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Hits, Pageviews and Uniques

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I've been wanting to write this post for a very long time (since the middle of last year), and I figured that I might as well write it before another wave of crazy things hit my way! 

So! If you'd stuck around for a very long time (by that I mean like more than a year), you would have noticed that sometimes, I do an oddball entry that doesn't seem to fit in anywhere on this livejournal, and nothing can be more 'oddball' than this entry http://thoughtsramble.livejournal.com/15615.html on the different widgets I've been trying out to count my hits and uniques. I knew it didn't fit, but I had been playing around with about five sites, and I was really eager to share with whoever was reading it. Turns out that the information was useful, at least to some, and even though this entry has, for some reason, attracted lots of spam comments (with varying content, but most with rubbish urls) I'm still glad I wrote it. 

Thus today, I'm going to share a little more of my thoughts/experiences on somewhat the same topic! My knowledge is very limited, and I welcome anyone who wishes to correct me:D 

For every hit counter out there, there is probably the option of whether you want it to jump by hits, pageviews, or uniques. Now, hits are almost completely useless, because it generates much more numbers than the reality. Take for example, Site A has x images and Site B has 10x Images on one page. One visitor goes to both sites, and ta-da, Site B will most probably see a greater number of hits as compared to Site A. And nothing can be done about it, which is why the general opinion out there is that hits are useless. You can't really judge how many visitors you have based on the number of hits. 

Next, we have 'page views' or 'page loads'. Page views are, in my opinion, nice to look at, but may or may not be the number that you are looking for. Say for example, that one visitor comes to your site for the first time, and discovers many entries that he or she is interested in. (Let's say it's a she). She loads 9 entries, and may or may not read through all of them. This will generate a number of 9 page views for just 1 visitor. This is good because other than a nice fat number, you can also tell which pages are the most interesting to your readers, and a site that has so much content to interest your readers is always très bien.

However, if you are looking out for more accurate information as to just how many visitors your site has attracted, 'uniques' is the thing you are looking for. If your site has 10 entries of 10x Images, and a visitor comes along, yeah you will have a great number of hits, and 10 page views, but only 1 unique. The number may be much more humbling, but it is, overall, the best way to judge the number of visits your site has attracted. 

The widget that I've been using has been really satisfactory so far. I don't keep track of whether the counter jumps accurately, but the information translated back into my account is really easy to understand. I'm not sure if it's just me, but I'm pretty sure that for some sites, 'hits' probably mean something different, just like the one I'm using. There is a function to tell you which are your most popular pages and how many hits they have gathered. In that situation, I guess 'hits' takes its most literal form, i.e how many people have clicked on that particular page. The widget also allows you to change the setting such that you choose the most suitable time lapse in between each pageview for it to be counted as a unique. (So let's say maybe your visitor has to visit 10 hours later, for he/she to be counted as a unique visitor again. The site I use actually recommends 1-6 hours.). 

I find that both pageviews and uniques are my best way of judging my livejournal. I like to know that many of my visitors don't just come for one type of recaps. They open up other links, other cuts etc which interest them, and that is nice to know, because it probably means that your site has much information with varying contents. However, sometimes, even pageview numbers have to be taken with a pinch of salt. If your site has images that make the page difficult to load, chances are that your interested readers will refresh a couple of times for the images to load, and you will have an inflated number. So to me, when number of pageviews was reflected by different entries the visitor has read, it's fine, but you can never tell exactly when those paegviews are 'refreshes' or truly different entries. 

So I depend almost entirely on the number of uniques!(: But you know what, I still love comments the most. Hits, pageviews, uniques are just numbers after all, and they don't even reflect much of whether someone is that interested in your site. She could be skipping every ten lines of your recap that you so painstakingly wrote, and you would never know, but comments, ah, those are the best things to know whether someone is really interested. That's how I feel anyway, but I still appreciate all you guys out there, silent readers or not~ 

All right, I'm sorry that you guys have to read such a long entry and I hope that it's at least useful to some of you!(:

<3thoughtsramble

(no subject)

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I've realised that something is wrong with my Episode 8 Recap on The Moon That Embraces The Sun because it got crawled way slower than any of my previous entries, and thanks to how slow it got crawled, it affected the 'ranking' it appeared on Google Search (not too sure about the other search engines). 

That was kind of a put-off, because I woke up really early (like wayyy earlier) just to write the recap (was so excited to watch it haha, and then share my thoughts) and! Now this means that hardly anyone reads the Episode 8 recap. Okay not really, but probably half of the readers of Episode 7's Recap.  I don't get it –how can just a day make so much difference in the crawling speed?– so it was a bit of an anti-climax. 

