Daily counters of my site

"There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count and those who can't."    — Bumper sticker.

Counter comments

Some notes about my counters: I launched my site on 17th april 1996. From that first day till 27th February 2001, I relied only on logfiles to count visits, so that came up to about 1 198 389 hits on HTML pages, including search engine robots. With more than 2000 hits a day, the logfiles were getting hard to manage, so on 27th February 2001 I created a series of counters on each pages, each directory and the entire site (see below); they are graphic counters so they count only visitors who have graphic enabled browsers (which excludes search engine robots). This should be more accurate, as long as my PC is not crashed or saturated, since it handles the counting requests separately from the main site. They also have the advantage of being common to my different mirrors.

I will keep analyzing the log files for the wallpaper statistics and to keep the stats consistent with the counters.

Below are the daily counter statistics. The graphs are not normalized but scaled to the max value of the counter for the period. First graph displays the total for the site. Next 7 plots display the total by section. And after that each file of each section is detailed.
Note that the section counters don't add to the sum of each file in the section. That is because I have sometimes moved files from one section to another.

On Jan 1st 2002 a hacker broke my main server (or maybe it was the Y2K bug a bit late). I decided it was time to remove the lousy Microsoft IIS5 off my secondary server and replace it with a real one (Apache). After I did that and finally put back together bits and pieces of counters: surprise ! The number of visitors has almost doubled (woah, almost 10000 hits on in January !!!), sign that my site is only limited by the power of the server and the bandwidth of the line...

I lost the Windows server that was housing my counters in Dec 2003, so I rewrote a Linux-friendly one in Python. Since it's a text counter instead of a graphical counter the stats will be different yet again (it's much quicker so it doesn't slog when simultaneous requests happen). And I changed the structure of the display page to DHTML permitting sorting by clicking on the column headers (the white boxes).

Fast forward to 2007, apparently the python counter script was consuming too much resources on the server (after all it gets called on average every 3 seconds). So the alternate solutions are:

• Use Google analytics, an easy to setup free service that also ties into the AdWords service. Pretty graphs but you loose full control. Also only counts pages where browsers have JavaScript enabled (a minor issue nowadays).
• Rely on the good old access.log offline analysis. Needs a lot of scripting and won't produce pretty plots directly. But it provides a reference.
• Access.log analysis by custom software such as Webaliser. I find that imprecise and not configurable (it's server side and very static).
• Direct PHP counting into static files. Not incredibly secure and probably quite resource hungry too. We'll see how it goes (this can provide an online text counter). Another drawback is that it now counts all the page accesses, including those from robots (as opposed to my previous use of an IFRAME). Although I don't know how page caching goes since the timestamp stays the same but every display of the page is actually slightly different.
• Same but through a SQL database. Good resource management.

