Oct 15 2007
Looking in the Mirror
I read a post over at A Byootaful Life about why the bloggers, Katie and Puddy, might not like your blog. The reasons listed are more focused towards personal blogs, so I took an interest. On points #1-6, I’m definitely not guilty. On point #7 though, I am guilty. It says, “7. You Have Those Freaky Things on the Sidebar that Say Where I’m From”. I have that. I always thought it was kinda cool. I’m not so much into checking my stats regularly, so I don’t always know where you’re from, but I’m on my blog’s main page way more often that Google Analytics, and I have a pretty decent interest in geography, so I liked this feature.
Here’s what I have in the “About You” section on my left sidebar:
My stat counter. That stays, and it’s going to hit 10,000 sometime. I’d be a lot further along but for some reason my old stat counter quit on me and I had to get a new one. I now suspect it had to do with upgrading to what was formerly known as Blogger Beta and making my template beta-compliant. Same thing happened with my Google Analytics, which I recently discovered. Oh well. But I still want to watch that number grow.
A little blurb from IP2 Location. It’s a script that gets info from your IP address to show your location. I’m at home right now, and it says “Great, now people from LAS VEGAS are stalking me! Powered by IP2Location.com.” Depending on how Cox may be routing my connection, it might say HENDERSON and I’ve even seen it say NORTH LAS VEGAS even though I am nowhere near NLV. So, it does only show your location to you, because it doesn’t collect stats and I only ever see Las Vegas, Henderson or NLV. I am thinking of chucking this, but it has more to do with the script, and I am aware that I have a few scripts running, so if anyone has issues with any of them, please let me know.
ClustrMaps. I like seeing the map fill up with red dots. I was sorely disappointed when it reset itself to zero after a year had passed, as I was on my way and really wanted to see just one giant red blob. That sort of burst my map bubble, but it’s still there because I don’t dislike it enough to get rid of it.
10 Latest Visitor from MapStats. I do believe that this section in particular is what Katie was talking about. I like it, since it’s that whole geography/map geek thing going on again, but I can certainly understand where some people might be freaked out by it.
I don’t have a MyBlogLog visitor thingy or any of its lookalikes that show recent visitors - even though it’s a social networking thing that could be valuable to blog traffic, I just don’t care for looking at them. Not sure why, perhaps that one is just a bit too personal for me. On the other hand, knowing that one of my latest vistors is from Las Vegas could mean that I’ve read my own blog, or Boyfriend has, or a coworker, or a blogging friend that lives here in town but whom I’ve never met. So what do you think? Do any of these things freak you out? Let me know - let me know your thoughts on this and on sidebar content in general.
FWIW, it might not count me (and others like me) all the time, as I sometimes read your shorter posts through my Google Reader. Hmmm.
I like your location things!
Yay for not making us type the mangled text!
Your IP-thingy is revealing in the way that it reveals more than just the country or State, but it’s different in that it doesn’t actually NAME the person who hails from there. I’ve seen ones that said “Katie from [insert blog] is visiting me from [insert waaay too personal area/town/suburb]” and is a clickable link to go to my site!
So yours is sort of in between.
By the way, it’s my first time visiting and I LOVE the template - blue is my favourite colour! I’m definitely coming back.
PH - it definitely doesn’t count people who only read thru a reader, only the ones who actually come here, so no worries there. I don’t mind the people who mainly read me thru a reader, as long as they’re reading, right?
Robin - Thanks!
Katie - you are the only one who can see your location thru the IP thingy, and if you click it, it will take you to the website to get the code. I could have added the IP and ISP and all sorts of other stuff, but I highly doubt my readers will care about or even know what their IP address is. I just wanted a bit of a personal touch.
I’m glad you like my template, and thanks so much for visiting!
It’s good to know that the info is only visible to the reader. I know a lot of people don’t mind (and I think it’s a really cool widget!)but for those of us who are a little paranoid about privacy it can be a little scary.
I don’t mean that your site is scary - I hope I haven’t offended you! *hug*
Katie - you haven’t offended me, just given me some food for thought. I’m cool with my visitors wanting a bit more privacy than I’ve afforded myself on the internet, so I definitely don’t want to expose people either on purpose or unwittingly. Thanks so much for your feedback!