Over the past couple months, and particularly over the last two days, it has become interesting to me what kinds of visitors I am getting to the site and where they're coming from. There are a few stats packages, and I've been working out their benefits and flaws.

I was able to jump on the Google Analytics train before they closed their doors. I installed the required script in the necessary places and waited for stats to roll in. And I waited. And I waited.

Eventually they had enough data to play with (do I not even register in the Google Analytics world as anything but a blip?) and they started showing me some statistics. But. How do you use this thing? Even being a former Urchin 5.0 user, I was still somewhat confused by the interface. Suffice to say, I never really figured it out, and I started to suspect that using Analytics was affecting my AdSense adversely (though I can offer no evidence that this is anything but paranoia), so I simply removed the tags.

Isn't there something that you can just push a button and get the stats you need? And exactly what stats do you need?

I also have a copy of Mint that I use pretty regularly.

There are things I like about Mint. Peppers are great. I can add the functionality I want, provided someone writes the pepper for it. The default peppers aren't all that informative by themselves, but when combined with outgoing clicks and referrer data, it becomes very useful.

There are two problems I have with Mint, though. First - and this was something that I liked when I first started using it - I hate the UI.

No, really. It's fundamentally a pretty and elegant design. But I can't stand looking at it any more. It's a big long page of data and it's all green. Green! Ok, so that's just an aesthetic issue, but shouldn't the important data be right there in front of me? Yeah, sure I can drag things around to put important stuff near the top, but shouldn't this type of software know what stats I'm going to be interested in and put them in front? Ok, so maybe that's just me - but my second issue isn't.

There is no historical data in Mint. Or very little. I haven't figured out a way to see trends over a longer period than the "right now" that Mint shows me.

What was the most frequently searched term yesterday? Last week? Last month? Year? Who knows?!

It's possible that Mint is storing all of this information somewhere that I can't see, and that I can access it via a pepper, but I haven't found the pepper that releases that functionality yet.

There is at least one WordPress plugin that tracks statistics, too.

StatTraq is a WordPress plugin that tracks statistics. It seems to create a new record in the database for each hit (which is to be expected) but never cleans up any of it. So I can get historical data as granular as a single hit, at the expense of a pretty darn large database. I haven't looked very deeply, but although I expected that there would be some data cleanup, I could not find the SQL "DELETE" statement anywhere in the code.

StatTraq also doesn't seem to record hits for pages outside of WordPress. Once again, I'm not sure if this is specifically true, but I don't see a way that the code that records hits can be executed from outside WordPress.

A nice thing about StatTraq is that it is integrated with WordPress. It stores actual post IDs, not just the URLs, so you know when a specific post is being read whether though a friendly permalink or the crufty "?p=2482" URLs that sometimes sneak by.

StatTraq also tracks a good footprint of tracking data, which you don't get from simple 3rd-party counter services that display a simple graphic number at the bottom of the page.

I don't really trust 3rd parties with my stats. Even in the case of Google, I was worried that they were using my stats to influence the ads placed on my site. It could be paranoia, but if the stats are hosted locally, then I don't have to worry about any of that.

Of course, there are log-reading scripts that will accomplish similar tasks by running on your server. Webalizer is an example of such a script.

What makes scripts like Webalizer different from Google Analytics or Mint is that they don't collect data on their own, but use the existing server logs. This has benefits and drawbacks.

One benefit is that the web server usually keeps the most accurate account of what files it served. Using that log, you should be able to create a perfect picture of exactly what requests were made. This is particularly so when comparing Webalizer to Google Analytics or Mint, since both of those products rely on Javascript. If a visitor has javascript disabled, or a version of javascript that can't execute the logging code (like in a mobile phone browser), then no hit is recorded!

Another benefit is that because the server is likely already storing these logs, it doesn't take an additional chunk of space to store hits in a database. Usually programs like Webalizer generate their reports at set intervals as static HTML pages of results. And that brings us to the down-side.

Because Webalizer isn't typically run in a "live" mode, you don't see real-time statistics. Instead, you get periodic snapshots of particular ranges of time. Perhaps that's enough of a view of statistics for you, but I prefer to see trend information as graphs over time, not just an aggregate snapshot of data during a range of time.

Also, because it's not using anything in addition to the standard server logs to hold data, the results typically lack any information that you can get by using the javascript used by other programs. For example, screen resolution of the browser is not something typically stored in the server logs. If you're looking to your stats to determine the best size for a redesign of your site, a program like Webalizer isn't going to provide that information.