Daily statistics

0	GD		2001/03/01	15917494	5894	16335	2005/03/30	11395	+93	+	2008/05/13
1	Main		2001/03/01	525619	120	647	2007/08/27	401	+231	+	2008/05/13
2	Antarctica		2001/03/01	5669761	2082	7514	2005/02/23	4039	+93	+	2008/05/13
3	Climbing		2001/03/01	2033951	760	1809	2008/01/22	1407	+85	+	2008/05/13
4	Family		2001/03/01	105552	41	440	2006/10/13	79	+91	+	2008/05/13
5	Hack		2001/03/01	1937239	761	7635	2005/03/30	1361	+78	+	2008/05/13
6	Humor		2001/03/01	2503611	903	4125	2006/05/18	1859	+105	+	2008/05/13
7	Photo		2001/03/01	3638686	1370	4157	2007/08/23	2250	+64	+	2008/05/13
9	indexMain		2001/03/01	313714	108	629	2007/08/27	377	+249	+	2008/05/13
10	toc		2001/03/01	24160	8	44	2003/08/12	13	+48	+	2008/05/13
11	Counters		2001/08/19	7993	3	19	2007/06/13	9	+129	+	2008/05/13
12	CV_En		2001/03/03	7216	3	21	2004/10/29	2	-36	-	2008/05/13
13	CV_Fr		2001/03/02	3797	1	16	2006/09/08	2	+2	+	2008/05/13
14	JennyCV		2001/03/01	13188	5	58	2004/10/29	2	-64	-	2008/05/13
16	indexPhoto		2001/03/01	94638	37	201	2004/12/30	52	+38	+	2008/05/13
17	BestOf		2007/10/21	3373	16	33	2007/10/26	10	-39	-	2008/05/13
18	Ana3D		2007/11/07	3575	18	32	2008/02/13	18	-5	+	2008/05/13
19	Agencies		2002/04/29	32842	15	80	2004/10/29	16	+0	+	2008/05/13
20	Archive		2001/06/13	524523	220	2377	2007/08/23	397	+80	+	2008/05/13
21	Astrophoto		2007/05/24	3369	9	44	2007/06/11	14	+44	+	2008/05/13
22	Background		2001/03/01	924510	310	1190	2005/03/30	240	-23	-	2008/05/13
23	BaseJump		2004/11/24	26288	22	117	2005/10/19	22	-3	+	2008/05/13
24	Birdseye		2006/08/15	8312	15	65	2008/03/26	22	+41	+	2008/05/13
25	BlackWhite		2004/01/25	90651	61	145	2007/11/26	71	+15	+	2008/05/13
26	Caving		2007/07/12	4507	14	218	2008/02/23	12	-19	-	2008/05/13
27	ClimbingPhotoTips		2001/04/15	86543	35	260	2003/09/04	20	-44	-	2008/05/13
28	Combine		2006/08/09	22058	41	101	2008/05/06	104	+148	*	2008/05/13
29	HDR		2007/05/03	3035	8	34	2008/02/17	6	-26	-	2008/05/13
30	Dubrovnik		2007/09/17	3295	13	32	2008/04/01	40	+194	*	2008/05/13
31	CNRS_Ganil		2007/11/26	750	4	10	2008/01/26	5	+10	+	2008/05/13
32	Copyright		2001/03/01	77456	27	219	2007/08/08	39	+40	+	2008/05/13
33	Desktop		2001/03/01	475103	188	849	2004/09/10	100	-47	-	2008/05/13
34	Fox		2007/09/17	4219	17	53	2008/04/30	51	+191	+	2008/05/13
35	Fisheye		2006/08/09	21035	38	152	2008/04/02	69	+79	+	2008/05/13
36	ForSale		2003/02/14	47160	26	97	2006/01/24	30	+13	+	2008/05/13
37	Found		2006/02/26	1278	2	12	2006/11/14	4	+66	+	2008/05/13
38	Gallery		2004/01/25	87178	59	150	2006/01/17	85	+43	+	2008/05/13
39	Leftovers		2002/06/14	38265	18	650	2003/02/15	3	-85	-	2008/05/13
40	Lightning		2007/05/25	13519	38	167	2007/10/16	79	+104	+	2008/05/13
41	Macro		2007/05/26	6659	19	64	2007/06/11	40	+110	+	2008/05/13
42	Matos		2001/03/01	60694	24	146	2006/01/07	21	-13	-	2008/05/13
43	RawProcessors		2007/07/03	6413	20	52	2008/03/24	18	-13	-	2008/05/13
44	RicohGR		2007/05/02	9357	24	82	2007/10/17	20	-20	-	2008/05/13
45	FujiS5pro		2007/05/02	12415	32	444	2007/06/11	34	+3	+	2008/05/13
