HitBox on LiveJournal

[ljkrissy]

I'm making my first post here in

Comments

[dougs]

Also, thanks for putting an opt-out in place promptly.

[schnee]

I'll second that. It's great to know that at least one site believes in providing an easy opt-out method that actually works and also letting its users know about what's happening instead of silently adding stuff and updating the user agreement without telling anyone. :)

[ladysorka]

I'm sure you're aware of this, but a number of us use programs that block hitbox tracking cookies being placed on us at all - I know that it's one of the many that SpywareBlaster protects against, and a good number of other programs as well.

So, you're still not going to be getting data from those of us that are, well, anal about our computers - which might be slightly detrimental, as we also tend to be the ones who use the esoteric operating systems and browsers, not to mention the computers with very high screen sizes.

*shrugs*

[prissi]

Well, given that you can opt out of being tracked anyway, I'm not sure it makes much of a difference. :) I mean, those that are anal about their computers would likely run to the admin console to opt out of it anyway, so it doesn't make much of a difference that you block it from your end as well.

[uozaki]

Except that now makes two unique groups of people that LJ misses out on, making their sample no longer completely random, or at least not completely representative. I'm sure they're aware of that, but still.

(On the other hand if it's just a fringe population, losing it doesn't do much at all to your statistics, really.)

[prissi]

I hypothesize that likely, the two groups will have an overlap. To me, it seems like only a person who cares enough would block Hitbox cookies and the like to begin with, and that they're probably the same people who would care enough to opt out. But, good points are being brought up.

[jarodrussell]

Will we ever be able to tap the HitBox info, and maybe use it to track our visitors?

[burr86]

Nope; even if you could, it wouldn't have any information about your journal's visitors (since the hitbox code isn't on any of your journla pages). Probably would be better to get an outside counter and add it into your style?

[paperkingdoms]

... except totally not.

We're also not including it [the HitBox code] on anything within your journal -- including all comment pages. Basically, anything under your subdomain (exampleusername.livejournal.com, and the equivalent for communities) won't have the HitBox code added.

[paperkingdoms]

You don't. This is data collection that LJ is doing on the non-journal pages.

[flamencanyc]

We need to be able to tell what the popular browsers, operating systems, and screensizes are, to help us make sure we're designing for and testing the right combinations. We need to know where people get lost on the site, so we can fix problems with our navigation. We need to know what languages people are browsing the site in, so we can better support our translation teams.

This is the kind of info that most people I know would be happy to simply provide if asked. I certainly would.

Here's a start:
Safari 1.3.2 (v312.6)
Mac OS X (v 10.3.9)
PowerBook G4 12" (PowerPC G4 (3.3); 867 MHz)
English
I'll let you know if and when I get "lost."

[kunzite1]

i love your response.

(personally, my primary browser is firefox.)

[flamencanyc]

Thanks!

Just out of curiosity, what do the gold stars over your username and within the body of your reply signify?

[kunzite1]

the star is a subject icon that you can choose just after the subject line when you post a comment.

short answer: sentimental value to a previous relationship and i've been using it ever since i started commenting on LiveJournal. even before i had an account. :)