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StatCounter Issue

SunGloSunGlo Registered Users Posts: 382 Major grins
edited July 13, 2008 in SmugMug Support
Has anything changed that would affect the way StatCounter reports visitor path statistics? I've been working with StatCounter support, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere.

Up to November 16th, I was receiving data which included the image information. After that date, I stopped receiving the image information. The only thing that occurred at during that timeframe was an issue with receiving "loading detail..." in the place of the ISP information. When that problem was resolved this problem appeared. I did reinstall the code, but it was pasted over the existing code in the footer.

Website: www.sunglo.smugmug.com
www.sunglophoto.com

Phil
.
SunGlo Photography
www.sunglophoto.com
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    ivarivar Registered Users Posts: 8,395 Major grins
    edited November 27, 2007
    Hi Phil wave.gif

    This is not a problem, but is exactly as it should happen. You could get 'both types' of links, depending on what your viewers have clicked, and what viewStyle is set/used for that page. Give it a day or two, and I'm sure you'll see someone using the other type of pages thumb.gif
    Ivar
    www.ivarborst.nl & smugmug
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    SunGloSunGlo Registered Users Posts: 382 Major grins
    edited November 28, 2007
    ivar wrote:
    Hi Phil <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/wave.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >

    This is not a problem, but is exactly as it should happen. You could get 'both types' of links, depending on what your viewers have clicked, and what viewStyle is set/used for that page. Give it a day or two, and I'm sure you'll see someone using the other type of pages <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/thumb.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >

    Hi Ivar,

    My StatCounter data is back to normal. I worked with Rhonda at StatCounter and I believe she worked with someone at SmugMug to narrow down the problem.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
    <o:p></o:p>
    The problem was the new version of StatCounter code. Rhonda was able to build a version that mimicked my old code, I installed it and I am now receiving data that allow's me to track every image viewed.

    It is my understanding Rhonda is referring the problem to their developers.

    I'm impressed with the StatCounter folks, just as I am with the SmugMug gang.

    Phil<o:p></o:p>
    .
    SunGlo Photography
    www.sunglophoto.com
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    ivarivar Registered Users Posts: 8,395 Major grins
    edited November 28, 2007
    Hi Phil,

    Is the statcounter code (the stuff you put on your account) new? Or is Statcounter using a new code themselves that was causing problems?

    If it is the code that you put on your account is new, do you know if the code gets generated automatically by the statcounter website, and if it is the correct code that gets generated now?

    I've been using statcounter for a while now, and have checked the last entries for a few days, and they seem to be normal. But, it's good to have some info if people come to us on the helpdesk.

    Thanks!
    Ivar
    www.ivarborst.nl & smugmug
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    SunGloSunGlo Registered Users Posts: 382 Major grins
    edited November 28, 2007
    ivar wrote:
    Hi Phil,

    Is the statcounter code (the stuff you put on your account) new? Or is Statcounter using a new code themselves that was causing problems?

    If it is the code that you put on your account is new, do you know if the code gets generated automatically by the statcounter website, and if it is the correct code that gets generated now?

    I've been using statcounter for a while now, and have checked the last entries for a few days, and they seem to be normal. But, it's good to have some info if people come to us on the helpdesk.

    Thanks!

    Ivar,

    It's the code that is generated by the StatCounter website that you place in your footer that is new code.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
    <o:p></o:p>
    I replaced my code when there was a problem with the data showing "loading detail..." in the ISP information on the visitor path statistics. I did this to verify that my code had not been corrupted.<o:p></o:p>
    <o:p></o:p>
    Anyone that has placed the new code in their footer will receive data, but won't receive the image detail part of the URL. They wouldn't know it is missing.<o:p></o:p>
    <o:p></o:p>
    I use this information to track which images my customers are looking at and can take a stab at which customer it is by the ISP information.<o:p></o:p>
    <o:p></o:p>
    If you’ve had StatCounter working on your site for some time, DO NOT replace the existing code with the new version until they fix their code generator.<o:p></o:p>
    <o:p> </o:p>
    If you are adding StatCounter for the first time, go ahead and add it, but check with StatCounter to see if they have fixed the Visitor Path Statistics URL problem (URL will contain the gallery number, but nothing beyond that).

    It's a fantastic tool which can provide data in near real-time fashion.

