----- Original Message ----- From: "Jami Ryan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2001 4:34 PM Subject: [analog-help] Another User Report Question
> I know this is probably a dumb question, but I've been instructed > to ask it. In regards to the user report and allowing it to "cheat" > and use cookies instead of authenticated users, what happens if a > log file line doesn't contain a cookie? My guess is that Analog > ignores it and only counts those lines which do have cookies in them > and only includes these lines in it's not listed users total. Is > this a correct assumption? Just define two (or more) LOGFORMATs, so that Analog can recognize all lines, whether the cookie is included or not. > Also, having read over your help files and web site, I know that is > impossible to count unique visitors and am aware that analog does > not do this. The problem I am having is the head of the web site > I'm working on wants a figure for unique visitors regardless if it > is impossible or not. Ask him or her to define exactly what he/she means by "unique visitors", in terms of the information that the webserver logs. If they say that host addresses are what they want, give them host addresses. If they say that user cookies are what they want, give them user cookies. Make sure that you explain that host addresses are affected by proxy servers and "recycled" dial-up addresses, and that certain populations of users refuse or delete cookies. > And, unfortunately, in another web site he is in charge of, it > used Analog's user report as a way to count unique visitors. I presume you mean a real "user report", using usernames/passwords? That's as close as you'll get to a reliable count of "unique users". > He now is looking to do the same thing on his new site. > Which leads to my second question, > in using cookies instead of authenticated users for the user report, is > there a danger in allowing him to continue to use the figure of users not > listed as the number of "unique" visitors to his site? I'm not quite sure exactly what you mean by "users not listed", but, as another poster has pointed out, "cookie users" is a perfectly valid metric for any given website, it's just not a good metric for comparing different websites, unless you can assume a very similar user base. Aengus +------------------------------------------------------------------------ | This is the analog-help mailing list. To unsubscribe from this | mailing list, go to | http://lists.isite.net/listgate/analog-help/unsubscribe.html | | List archives are available at | http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ | http://lists.isite.net/listgate/analog-help/archives/ | http://www.tallylist.com/archives/index.cfm/mlist.7 +------------------------------------------------------------------------
