. It didn't come close to winning (I didn't expect it to) but people seemed to like it, especially if they grew up watching Star Trek.
- tbalsam 1y ago
  I did my part and manually reloaded the page about once a second for 5 minutes so that Andrew could get their dev validation beep quota in for the day (unless it's not naive hits, and unique user based, in which case this has a been a fantastically hilarious waste of time).
- eyelidlessness 1y ago
  I clicked to satisfy the earnest request for attention. I even read some of the blog once I got there!
- rietta 1y ago
  Your latest post about Google results inspired me to write on this too with a link back to your article! Google Search Results are Increasingly Disappointing as AI Results Are Pushed at https://rietta.com/blog/google-search-results-decline-with-ai-overviews/ https://rietta.com/blog/google-search-results-decline-with-a...
- butlike 1y ago

squigz 1y ago

Why is wanting validation on something you spent hours on a bad thing to you?

AndrewStephens 1y ago
Good question, it is not bad to enjoy attention for a project you worked on. But I feel that, if unchecked, that same impulse can lead to deliberately doing projects specifically for validation which leads to low quality click-bait and vapid self-promotion. I think a healthy indifference for the public at large is a good thing. That is one of the reasons I got rid of detailed, real-time analytics in favor of a simple hit counter (the other is privacy). If I really stuck to my principles I wouldn't even do that but I am a hypocrite.

codazoda 1y ago

This is what I did as well. Not wanting to take away my users privacy I built my own simple counter in 2022. I wrote about The Raspberry Pi 400 in My Bedroom on my blog at the URL below. I just downloaded a click sound and I think I'm going to see if adding it drives me crazy. https://joeldare.com/private-analtyics-and-my-raspberry-pi-400 https://joeldare.com/private-analtyics-and-my-raspberry-pi-4...

AndrewStephens 1y ago
Your solution looks very similar to what I implemented; only logging the page and time with no identifying data. I don't even have a real database. I really hate that modern websites include multiple trackers - there is really no need for invasive analytics.

indrora 1y ago

When I was hosting a site run on bespoke PHP pages, I had a hit counter that used straight text files under the hood. It was surprisingly effective and a fun experience.