    Phil
    .
    SunGlo Photography
    www.sunglophoto.com
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    SunGloSunGlo Registered Users Posts: 382 Major grins
    edited November 29, 2007
    Ivar,

    Here's some sample data from the StatCounter Vistor Path Statistics. With the new code version the image numbers are omitted. If you never saw this data before, you would not know it is missing.

    ====================================<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
    Running the new code (No Image Numbers)<o:p></o:p>
    ====================================<o:p></o:p>
    <o:p></o:p>
    November 27th 2007 07:34:34 PM <o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/Photo%20Journalism/367324<o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/gallery/3138064
    November 27th 2007 07:35:13 PM <o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/gallery/3138064<o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/Photo%20Journalism
    November 27th 2007 07:35:16 PM <o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/Photo%20Journalism<o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/Photo%20Journalism/367326
    November 27th 2007 07:35:23 PM <o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/Photo%20Journalism/367326<o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/gallery/3262114
    November 27th 2007 07:37:16 PM <o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/gallery/3262114<o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/Photo%20Journalism
    November 27th 2007 07:37:17 PM <o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/Photo%20Journalism<o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/Photo%20Journalism/367326
    November 27th 2007 07:37:21 PM <o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/Photo%20Journalism/367326<o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/gallery/3138418
    November 27th 2007 07:37:40 PM <o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/gallery/3138418<o:p></o:p>
    www.sunglophoto.com/Photo%20Journalism/367326<o:p></o:p>
     <o:p></o:p>
    ====================================<o:p></o:p>
    Running the old code (Includes Image Numbers)<o:p></o:p>
    ====================================<o:p></o:p>
    <o:p></o:p>
    November 28th 2007 01:59:38 PM <o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/Photo%20Journalism/413128<o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/gallery/3841746
    November 28th 2007 01:59:43 PM <o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/Photo%20Journalism/413128<o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/gallery/3841746#222246654-A-LB
    November 28th 2007 02:00:27 PM <o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/gallery/3841746<o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/Photo%20Journalism
    November 28th 2007 02:00:32 PM <o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/Photo%20Journalism<o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/
    November 28th 2007 02:00:36 PM <o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/<o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/Land,%20Sea,%20and%20Air
    November 28th 2007 02:00:46 PM <o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/Land,%20Sea,%20and%20Air<o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/gallery/164548#214598553

    November 28th 2007 02:00:51 PM <o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/Land,%20Sea,%20and%20Air<o:p></o:p>
    sunglo.smugmug.com/gallery/164548#29373516
    <o:p></o:p>

    This is a great trouble shooting tool if one of my customers is having trouble accessing a gallery or image. Because of the near real-time data I can have the customer access the gallery and get immediate feed-back as to how their bid for service terminated. I can also click on the StatCounter gallery link and access the same gallery myself. Awesome.

    Have fun,

    Phil<o:p></o:p>
    .
    SunGlo Photography
    www.sunglophoto.com
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    jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited November 29, 2007
    SunGlo wrote:
    Ivar,

    Here's some sample data from the StatCounter Vistor Path Statistics. With the new code version the image numbers are omitted. If you never saw this data before, you would not know it is missing.

    Smugmug has specific support in their code for StatCounter in order to make the Smugmug style work right with StatCounter and report the right stats. This was required because clicking on a thumb to load a new main image does not actually load a new HTML page so that is an event that StatCounter would normally not record. But, it's a very important event for Smugmug users to be able to track with StatCounter.

    It would certainly be possible that StatCounter upgraded their software in a way that broke Smugmug's support for the new version. I hope someone from Smugmug gets in contact with someone from StatCounter and works this out. Fortunately for those of us who haven't changed out StatCounter code, nothing is currently broken, but I would think that both companies would want this to continue to work for new users or people who replace their StatCounter code with the latest version.
    --John
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    rich56krich56k Registered Users Posts: 547 Major grins
    edited February 16, 2008
    New issue since smugmug security upgrade
    Since the new "security update" I've noticed that individual pageloads are NOT logging in on Statcounter any longer....(only the gallery itself-not pages within the galleries!)

