HackMake

I’ve removed analytics and page tracking from hackmake.org. For years, I’ve used Gauges for analytics. They’ve got a great product. It’s simple to use and not owned by Google. Recently I’ve been reading more discussions about the privacy concerns of third-party tracking and advertising scripts, the data they collect (and often resell) and the speed impacts they have on page load times.

Often the discussions pointed to browser plugins like Ghostery or EFF’s Privacy Badger which block these third-party scripts from loading on a page. I gave it a shot and quickly forgot about the little ghost in the top corner of my browser keeping all the riff raff out. iOS 9 was just released and contains a feature called Content Blocker built into Safari that lets developers make apps that block ads and third-party scripts. I’m also excited to start using this.

Since I don’t want this stuff loading for me as I browse websites, I thought it rude of me to continue tracking you.

I’m interested in seeing if anything will change with what I publish since I no longer have analytics telling me what people are clicking on. I’ve never paid too much attention to this site’s (admittedly small) traffic numbers, nor experimented much with topic or writing style to chase clicks.

If anything, it might free me from the little sting of hurt when I see the downward traffic trend that comes with writing less. I have to keep in mind that number doesn’t show the amazing things I’ve experienced and achieved in my life since spending less time writing for this site and more time on other things.