FIREFOX USERS I need your attention! You need these two files now!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5362
Sparky is a free FireFox browser plugin built by Alexa, that accompanies you as you surf, providing useful information about the sites you visit without interrupting your Web browsing.
* Learn about Website Traffic Trend information -- Is this site getting more popular, or less popular?
* ALLOW OUR SITE TO GET CREDIT WITH YOUR TRAFFIC!
* Get detailed traffic information including Reach and Rank -- How does this site's traffic compare to other sites on the Web?
* Surf more efficiently with Related Links for each page -- If I like this site, are there others that I might want to visit?
Plus, as you surf around the Web with Sparky you are helping to make the Web a better place for everybody by contributing to the traffic information that Alexa provides.
Works with: Firefox: 2.0 – 2.0.0.*
ALSO GET FASTERFOX! I use it and I guarantee it will speed your browsing up a little
Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.
Dynamic speed increases can be obtained with the unique prefetching mechanism, which recycles idle bandwidth by silently loading and caching all of the links on the page you are browsing.
A popup blocker for popups initiated by Flash plug-ins is also included.
Works with: Firefox: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*
Fasterfox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1269 Alexa Reader: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5362 this will help us bigtime!
BECAUSE OUR SITE TRIES TO CONVERT SO MANY USERS TO FIREFOX WE DON'T GET CREDIT WITH ALEXA RATINGS FOR ABOUT HALF OF OUR AUDIENCE DOESN'T SHOW..........
OTHER STORY OF IMPORTANCE:
Rational Response Squad featured in Radar Magazine.
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NOTICE OUR HIGH FIREFOX USAGE. STATS LIKE THIS ARE RATHER RARE
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The install now link for sparky just took me to a "page not found" RRS page.
I think I fixed it. Please everyone download this extension, it's really important to show how strong we really are on Alexa.
Alexa Reader: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5362 this will help us bigtime!
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The link is working now, though I am not quite clear why the RRS wanted this installed. I installed it because it sounded interesting to begin with, and if it helps the squad all the better, but how is it going to help?
Love how both work. I especially like FasterFox. It's very useful!
I just downloaded the "Alexa Reader" and now my Firefox browser won't pull up. I tried restarting my computer but it hasn't helped. Does anyone know how I can fix this?
Alexa looks pretty cool. I remember when fasterfox was a seperate browser, but closed source. I have installed the plugin. It works well with iceweasel if anyone else was wondering.
Alexa is popularly used by media outlets as a means of determining the worth of a group or person or story. Currently I believe we are the second most popular atheist site on the planet. Richard Dawkins has a slight lead. However since Firefox was built to be more secure and lightweight for the user, it doesn't inherently include any method of returning data to Alexa.
Currently based on our data, and because we warn IE users with a huge bar on every page to get Firefox, we've created a system in which an important site isn't logging over 50% of our traffic.
Visits
We have about 25% more firefox users than most sites. Tech savvy sites tend to have high user rates of Firefox, similar to ours (as the tech savvy crew realizes firefox is better).
Anywho... if you visit other atheist sites as well, you will be helping those sites as well, because with the Alexa plug in for firefox, your visits will be sent to alexa for ranking.
Here are some comparisons, without taking advantage of the boost we'd get from better scoring with Firefox stats counted.... I'm guessing we'd be at about 175,000 with proper counting.
All of these stats show up in the toolbar naturally.
http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/incbios/dennettd/dennettd.htm rank: 17,242 (Daniel Dennett home page)
http://www.richarddawkins.net rank: 34,440
http://www.randi.org rank: 36,994 (technically a skeptic site)
http://skepdic.com rank: 42,464
http://www.infidels.org rank: 86,122
http://www.atheistnation.net rank: 145,151
http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au rank: 160, 338
http://www.positiveatheism.org rank: 164,938
http://www.skeptic.com rank: 193,962 (proud to not be an atheist site)
http://www.atheistalliance.org rank: 194,797
http://www.atheists.org rank: 195,084
http://friendlyatheist.com rank: 206,965
http://www.thegodmovie.com rank: 207,629
http://www.ffrf.org rank: 238,691
http://www.rationalresponders.com rank: 249,981 (starting about 25% behind of the average site due to excess firefox usage - 2 most popular atheist COMMUNITY in the world as it stands!)