    Or maybe I've gone off the proverbial deep end - but my double checks seem to support my reasoning....ne_nau.gif

    As a test I'm allowing my visits to log in as pageloads in Statcounter,
    however after loading/viewing all 8 of the pages in a particular gallery - then checking my Statcounter log - it only shows 1 pageload - see attatched - is there a 'fix' available I can add to my code? deal.gif


    Remembering that in the past when certain 'upgrades' were implemented by Smugmug any resulting bugs were always dealt with :ivar thumb.gif :ivar has this one been addressed yet?

    Thanks,
    rich56k

    NOTE: in the att. image I had actually started at "rich56k.smugmug/gallery/2651750_ruFeb#140153608"
    but clicked and viewed "/gallery/2651750_ruFeb#P-2-15"page by page thru
    "/gallery/2651750_ruFeb#P-8-15" (stopping at P-3;P-4;p-5;P-6;and P-7 along the way) however according to the statcounter log I only 'loaded' 1 page and to verify the inaccuracy when I click on the 'exit' page link shown in the log (should take me to page 8) it takes me to the first page in the gallery again). yikes!!
    The over 1 minute e.t. shown in the log was me clicking thru the various pages- even though they're not logging on Statcounter....
    http://HooliganUnderground.com
    Member: ASMP; EP; NPPA; CPS
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    rich56krich56k Registered Users Posts: 547 Major grins
    edited February 16, 2008
    statcounter problem update
    *****2/16/08- 9 a.m. UPDATE: The affected galleries (see above post) appear to be only my 'smugmug / gradient' style (95% of my galleries are these) I have a few 'journal' style galleries and these do log both pageloads and ind. images as activity....hmmmm ne_nau.gifheadscratch.gifne_nau.gif

    thanks,
    rich56k

    still unknown as to why the 'smugmug/gradient' style galleries DON'T log all their activity :cry
    ps: results are same whether using safari or FF...

    see att for statcounter log when visiting one of my journal style gallery (logging as expected) :D
    http://HooliganUnderground.com
    Member: ASMP; EP; NPPA; CPS
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    rich56krich56k Registered Users Posts: 547 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2008
    rich56k wrote:
    Since the new "security update" I've noticed that individual pageloads are NOT logging in on Statcounter any longer....(only the gallery itself-not pages within the galleries!)

    Or maybe I've gone off the proverbial deep end - but my double checks seem to support my reasoning....ne_nau.gif

    As a test I'm allowing my visits to log in as pageloads in Statcounter,
    however after loading/viewing all 8 of the pages in a particular gallery - then checking my Statcounter log - it only shows 1 pageload - see attatched - is there a 'fix' available I can add to my code? deal.gif


    Remembering that in the past when certain 'upgrades' were implemented by Smugmug any resulting bugs were always dealt with :ivar thumb.gif :ivar has this one been addressed yet?

    Thanks,
    rich56k

    NOTE: in the att. image I had actually started at "rich56k.smugmug/gallery/2651750_ruFeb#140153608"
    but clicked and viewed "/gallery/2651750_ruFeb#P-2-15"page by page thru
    "/gallery/2651750_ruFeb#P-8-15" (stopping at P-3;P-4;p-5;P-6;and P-7 along the way) however according to the statcounter log I only 'loaded' 1 page and to verify the inaccuracy when I click on the 'exit' page link shown in the log (should take me to page 8) it takes me to the first page in the gallery again). yikes!!
    The over 1 minute e.t. shown in the log was me clicking thru the various pages- even though they're not logging on Statcounter....


    Bump....
    Please see both my posts above for symptoms.... deal.gif
    thanks,
    rich56k
    http://HooliganUnderground.com
    Member: ASMP; EP; NPPA; CPS
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2008
    rich56k wrote:
    Bump....
    Please see both my posts above for symptoms.... deal.gif
    thanks,
    rich56k
    Hi Rich, I'm not sure what we can do with Statcounter. .... have you emailed them and asked why they're not counting the views?
    Andy

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    rich56krich56k Registered Users Posts: 547 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2008
    Andy wrote:
    Hi Rich, I'm not sure what we can do with Statcounter. .... have you emailed them and asked why they're not counting the views?

