Re: LYNX-DEV Counter to homepages

[David Woolley]

> I don't see why the *existing* counters don't do the right thing -- spit
> out text as well as a graphic, so it works in both cases.
> 

Because the only way of doing that is with server side includes.  Two 
problems with this are that:  there are security and management issues
involved with this which mean ISPs don't provide this sort of thing on
bundled web space; and it is inefficient (all access counters are 
inefficient, but at least the GIF of the counter is likely to be small
compared with the full text of many home pages, so the large home page 
comes from the local cache and only the small GIF goes end to end).

Note that if you want the counter for your own use, you should analyse
the logs instead.  Generally, if an ISP is prepared to allow server side
includes they are likely to be able to provide the logs.  Even getting
complete information from logs can't be done efficiently with many 
existing cache servers, although a modern server should reduce this to
just and If-Modified-Since operation.

You still won't get accurate counts if people use aggressive caching
policies.