46	Money		2002/11/21	16263	8	36	2007/06/24	10	+14	+	2008/05/13
47	Panorama		2001/03/02	92543	37	142	2003/02/02	77	+107	+	2008/05/13
48	Posters		2006/06/18	5517	9	34	2007/07/03	14	+50	+	2008/05/13
49	ScannerTest		2001/04/08	182	6	28	2002/09/16	2	-67	-	2008/05/13
50	Themes		2004/01/13	155835	105	248	2004/03/03	59	-44	-	2008/05/13
51	Coldpaper		2006/07/23	41352	73	219	2006/10/14	57	-23	-	2008/05/13
52	Nature		2006/07/23	54848	97	263	2007/05/23	65	-34	-	2008/05/13
53	Rockpaper		2006/07/23	37690	66	134	2006/11/28	42	-38	-	2008/05/13
54	SlideShow		2006/10/02	24273	50	498	2007/08/18	6	-89	-	2008/05/13
55	Thumbnails		2001/03/01	18084	7	37	2002/10/20	4	-46	-	2008/05/13
56	VPano		2003/02/03	32100	17	58	2008/03/11	18	+0	+	2008/05/13
57	Wallpaper		2001/03/01	510444	186	529	2002/09/17	244	+30	+	2008/05/13
58	Xray		2001/03/01	56246	23	173	2005/06/17	15	-36	-	2008/05/13
60	indexAntarctica		2001/03/01	186134	64	459	2005/07/11	153	+137	+	2008/05/13
61	Accident		2001/03/03	15449	6	161	2007/01/09	3	-52	-	2008/05/13
62	AdelieLandStories		2004/02/23	5380	4	20	2005/08/19	6	+48	+	2008/05/13
63	Anaglyph		2001/03/01	408474	149	570	2004/01/29	120	-20	-	2008/05/13
64	Animals		2001/03/01	643329	245	3451	2003/07/23	787	+220	+	2008/05/13
65	AntarBases		2001/03/01	83454	28	114	2004/10/29	39	+34	+	2008/05/13
66	AntarMountains		2005/08/11	19381	21	823	2007/08/11	33	+53	+	2008/05/13
67	AntarSky		2001/03/01	162381	59	435	2006/08/02	90	+51	+	2008/05/13
68	AstroAntar		2004/10/04	26201	21	192	2005/10/30	34	+56	+	2008/05/13
69	Aurora		2006/08/09	8853	16	40	2007/10/29	17	+3	+	2008/05/13
70	Birds		2001/03/01	184668	68	603	2002/07/13	101	+47	+	2008/05/13
71	Concordia		2001/03/01	25334	9	421	2004/10/29	10	+2	+	2008/05/13
72	DCBW		2006/08/15	4940	9	110	2007/08/07	17	+75	+	2008/05/13
73	DomeC		2001/03/01	74643	27	204	2006/11/04	37	+34	+	2008/05/13
74	DomeC_Fr		2001/03/01	38145	15	140	2005/03/30	7	-54	-	2008/05/13
75	DomeC_It		2001/03/01	14536	5	119	2006/09/14	17	+193	+	2008/05/13
76	DomeCFAQ		2005/02/26	7358	6	41	2006/11/28	11	+59	+	2008/05/13
77	DomeCharlie		2004/11/19	8431	7	26	2007/11/27	14	+92	+	2008/05/13
78	DryValleys		2004/11/19	19215	16	1137	2007/12/29	21	+27	+	2008/05/13
79	Epica		2006/08/09	4630	8	39	2008/03/18	21	+136	+	2008/05/13
80	FromAir		2006/08/09	8714	15	42	2008/02/07	23	+44	+	2008/05/13
81	Glacio		2006/08/09	8077	15	46	2007/12/13	19	+24	+	2008/05/13
82	Glossary		2005/02/26	13589	12	44	2005/05/16	16	+25	+	2008/05/13
83	Icebergs		2006/08/09	9729	17	135	2008/03/05	43	+141	+	2008/05/13
84	InfoAntarctica		2001/03/01	228577	82	316	2008/03/25	355	+329	*	2008/05/13
85	Manchots		2006/08/09	11324	20	59	2008/01/24	24	+14	+	2008/05/13
86	ManchotFAQ		2006/08/09	8296	15	77	2007/06/13	27	+74	+	2008/05/13
87	McMurdo		2006/08/09	6745	12	34	2008/01/14	19	+52	+	2008/05/13
88	McMurdoOld		2001/03/01	41986	13	92	2002/10/27	13	-5	+	2008/05/13
89	MeteoDdU		2001/03/01	91482	35	145	2006/07/26	85	+142	+	2008/05/13