    Hi Andy,

    Yes, I emailed them Friday...am awaiting response,
    then I remembered in the past (I forget which upgrade) there were some Statcounter issues and I thought they got resolved at 'our' end...hence my request here-if you want I'll await the word back and post then

    rich
    since it was smugmug style and not journal I thought maybe others had problems too..
    http://HooliganUnderground.com
    Member: ASMP; EP; NPPA; CPS
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited February 17, 2008
    rich56k wrote:
    Hi Andy,

    Yes, I emailed them Friday...am awaiting response,
    then I remembered in the past (I forget which upgrade) there were some Statcounter issues and I thought they got resolved at 'our' end...hence my request here-if you want I'll await the word back and post then

    rich
    since it was smugmug style and not journal I thought maybe others had problems too..
    Yeah thanks Rich... let us know..
    Andy

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    rich56krich56k Registered Users Posts: 547 Major grins
    edited April 20, 2008
    Statcounter problem update
    Andy wrote:
    Yeah thanks Rich... let us know..

    Hi Andy,

    Well I got a response from statcounter on the matter regarding 'smugmug' style pages not recording 'page' views - note: the 'journal' style works fine...

    From: StatCounter Support <support@statcounter.com>
    To: rich56k@dragbike.com
    Subject: [#79507]

    Hi!
    I do see what you mean. Multiple webpages will not be recorded because its
    a single page.

    When one visit http://rich56k.smugmug.com/gallery/2925281_qpyK3 amd go to
    next, 3rd page etc you note the URL and you see its
    http://rich56k.smugmug.com/gallery/2925281_qpyK3#P-5-12

    Pay particular attention to #P-5-12 it means its a marker on a same
    webpage and there is no physical different webpage.

    Because of the design of your webpages, there will be only one webpage
    recorded. Let me know if you have more questions.

    Sincerely

    Tarak
    StatCounter Team


    Any thoughts on this - looks like balls back in our court now - yikes!! :cry

    Thanks
    rich56k
    http://HooliganUnderground.com
    Member: ASMP; EP; NPPA; CPS
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited April 20, 2008
    rich56k wrote:

    Any thoughts on this - looks like balls back in our court now - yikes!! :cry

    Thanks
    rich56k
    Mm well, it's a 3rd party app :) SmugMug stats do track all visits - I don't know what to say, Rich :(

    "Pages" are irrelevant. Since I could be viewing on a 30" monitor and you on a smaller monitor.

    Images count. http://rich56k.smugmug.com/gallery/2925281_qpyK3#157713803_PrLh4 I just viewed that. Do you see my hit?
    Andy

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    jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited April 20, 2008
    Andy wrote:
    Mm well, it's a 3rd party app :) SmugMug stats do track all visits - I don't know what to say, Rich :(

    "Pages" are irrelevant. Since I could be viewing on a 30" monitor and you on a smaller monitor.

    Images count. http://rich56k.smugmug.com/gallery/2925281_qpyK3#157713803_PrLh4 I just viewed that. Do you see my hit?

    Andy, does Smugmug support the use of StatCounter or not? You did at one time, making special changes to your pages just to make it work when you went to the ajax version of the Smugmug view.

    FYI, Smugmug stats are completely useless for what I want to track (I've written long pieces on why they are useless and what would need to be done to them in the past, but I don't think they been enhanced in any meaningful way in the last 3 years). I need to use some third party app so I can understand what galleries are being viewed and where people are coming from. I'd like to know which tracking apps you officially support?

    Oh, and telling us that "pages are irrelevant" is a little presumptive. It assumes you know exactly what we care about. I care more about which galleries are being viewed and how often and where people came from and don't care as much about which specific images are getting the most traffic.
    --John
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited April 20, 2008
    jfriend wrote:
    Andy, does Smugmug support the use of StatCounter or not? You did at one time, making special changes to your pages just to make it work when you went to the ajax version of the Smugmug view.

    FYI, Smugmug stats are completely useless for what I want to track (I've written long pieces on why they are useless and what would need to be done to them in the past, but I don't think they been enhanced in any meaningful way in the last 3 years). I need to use some third party app so I can understand what galleries are being viewed and where people are coming from. I'd like to know which tracking apps you officially support?

    Oh, and telling us that "pages are irrelevant" is a little presumptive. It assumes you know exactly what we care about. I care more about which galleries are being viewed and how often and where people came from and don't care as much about which specific images are getting the most traffic.
    You are asking a hard question.

