st: SSC archive stats

[Kit Baum <baum@bc.edu>]

Mark S. asked why the SSC Archive stats that I report each month show  
many more downloads than the RePEc download stats available from  
http://logec.repec.org. An easy answer. The SSC Archive stats are  
calculated from the server on which the ado-files reside. Every time  
a file of type .ado is accessed--by whatever means--a 'hit' is  
registered. "Whatever means" involves both the use of a traditional  
web browser and Stata itself, masquerading as a web browser. When you  
use the -ssc-, -adoupdate- or -net- commands, Stata uses the HTTP  
protocol to download the file.

The hits registered in RePEc download statistics represent the number  
of users who do not follow instructions (or for security reasons are  
not allowed to do so). They represent those users who use a regular  
web browser to access IDEAS or EconPapers, navigate to the SSC page,  
and click on the ado-file. On the page they view, they are exhorted  
not to do so, especially if they are Windows users. But many do not  
heed the advice. But a Stata user giving the command 'ssc install  
outreg' will not access any RePEc site, so their download is not  
registered as RePEc activity.

The SSC archive stats are definitive, as they are derived from the  
webserver logfile of about 1.4 million HTTP transactions per month  
(the webserver handles many sites besides the SSC Archive).


Kit Baum, Boston College Economics
http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba1.html
An Introduction to Modern Econometrics Using Stata:
http://www.stata-press.com/books/imeus.html


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