Fannish Browsing Tools, Part 2

[gnatkip]

I don't know if this is a good time to make this post, but then I don't know when IS a good time, what with all the hell and all the handbaskets. It's a list of some bells and whistles for LJ, LJ clones, and other fannish places. See also Part OneI use some of these a lot; some not at all. I am not endorsing any of them. As with anything you

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

# Removes "Comments & Responses" and "Related Videos," with the option to toggle them back on. Fantastic. Because YouTube comments are the sort of thing that you shouldn't have to face unless you're actively seeking punishment.

Hee! Wow is this true. I forget sometimes how intelligent this corner of LJ is by comparison.

Re: the StatCounter, have you found it to be useful? How does it compare to ljtoys?

[gnatkip]

I love the statcounter, yes! I have one on my sidebar, my profile, and a couple on select posts like this and my art index. Occasionally it displays wrong, and some words are visible, so I wrap the code in this:

I've thought about ljtoys, but I've never actually used it. I understand it's on every post, and it makes a guess on the usernames of who's looking? It seems like it has the potential to make me paranoid(er), heh. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding it. Because statcounter can tell you country and ISP info on your visitors, too -- not just a head count -- if you go to the trouble of clicking that button. Do you use it? Would you recommend it?

[yourlibrarian]

Yeah I think the ljtoys is pretty useful. There's both a paid and unpaid version and I use the free one so I can't speak to all its features. The downside is that you have to log in at least once a week for it to keep tracking your stats. I usually do but sometimes I'm traveling or I forget in which case it stops collecting, and it also doesn't let you go back longer than a week. So I guess I was wondering about the StatCounter's longevity.

Otherwise they seem to do much the same -- ljtoys requires you to either load a mood theme in your journal or paste a line of code in each post. It tracks IP and countries and, as you said, guesses at users. Does it allow you to track hits per post or is it a general journal visit tally?

[gnatkip]

Ah, thanks for the info about ljtoys

[yourlibrarian]

Sounds like they could be a good complement to one another in some ways. Part of what I'm looking for is a total count per post that I can access in perpetuity but it sounds like neither does this (the paid ljtoys may, but it doesn't matter enough to me to pay for it). What's been interesting to see is how often older posts get accessed because you'd never guess it from comments.