90	PenguinDrawings		2001/03/01	200425	70	354	2005/01/11	57	-19	-	2008/05/13
91	PenguinFAQ		2004/08/03	252317	198	726	2006/01/17	467	+135	+	2008/05/13
92	Penguins		2001/03/01	2526043	922	4485	2005/02/23	892	-4	-	2008/05/13
94	RadarSat		2002/05/16	63190	30	260	2002/10/01	47	+53	+	2008/05/13
95	SunRun		2006/08/21	9463	17	219	2008/03/18	26	+45	+	2008/05/13
96	TA43Portraits		2004/01/25	6052	4	54	2004/01/25	5	+15	+	2008/05/13
97	TerraNova		2002/03/13	26535	12	113	2004/01/17	25	+99	+	2008/05/13
98	Traverse		2006/08/09	6527	12	41	2006/10/10	21	+73	+	2008/05/13
99	VisitingAntarctica		2002/08/26	66303	33	161	2003/01/06	34	+0	+	2008/05/13
100	Water		2006/08/15	1180	2	13	2008/02/14	7	+147	+	2008/05/13
101	WeatherSat		2001/03/01	58184	17	95	2004/11/29	9	-49	-	2008/05/13
102	WinterDC		2004/09/30	192969	158	863	2007/06/20	276	+74	+	2008/05/13
103	WinterDdU		2001/03/01	70866	22	97	2004/10/29	19	-18	-	2008/05/13
105	indexClimbing		2001/03/01	232371	81	401	2005/06/14	79	-4	-	2008/05/13
106	Alaska		2001/03/01	62099	21	107	2002/09/17	24	+14	+	2008/05/13
107	AntarClimb		2001/03/01	68694	21	97	2002/01/24	16	-26	-	2008/05/13
108	Apennines		2006/05/06	6004	9	46	2008/03/17	17	+76	+	2008/05/13
109	Arizona		2002/01/05	41652	19	71	2003/06/09	17	-12	-	2008/05/13
110	Ascents		2002/09/23	9010	4	37	2004/08/26	6	+21	+	2008/05/13
111	Australia		2006/02/26	8786	12	100	2006/04/18	24	+90	+	2008/05/13
112	Beginner		2002/09/25	19053	9	51	2006/05/30	6	-40	-	2008/05/13
113	BlackCanyon		2002/09/18	12744	6	73	2002/09/19	5	-26	-	2008/05/13
114	Bored		2001/03/18	19543	8	28	2007/06/12	11	+36	+	2008/05/13
115	Briancon		2005/02/26	12110	11	80	2007/07/17	26	+129	+	2008/05/13
116	BrianconClimb		2006/11/18	5062	11	38	2007/06/09	15	+27	+	2008/05/13
117	BrianconIce		2006/05/06	3596	5	21	2006/08/01	2	-67	-	2008/05/13
118	BrianconSki		2006/05/06	7384	11	56	2008/02/18	7	-41	-	2008/05/13
119	BrianconBike		2006/07/23	2734	5	14	2007/05/10	7	+35	+	2008/05/13
120	California		2004/01/13	21677	14	50	2004/10/15	14	-5	+	2008/05/13
121	ChoOyu		2001/03/01	102638	40	201	2007/09/14	39	-3	-	2008/05/13
122	ClimbingPosts		2001/03/01	14472	5	25	2001/12/10	6	+13	+	2008/05/13
123	ColoradoClimb		2001/03/18	77037	31	143	2007/11/02	83	+160	+	2008/05/13
124	ColoradoDiamond		2002/09/18	20969	10	36	2003/08/10	13	+19	+	2008/05/13
125	ColoradoIce		2002/09/18	25146	13	54	2004/12/06	8	-39	-	2008/05/13
126	ColoradoMountain		2002/09/18	27764	14	50	2005/09/07	18	+25	+	2008/05/13
127	ColoradoSki		2002/09/18	18521	9	36	2007/01/02	6	-39	-	2008/05/13
128	Corsica		2006/11/16	4710	10	32	2006/12/01	17	+57	+	2008/05/13
129	Dakota		2002/09/04	14114	7	27	2007/07/26	20	+171	+	2008/05/13
130	DesertTowers		2004/01/13	12298	8	25	2007/05/20	8	-5	+	2008/05/13
131	DevilsTower		2002/09/04	47361	24	84	2004/05/10	35	+43	+	2008/05/13
132	Disclaimer		2002/09/25	7371	4	20	2002/10/29	6	+42	+	2008/05/13
133	Dolomite		2001/03/01	39674	14	263	2005/07/22	10	-32	-	2008/05/13
134	Ecrins		2004/08/25	16106	13	62	2004/11/05	27	+107	+	2008/05/13