Right, but this isn't a post to complain!(: It's just to tell you guys, especially those who check for regular updates on this drama's recaps/ another other series', that should you not be able to find my recaps on Google Search, do remember to check out this livejournal itself! Maybe it has already been lying here for many hours, waiting for someone to read it(: 

Put-off reason no. 2 was because Episode 8's Recap was probably the last recap I could get out fast and on time. If you've noticed, Strawberry Night and Ending Planner are taking me ages to write, because I've been so busy recently. And from next week onwards, I've a whole new different commitment altogether, so everything might get delayed. I will still try to be on track as much as possible, so haha, don't ditch me~ 

Hehe and this sounds out of place, but thank you guys for being so supportive! Even though most of you are silent readers lurking around, (comment!! You know that we drama bloggers love comments. At least I do!) the pageviews and uniques for the past few days have been amazing and I couldn't have done it, of course, without you!(: 

<3thoughtsramble

Oops

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I promised myself that I will only write something non-recap related, after I finished the other 2 recaps that I'm supposed to do…but heh:P This is pretty much a brainless post to tell you —

That I'm humming the theme song of The Moon That Embraces The Sun right now! I've always paid extra attention to soundtracks more than usual people do, and I love how some tracks just stay in your heart. With the right chords, and the right timing, the right tracks bring out so much more of a scene than with mediocre tracks, or worse still, awful ones. 

Not too sure if I can manage two other recaps today. We shall see, all right?:D And I apologise for them being written so late!

<3thoughtsramble

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Does anyone have a suggestion from where I can find streaming of US shows, without having to torrent or download anything? I'm not a big fan of downloading shows, and have become quite stupid at it. 

<3thoughtsramble

Vampire Diaries

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What I'm trying to watch now(:

Not sure how I like it yet. Definitely like Pretty Little Liars much more, but not entirely sure if comparison is valid since 1. I'm only on Episode 2 of this, and 2. I'm much more involved in Pretty Little Liars which has like 2 seasons. 

However, creepy vampires appearing out of the blue is definitely reminiscent of the shock in Pretty Little Liars. Brr~

<3thoughtsramble

Such a pain

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I have a knot of tension burying itself in the hollows of my back for the whole day now. Irritating and uncomfortable. It doesn't get better while I read up on SOPA and such (got interested in it way too late. I must have been too mad recapping that I thought SOPA was the name of an online game) and saw MegaUpload gone. IT'S GONE. Till now, I'm still not entirely sure about the specifics of SOPA. (thank the noob me)

And if this hits South Korea and Japan (and Taiwan), wow…imagine the impact. 

Ouch, the knot hurts a lot.

Anyway, I thought I would give myself some rest till the next time I'm supposed to recap (i.e Tuesday for Pretty Little Liars…which currently I'm not even sure if I will be able to get the episode online in order for screenshot purposes) but since I'm here, I shall thank you guys for the support of the latest recaps! Page views have been increasing…

…but comments will be nice:DD Honestly, I would rather have lesser pageloads and more comments, than the other way round…which is the case right now. I'm feeling lonely here~~ 

Okay, the tension is unrelenting. I guess this is a sign that I should stop loitering here, and get off the computer. 

Pain~~

<3thoughtsramble

All Spent!!

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Phew~~ My shoulders are aching a little right now. And there you have it, the four dramas I mentioned in an earlier post. It is kinda tough to be writing about four dramas, which churn five recaps in total every week. Since I really wanted to get my recaps up fast, it means that I need to write four recaps within a span of two days.

So the four dramas that I will (hopefully) be recapping are: Pretty Little Liars, The Moon That Embraces The Sun, Ending Planner and Strawberry Night. In the case that I might not be able to hold up (which is verryyy possible, because I foresee a really busy February) then I might drop Strawberry Night…and if it still sucks so bad (my time), then Ending Planner. I love Pretty Little Liars and The Moon That Embraces The Sun too much to drop them anywhere. 

Oopsie…I think my shoulders are complaining. I shall take my rest now(:

<3thoughtsramble

The Moon That Embraces The Sun Episode 6 Recap

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We transit from child to adult in this episode. I don't love (but not hate, just not loveeee like the others) this episode, because it's like being back at an introduction of a story. The childhood parts went from introduction, to rising action, before having a big conflict and ending in a climax, so now we have the same cycle for the adult parts, and introductions are usually not that exciting. That being said, I lovee the climax/ending/'resolution' of the childhood. 