Another possibly troubling aspect of using only server logs is that there really isn't a great way to reliably track sessions (what Webalizer calls "visits"). Knowing the number of unique visitors versus the number of total hits can tell you if people are reading more than one page from your site when they visit. This is important if you care about "stickiness".

Plus, aren't those stats kind of ugly? I guess they're functional.

AWStats is another stats package in the group of log analyzers. Once again, it's relying on the server logs for periodic publication of reports. It does look a whole lot better, though.

There are a couple of other projects worth metion in statistics tracking.

BlogBeat is a relative newcomer to the statistics arena. The project is still in development, although it seems complete.

Blogbeat uses the javascript method (like Google Analytics) to record statistics information. It is also a 3rd-party service, so if you're uncomfortable about your stats are being fed to some other site, this one also isn't for you.

Blogbeat has a very simplified interface for providing just the stats that it thinks you will want. I like the idea of reducing the clutter of overwhelming and often incomprehensible information provided by stats packages. I'm all for it. Still, Blogbeat seems a tad light on per-page content.

Something I really like about Blogbeat is the integration of FeedBurner statistics. Feedburner has an API that lets you obtain minimal information about feed readers, and Blogbeat integrates that into its graphs. That's pretty cool.

Something that bugs the hell out of me is how Blogbeat uses links to itself for every logged page. For example, imagine that it's telling you that 300 people read the page titled "A Nose to Honk By". You don't remember what that post is about at all You want to read that post to see what they're talking about. So you click the link. Guess where it doesn't go. In fact, there is no link that goes to that page of your site. There is a URL displayed, but it's not linked. Perhaps this is just a small oversight.

Blogbeat has reasonable granularity. It can give you statistics for gradually longer date ranges - Today, Week, Month, Year, All. So you can find out what the most popular post is for this month or last month, but not the month before that, unless you also toss in all the popular posts for the last year. I don't see this as a problem, really, and if you're looking for more detail than that, then you probably need a higher-end service.

Also - Everything I've mentioned so far has been free to use and/or install. Blogbeat is free for the first 30 days, then it's anywhere from $6 to $79 per month, depending on how many hits your site gets.

Another option for stats is Measure Map, which seems unavailable to the public yet. Most people who have received invitations to use it have been saying good things about it. I signed up for an invite months ago and haven't heard anything, so I suppose I've been snubbed by automation.

From what reviews I've read and screenshots I've seen, the nicest thing about MeasureMap is that it's pretty. There are fewer endless dull charts of itty-bitty stats crap here, and things seem visualized a bit better than they are with other packages.

But I haven't personally reviewed the software, so I'll reserve any opinion until that happens.

So what's all this talk of statistics about, anyway?

I'm trying to come up with some dream features and the technical requirements to support them.

When you're looking at stats, why are you looking at them? What are you hoping to see?

I've had some people already tell me what they use stats for. Here are a few things that I've learned:

• People want to see who is linking to them and which of those links are being followed.
• They want to know which of their posts are pulling AdSense ads that generate clicks so that they can write similar content.
• They want to see search trends -- which search terms from Google and Yahoo become more popular over time.
• They want to learn which pages are the most popular during specific time ranges.

I can think of a few more things that might be interesting to correlate. I'm interested in knowing anything else that people might want to get out of their statistics.

In my opinion, it would be ideal if a statistics package tracked both WordPress and non-WordPress page requests, was as easy to get up and running as installing a new WordPress plugin, and presented essential data up front and in a more visual way whenever possible. It should allow at least some historical data to be recalled, and while it should not rely on a third party for that information, it should also not chew through server resources to store it. It should also be extensible so that when it doesn't do exactly what you want, you can easily add it.

Have any other ideas? Even if you're satisfied with the solution you're using now, it would be helpful for me to know what about that solution satisfies you. Because, as the good salesman says:

"Does your stats program satisfy you? Good, I'm glad it does, because my stats program isn't going to satisfy you; It's going to make you ecstatic."

I moved the bulk of Red Alt to the Asymptomatic server last night because I got tired of that unmanaged server going down. The Asymptomatic server is managed, and so should get better attention when things go awry.

This also allows me to house a more permanent subversion repository (if that means anything to you) for all of the PHP development I do around here.

On top of that, it paves the way for a few minor changes at Red Alt, mostly revolving around the navigation and a wiki upgrade. Many of the navigation links there don't work because I'm usually off doing something else rather than hooking them up. I'm going to go through all of those and make them all work.