135	Ecuador		2001/03/01	30394	10	45	2003/06/25	9	-13	-	2008/05/13
136	FabDenis		2001/03/04	4508	2	10	2008/01/22	2	-4	+	2008/05/13
137	Freney		2001/03/02	34225	11	47	2002/09/13	15	+27	+	2008/05/13
138	Grenoble		2007/05/24	3813	11	25	2008/03/12	19	+72	+	2008/05/13
139	Chartreuse		2007/05/24	2108	6	17	2008/03/11	3	-52	-	2008/05/13
140	Vercors		2007/05/24	2735	7	34	2008/02/03	14	+78	+	2008/05/13
141	Taillefer		2007/05/24	1768	5	18	2008/02/14	7	+36	+	2008/05/13
142	Belledonne		2007/05/24	2125	9	1037	2007/12/23	14	+51	+	2008/05/13
143	Devoluy		2007/05/24	1909	5	24	2007/12/31	9	+60	+	2008/05/13
144	Diois		2007/07/12	1162	4	13	2007/11/29	4	-2	+	2008/05/13
145	GrandesRousses		2007/05/24	1448	4	12	2007/06/06	6	+37	+	2008/05/13
146	Maurienne		2007/09/17	1022	4	17	2008/04/02	4	-11	+	2008/05/13
147	Vanoise		2007/09/17	1508	6	17	2008/02/12	6	-9	+	2008/05/13
148	GrandCanyon		2003/02/15	25262	109	21349	2008/01/09	35	-69	-	2008/05/13
149	GrandGulch		2003/05/26	19660	11	51	2008/03/12	25	+108	+	2008/05/13
150	GrandTeton		2002/09/04	32189	16	48	2007/07/23	32	+92	+	2008/05/13
151	GranSasso		2001/03/01	47653	17	373	2005/03/23	32	+85	+	2008/05/13
152	GranSasso_Fr		2001/03/01	13495	5	48	2006/02/24	9	+76	+	2008/05/13
153	HalfDome		2004/01/13	24766	16	380	2005/01/31	25	+48	+	2008/05/13
154	Idaho		2004/01/13	13659	9	30	2007/05/16	12	+29	+	2008/05/13
155	Lex_En		2001/03/01	42083	13	59	2002/11/05	19	+38	+	2008/05/13
156	Lex_Fr		2001/03/01	10474	3	27	2006/08/23	10	+159	+	2008/05/13
157	Lex_It		2001/03/01	16023	5	36	2003/01/22	6	+8	+	2008/05/13
158	Lists		2002/03/19	41265	19	127	2003/08/26	28	+43	+	2008/05/13
159	Mars		2002/04/16	10837	5	35	2003/04/23	4	-26	-	2008/05/13
160	MountainCuisine		2002/01/24	16045	7	41	2002/07/22	9	+20	+	2008/05/13
161	Nepal		2001/03/01	72777	28	101	2005/04/06	18	-38	-	2008/05/13
162	Nevada		2001/10/21	64991	28	136	2005/08/13	40	+38	+	2008/05/13
163	NZ		2001/03/01	46424	16	57	2002/09/17	23	+42	+	2008/05/13
164	NZ2		2001/03/01	40537	15	259	2005/04/11	18	+16	+	2008/05/13
165	NZ3		2006/02/26	7367	10	124	2006/04/18	8	-24	-	2008/05/13
166	Orco		2006/09/01	3624	7	21	2006/09/05	12	+66	+	2008/05/13
167	Paretone		2002/01/29	10397	5	66	2007/10/09	9	+78	+	2008/05/13
168	Paretone_Fr		2001/03/01	4423	2	10	2008/02/12	2	-3	+	2008/05/13
169	Spain		2007/11/07	1664	8	35	2008/03/11	14	+60	+	2008/05/13
170	Peru		2001/03/01	79297	26	291	2007/12/15	25	-7	-	2008/05/13
171	Pollino		2002/09/23	5853	3	19	2006/04/11	2	-41	-	2008/05/13
172	Provence		2006/11/16	4217	9	38	2008/04/15	5	-49	-	2008/05/13
173	RoadTrip		2003/10/25	15424	10	61	2006/05/25	14	+39	+	2008/05/13
174	Salathe		2004/01/13	14439	9	43	2004/05/07	16	+63	+	2008/05/13
175	Sarek		2001/03/01	24355	8	137	2002/03/03	9	+4	+	2008/05/13
176	Steck		2004/01/13	9084	6	56	2007/11/20	11	+76	+	2008/05/13
177	Tasmania		2001/03/01	92431	35	211	2005/02/23	29	-18	-	2008/05/13
178	Tibet		2001/03/01	40840	15	883	2006/08/18	24	+50	+	2008/05/13
179	TRs		2002/01/10	16695	12