Customise Webalizer at All-inkl.com

Show better statistics, filter the unimportant

If Webalizer displays too many unimportant urls in the result, you can adjust the config file in the backend.

Furthermore, I would like to do without tracking and analysis software here on the blog for as long as possible. I also don't want to use cookies for the foreseeable future, as I think data minimisation clearly takes precedence here. Besides, I would like to be a role model. 

In addition, with occasional exceptions, I will not publish articles, pictures or photos just because the statistics say that a topic is particularly interesting to readers. I stick to my borrowed motto: As my whimsy takes me. And I take you with me.

Edit the config

Webalizer

Since I would still like to know how many hits my site has, I use the Webalizer software pre-installed on the server at All-inkl.com to analyse the anonymised hits. For those who don't know it, Wikipedia writes:

"Webalizer is a free web analytics software that works with log file analysis and is licensed under the GPL. The project was initiated in 1997 by Bradford L. Barrett. The statistics generated by Webalizer usually contain the following information: Requests, visits, referrals, countries of visitors and amount of data served. These statistics can be viewed both graphically and textually and are presented on different time scales (hours, days, months, years)."

(Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webalizer (07.02.2022)

I would like to emphasise that I am aware of the problems around the lack of accuracy with Webalizer. 

Unfortunately, it is the case that without any further configuration, all files/pages are really displayed in the order of their retrieval numbers. Not very helpful if the statistics are then dominated at the top by files and addresses that say little about the content. Here is a list from 07.02.2021. I am not interested in the italicised addresses. (For security reasons some paths are shortened)

*/*/connectors/
/
/feed.rss
*/template/fonts/ibmplexmono-regular-webfont.woff2
*/template/fonts/ibmplexmono-semibold-webfont.woff2
*/*/moregallery/connector.php
*/*/fonts/ibmplexmono-italic-webfont.woff2
*/*/manager/
*/*/lang.js.php
*/*/modx.*.*.php
*/*/stercseo/connector.php
*/*/phpthumb.php
/blog/christo-freiheit-gleichheit-bruederlichkeit.html
/blog/
/en/blog/
/blog/aquarellpapier-aufziehen.html
/en/blog/rambling-rector.html
/blog/statistik-januar-2022.html
/malerei/e-waer-e-klima-kaut.html
/blog/jack-london-in-james-bond-keine-zeit-zu-sterben-ii.html
/impressum.html
/blog/jack-london-in-james-bond-keine-zeit-zu-sterben.html
/datenschutz.html
/en/blog/christo-liberty-equality-fraternity.html
/malerei/slow-down-pleasure-up.html
/open-search.xml
/kontakt.html
/blog/barnum-missgeburten.html
/blog/pierre-magnol-und-die-magnolie.html
/blog/holz-statt-plastik.html

Everything with an asterisk should actually be removed from the evaluation. 

Well, and what I didn't know, ashes on my head, I can configure Webalizer. All-inkl has published instructions on how to do this. I open the config file of Webalizer on the server, this is called webalizer.conf. Locally I make a backup of the file and name it webalizer.conf.bak.

Using the editor, I can now add more lines below these:

URL Ignoring
IgnoreURL robots.txt
IgnoreURL favicon.ico

IgnoreURL */template/fonts/ibmplexmono-regular-webfont.woff2
IgnoreURL */template/fonts/ibmplexmono-semibold-webfont.woff2
IgnoreURL */*/moregallery/connector.php
IgnoreURL */*/fonts/ibmplexmono-italic-webfont.woff2

etc etc

The number of top urls displayed can be increased to, for example, 75 with this simple line:

TopURLs 75

Now just save and upload. That was it. Let's see what the new result looks like tomorrow.

You can find more configuration options in this text file on Github.

Corrections

11.02.2022: It's really embarrassing. RTFM. Read the instructions. Of course, for instructions to work, the leading # sign must be removed. Then I added an example of how to extend the list of top pages to, say, 75. And I changed the spelling of all.inkl to the correct spelling All-inkl.com.

tl, dr;

I have adjusted the Webalizer config on my server to get better statistics.

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