Anyway, in case you were thinking about ignoring this news, I have updated one of my plugins for WordPress 2.0: Limit Categories

Limit Categories allows you to set limits on the categories to which users in certain Roles can post. If you create a new Role called "Guest Posters", you can add new users to that Role, and the users with that Role will only be able to post to the "Guest Posts" category.

This makes it easy to section out your site to different writers by category, bringing your WordPress installation more toward a CMS.

Limit Categories does not limit the categories that logged-in users can view - that's a different plugin. It might also not work as well with WordPress admin consoles that have been "redesigned", but you can try it.

You can read more about and download Limit Categories at Red Alt, where you will also find the Role Manager plugin, which will be very useful for creating new Roles.

After my attendence of the blogging meetups yesterday, it has become abundantly apparent that I need to produce a business card sot hat I can share my identity with people in the real world. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure what sort of identity I want to portray.

It has been a long time since I have used the Midnight Circus domain for anything. And if you've received email from me, you might wonder why it comes from Midnight Circus and not Asymptomatic. The history is long and complicated - well, ok, not so much.

Back when I started on the web, I was creating a resource page for the White Wolf role-playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade. If you know me really well (most people who visit the site don't know too much about my real-life work, which is a very strange phenomenon to me and worthy of a post all on its own) then you know that I have worked with some folks at White Wolf for various reasons, and have actually been given a small credit in a poorly received supplement. Nonetheless, the tabletop gaming industry was a significant part of my life at the time.

Since Midnight Circus was created as a dedicated role-playing resource, I wanted a site to write about things that were unrelated to that topic. Out of that need, Asymptomatic evolved and become what it is today. The Midnight Circus web site has long since been taken offline, as my disenchantment with White Wolf and their products grew, but I have been using the domain for my email for so long that I couldn't change it now - it's part of my online identity.

As my online endeavors expanded, I've created a couple more sites. Particularly well known these days is Red Alt, which is a blog software resource site on which I host a good bit of my open source work. And through my work at Red Alt, I was able to jockey a position with Shimmer Studio, where my freelance work is brokered.

So the question for me becomes, What identity am I trying to portray? Do I want people to see my personal site, or my professional sites? Which of those should they see? Or should I create a whole new brand under Midnight Circus (an idea I had been toying with for a long while but never actually completed) to work from?

Working from Midnight Circus provides the easiest entry into graphic design. Because the name can evoke such a sense of mystery and wonder, the images I could use for it don't need to be associated with computers at all. After all, when you think of the classic semiotic character, the Marlboro Man, you don't see him handing you a pack of cigarettes and saying, "Smoke this, it's great!" What you do see is a cowboy on the range, and it evokes a certain feeling in you that Marlboro is trying to get you to associate with their cigarettes. Wouldn't it be wonderful to associate a "midnight circus" flare with what web design I do?

This is the primary problem I have with Shimmer Studio, by and by. I've never said anything to my cohorts there about it, because I have no room to complain. But in my heart, the word "shimmer" is not one I would personally choose to promote myself. Sure it's just a name, and my work is going to be as high of a quality there as it would under any other name, but I find it difficult to put money behind an identity (read "buy business cards with that design") that evokes images in me of sequins and disco balls. As Podz and I have tried to tell Jenn, it's not very manly. (Fortunately, Podz and I are man enough that sequins don't fully overwhelm our corporate testosterone level.)

Asymptomatic itself is pretty tough to brand. Is there a thing that I could show you that would make you think of Asymptomatic? Apart from the site itself? There really isn't a signature icon here. I tried to get somehing like that from Becca when I asked her to design the site a couple of years ago, and although her design was very nice, it didn't provide that essential bit of iconogrphy.

Red Alt would probably be the easiest of my sites for which to produce stationery. I have fairly good iconography there (although I've been told in the past that I should have farmed that out instead of doing it myself, I rather like what I was able to produce on my own) that I could make into a bigger logo for a business card. It's nearly perfect. Plus, it has the added benefit of being a brand that people could identify with. The only problem with Red Alt, of course, is in complete disorder, since it was never really properly organized to be visited by people in the first place. This shouldn't diminish the fact that I should probably do something about that.

