Thanks for bringing this up, @mattdotts. I can explain what’s happening with the numbers, and what any potential improvements might look like in the future.
First, here’s a good overview of how we gather stats on Write.as: Disrepancies in Stats on Write.as. In short, some numbers come from the server-side, so every visit is counted, and others come from Javascript tracking, which visitors can potentially block, causing some numbers to be lower than the server-side ones.
As for improving the stats, this is a bit tough for us as a tiny company. Our stats are really meant to be a starting place for a bit of insight into visitors. But to really go deeper, we’d need to invest quite a bit of time and effort into it, and potentially create an entirely new product to make it worth the investment. I think we do best when we stick to building writing tools, and I see analytics as a bit out of our wheelhouse – especially when you consider all the other options out there.
If you need more in-depth stats, I think the best route would probably be to use an external analytics service. (Indeed we might incorporate some privacy-respecting platforms in the future.) But for now, you might integrate your blog with Plausible or Matomo – or of course Google Analytics, if privacy isn’t important.
We can definitely keep this conversation going, as I’m open to changing our priorities if it makes sense. But for now, I think that’d be the best way to get the stats you’re looking for on your Write.as blog.