HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE HO3036 5/21/03 "VISITORS TO TTHA WEBSITE"
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Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 13:01:23 -0400
From: Rosemarie Morgan <rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu>
Subject: Visitors
Hi Folks--
Just to say I've taken a quick look at the number of visitors to TTHA's
website since the beginning of the year (3 months ) and the grand total is
96298
Congratulations team on a terrific website!
More details on request, by personal email.
Cheers,
Rosemarie
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Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 19:18:17 -0400
From: Rosemarie Morgan <rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu>
Subject: Re: Addendum: Visitors
Just to add, in answer to several queries this last hour, I don't know how,
technologically-speaking, a website count of genuine visitors (as opposed
to hits) is made. The data I collected was made accessible to me courtesy
of Yale University ITS techies. They provided me with a detailed matrix of
information which is updated in their Log Reports daily.
TTHA needs this information because we are shortly to have a face-lift --
thanks to the generosity of a devoted friend of the Association who is
offering us the benefit of his web-designer skills. Of which more anon.
When I looked at the "count" I have to say I was staggered at the numbers
-- this is why I decided to share them with you here. I was also pleasantly
surprised to see which of TTHA's many wonderful resources visitors were
most interested in. As I said in my last I'll be glad to give specific
numbers by private email.
With every good wish,
Rosemarie
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Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 04:13:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: Andrew Hewitt <aghewitt@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Addendum: Visitors
In my case (I run a small site for information about
the British novelist Jim Crace) is it made by tracking
the unique ID of the computer accessing the site. So,
if the same computer accesses the site ten times in a
week, this counts as ten visits, but only one visitor.
It is still not 100% reliable because of course
different people may use the same computer, just as
one copy of a book may have many readers, and the same
person may use different computers. But it allows you
to get a feel for whether you have 100 loyal people
checking your site every week or 1000 casual visitors
checking in every ten weeks.
Hits as I understand it measures the number of
elements on a page that are downloaded to the visitor,
so, if a page consists of a background texture, a
title graphic, a photo, and some text, the stats would
record 4 hits each time this page was accessed. Most
pages have more than 3 elements and I was once told
that a rule of thumb was to divide number of hits by
10 to get approximate number of visits, on the
assumption that most pages have an average of ten
elements. I don't know if this is at all accurate!
30,000+ visitors a month is an outstanding result, but
entirely deserved for the excellent Hardy site.
Best wishes
Andrew Hewitt
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Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 09:30:02 -0400
From: Rosemarie Morgan <rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu>
Subject: Re: Addendum: Visitors
:
Thanks for the breakdown, Andrew, --- all very interesting. The thing that
impressed me about the Yale Log is that most subpages are listed (at some
point). I noticed, for example, that some VPs are visited more than others
and that some are not visited at all (and hence not numbered or listed on
the LOG). I can see where your point makes sense insofar as anyone visiting
a VP page has (usually-- unless they have the url already numbered) to
first enter by the Home page (1), then go to the VP Box where the VPs are
listed (1) then to the actual VP page of choice (1) so that's already 3
for 1.
I think though, the job which we were looking for is done-- that is, the
most visited sites (accounted daily) are those I had suspected as being
popular and are those which the new, facelifted page will have to
foreground (ie the Maps page, The Members Research & Resources page, Forum
discussion group, POTM, Life page, the Bibliography, LINKS page, Short
Stories Page, News, Resources page, Novels page etc) .
The curious aspect to all of this is that a high figure is listed for those
visiting the Members' page but TTHA doesn't have that number (thousands)
of members (we wish!). Possibly folks are simply trying to gain access
(restricted to members) or perhaps the same poeple are visiting a lot.
Also. my own uploadings to the page, even for something as minute as a date
changed on someone's VP page, may add to the count given that I work on
the site constantly. Although, unlike visitors I know the exact page I'm
going to so there'd be no 3 for 1s in my case. However, I must ask the
techies if my visits are numbered on the LOG. Maybe not.
Thank you Andrew, for your interest & the best of luck with Crace.
Besties,
Rosemarie
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