Anyone Else Seeing Lower Statcounter Numbers?

JamesVernacotola · August 19, 2012

Hi all,

I've noticed over the past week that my numbers have been way down from normal. After some investigation I've discovered that it looks like since August 14, Statcounter has only been recording a "hit" when a user enters a particular gallery, but not recording any navigation within the gallery (i.e. which photos were viewed). Has anyone else experienced this?

I'm not much of an expert in web code, but could it be that a change was made on Smugmug's side that causes the "custom footer" to no longer be executed while browsing photos within a gallery?

This isn't a huge deal, but also not one I would overlook without at least inquiring about it. I'm sure I'm getting the same amount of hits as before, the numbers just don't seem as accurate as they used to be. Obviously we all like to see a nice hit count.

Anyone else have any info/insight on this?

For reference, my site is www.jamesvernacotola.com.

Thanks!

Allen · August 19, 2012

My statcounter only shows back thru Aug. 15th but from that point forward no photos are showing viewed, only the gallery
and cats/sub-cat pages. So something has differently changed.

jfriend · August 19, 2012

Allen wrote: »

My statcounter only shows back thru Aug. 15th but from that point forward no photos are showing viewed, only the gallery
and cats/sub-cat pages. So something has differently changed.

Just another data point. I do see photo pageviews in my StatCounter report from the last few days. My site hasn't been generally active, but there are definitely pageviews of specific photos in my StatCounter report.

rich56k · August 19, 2012

jfriend wrote: »

Just another data point. I do see photo pageviews in my StatCounter report from the last few days. My site hasn't been generally active, but there are definitely pageviews of specific photos in my StatCounter report.

OK I just checked my StatCounter report after visiting one of my own galleries -I went thru each of the 5 pages and clicked on 4-7 pics each. Nothing was logged other than the main page image - See attached.

When I checked my log the issue first appeared on Aug 15 about 10 p.m. Pacific time, however, on Aug. 14 at approx. 9 p.m. I still showed ind. photo and page views being logged. So somewhere between these two times is when it started on my site.

Note: John I just clicked into your Landscapes gallery and visited each page, clicked on 4-6 pics each also, see if they show in your report..
PS: Great images!!

-rich56k

jfriend · August 19, 2012

rich56k wrote: »

OK I just checked my StatCounter report after visiting one of my own galleries -I went thru each of the 5 pages and clicked on 4-7 pics each. Nothing was logged other than the main page image - See attached.

When I checked my log the issue first appeared on Aug 15 about 10 p.m. Pacific time, however, on Aug. 14 at approx. 9 p.m. I still showed ind. photo and page views being logged. So somewhere between these two times is when it started on my site.

Note: John I just clicked into your Landscapes gallery and visited each page, clicked on 4-6 pics each also, see if they show in your report..
PS: Great images!!

-rich56k

I do not see any recent hits in my Landscape gallery. Something must be busted.

rich56k · August 19, 2012

jfriend wrote: »

I do not see any recent hits in my Landscape gallery. Something must be busted.

OK I just did an additional journey thru your popular photos gallery all 235 of them and then the 24 images in skateboading (259 images total) from 6:23 - 6:37 p.m. (ish).

You can also go into your StatCounter admin page under 'config' and delete the 'blocking cookie' so it will log your own hits and double check yourself.

I checked the StatCounter blog and it only shows a new feature back in May 2012 regarding mobile devices. Can anyone from Smugmug please chime in with any info on recent changes that may be connected to this situation. Again it seems to have happened on Aug 14/15.

jfriend · August 20, 2012

rich56k wrote: »

OK I just did an additional journey thru your popular photos gallery all 235 of them and then the 24 images in skateboading (259 images total) from 6:23 - 6:37 p.m. (ish).

You can also go into your StatCounter admin page under 'config' and delete the 'blocking cookie' so it will log your own hits and double check yourself.

I checked the StatCounter blog and it only shows a new feature back in May 2012 regarding mobile devices. Can anyone from Smugmug please chime in with any info on recent changes that may be connected to this situation. Again it seems to have happened on Aug 15/16.

