View Full Version : Visit > 145 hours?
iamback
11-08-2004, 05:03 AM
I think not...
Look here: http://my.statcounter.com/project/standard/magnify.php?ip_number=3581828547 (you may need to add my project id: project_id=429108 - public access).
The page says: "Visit Length 145 hours 3 mins 59 secs" and mentions two visits, one on 1 November, another yesterday evening (7 November). In my project settings I had visit length set at 1 hour.
(I just tried to change that to 2 hours, but it didn't make any difference - apparently the visit length is already stored, or this project setting is ignored, even after a "reset".)
What it should be of course is two separate visits (single page), with the second visit marked as a returning visit.
[BTW, how do you calculate/estimate "visit length" for a visit with a single page load? I think it should be in the "less than 5 minutes" category.]
webado
11-08-2004, 05:17 AM
I think not...
Look here: http://my.statcounter.com/project/standard/magnify.php?ip_number=3581828547 (you may need to add my project id: project_id=429108 - public access).
The page says: "Visit Length 145 hours 3 mins 59 secs" and mentions two visits, one on 1 November, another yesterday evening (7 November). In my project settings I had visit length set at 1 hour.
(I just tried to change that to 2 hours, but it didn't make any difference - apparently the visit length is already stored, or this project setting is ignored, even after a "reset".)
What it should be of course is two separate visits (single page), with the second visit marked as a returning visit.
[BTW, how do you calculate/estimate "visit length" for a visit with a single page load? I think it should be in the "less than 5 minutes" category.]
LOL! I think this may have just recently been changed somehow to address the case of the duration of the pageveiw for the last page visited, that was being counted as less then 5 seconds for lack of any other means to calculate it. Going from one extreme to the other. :lol:
What's wrong with having a visit duration called "undefined" ? This could take care of all the single page views.
iamback
11-08-2004, 05:36 AM
What's wrong with having a visit duration called "undefined" ? This could take care of all the single page views.
That would be an extra category, which would be nice - but that's actually a feature request. :wink:
For now, I'd be happy to see this bug fixed (and single-page visits classified as "under 5 seconds").
webado
11-08-2004, 05:39 AM
Ah, but then one-page web sites wouldn't fare too well then would they? :lol:
I have just closed a session to your page of 119 hours 38 mins 28 secs. So, that was a very long visit, I'm tired of it. :lol:
But it is also counted as 'Returning Visits 0'. Maybe when it will count all seperated visits the visit lenght will also be normal.
if it is longer than 24 hours it now says
"Visit spread over more than one day"
the advanced statcounter project will deal with multiple visits over time - the standard statcounter project isn't really capable of doing it very well.
webado
11-08-2004, 01:38 PM
if it is longer than 24 hours it now says
"Visit spread over more than one day"
the advanced statcounter project will deal with multiple visits over time - the standard statcounter project isn't really capable of doing it very well.
LOL! I just saw this right after seeing a visit of 49 hours - going to see somehting else and coming back to it :lol:
iamback
11-08-2004, 02:09 PM
if it is longer than 24 hours it now says
"Visit spread over more than one day"
Except it shouldn't say that either if my profile sets the limit at one or two hours!
Is the profile setting ignored? If so, why?
If someone returns after 6 days it surely isn't a single visit by any "normal" criteria ;-)
that is used for the cookie - for the summary stats
iamback
11-08-2004, 03:29 PM
that is used for the cookie - for the summary stats
Now I'm even more confused!
What, exactly, is a "visit" then, and what a "returning visitor"? If that limit in the project profile isn't used, what criteria is used?
This sounds like yet another inconsistency between the various "views" StatCounter offers. Surely a "visit" is not two single page loads over a period of 7 days! Any website owner surely would call that two visits, not one.
It seems something has changed, and not for the better. I used to see some returning visitors indicated as such but it looks like any returning visitor is now making a "permanent" visit of absurd duration. That doesn't seem like a valuable change to me - quite the contrary.
(I ignore the summary stats entirely, BTW, as being about the least interesting of the lot. And returning visitors are far more interesting.)
No change in recording has changed - we are just totalling up the visit length from the available entries.
I wouldn't recommend ignoring the summary stats - the uniqueness there is based on a cookie - where as the rest of the stats the uniqueness is based on an ip address.
What can the Summary Stats tell me?
There are two dimensions to the stats for a 'Standard StatCounter project'. There are the 'Summary Stats', and the 'Detailed Log Analysis'. The 'Summary Stats' provide a lifetime daily count of the totals of visitors to your website each day. And allows you to run reports since the day you started the project! After a few months of tracking, it is absolutely superb to look back and to see the daily, weekly and monthly trends of your visitors. Does your website have a weekday rush and a weekend slump? Did your traffic take a surge leading up to a holiday season? Is your website in general growing or stagnating? It is a wonderful tool to quickly assess the current success of your website.
How do the Summary Stats work?