RECAP! Hwon and Yeon Woo<3

Updates!

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Haha it hasn't been very long since my last update post but I'm itching to write so here it is anyway:D 

It's rather confirmed that I will be carrying on with the recaps of Pretty Little Liars. They don't give me a lot of viewers, but who cares, I love that show lol. I feel like taking on a couple of drama series to recap, but they all happen to be released at the same period of time (Tuesday-Thursday) and so I shall not name them first, in case I didn't manage to pick up all of them in the end…but if I do, then it will be the most number of dramas that I've picked up at the same time, during the course of thoughtsramble. Which is also another reason why it might not happen, since 3 dramas were the max that I've gone before (Autumn's Concerto, Keizoku's Spec 2 and Secret Garden, which were mini-recaps, not full ones). 

But I'm really excited to start writing on them! Jan-Feb's probably the only free period I have during the whole year of 2012 (I know right, sad….) so I shall make full use of it. 

<3thoughtsramble

Tong Flowers Love

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I tried blazing through this, which I did, from episodes 1 to 14-ish. But it has gotten too bad for me:/ True, the only reason why Xiao Yu will meet Qing Tian was because of Qing Guang, but the fact is, you either write a good plot or you forgo any plot that requires an actor acting two roles: a pair of twins, that appear at the same time during the plot. I've seen so many screwed up ones and to date, the only good 'twin' show I've watched is Mars, (!!!) and that's because Ling and Sheng have drastically different personalities and Vic Zhou acted them out reallllyyy well. 

So when it happens that you have a pair of twins: Qing Tian and Qing Guang, acted by the same guy, and the twins have almost similar characteristics that are not drastically different at all, the show becomes a bit….fluffy. You know, as in…it becomes an almost unintentional comedy especially when this plot also involves the girl, Xiao Yu, who repeatedly mixes up Qing Tian and Qing Guang. Hello woman, you are supposed to be in love with one of them (true, she did differentiate them in the end, but…) and since you are in a drama, you should do the drama thing, and be like Qi Luo (reference to Mars) who can tell Ling from Sheng right from the very start. 

That being said, I didn't hate the show. That's because I really wanted to see the sweet bits between Xiao Yu and Qing Tian and that means I even tolerated watching funny (as in strange) bits between Qing Guang and Chang Ling…but too bad, I'm out of this. Stopped at Episode 18 (20 episodes in total) and I don't know when I will start again. I didn't stop because I was like yucks! but because there were simply better dramas out there that deserve my attention. 

Sad. And I really like the actor Xiu Jie Kai too! I hung on partly for him(: And I'm so excited! He's going to co-star with Aaron in this new drama. Excited~

<3thoughtsramble

Hmm.

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Sometimes, it gets hard to remind myself to be contented with just how far I've come. Yep, here's that once in a while post while I rant a bit and forget about it till the next time the mood strikes right again. 

It's not going to be a rant this time; it's just me feeling a bit/quite a bit melancholic. I'm proud of how far I've come, yep, and I've made a few friends with some of my readers, who actually regularly posted comments. True, they come and go, but I'm happy that they even bothered at one point of time. But sometimes, even when I know that I've improved, I've gained more readers, I've hopefully gained more popularity, it still makes me sad to know that I'm not there at all. My improvement takes many months, while others probably leap a few hundreds or even thousands in a few. It most probably doesn't ring true when any of us drama bloggers say that we don't care about our statistics. Yeah, some of us check once in a while (me), some of us check every hour, but the point is, most of us do care very much about how well our drama sites are doing…and the only way you can tell are from stats! (which I've realised, can be misleading too. I mean, everyone has a different setting as to how many hours it takes between each pageload for each visitor to be counted as a unique again, and that can drastically changed your stats). 

So I don't really know exactly what's the point of my melancholy. I think, I just feel a bit sad, you know, simply sad, no other flowery language like depressed or dejected or a heavy heart, that I won't reach there, and I probably never will. Lack Of Time is simply too great a barrier for me to cross. Not going to tell you guys how old I am, but I'm still a student and worse, what will happen to this when I start working? Or when workload just gets crazy? 

