Why you shouldn't opt out.
I've been watching the latest at LJ-biz (via feed) from my vantage point over at Scribblit, and there's something about the response that's really not sitting right with me. From LJ_biz:
Back in January, we announced that we'd start using Omniture SiteCatalyst as the system that lets us dig deeper into how members and visitors use LiveJournal. Back then, we had only used Omniture's tracking on the site-schemed pages of LiveJournal (those are the ones with the LJ menus and header, not the ones that follow your journal's style).
With this new change, we'll now also use Omniture on a very small random sampling (about 5%) of journals and communities, including profile pages, friends pages and comment pages. This change will take place on or after September 27, 2007.
[...]
As always, we are providing a way for any user to opt out of contributing to the stats-gathering (even though we know it runs the risk of statistically biasing our results). If you’d like to opt out, go to the Admin Console and type "set opt_exclude_stats 1". This opt out applies to the entire implementation of Omniture -- site-schemed pages and the new inclusion of journals, profiles and communities. If you've already opted out, you don't need to do so again.
I do have a problem with them tracking my use. It freaks me out. I'm glad there's an opt out, and two years ago I would have taken it. But I'm not going to opt out, and you shouldn't either.
Hear me out. LJ has refused to make this announcement anywhere but in LJ_biz, as can be seen by reading any page of comments to the latest post. They've continued to not make this announcement more widely available even after it's been pointed out that an opt out is worthless if nobody knows about it. There are two groups of people in this debate: the people who think this needs to be announced all over the place (including in news), and the people who think it makes no difference whatsoever because the people who want to be aware are already paying attention.
It makes a big, fat difference. The people who are aware, who read _biz, who post about this kind of thing and think about their internet privacy, are the most active of the most active users, the users responsible for disbursing information. These people are frequently in fandom, but that's beside the point, for once. These are the people who are currently opting out. The intelligent, active, mindful userbase is opting out. So who does that leave to get monitored? The people who don't care. The people who use LJ like it's any other run-of-the-mill "social networking" site, who are "new" users. Their information is going to be used to improve the site, suiting it to users' needs.
The casual LJ users generally don't visit the site every day, but we do. The most active of the most active users -- the people who are opting out -- are actually the people who most need to be tracked if we want to see genuine site improvement. What LJ should be doing is tracking everybody, or make it opt in, with their improvements stacked in favor of more frequent users, but that's too much to ask for. The best we can do is hope they track some of us, but as more and more of us opt out, we're losing that chance. I realise it's not exactly the same as having a voice, but it seems like nothing's the same as having a voice with 6A these days, and an impartial data collection robot marking down whether you hate the boxes on the main LJ page is as close as anybody is going to get without taking serious initiative.
Some facts about the data collection from the _biz post (it's not as creepy as it initially appears):
The system will collect information that's pretty straightforward, including what browser you're using, what site scheme you use, your window size, how people travel through the site (what are the common links, where are people going after viewing their friends page, what people are or aren't clicking on), and things like how many page views different parts of the site get.
With this change we will be able to learn more about how you use the site and what areas are confusing or are in need of improvement. We'll also have a good way to help prioritize all of your suggestions based on what people actually use.
Some key points:
* We're only going to apply the cookie to a very small random sampling of users, about 5%.
* We're using the resulting stats to find out what to focus on in the future for LJ.
* The Omniture code doesn’t capture any private data such as payment information provided in the Gift Shop.
* Omniture does not have access to friends-only or private entries.
Note that LJ will not be judging us, just looking at which parts of the site we use.
What I see here is a chance for the people who use LJ all the time -- who are, like I said, the ideal people to track -- to have their site usage patterns noticed. Since LJ seems to be bent on ignoring their older, more active userbase in favor of the newer users, this is a nice, objective way to be counted. For every one of us who opts out, we become less likely to be noticed. Protesting and complaining when something goes wrong are all well and good, but if LJ has been collecting statistics that go directly against what we're telling them, how seriously can they take us?
So how do I opt back in?
Enter "set opt_exclude_stats 0" in the admin console.
---
ETA: Go ahead and link this up.
ETA2: Note that the latest news post contains more about Knocked Up coming to DVD than it does about LJ getting a new CEO.