The 'Summary Stats' determines whether a visitor has been to your website before by using a cookie. So if a user has cookies disabled we have no way of knowing if they are unique or not, and will by default be considered unique. However the majority of visitors have cookies enabled.
To make up for relying on cookies in the summary stats, the rest of the stats are based on your detailed log analysis of the last xxx number of pageloads. The uniqueness in this case is based on your visitors' IP addresses. This method works very well for the majority, but yet again there is an exception. AOL users, and visitors who use what is known as a 'dynamic web proxy' that changes each time they access a webpage. So if a single AOL user visits 7 webpages on your website it will likely come up as 7 different IP addresses!
Both cookies and IP addresses have their strengths and weaknesses for determining the uniqueness of a visitor. There is no full proof way to be 100% accurate the entire time, but with the Standard StatCouner Project you get the best of both worlds. Cookies for the 'Summary Stats' and IP addresses for the 'Detailed Log Analysis'!
The Advanced StatCounter Project combines the best of both worlds to use an almost full-proof system (the only problem is AOL visitors who have cookies disabled! Not many!) but it is very server intensive, and won't be possible to provide as a free service until the cost of hardware and dedicated servers come down in price.
iamback
11-08-2004, 03:55 PM
No change in recording has changed - we are just totalling up the visit length from the available entries.
That total is meaningless, as far as I'm concerned. The result is certainly not a "visit" by any normal criteria. I can't even think of a meaningful name for that total. If you want to total it, give it a name other than "visit length" which it clearly isn't!
And you haven't answered my basic questions: What, exactly, is a "visit" then, and what a "returning visitor"?
And if you're using a cookie to gather data, why isn't that data used consistently and meaningfully?
That total is meaningless, as far as I'm concerned. The result is certainly not a "visit" by any normal criteria. I can't even think of a meaningful name for that total. If you want to total it, give it a name other than "visit length" which it clearly isn't!
If you have only one visit from that visitor in your log (which given the small size of the logs most people will only have) then it will work fine. If it goes over 24 hours then we don't give the visit length. And you can just look at the path data yourself - all this does is help you at a quick glance see how long they spent on your website - without having to calculate it from the already given path data.
And you haven't answered my basic questions: What, exactly, is a "visit" then, and what a "returning visitor"?
http://www.statcounter.com/unique_visitor.html
http://www.statcounter.com/returning_visitor.html
And if you're using a cookie to gather data, why isn't that data used consistently and meaningfully?
What can the Summary Stats tell me?
There are two dimensions to the stats for a 'Standard StatCounter project'. There are the 'Summary Stats', and the 'Detailed Log Analysis'. The 'Summary Stats' provide a lifetime daily count of the totals of visitors to your website each day. And allows you to run reports since the day you started the project! After a few months of tracking, it is absolutely superb to look back and to see the daily, weekly and monthly trends of your visitors. Does your website have a weekday rush and a weekend slump? Did your traffic take a surge leading up to a holiday season? Is your website in general growing or stagnating? It is a wonderful tool to quickly assess the current success of your website.
How do the Summary Stats work?
The 'Summary Stats' determines whether a visitor has been to your website before by using a cookie. So if a user has cookies disabled we have no way of knowing if they are unique or not, and will by default be considered unique. However the majority of visitors have cookies enabled.
To make up for relying on cookies in the summary stats, the rest of the stats are based on your detailed log analysis of the last xxx number of pageloads. The uniqueness in this case is based on your visitors' IP addresses. This method works very well for the majority, but yet again there is an exception. AOL users, and visitors who use what is known as a 'dynamic web proxy' that changes each time they access a webpage. So if a single AOL user visits 7 webpages on your website it will likely come up as 7 different IP addresses!
Both cookies and IP addresses have their strengths and weaknesses for determining the uniqueness of a visitor. There is no full proof way to be 100% accurate the entire time, but with the Standard StatCouner Project you get the best of both worlds. Cookies for the 'Summary Stats' and IP addresses for the 'Detailed Log Analysis'!
The Advanced StatCounter Project combines the best of both worlds to use an almost full-proof system (the only problem is AOL visitors who have cookies disabled! Not many!) but it is very server intensive, and won't be possible to provide as a free service until the cost of hardware and dedicated servers come down in price.
iamback
11-08-2004, 05:14 PM
If you have only one visit from that visitor in your log (which given the small size of the logs most people will only have) then it will work fine. If it goes over 24 hours then we don't give the visit length.
But you still call it "Visit length" - which it obviously isn't. It's more like interval between visits if you want to give it an approximate name. Whatever you want to call it - a "visit" it is not.
No need quoting me that same page (which I read) back again - it doesn't answer the question why you're not using the (real) visit data you already have "consistently and meaningfully".
Calling something a "visit" in one view and calling something entirely different (not-a-visit) also a "visit" in another is not logical, not meaningful, not useful, and inconsistent.
StatCounter is a great service, but the many small inconsistencies really need to be solved. This is one of them (and not the only one I've reported!).
vBulletin® v3.8.5, Copyright ©2000-2013, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.