We just have a few housekeeping issues, as they say This intro breaks the rules. Im going to be painfully honest: This might not interest many people, but since IrishCycle.com is reader-funded, we need to keep readers and especially subscribers updated. Reader survey IrishCycle.com wants to know what you and readers like you think of this website currently, the response rate is 50/50 between subscribers and non-subscribers. It would be good to get more views from subscribers on the future of IrishCycle.com, including advertising and a business-level subscription option.You can fill in the survey here.Hows IrishCycle.com going?Theres less than good news, and theres some good news.The less-than-good news: Im afraid the annoying calls for readers to become subscribers (including on this page) are still valid: the answer is the same as last year: it needs to be better, sooner rather than later. If you have not subscribed, please do so today.You can subscribe securely via our payment provider Stripe with a debit or credit card, Link, Apple Pay, Revolut Pay, or even direct debit. You can also pay monthly or yearly. Just to add: The rising cost of everything makes this call harder. So, I want to stress: Im not looking for anybody to subscribe if they are not in a position to do so. And the joy of open access is that you can still read the website without subscribing when you are unable to. The great news: After that push for subscribers last year, it ended up hovering around 494-498 monthly subscribers since. That is, until this month, when IrishCycle.com has reached the 500 subscriber mark for the first time thanks to all who subscribed recently and who have stuck with IrishCycle.com!How do you count visitors, and why would you even need to when you dont sell advertising?Google Analytics is widely regarded as one of the main methods for tracking users on websites, but it is also seen as problematic for privacy because it is also intertwined with Googles advertising network.But with no advertising, why do you even need stats? There are a few reasons. One of the main daily ones is looking at how articles are performing and sometimes giving an extra push to those that have not gained much traction; the other is looking out for spikes in usage that may suggest an issue if they dont correspond to a popular article. Like other open-access, reader/listener-funded outlets, big and small, some readers want to see that open access is delivering journalism to a wider audience thats willing to pay for it. And getting some idea of the readership may be key to a business-level subscription, and it would be key for advertising.It can also be important as some web services, including Statcounter and some content management systems, charge based on monthly traffic. And hosting costs go up if theres extra bot traffic putting pressure on hosting, and they are not blocked. In the recent post about the reader poll and on the polls intro page, I also mentioned figures that I was left unsure about. So, with all of those reasons combined, Ive tried to use other methods of recording reader numbers (called visitors in web traffic terms) while keeping readers privacy in mind. But both privacy and bots cause issues.If youre not interested in the details, you can skip to the stat summary below Some details on statsThese are the main methods used, and some notes on the issues: Notes/Issues?WordPresss JetpackClear undercounting: Jetpack notes a clear issue of undercounting due to cookie policy IrishCycle.com has a cookie setup where users can easily reject cookies and block tracking, and some browsers and plugins (including those used for blocking adverts or advert tracking) also do this by default.StatcounterPossible undercounting: Theres a chance Cloudflare may be blocking some counting, but the tool, which is suggested as the most likely cause of this, was switched off during the 30-day trial.AWStats Possible overcounting and possible undercounting: A detailed look at the stats suggests that some bots are being counted as non-bot traffic. The same note about Cloudflare above applies to AWStats too. AWStats works from server access logs.CloudflareLikely overcounting: From a number of sources, very likely overcounting to a very high degree. Cloudflare has Web Analytics, which is more focused on counting humans, but it is blocked for visitors from EU countries. Cloudflare is primarily used to prevent IrishCycle.com from being overwhelmed during periods of high traffic and to try to block bots. It works effectively above the server level and can redistribute the server load. NOTE: Except for Jetpack, the above seem to be counting my IP address this could add up to around 2,500+ views per month. This is from the editing process, checking possible issues, etc. And here are the website visitors, visits, and page views for the last 30 days:Number of visitorsNumber of visitsPage viewsWordPress49,200NA61,600StatcounterNA*105,479128,659AWStats 135,292196,324573,860Cloudflare315,110NA914,240NOTE: There is a distinction between visitors and visits. Visitors can make more than one visit within the timeframe, and during those visits, they can open more than one page. Statcounter may have the number of visitors, but this was not accessed before the trial ended. Most of the data was collected after midnight on 18/06/2026, while the AWStats data is out of sync with this and was collected 12+ hours later. Privacy rules and web browsers forcing privacy may also blur the lines between victors and visitors. From reading a number of sources, I think the reality lies somewhere between the Statcounter and AWStats stats (or not too far from them), with both the Jetpack and Cloudflare stats massively undercounting or overcounting. Im reasonably sure of this, as it would be in line with the trend shown in the WordPress Jetpack stats from before the cookie rules were properly implemented on IrishCycle.com.Without implementing Google Analytics or one of the above-mentioned services with the guardrails turned off in a way which I dont think is privacy (or GDPR) compliant, Im not sure how to get a clearer picture. Any suggestions welcomed. And, I wont be turning the guardrails off. Stat summaryWith the above, Im reasonably confident that the range given in the survey was correct, although with the higher end unlikely. So, were talking at least about a monthly readership of over 100,000, with many reading just one article (that interests them or thats related to a local project near them, etc). From my own perspective, even around 50,000 readers is amazing. North of 100,000 is fantastic. Im still a bit sceptical and will be looking for privacy-friendly ways to check the data.AOB?If you have any issues, please get in contact.Thanks for reading,Cian GintyEditor, IrishCycle.com