I don't see any of the hits you talk about in my StatCounter report. I filtered the report down to the last 12 hours and non of the hits you speak of are there.

RoryStatCounter · August 20, 2012

Hi folks,

Sorry for the troubles! Nothing has changed on our end so far as I'm aware. I think the issue is how the galleries work. Notice if you click a pic it doesn't reload the page. That's the catch. We track when a page is loaded. They're using ajax, flash, or some other witch craft to load the image on the fly w/o reloading the page. Which is great for users, but not so great for any hit counter that tracks pageloads (like, all of them).

I hope this makes sense.

Please do let us know if you ever need anything via our support / help section or forum.

Thanks
Rory

jfriend · August 20, 2012

RoryStatCounter wrote: »

Hi folks,

Sorry for the troubles! Nothing has changed on our end so far as I'm aware. I think the issue is how the galleries work. Notice if you click a pic it doesn't reload the page. That's the catch. We track when a page is loaded. They're using ajax, flash, or some other witch craft to load the image on the fly w/o reloading the page. Which is great for users, but not so great for any hit counter that tracks pageloads (like, all of them).

I hope this makes sense.

Please do let us know if you ever need anything via our support / help section or forum.

Thanks
Rory

No, this always used to work. In fact, Smugmug has specific code to make StatCounter fire when they reload an image using Ajax. Apparently something broke recently and their code that makes StatCounter work in this case is no longer working.

dmc · August 20, 2012

Definately not tracking pic views in statcounter
Definately not tracking pic views in statcounter anymore since about August 15th... that is confirmed, now what?

anyone try re-installing the statcounter code yet? I was about to.

Anything change in Smugmug around that date to affect this? (as the StatCounter rep believes...)

Smugmug?

Andy · August 20, 2012

dmc wrote: »

Definately not tracking pic views in statcounter anymore since about August 15th... that is confirmed, now what?

anyone try re-installing the statcounter code yet? I was about to.

Anything change in Smugmug around that date to affect this? (as the StatCounter rep believes...)

Smugmug?

I do suspect SmugMug broke something, stay tuned.

Smug Eric · August 20, 2012

Not so much broke but changed. We did some re-working on old tracking code. For StatCounter try to use the standard, non xHTML version as doctype might be an issue. You may also want to look into Google Analytics. We did some updating to it's code as well so it should track better.

rich56k · August 20, 2012

Smug Eric wrote: »

Not so much broke but changed. We did some re-working on old tracking code. For StatCounter try to use the standard, non xHTML version as doctype might be an issue. You may also want to look into Google Analytics. We did some updating to it's code as well so it should track better.

Eric,

I've just tried both 'standard' and 'standard xhtml' versions both yield the same results as we've all been saying...no image/page results just the initial entry page and that's it.

Any other suggestions (besides google). I've been with both SmugMug as a Pro Account since Aug. 2005 and StatCounter just as long. Hope to continue with both.

Please work this out...

-rich56k

jfriend · August 20, 2012

Smug Eric wrote: »

Not so much broke but changed. We did some re-working on old tracking code. For StatCounter try to use the standard, non xHTML version as doctype might be an issue. You may also want to look into Google Analytics. We did some updating to it's code as well so it should track better.

Come on Eric - this isn't a reasonable answer.

StatCounter has been working for years and that's what we have accounts with and the reports we know. Some people even have paid accounts with Statcounter. We aren't interesting in switching. Are you telling us that StatCounter is no longer supported? If that's not what you're saying, then you either need to fix it so it works like it always used to or you need to give us very specific advice on how to fix our pages to make StatCounter work again.

Please get a fully formed answer to advise us on how to make StatCounter work again (like it always used to) with our pages.

Andy · August 20, 2012

jfriend wrote: »

Come on Eric - this isn't a reasonable answer.

What did SmugMug change, and why? It's almost like SmugMug doesn't even know about how widely used Statcounter is....

Smug Eric · August 20, 2012

I don't know exactly what was changed. I've asked for more information and will pass on whatever I receive.

Ann McRae · August 21, 2012

Hi everyone

Just got word from Ben and QA that this is bugged and being looked into. Hopefully the fix will be quick, and we will certainly update you once we have that sorted!!

ann

Smug Eric wrote: »

I don't know exactly what was changed. I've asked for more information and will pass on whatever I receive.