    We've never "supported" any tracking apps. StatCounter and Google have just worked fine, so we help customers get them going. But it's a support burden, for sure. I don't use either one, so you know a zillion times more about it than me.

    My question stands - does this http://jfriend.smugmug.com/gallery/879690_N8UHS#228648160_7qmgx which I just viewed, register on your StatCounter? ear.gif

    John, I'm not telling you anything - was merely trying to point out that "pages" in SmugMug ajax style means something different to everyone - image# is important, though, no?

    Let's keep this on track, okay? I am just trying to be helpful.
    Andy

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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited April 20, 2008
    jfriend wrote:
    FYI, Smugmug stats are completely useless for what I want to track (I've written long pieces on why they are useless and what would need to be done to them in the past, but I don't think they been enhanced in any meaningful way in the last 3 years).
    Wow. OK thank you, John. I'm sorry we haven't been able to enhance SmugMug stats much. I'll again make sure the team sees it.
    Andy

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    rich56krich56k Registered Users Posts: 547 Major grins
    edited April 20, 2008
    Andy wrote:
    Mm well, it's a 3rd party app :) SmugMug stats do track all visits - I don't know what to say, Rich :(

    "Pages" are irrelevant. Since I could be viewing on a 30" monitor and you on a smaller monitor.

    Images count. http://rich56k.smugmug.com/gallery/2925281_qpyK3#157713803_PrLh4 I just viewed that. Do you see my hit?


    Well - it's a matter of perspective (literally!) if I'm on a smaller monitor and click thru multiple pages the hits used to be recorded - but no longer...
    my statcounter 'hits' so far this month are 1120 - my smugmug stat hits over 35,000 - it had traditionally been closer to the same - now I'm embarrassed to 'display' my counter- :cry deal.gif :cry

    can my smugmug stat s(overall total hits) be displayed as an ongoing total ?(not reset monthly?) ne_nau.gif

    see att for your 2 recorded hits - please go back and do 20-30 views - and I'll see what happens rolleyes1.gif

    thanks
    rich56k
    http://HooliganUnderground.com
    Member: ASMP; EP; NPPA; CPS
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    jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited April 20, 2008
    Andy wrote:
    You are asking a hard question.

    We've never "supported" any tracking apps. StatCounter and Google have just worked fine, so we help customers get them going. But it's a support burden, for sure. I don't use either one, so you know a zillion times more about it than me.

    My question stands - does this http://jfriend.smugmug.com/gallery/879690_N8UHS#228648160_7qmgx which I just viewed, register on your StatCounter? ear.gif

    John, I'm not telling you anything - was merely trying to point out that "pages" in SmugMug ajax style means something different to everyone - image# is important, though, no?

    Let's keep this on track, okay? I am just trying to be helpful.

    Yes, I see that hit. If I recall from previous threads, the older version of StatCounter code (which I have in my pages) works while the version of StatCounter code that StatCounter tells you to use now was not fully working.

    I personally think you ought to take a stance and decide which 3rd party app is and isn't supported for tracking things that Smugmug doesn't track. Once you decide, you'll have to add it to the test matrix and you'll have to respond when something changes and things break.

    Otherwise you give your customers zero guidance and they have to try to figure out what works today and what doesn't and then nobody is watching for when things break. All-in-all, it's just the setup for a lousy customer experience.

    Is it more work for Smugmug to pick one or two and "support" them? Yes. Does Smugmug need to offer some sort of reliable support like this? Yes. Otherwise, we're all just rolling the dice and hoping what we have continues to work. That's not the way any Smugmug pro should set up their business and I don't think it's what Smugmug wants to tell their customers they have to do.
    --John
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited April 20, 2008
    Let's try to keep one thing in perspective :)

    It's not like things haven't improved around here! We have a site that is gorgeous, making photos look amazing. It's fast, responsive, and uptime has been fantastic. We've invested a ton of money in infrastructure to do all this.

    We've beefed up security, we've streamlined galleries, we've got HD video, we've got a full screen slideshow that is awesome. We've added Visitor View, Hide Photo, Quick News, Holiday Cards, Stretchy Galleries, SmugMungous Sizes, upped the file sizes to 12 and 24mb, made a better Control Panel and AddToCart interface, widened and improved all the help pages, added auto-rotate, vastly improved the uploading with new uploaders, added SmugIslands, SmugMail for sharing, new themes, a massive amount of API changes to allow more 3rd party apps, and more.