ETA3: We should have everyone we know who doesn't use their journal at all opt out, and we should opt out all the names we don't use very often. Shrink the pool, guys.
Back in January, we announced that we'd start using Omniture SiteCatalyst as the system that lets us dig deeper into how members and visitors use LiveJournal. Back then, we had only used Omniture's tracking on the site-schemed pages of LiveJournal (those are the ones with the LJ menus and header, not the ones that follow your journal's style).
With this new change, we'll now also use Omniture on a very small random sampling (about 5%) of journals and communities, including profile pages, friends pages and comment pages. This change will take place on or after September 27, 2007.
[...]
As always, we are providing a way for any user to opt out of contributing to the stats-gathering (even though we know it runs the risk of statistically biasing our results). If you’d like to opt out, go to the Admin Console and type "set opt_exclude_stats 1". This opt out applies to the entire implementation of Omniture -- site-schemed pages and the new inclusion of journals, profiles and communities. If you've already opted out, you don't need to do so again.
I do have a problem with them tracking my use. It freaks me out. I'm glad there's an opt out, and two years ago I would have taken it. But I'm not going to opt out, and you shouldn't either.
Hear me out. LJ has refused to make this announcement anywhere but in LJ_biz, as can be seen by reading any page of comments to the latest post. They've continued to not make this announcement more widely available even after it's been pointed out that an opt out is worthless if nobody knows about it. There are two groups of people in this debate: the people who think this needs to be announced all over the place (including in news), and the people who think it makes no difference whatsoever because the people who want to be aware are already paying attention.
It makes a big, fat difference. The people who are aware, who read _biz, who post about this kind of thing and think about their internet privacy, are the most active of the most active users, the users responsible for disbursing information. These people are frequently in fandom, but that's beside the point, for once. These are the people who are currently opting out. The intelligent, active, mindful userbase is opting out. So who does that leave to get monitored? The people who don't care. The people who use LJ like it's any other run-of-the-mill "social networking" site, who are "new" users. Their information is going to be used to improve the site, suiting it to users' needs.
The casual LJ users generally don't visit the site every day, but we do. The most active of the most active users -- the people who are opting out -- are actually the people who most need to be tracked if we want to see genuine site improvement. What LJ should be doing is tracking everybody, or make it opt in, with their improvements stacked in favor of more frequent users, but that's too much to ask for. The best we can do is hope they track some of us, but as more and more of us opt out, we're losing that chance. I realise it's not exactly the same as having a voice, but it seems like nothing's the same as having a voice with 6A these days, and an impartial data collection robot marking down whether you hate the boxes on the main LJ page is as close as anybody is going to get without taking serious initiative.
Some facts about the data collection from the _biz post (it's not as creepy as it initially appears):
The system will collect information that's pretty straightforward, including what browser you're using, what site scheme you use, your window size, how people travel through the site (what are the common links, where are people going after viewing their friends page, what people are or aren't clicking on), and things like how many page views different parts of the site get.
With this change we will be able to learn more about how you use the site and what areas are confusing or are in need of improvement. We'll also have a good way to help prioritize all of your suggestions based on what people actually use.
Some key points:
* We're only going to apply the cookie to a very small random sampling of users, about 5%.
* We're using the resulting stats to find out what to focus on in the future for LJ.
* The Omniture code doesn’t capture any private data such as payment information provided in the Gift Shop.
* Omniture does not have access to friends-only or private entries.
Note that LJ will not be judging us, just looking at which parts of the site we use.
What I see here is a chance for the people who use LJ all the time -- who are, like I said, the ideal people to track -- to have their site usage patterns noticed. Since LJ seems to be bent on ignoring their older, more active userbase in favor of the newer users, this is a nice, objective way to be counted. For every one of us who opts out, we become less likely to be noticed. Protesting and complaining when something goes wrong are all well and good, but if LJ has been collecting statistics that go directly against what we're telling them, how seriously can they take us?
So how do I opt back in?
Enter "set opt_exclude_stats 0" in the admin console.
---
ETA: Go ahead and link this up.
ETA2: Note that the latest news post contains more about Knocked Up coming to DVD than it does about LJ getting a new CEO.
ETA3: We should have everyone we know who doesn't use their journal at all opt out, and we should opt out all the names we don't use very often. Shrink the pool, guys.