[sf-lug] Web Log Analyzers

[Steven Friese]

Far be it from me to accuse commercial software of any fibbing and hiding it.  I'm sure they would be happy to let users check their source code if anyone would just ask politely.  :-)

I would actually like to use software that doesn't lie or cheat, either for free or for cost.  Unfortunately, it seems that people who want to spend money (advertisers) want some sort of guarantee that they will be a return on their investment.  In other words, they love numbers and don't care how they get them.  They have to justify the expense somehow.  Commercial interests are happy to give them what they ask for.  <sarcasm>Open Source seems to have this strange idea of 'ethics'</sarcasm>.

The sad part about it is that, since commercial software sells these ideas, Open Source is made to look inferior because they don't provide the same thing.  I'll choose Open Source any time I can, at least I know I can trust it.

Thanks for the BBClone tip.  I'll give it a try.


----- Original Message ----
From: Asheesh Laroia <asheesh at asheesh.org>
To: Steven Friese <stvn_consult at yahoo.com>
Cc: sf-lug at linuxmafia.com
Sent: Thursday, December 6, 2007 4:19:43 PM
Subject: Re: [sf-lug] Web Log Analyzers


On Thu, 6 Dec 2007, Steven Friese wrote:

> From what I've read from some Open Source web analyzer docs, there is
 no 
> real way to get these kinds of statistics since:
>
> 1.  an IP address does not necessarily represent a person
> 2.  dial-up lines can get different IP addresses for each call
> 3.  NAT based routers show all users at one IP address
> 4.  more than one person can use a computer
> 5.  etc.

So the commercial software just makes stuff up, and hides this
 complexity 
behind lies.

> The problem is that, since a commercial software has these numbers
 (and 
> advertisers seem to love them) we need a (preferably) Open Source 
> product that can give those stats.  Failing that, we need commercial 
> software that runs on Linux and provides those stats.

So you either want open source lies for free, or proprietary lies for
 pay. 
(-;

I'll stop making fun of you now, sorry if it was too harsh, but I hope 
you see what I meant.

Have you seen http://bbclone.de/ ?

-- Asheesh.

--
Underlying Principle of Socio-Genetics:
     Superiority is recessive.