Nevertheless, I'm happy that this kind of weird-ish moods strikes only once in a blue moon. In the past few months, I'm definitely happier writing what I truly love to watch, and sharing with you guys. I write to entertain myself and you, to place the enjoyment of dramas and books down into words, and to make them last forever. I don't write to get viewers, and I hope I can hold on to that conviction right till the very end. (:

Wow it's long, my rant. Sometimes I feel childish for posting such rants:P

<3thoughtsramble

Strawberry Night Episode 1

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Not much to comment on actually. It was quite interesting, since police dramas are always my kind of thing…provided that the deduction is made out clearly to the audience. I'm not exactly sure if you need to watch the tv special which was released before this, but I understood the first episode well enough without it anyway. So basically, what happened was that Reiko's a leader of this group in the police force. However, the other higher ups  were not very happy with how she did things because 1. she's a woman and 2. she tended to depend on 'instincts'. The first episode introduced a case which was interesting in itself, but the string that (I think) is threaded through all the episodes should be how Reiko was attacked by a guy who raped her when she was younger, and how Hayama kept having flashes of seeing a guy attacked a girl. 

First episodes usually just set the stage anyway, and so I shall look forward to how the script is going to progress from here. There isn't any casting that I was familiar with, but it does give me a surprise when I saw this:

Because seriously, can you believe that this was Masumi from Nodame?? I'm sorry lol, Masumi-chan, that I didn't manage to recognise you immediately in normal wear because you were always in that big hair and moustache, and flying after Chiaki:P

I look forward, though not with great anticipation, the development of the plot. Japanese dramas usually don't let me down, especially when it seems like there is a huge secret linking the members of the police group together.

<3thoughtsramble

More thoughts on Episode 4 of The Moon That Embraces The Sun

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I just finished episode 4 on The Moon That Embraces The Sun! It's good and has made me loved this show even more. I've not much stamina for period dramas because they often last for more than 50 episodes and include more characters (both main and supposedly important side characters) than my fingers and toes put together. However, for this one, I like the fact that it's just going to be 20 episodes which should mean short and sweet, and none of those draggy subplots or too many heart attacks. 

I love how the pace is just right for me — not too draggy in establishing the characterisation, but also not too fast that we could hardly get ourselves invested in the characters. 

And in Episode 4, I loveee how Yeon Woo was appointed as the next Queen. I know, this will be stripped away later, and she would become a shaman (right?) but right now…at least, Yeon Woo and Hwon can have that short-lived happiness, of knowing that Yeon Woo deserved to be the next Queen, of the fact that she's better in Bo Kyung in every sense and of being placed in a fairytale that goes right, where the prince and the princess live happily ever after. 

This couple is just so cute:D I think they collaborated before as the child actors for Iljimae! 

You should probably have noticed that I'm hardly invested in Yang Myung… *guilty* I know, I should and it's weird that I'm not…but I guess, like what I've explained before, right now it's so obvious that Yeon Woo and Hwon are not going to be together that I wish for them to be together. It's like…in a warped way, the possibility of Yeon Woo and Yang Myung getting together is actually higher than that of Yeon Woo and Hwon, simply because Hwon's the next King and Yang Myung isn't and stupid Dowager wants to kill Yeon Woo. Basically, my heart goes out to whoever that loves the girl right and yet faces difficulties. Okay I should probably stopped explaining; I hardly make any sense. 

That being said, I did feel sadness for Yang Myung when he told Yeon Woo that he would be willing to put down his birthright, and bring her away. At that moment, I was like aww my heart breaks for you T.T For Explanation Of Sudden Inclination Towards Yang Myung, see above. 

And Hwon is so sweet in arranging a small puppet play for her!(: He's really funny when he did that gentlemanly pose by indicating that she should have a seat. 

And and and…if the shaman's prediction is that Yeon Woo has the look of a Queen, but will not become the Queen, does this indicate that Yeon Woo and Hwon will not be together in the end?? I feel ready to whip out a box of tissue and start wailing right now. 

….

PLEASE… I mean, Bo Kyung can get a horrible disease and drop off the face of the earth, and by some miraculous twist of fate, the shaman will be allowed to marry the king. Yay.

2 more episodes of the child actors! I feel reluctance at seeing them go already.

<3thoughtsramble

Photos: of the Suns and the Moons

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Hah, I found out that it wasn't just me who realllyyy wanted to watch more of the childhood parts. In fact, many netizens are requesting for an extension of the roles of these actors, and even the adult actors felt the pressure to do well. I mean, wow, just a crew of child actors and they succeed with a rating of 25.1% for Episode 4, that's like…simply amazing! 

I'm a bit lost here. I see recaps of Episode 4 on Google, but I can't find a subbed episode 4! Does this mean that ockoala's Korean? Lol, that was just a really random thought. The more important thing is –> I want my Episode 4!:O

<3thoughtsramble