http://nobeliefs.com rank: 259,095
http://www.hells-handmaiden.com rank: 303,314
http://www.ethicalatheist.com rank: 315,733
http://www.evolvefish.com rank: 343,084
http://www.fsgp.org rank: 343,482
http://www.atheistnetwork.com rank: 346,619 (I helped build this place)
http://www.theskepticsguide.org rank: 359,420
http://www.freethoughtpedia.com rank: 365,622
http://www.atheistperspective.com rank: 377,851
http://www.samharris.org rank: 386,264
http://www.celebatheists.com rank: 390,040
http://www.infidelguy.com rank: 432,071 (I helped build this place)
http://www.atheistparents.org rank: 486,014
http://www.centerforinquiry.net rank: 495,920
http://www.atheistforums.com rank: 559,662
http://www.the-brights.net rank: 593,527
http://atheistempire.com rank: 655,435
http://www.humaniststudies.org rank: 723,468
http://atheistrevolution.blogspot.com rank: 764,260
http://www.iheu.org rank: 870,964 (International Humanist and Ethical Union)
http://buildupthatwall.com rank: 887,770 (Christopher Hitchens sites)
http://www.blasphemychallenge.com rank 1,032,535
http://www.skepticality.com rank: 1,033,704 (official podcast of Skeptic magazine)
http://www.americanhumanist.org rank: 1,065,398
http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com rank: 1,085,527
http://www.atheist.net rank: 1,232,647
http://www.atheist-top-sites.com rank: 1,418,027
http://www.atheist-community.org rank: 1,442,768
http://www.happyatheistforum.com rank: 1,453,949
http://www.atheistvolunteers.org rank: 1,469,020
http://ravingatheist.com rank: 1,487,116
http://www.secular.org rank: 1,575,285
http://www.briansapient.com rank: 1,670,348 (look for us to add this to our network within a year)
http://baconeatingatheistjew.blogspot.com rank: 1,896,132
http://www.thecomptoneffect.com rank: 1,909,645 (our boy Greydon Square)
http://www.davidmills.net rank: 1,918,486
http://www.freethoughtmedia.com rank: 2,070,356
http://www.graveyardofthegods.com rank: 2,119,485
http://www.secularstudents.org rank: 2,143,322
http://www.atheists.com rank: 2,157,751
http://www.freethinkingteens.com rank: 2,234,725
http://www.theatheistmama.com rank: 2,443,465
http://www.thedebatehour.com rank: 2,525,111
http://www.freethoughtradio.com rank: 2,621,408
http://www.harvardhumanist.org rank: 4,050,779
http://www.atheistagenda.org rank: 4,481,981
http://www.atheistactivist.org rank: 4,765,387
http://www.comedyjesus.com rank: 4,924,772
http://www.godlessinamerica.com rank: 4,949,256
http://www.atheistnet.com rank: 5,528,590
http://www.secularity.com rank: 5,711,218
http://www.hellboundalleee.com rank: 5,804,821
http://www.floridahumanist.org rank: 6,076,380
http://www.atheistcoalition.org rank: 6,179,188
http://www.atheistsunited.org rank: 6,313,016
http://camp-quest.org rank: 6,672,028
http://www.asktheatheist.com rank: 6,816,737 (our site, apparently people don't like asking atheists questions)
http://www.prayerstojake.com rank: 7,114,542 (we just started this site, not even really up yet)
http://evangelicalatheist.com rank: 7,726,507
http://www.mnatheists.org rank: 7,843,456
http://www.geocities.com/atheist_anon rank: 10.324,749
http://www.margaretdowney.com NO RANK YET... watch it grow over next year. Some of the sites above have been around for over 10 years to achieve that growth! Compiling this data has been enlightening.
Interesting comparisons and notes:
http://scienceblogs.com rank: 11,193 (technically a science site - hosts pharyngula - rank encompasses many bloggers)
http://www.radaronline.com rank: 24,169
http://www.landoverbaptist.org rank: 123,699
If anyone wants to add to that list feel free. I'd love for someone to bump this in a year so we can re-analyze the websites positions.
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We just increased ranking!
Yesterday:
http://www.rationalresponders.com rank: 249,981 (starting about 25% behind of the average site due to excess firefox usage - 2 most popular atheist COMMUNITY in the world as it stands!)