    We're aren't standing still :D

    I think stats could use a major overhaul, and I know that Don's got some ideas. This thread will no doubt give some more thumb.gif
    Andy

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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited April 20, 2008
    jfriend wrote:
    Yes, I see that hit. If I recall from previous threads, the older version of StatCounter code (which I have in my pages) works while the version of StatCounter code that StatCounter tells you to use now was not fully working.

    I personally think you ought to take a stance and decide which 3rd party app is and isn't supported for tracking things that Smugmug doesn't track. Once you decide, you'll have to add it to the test matrix and you'll have to respond when something changes and things break.

    Otherwise you give your customers zero guidance and they have to try to figure out what works today and what doesn't and then nobody is watching for when things break. All-in-all, it's just the setup for a lousy customer experience.

    Is it more work for Smugmug to pick one or two and "support" them? Yes. Does Smugmug need to offer some sort of reliable support like this? Yes. Otherwise, we're all just rolling the dice and hoping what we have continues to work. That's not the way any Smugmug pro should set up their business and I don't think it's what Smugmug wants to tell their customers they have to do.


    No reason why the expertise on this can't come from you and the StatCounter users at SmugMug. Lay out what we should do and we'll try and do it, okay? After you have a recommendation, email me so I don't miss it. I really appreciate it.

    It's not been a huge burden, when things just 'work' but when Statcounter changes, or something, that's where it's an issue - we have a hard time just providing white-glove support for everything that we do on our own :D

    This makes perfect sense, since you guys are the power StatCounter users thumb.gif
    Andy

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    bwgbwg Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 2,119 SmugMug Employee
    edited April 20, 2008
    jfriend wrote:
    Yes, I see that hit. If I recall from previous threads, the older version of StatCounter code (which I have in my pages) works while the version of StatCounter code that StatCounter tells you to use now was not fully working.

    I personally think you ought to take a stance and decide which 3rd party app is and isn't supported for tracking things that Smugmug doesn't track. Once you decide, you'll have to add it to the test matrix and you'll have to respond when something changes and things break.

    Otherwise you give your customers zero guidance and they have to try to figure out what works today and what doesn't and then nobody is watching for when things break. All-in-all, it's just the setup for a lousy customer experience.

    Is it more work for Smugmug to pick one or two and "support" them? Yes. Does Smugmug need to offer some sort of reliable support like this? Yes. Otherwise, we're all just rolling the dice and hoping what we have continues to work. That's not the way any Smugmug pro should set up their business and I don't think it's what Smugmug wants to tell their customers they have to do.
    John, you are correct. We have code that will register individual photo hits on ajax galleries and it was tested for statcounter, sitemeter and google analytics. It has since been updated for the newest version of GA. I was not aware there was a new version of statcounter. When I get a chance i'll look at the new statcounter code and make the necessary modifications.

    We do have plans to integrate with those trackers natively in the future, however there are a few things higher up on the list at the moment.
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    jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited April 20, 2008
    bigwebguy wrote:
    John, you are correct. We have code that will register individual photo hits on ajax galleries and it was tested for statcounter, sitemeter and google analytics. It has since been updated for the newest version of GA. I was not aware there was a new version of statcounter. When I get a chance i'll look at the new statcounter code and make the necessary modifications.

    We do have plans to integrate with those trackers natively in the future, however there are a few things higher up on the list at the moment.

    Thanks. That's an excellent answer. Native integration (that presumably is supported directly by the vendor) sounds like a great way to go and presumably won't be fragile when either of you change things.
    --John
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited April 20, 2008
    jfriend wrote:
    Thanks. That's an excellent answer. Native integration (that presumably is supported directly by the vendor) sounds like a great way to go and presumably won't be fragile when either of you change things.