And those are just the high-profile projects that I currently work on. When Almost Friday becomes a worldwide entertainment phenomenon, I might rather have associated my identity to that. Or perhaps when Stonepath becomes the standard for simple web-based project management, I'd prefer that in my identity. And while nothing says I couldn't change it if those great things actually happened (which are things that I would like to happen, but demand a lot of me to bring to fruition, and as a result seem less likely than, you know, frying my spleen for breakfast), I still think I would prefer a strong brand right now that I could successfully carry over into any project I do.

I would like to overhear: "Hey, have you seen that Stonepath thing?" "No, what is it?" "It's a project management package by that guy from XXXX." "Oh, yeah, I've heard of XXXX. Cool."

Should I be worried that I don't even know what identity I would like to put forward in this regard?

Berta was suggesting that I use the little monkey that I use for my gravatar. I use it in a few places, but only really because I never had an identity that I wanted to promote. I would like to replace the monkey with something more meaningful; something that is not a picture of my head, which won't give you any impression beyond, "Who's this dude?"

As usual, I'm taking suggestions, because I simply don't know anything. Maybe a trip to the book store is in order.

I've been slowly amassing equipment for use in producing podcasts.

Over the summer, I acquired a small mixing board and a decent dynmaic microphone to use for recording Almost Friday for the Blogathon. That worked out reasonably well. I hooked everything through the mixing board into the guitar monitor and out to an M-Audio USB audio capture box. The sound produced wasn't bad.

For Christmas Berta got me a Fostex MR-8 8-track digital recorder. It's a fine little piece of equipment, and very portable, since you can run in from batteries.

The kit it came in provided a bag, another dynamic microphone, and some cable, which was plenty to get started recording things on the road. I was considering doing a kind of live-recorded podcast from the next meetup in Philly, in which anyone who wanted a turn talking could say great things about themselves, or Philly, or their blogs.

But there has got to be more to this podcasting thing than people blithering on about stuff that has no interest, right?

Well, I piled on some more equipment lately. I got a new Roland sampler/sequencer, which can create nice sequenced patterns of sampled sound, but could be used very well during a live program for inserting sound effects and sweepers. It, too, is possible to power by battery, so it is quite versatile.

There is also a brand-new microphone for my home studio setup. This one is a condenser microphone, which means it requires power. This is not a problem because the mixer has phantom power. I hooked it up last night and put on the headphones - wow! It's like night and day. It hears everything. Adjusting the EQ on the mixer now actually does something to the sound. Anything coming out of the old microphones sounded kind of muddy compared to this. This is also the detriment, since before this it was like my voice was wearing clothes, and now it's standing out there naked.

I've gotten a few books on podcasting, too, which have been quite helpful in showing me how my little setup - which at first glance looks like more than any common podcaster would ever use - is so far from a real studio that I almost want to cry.

Still, there are a few good things to take away from my reading. First, I'm going to have to listen to more podcasts, just to get a feel for the sound and format of the medium.

If the general content hasn't changed since the last time I was out listening to podcasts, then I have no interest in that. When I was last listening, shows fell into three categories: Two geeky guys chatting about tech topics that I had already read about elsewhere, a guy and a girl chatting/kvetching about stupid stuff that happened to them that day or that they found on the net, or a some lonely guy/girl talking over the ends of a few tracks of music that isn't my style. Suffice to say, nothing I want to listen to.

I spend a lot of time these days listening to audio drama on XM. I think it's a lot of fun to listenalong, and if the stories and acting are good, there are times when I would rather listen to it than watch something similar on TV.

So I was thinking of doing more Almost Friday, and spreading out the episodes a little. Perhaps I would release a weekly episode at a slower pace. Perhaps each one would be 20-30 minutes long.

What would be awesome is to get an actual cast, instead of having to do all of the voices myself.

And that's the thought that sends me back toward a WordPress-oriented news podcast. Goodness knows we need one, but I'm not too enthusiastic about spending my entire life working on WordPress-related stuff. It would be nice to actually use WordPress to blog out other interests.

So I guess I will start by picking up a few podcasts. My Podcast Hacks book suggests a site for "best of" podcast episodes, where producers can select their best episodes for display. Hopefully there will be something there worth listening to.

If you have any suggestions for what sounds good to you, or for what kind of podcast I should produce, please comment. I'm anxious for more ideas.

I changed some things around here. Hopefully, there is a little more functionality exposed, particularly on the archive pages.

If you're reading on RSS, please take a moment to stop by and see what you think of the look of the place.

If you notice any weirdness (yes, I am aware of some things, but not everything) please do leave it in this post's comments (which seem like they're working) or if those don't work, via email. Thanks!