Re-evaluate Google Analytics usage

[millette]

ga() is explicitly called in a few places, but it could be non-existent if the google analytics script is block due to an ad blocker, /etc/hosts, etc.

Stub it out to do nothing. Basically:

if (!ga) {
  function ga() { /* do nothing */ }
}

[ubik23]

Good call.

[millette]

I'm pretty sure I addressed this before, maybe the ga() NOP is already hidden somewhere. I've seen many sites broken only because ga() was failing when the site would work fine otherwise.

[ubik23]

I also see some sites slowed down because of GA. There definitely needs a better way to manage this.

[millette]

Don't use google analytics :-)

In fact, we could investigate other options by identifying what you really want to measure (only actionable stuff). After snowpack :p

[ubik23]

+1

[millette]

• Migrating away from Google Analytics via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23803046
• 13% of my website visitors block Google Analytics via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23818484.
• Quick comparison: Plausible vs logs
• Lightweight alternatives to Google Analytics

[millette]

Meanwhile, we should add server-side logging, enough at least to compare with GA. See #148

[ubik23]

New article on Plausible: https://freshman.tech/google-analytics-to-plausible/

[millette]

About plausible: I'm not sure how many montlhy pageviews you have, say it's 500k. That adds up to 300$ CAD a year according to https://plausible.io/#pricing if paid yearly. There's a self hosting option too, but that means maintenance and at 40$/h if it takes 8 hours during the year, it's cheaper to go with the SASS.