[blowski]

I can understand the need for analytics on an advertising-supported site with >1M DAU, on a complex web application.

But anything smaller than that and analytics are mostly vanity metrics. A lot of the traffic is going to be bots anyway.

Write for pleasure. If you must, look for qualitative signals like discussions of the article on HN or Twitter.

[wcrossbow]

> But anything smaller than that and analytics are mostly vanity metrics

I removed any analytics from my blog because I'm already obsessed enough with silly star counts. It manages to completely suck away all the joy; ignorance is bliss here. I found that the rare email or comment from some random person saying that they found something useful is much more fulfilling and at the same time less invasive of my brain activity.

[joshmanders]

I don't use analytics on my personal sites for vanity metrics. I use it to see where people are coming to my site from and the stuff they seem to resonate with.

[wcrossbow]

Upon a bit of introspection I found that for me, such things were just ways of stroking my ego. I just find it liberating to not really care or give much thought about what my audience cares about or who they are. I write first and foremost for myself, second to help others and third to have something to show to prospective employers.

What those metrics mean to oneself is different for everybody. Also, being a vanity metric and being useful are not mutually exclusive either.

[joshmanders]

I like to know where my users are coming from and discussing what I wrote so I can engage them and have discussions with them too.

Not saying ignoring all that is bad, just my reasons for wanting analytics and not just ego stroking and vanity metrics.

[ebiester]

Vanity or not, knowing that a few hundred people checked out a post I made when I linked it from an HN comment is valuable to me. It helps motivate me to write the next one, because I'm writing for others rather than myself.

Maybe others create in a void, but I'll play my piano poorly rather than write about software documentation if I'm doing something for pleasure.

[azan-n]

The most important metric I want to track at the moment is the number of people who come to my website using the link on my resume. It helps me understand how many of my applications might have been met with interest (which so far has been 1, unfortunately).

With everything else, I agree. I write as a means of documenting my findings and sharing it with others and surely the discussion section here on HN is where it becomes useful to me where I can engage in constructive conversation and learn new things.

Thanks for reading the article, cheers.