Ann McRae · August 21, 2012

Word is that this is fixed. Please let us know if you continue to see trouble.

ann

Ann McRae wrote: »

Hi everyone

Just got word from Ben and QA that this is bugged and being looked into. Hopefully the fix will be quick, and we will certainly update you once we have that sorted!!

ann

Allen · August 21, 2012

I'm seeing this. Link looks really odd.

21 Aug    11:18:45 AM
Entry Page:
     www.photosbyat.com/
Exit Page:
     www.photosbyat.com/Birds/Birding-2012-August?fb_xd_fragment&fb_xd_fragment#xd_sig=f2b75e3cefa27b8&xd_action=proxy_ready&data&xd_rel=parent.parent&relation=parent.parent&xd_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fs-static.ak.facebook.com

rich56k · August 21, 2012

Ann McRae wrote: »

Word is that this is fixed. Please let us know if you continue to see trouble.

ann

Thanks for the good news Ann!

I'm back to all individual page and image views being logged (in the attached, the link is longer and yes unique in each case). Looking good from here!!

Al,

That is an odd looking exit link - are your pics linked to facebook? (I'm not)

Been with StatCounter since 2005 and that is new to me.

-rich56k

JamesVernacotola · August 21, 2012

Thanks very much Ann, Eric, Andy, John, Rich, DMC, Rory and Allen! Everything looks back to normal again.

KQuinlan · August 21, 2012

I am still having the same problem described, but it is with Google Analytics instead of Statcounter. It stopped tracking individual page hits as of Aug. 14th/15th and is not back up and running yet. I have been using Analytics for 6+months with no problems other than as of Aug 14th. Any idea how to fix it?

jfriend · August 21, 2012

KQuinlan wrote: »

I am still having the same problem described, but it is with Google Analytics instead of Statcounter. It stopped tracking individual page hits as of Aug. 14th/15th and is not back up and running yet. I have been using Analytics for 6+months with no problems other than as of Aug 14th. Any idea how to fix it?

Are you using the built-in GA support (where you just past your code into Account Settings) or are did you put your own GA javascript into your header or footer? FYI, to help further (like to see if there were any errors in your page), folks would need a link to your site.

KQuinlan · August 21, 2012

Pretty sure I am currently using the built in. The site is (KQGallery.com)
Thanks

jfriend wrote: »

Are you using the built-in GA support (where you just past your code into Account Settings) or are did you put your own GA javascript into your header or footer? FYI, to help further (like to see if there were any errors in your page), folks would need a link to your site.

jfriend · August 21, 2012

KQuinlan wrote: »

Pretty sure I am currently using the built in. The site is (KQGallery.com)
Thanks

Your site has the built in version of GA, but when I watch the network trace it is not being fired, even on pages like your homepage. This must be a Smugmug bug. In the network trace, I see quantserve firing, but not Google Analytics.

For any Smugmug bug finders, this is from the http://www.kqgallery.com/ page:

SM.tracking = {
        ga: {
          smugmug: 'UA-33848058-1',
          user: 'UA-7319044-2',           // <==== This is user Google Analytics installed
          domain: 'kqgallery.com'
        },
        quantcast: {
          smugmug: 'p-33GsugQTR-pOM'
        },
        xgraph: {
            users:     '3D597',
            order:     '3D590',
            pro:       '3D594',
            portfolio: '3D836',
            power:     '3D595',
            standard:  '3D596',
            cart:      '3D599',
            awesomize: '3D600'
        }
      };

rainforest1155 · August 22, 2012

Thanks John. I passed KQuinlan's issue along with your details on to our QA team to check into.

KQuinlan · August 22, 2012

Seems to have started working again within the last few hours. Thanks!

rainforest1155 · August 23, 2012

KQuinlan wrote: »

Seems to have started working again within the last few hours. Thanks!

I'm glad to hear that. The issue was resolved yesterday. Let us know if there's still anything not working as expected.

Anyone Else Seeing Lower Statcounter Numbers?

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