does

[Jake Barnes]

I've SiteMeter one one of my sites. It's keeping track of how many
times people view my site. Unfortunately, when I try to open a page of
my site using window.open(), SiteMeter hijacks the window that opens. I
can see the window open, and I can briefly see that page starting to
load, but then it suddenly advances to a new page, one that has nothing
on it except the SiteMeter icon. Can anyone see anything here that
would indicate why that is so?

<!--WEBBOT bot="HTMLMarkup" startspan ALT="Site Meter" -->
<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">var
site="s18krubner"</script>
<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript1.2"
src="http://s18.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=s18krubner">
</script><a href="http://www.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=s18krubner"
target="_top"><img
src="http://s18.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=s18krubner&amp;refer=http%3A//www.whatisliberalism.com/mcControlPanel.php&amp;ip=12.155.117.2&amp;w=1024& amp;h=768&amp;clr=32&amp;tzo=300&amp;lang=en-US&amp;pg=http%3A//www.whatisliberalism.com/index.php%3FpageId%3Dzzz&amp;js=1&amp;rnd=0.731383 0899732059"
alt="Site Meter" border="0"></a>
<noscript>
<a href="http://s18.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=s18krubner"
target="_top">
<img src="http://s18.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=s18krubner" alt="Site
Meter" border="0"/></a>
</noscript>
<!-- Copyright (c)2005 Site Meter -->
<!--WEBBOT bot="HTMLMarkup" Endspan -->
troubles here:

http://www.whatisliberalism.com/mcControlPanel.php

[Richard Cornford]

Jake Barnes wrote:

I've SiteMeter one one of my sites. It's keeping track of
how many times people view my site.
That is extremely unlikely, as it is the nature of HTTP to make the
accurate gathering of that type of statistics a near impossibility.
Unfortunately, when I try to open a page of my site using
window.open(), SiteMeter hijacks the window that opens.
Or the window never opens due to pop-up blocking of some sort.
I can see the window open,
So you presumably don't block all pop-ups yourself.
and I can briefly see that page starting to load, but
then it suddenly advances to a new page, one that has
nothing on it except the SiteMeter icon. Can anyone see
anything here that would indicate why that is so?

<!--WEBBOT bot="HTMLMarkup" startspan ALT="Site Meter" -->
<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">var
site="s18krubner"</script>
<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript1.2" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Never a good sign.
src="http://s18.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=s18krubner"> ^^^^^^^^^^
And external JS file means code that is not shown here.

But sticking that URL into the browser location bar and downloading the
javascript file returns a javascript file that starts:-

| // Copyright (c)2006 Site Meter, Inc.
| // <![CDATA[

- so we know the script was written by an utterly clueless jelly.

But nothing in that file will redirect, though quite a lot in the file
will error-out (particualrly, but not only, on anything but the most
common browsers) so any statistics originating with the code will be
even less accurate than limited accuracy that is possible as a results
of using HTTP as the communication protocol. In effect you are using a
self-biasing measuring method, and any conclusions you draw from its
output will tend to re-enforce that bias.

<snip> <noscript> .... </noscript> ^^^^^^^^
Another very bad sign,
<!-- Copyright (c)2005 Site Meter -->
<!--WEBBOT bot="HTMLMarkup" Endspan -->
troubles here:

http://www.whatisliberalism.com/mcControlPanel.php

Javascript errors at every button press, and no pop-ups at all. So, yes
trouble, but not as described above.

While the issue cannot be demonstrated cause and effect relationships
cannot be attributed.

However, if you are paying for this 'service', and it is actually
getting in the way of your web site (while not producing anything
meaningful in the way of statistics) you would be better off removing
all references to sitemeter.com from your site.

Richard.