    I actually spoke to Lee about this tonight and got some new insight into what we're doing about Statcounter, GA, Sitemeter etc .. Sorry I gave some wrong info before, I do stand corrected by our Sorcerers and you, John bowdown.gif
    Andy

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    rich56krich56k Registered Users Posts: 547 Major grins
    edited April 21, 2008
    Andy wrote:
    I actually spoke to Lee about this tonight and got some new insight into what we're doing about Statcounter, GA, Sitemeter etc .. Sorry I gave some wrong info before, I do stand corrected by our Sorcerers and you, John bowdown.gif


    great news - thanks for the update - I'll be happy to beta test anything in regards to statcounter / smugmug... :D

    where to watch for further info? headscratch.gif

    rich56k

    (noting again - the problem lies in the smugmug style not recording vs. journal style which does - I can provide extensive documentation of each)
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    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited April 21, 2008
    rich56k wrote:

    where to watch for further info? headscratch.gif

    Subscribe to the feed on Release Notes

    http://blogs.smugmug.com/release-notes/

    thumb.gif
    Andy

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    rich56krich56k Registered Users Posts: 547 Major grins
    edited April 21, 2008
    Andy wrote:
    Subscribe to the feed on Release Notes

    http://blogs.smugmug.com/release-notes/

    thumb.gif

    got it

    thanks andy thumb.gif
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    jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited June 27, 2008
    Is StatCounter supported?
    bigwebguy wrote:
    John, you are correct. We have code that will register individual photo hits on ajax galleries and it was tested for statcounter, sitemeter and google analytics. It has since been updated for the newest version of GA. I was not aware there was a new version of statcounter. When I get a chance i'll look at the new statcounter code and make the necessary modifications.

    We do have plans to integrate with those trackers natively in the future, however there are a few things higher up on the list at the moment.

    Hmmm, Statcounter still appears to not be messed up on Smugmug. I was really hoping that after BigWebGuy's post in April that things were going to improve.

    So, I just set up a new account for a non-profit. I put a StatCounter tracker on the page using the code they currently auto-generate and tell me to put in the page. I uploaded a bunch of galleries, sent out an email announcing them and the masses came to view them. According to StatCounter, there were about 1000 hits. If I go to the Smugmug stats and add up the hits on M, L, XL, XL2, XL3 and original (which should be about how many images got clicked on in the Smugmug view), it adds up to 12,116 (12x higher than StatCounter reports). Hmmm, it looks like the current version of StatCounter code doesn't yet work with Smugmug's Ajax pages.

    I'd really like to know whether you support StatCounter or not. Because you do all this ajax image load stuff, it will probably take a concious effort on your part to support a specific set of tracking programs. If you don't support StatCounter now, is there a list of supported tracking programs that you test and will keep working and will fix any time they break?
    --John
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    AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,012 Major grins
    edited June 27, 2008
    jfriend wrote:
    ...If I go to the Smugmug stats and add up the hits on M, L, XL, XL2, XL3 and original (which should be about how many images got clicked on in the Smugmug view), it adds up to 12,116 (12x higher than StatCounter reports). Hmmm, it looks like the current version of StatCounter code doesn't yet work with Smugmug's Ajax pages....
    Looking at a SmugMug style gallery you could have maybe 20 thumbs and one
    main photo, that alone is a 21 count and statcounter only counts one page
    load.
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
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    jfriendjfriend Registered Users Posts: 8,097 Major grins
    edited June 27, 2008
    Allen wrote:
    Looking at a SmugMug style gallery you could have maybe 20 thumbs and one
    main photo, that alone is a 21 count and statcounter only counts one page
    load.

    When I did my comparison between Smugmug hits and StatCounter hits, I did not count thumbs at all from the Smugmug hits. I only counted M, L, XL, XL2, XL3 and Original. There should be a one to one correlation between image clicks and one of these sizes being displayed in the Smugmug view. If Smugmug was compatible with StatCounter, it would be counting each time a user clicks on an image to display a different M, L, XL, XL2, XL3 and Original image or size. Clearly, it's not because Smugmug reports 12,116 hits on the M, L, XL, XL2, XL3 and Original image sizes, yet StatCounter only reports 1000 total hits. Am I making sense?

    Here's the historgy. In the pre-ajax days, StatCounter used to record everything. Then, Smugmug introduced Ajax and StatCounter broke (it only recorded full page loads, not unique image views). Then, Smugmug did something to specifically make StatCounter work again and it worked for awhile. Then, in some sort of revision of Smugmug or change in StatCounter (I'm not sure which), StatCounter broke and no longer works properly. I'd like to know if it is supported? If so, when will it be fixed? If not, what stats services are officially tested and supported?
    --John
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