TODAY: 241,496
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TWO DAYS IN A ROW WITH AWESOME NEWS, A LISTING FOR MARGARET DOWNEY IS IN, AND WITH SOME MINOR PUBLICITY IT'S ALREADY.....
3,219,176
http://www.freethinkingteens.com rank: 2,234,725
http://www.theatheistmama.com rank: 2,443,465
http://www.thedebatehour.com rank: 2,525,111
http://www.freethoughtradio.com rank: 2,621,408
http://www.harvardhumanist.org rank: 4,050,779 <--- lol
http://www.atheistagenda.org rank: 4,481,981
http://www.atheistactivist.org rank: 4,765,387
http://www.comedyjesus.com rank: 4,924,772
http://www.godlessinamerica.com rank: 4,949,256
http://www.atheistnet.com rank: 5,528,590
http://www.secularity.com rank: 5,711,218
http://www.hellboundalleee.com rank: 5,804,821
http://www.floridahumanist.org rank: 6,076,380
http://www.atheistcoalition.org rank: 6,179,188
http://www.atheistsunited.org rank: 6,313,016
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I personally prefer Opera for most things but I'm willing to use Firefox on freethought websites for the Alexa benefits
Stultior stulto fuisti, qui tabellis crederes!
There's a possibility Opera reports to Alexa. I also heard someone say yesterday I have "opera with alexa." This leads me to believe that there are plug ins that report to alexa for opera. A quick search and I found this plugin, there must be more,this one gives you the alexa ran, but is unclear if it actually reports to alexa.
If you find a plug in for opera that does the trick, please let us know.
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An interesting thing that I just discovered is that Alexa also seperates the ranking into countries as well, and in the US, we are ranked 41,610. I know that may seem trivial, but just thing about how many web sites exist--that's not too shabby. Also, a google rank of 6 is pretty impressive, IMHO.
Atheist Books
In case I ever have to: format this computer, get a new one, reinstall firefox, etc..., I'm keeping tabs on this thread (the important ones on the sides don't stay there forever).
I found nothing in my search for an Alexa-reporting feature. There is an Alexa widget that shows Alexa statistics but it doesn't report to Alexa. (I assume that's what the person who had "opera with alexa" was talking about.) I didn't find any plugin or userJS file that could be used to report to Alexa. I searched to see if Alexa had documentation available so I could create a userJS file for Opera but that was to no avail.
It doesn't matter much though. Opera users comprise only ~2% of RRS visitors. Firefox is a good standalone browser with good W3C standards compliance and it's fairly user-friendly. I certainly won't mind using it for freethought websites to help them
A Google rank of 6 is impressive. I wouldn't even call that an opinion but rather a fact.
About five years ago I ran a website providing reviews, wallpapers, discussion forums, and so on, for Capcom games. I remember all the work I put into the website to attract visitors, gain backlinks, using search engine optimization techniques, etc. to increase my Google pagerank. I only attained a 4. Considering that each successively higher pagerank is exponentially harder to achieve, a 6 is very impressive.
Stultior stulto fuisti, qui tabellis crederes!
:-o
And we were as high as 10,000 for a day or two near Ray Comfort time in May.
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As of today our Alexa rank has improved to 234,985. Pretty impressive for less than a week.
The Alexa Sparky privacy policy says that it records the full URLs including any variables stuck into the URL string. It makes sense that Alexa would have to do that if they wanted to track different pages within a domain, but I'm worried about things like the auth string in my gmail URL getting recorded.
To those that have already installed Sparky in Firefox, have you noticed any way to temporarily deactivate the tracking? What about to deactivate it on a per-window or per-tab basis?
Alexa had a pretty bad rep 5+ years ago, but 6 months prior to Windows XP SP1 came out all press on them went silent as though they dissapeared. They then reappeared in SP1 as part of the core Windows XP operating system. The security blogs lit up, and died down quickly. Alexa had gone legit, for good.
That is how it tracks IE, it's built in to your operating system if you use Windows. Firefox doesn't get tracked by the XP plugin, and with so many users of this site using Firefox it wasn't putting through accurate data. This plugin does the exact same thing the XP .dll files do but with additional reporting.
There's nothing to worry about, Alexa has been in the good books of security researchers and malware fighters for many a year now.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
AU: http://nocleanfeed.com/ | NZ: http://nzblackout.org/
Edit: ack! Meant to include the problem this was intended to help....
