Great thoughts from TallSkinnyKiwi:

Why do i not have a hit counter on my site? Because i dont like them - I think they often stroke the ego of the blogger and they turn people into numbers which can be turned into power. I dont like it when churches do this (me more powerful because me have more people on sunday!!!!) and I dont like it when bloggers do the same. I want to respect the people that come here - they are a significant part of my life. No one wants to be someone else’s NUMBER! This is a big reason why people leave churches.

I also don’t run a hit counter, nor do I monitor my site traffic. I’ve looked a few times to see where my traffic is primarily coming from (ie which Google search terms, which links from other blogs, etc.), but that’s about it. I’ve also found that when I have looked at my site traffic before it’s almost impossible to get anything meaningful out of the numbers, because the numbers are polluted by (1) comment spammers and (2) RSS crawlers. Also, web site traffic doesn’t include anyone who reads this site by RSS (which I highly recommend).

So how do I determine if I’m just throwing words out into a gaping void? Comments, trackbacks, and Technorati. Because those things measure influence and participation, not consumption. Publishing a full RSS feed (which I encourage ALL site owners to do) reduces a site’s traffic numbers but can increase a site’s influence and participation because more people can get the site the way they want it.

My thinking on this springs from Jarvis’ First Law: Give the people control of media, they will use it. And the corollary: Don’t give the people control of media, and you will lose.