On 30 July 2014 14:14, Peter Cowburn <petercowb...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > On 30 July 2014 09:34, Mike Griffiths <mgriffi...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> >> On 30 July 2014 09:08, Peter Cowburn <petercowb...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> >>> On 30 July 2014 08:08, Mike Griffiths <mgriffi...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> Hi all, >>>> >>>> I would like to broach the subject of introducing some sort of analytics >>>> package, such as Google Analytics, to the PHP.net website and its sister >>>> sites. >>>> >>>> I personally believe this would be of huge benefit to lots of us, as >>>> currently there is little to no way (that I'm aware of) of viewing >>>> useful >>>> statistics and metrics on our visitors. >>>> >>>> Hannes and I spoke about this last night, and he is against the idea of >>>> using a third party package to do this, and would rather write >>>> something. >>>> Personally I think something like Analytics would be far more powerful >>>> and >>>> versatile than that, and will take a matter of minutes to get up and >>>> running. It's also pretty easy to share with anyone who wants to see >>>> it. >>>> >>>> The kind of useful information I'd like to see, which is only what >>>> comes to >>>> mind initially, I'm sure there's far more once we delve deeper into it: >>>> - The docs pages with the highest bounce rates, top x pages. It's >>>> likely >>>> these don't have the right information, or it could be that it has the >>>> best >>>> information and that's why people leave quickly. >>>> - Docs pages with the longest visit time. Ties in with the above point, >>>> and could highlight problems - users could be spending time reading the >>>> notes to try and find what they need. >>>> - Visibility of our most popular pages >>>> - What are people searching for in search engines to find us? Can we >>>> identify common user typos and try to handle them better? >>>> - What percentages of our users are on X browser version (this would >>>> have >>>> been valuable when we had our recent design change) >>>> - Is there a news item gathering a lot of attention at the moment? Can >>>> we >>>> identify what makes a news item popular vs something that no one is >>>> particularly interested in? >>>> - How much traffic do we get across all of the mirrors? Is there a >>>> particular mirror that is more popular than others? >>>> >>>> I believe that metrics like this can help us identify the areas of the >>>> site >>>> which need more attention, and can benefit everyone involved with the >>>> project with their individual tasks. >>>> >>>> I guess there are a couple of options available to us: >>>> 1. Write something ourselves. I doubt this will ever come close to >>>> being >>>> as detailed as we would like, and the amount of data we would need to >>>> store >>>> in order to report on certain aspects makes this quite a monumental >>>> task. >>>> 2. Use Google Analytics, or something similar. Hannes voiced privacy >>>> concerns over using Google Analytics, which are concerns I don't share, >>>> but >>>> it would be great to hear everyone's opinion on it. >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> Mike (mikemike) >>> >>> >>>> -- >>>> >>>> Mike Griffiths - Web Dev Weekly <http://webdevweekly.com> >>>> mgriffi...@gmail.com >>>> >>> >>> >>> Having some shiny set of analytics always seems like a good idea but, >>> when we have it, it doesn't get used a whole heap and eventually it goes >>> away and no-one minds much. For the most recent example, during the >>> redesign we used GoSquared which has lots of bells and whistles, and didn't >>> tell us anything we didn't already know. >>> >>> Also, IIRC some mirrors make their awstats available, which would >>> provide a sample of visitors. Until relatively recently, we were also >>> tracking searches to see what people were looking for most. This did prove >>> useful in the sense that we could (once in a blue moon) target specific >>> pages for improvement, or add helpful redirects. But that is a very >>> targeted tool which did a simple job (and did it well), which is a whole >>> different ball game from Track All The Things that GA provides. >>> >>> >>> >> Well I've had an email this morning from someone saying we used to have >> GoSquared, and it was very useful and used often, but unfortunately it was >> removed by someone who didn't use it. >> >> > I don't know who emailed you, but it was indeed useful and was used > often... by three people... for a few weeks. >
Things like this probably get little use because they're not known by everyone. If there was something added into the VCS login, or whatever, that made it a bit more visible then it will likely get more use. I've lost track of the number of times something has been suggested and we get "Oh there's a tool for that, but no one uses it", or even worse "...it's been removed" - I wonder how much of this is because people aren't aware of their existence? > > >> I'd be happy if GoSquared was re-instated. Google Analytics is the >> market leader, so it's the example I used, but I don't mind what it is >> that's used. >> > > My main concern is introducing something that affects every single user > visiting php.net, and on every single visit, for something that one or > two people might look at once a month or less. > > Don't forget that we are already logging lots of information that could be > collated and presented somewhere centrally (say, a new page on master) with > zero impact on the site. > Like I say - I don't mind how we get the data, so long as we can all get it, in a usable format. If it's all being collected already but not yet presented, then let's crack on with that. If not, let's discuss alternatives. > > >> >> >> >> -- >> >> Mike Griffiths >> mgriffi...@gmail.com >> > > -- Mike Griffiths - Blog <http://mike-griffiths.co.uk> mgriffi...@gmail.com