I found this commentary where people reported similar problems with "Alexa Toolbar" and a method to fix them. Hope it helps.
Source: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/discussions/comments.php?DiscussionID=3510
Okay, I downloaded and installed. Am I good minion?
(I used IE for a short while, but I think I'm going back to Firefox.)
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Thanks for saying that, and to the others that are keeping this thread alive with helpful and positive comments. Yes Iruka... good minion.... but not my minion... you are your own minion.
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New Rank TODAY: 229,191
Please keep helping folks! Reddit, Digg, Stumbleupon, and Delicious make it real easy to see who is actually helping, and at first glance not even 5% of the people who congregate here are helping. This site is to unite activists, and there aren't enough here doing enough. If any of you know some more atheist activists please direct them here, and let them know that we need help.
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Bump
I'm not sure how fasterfox would help the RRS...if anything, it puts more load on the servers, so sometimes it slows down your site when traffic usage is high. I use it but I've blocked it on my company's website because of the increased load on our servers when traffic is high.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
Yup. I was more interested in helping others on fasterfox than receiving help myself. If I can make hundreds of online atheist activists achieve their online tasks faster, I'd sacrifice a little load on the server for it.
You can set fasterfox to "courteous" mode which should increasebrowsing speed slightly but not put extra load on the sites you browse.
GET ALEXA TOOLBAR!!!
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I'm sure you're right. There are probably at most a handful of very trusted people that have access to the information past the '?' in the URL, and it's extremely unlikely that those trusted people have both the desire and the lack of ethics to abuse their positions. Also, they are probably monitored electronically so that if they *did* try something like that they would likely get caught, which would even further reduce the risk. I have a feeling this is one of those "you're more likely to get struck by lightning, so don't waste time worrying about it" situations.
However, if anyone is still uncomfortable with it, I have devised a quick and simple workaround that will prevent the auth string from ever being sent. Stay logged out of gmail until you want to check your mail. Call up the Task Manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, CTRL+ALT+DEL, or right-click the Windows Taskbar), click the Processes tab, select firefox.exe, and click the End Process button. Start up Firefox in safe mode using the Start Menu, selecting Restore Session to reopen all your tabs and windows. Sparky will be disabled, you can log in, check your mail, click on any RRS links of interest, and log out. Using the Task Manager, kill firefox.exe again, start in normal mode and choose Restore Session again. The tabs will reload, RRS will get credit both for them and any other pages you visit from then on.
Also, just in case I created any misunderstanding, Alexa records the full URL, but they promise never to share anything to the right of the '?' (including the gmail auth string) with anyone. Also, as soon as you log out of gmail, the auth string becomes invalid.
Edit:
It seems that Google has modified the code for their gmail service so that the URL no longer contains the auth string in its parameter list, so Alexa won't even collect it anymore.
I had the same problem, so I uninstalled it.
Anyone know the reason some have a problem with this and others dont? I'd love to help the site, but cant run it. bleh
TODAY: 171,011
(that number is a 3 month average, we're more like the 60,000 most popular site in the world if you look at a one week average.)
Thanks so much everyone for getting the Alexa toolbar. Based on multiple means of tracking data we can conclusively state that this ranking is based on some of our regular users actually getting the toolbar.
We can't thank you enough, to those that have. Please get the Alexa toolbar if you haven't installed it on your firefox yet!
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It's been 6 days and it's time to report another bump...
TODAY: 136,770 (3 mos avg)
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TODAY: 129,290 (3 mos avg)
That news is not as big as what Alexa shows about us for two days ago (and what matches our analytics). It's the first time since we've been tracking (blas challenge, and nightline appearances are excluded) that we've ever been ranked higher in worldwide popularity than Richard Dawkins and James Randi which as far as we can tell are the two most popular atheist sites in the world. This chart shows the progress we've had in catching up with our friends at the top. We're so proud and happy to be in their company both Randi and Dawk are heroes and receive immense amounts of respect from us.
Celebrate tonight folks, there are a ton of you out there that deserve at least a little credit for this form of grassroots activism... we've officially arrived at the big boys party. (with about 1/20th of their budget )
The numbers below are the worldwide rank. On the 20th we were the 13,590 most popular website in the world.
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