Sexy Stats
You may have noticed a change to your stat charts a couple of weeks ago. We ditched Flash in place of a more robust charting library called Flot. If you didn’t notice, go check it out because you can view all of the new charts with modern browsers including mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad. Sooo sexy! Today we updated the charts to use bars instead of points and lines. We’ve also made the stats page super sexy.
Each module can be opened and closed, moved, or hidden completely. If you don’t want to see a module, minimize it with one click or use the Screen Options to keep it out of sight. Customize everything and view stats the way you want to.
As you hover over each bar in the chart it changes color and displays a tooltip, giving you more information about the data. If the chart is showing data by day, Saturdays and Sundays have a light gray background to make it easier to see weekly patterns. Under the chart you’ll notice a new area, called “fortune cookies,” where we’ll highlight key stats.
During the redesign we went with bar charts because the end of one day and the beginning of another shouldn’t be connected. Each day starts at zero and we think bar charts work much better for this type of data. We hope you’ll agree once you get used to the change.
In this first phase of the stats redesign we’ve focused on the main page. This will allow us to collect feedback from you so we can tweak everything as we go. We’ve only mentioned a few of the highlights here, so take your stats for a drive around town to get used to the feel. Let us know what you like and what you might change. As we gather feedback we’ll apply a bit of sexy to the other stat pages.
Sites using our Stats plugin on a self-hosted blog will see an update after we iterate on the new design.
WordPress.com News 
Much better, thanks =)
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I like it 🙂
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Just for people who have no idea how graphs work: line graphs are for charting trends over time, bar graphs are for comparing quantities. Time is on the x axis of these graphs, so guess which type they should be. The new graphs may be “sexy”, but they make no sense. Can we have an option to go back to the old types at least? Seriously, this bothers me.
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The bar graph is great. Makes everything very clear. Thanks.
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I hope you are right Mike as esthetically the bars seem clunky and dated. But I am willing to grow accustomed to them.
I mean in the grand scheme of things – is it really that horrid? The information is still there and it is fairly straight forward.
Useful it is – but sexy ? – not so much.
😉
Sexy or not, it is nice that wordpress is constantly improving. Best blog utility period. :thumbsup:
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I liked the points and lines very much (until the blue fill below the lines came along that is). Couldn’t they be incorporated into the new system as an option to the bars?
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This is awesome 😀
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Nice update, and really smoothly done too with no glitches as far as I noticed anyway.
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I think, instead of a column chart, only a line graph would be more appropriate. Because we are seeing the trend only. Columns will be useful when we need to compare.
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Thanks so much for this wonderful post; this is the kind of thing that keeps me on track through out my day. 🙂
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Much clearer, well presented and a great addition.
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is there no option to download stats to an excel sheet. This was a very useful feature. Will you be adding this again soon?
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You can use the API if you want to download stats. http://stats.wordpress.com/csv.php
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I found the lines more precise myself. But in the main very good. It must be a good feeling to be getting 20,000+ views a day on a regular basis! I’d like to get up to 1% of that!
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Me and Sexy charts had the pleasure of meeting eachother like 2 days ago! so Elegant 🙂 TY
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Thank you! Looks greate! 🙂
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I do like the new layout, but I am consistently disappointed that I cannot get the same level of analysis I could if I had gone with other packages (e.g. eblogger in particular). The level of insight that the tools you use gives us into who comes to our pages is (frankly) pathetic. I love wordpress, and if someone can tell me how to incorporate GA I will love them forever, but as far as I know its impossible, which to me means that wordpress needs to come up with the goods.
If I am wrong, and get include GA, please let me know, and keep up the amazing work on all other fronts. You guys rock, you just rock less in this area.
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Is this change for the sake of change? Are all these bloggers on your staff — they are so full of praise and uncritical. What’s so sexy about the new system? I prefer the line chart.
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Now I can see my stats on my iPad. (I couldn’t before because of Apple’s aversion to Flash.) Very nice, thank you! 🙂
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Ok. Maybe I’m new on this and posting in the wrong place, but I’d still appreciate an answer rather than my comment being deleted. So far as I can tell, it is not against any of the comment guidelines. Is it possible to see from which countries the viewers are viewing from as it is on blogspot? And for the record, I like seeing the trends in a line graph better and would appreciate being given the choice.
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We do not store visitor data at this time.
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I thought I liked the original better but this is actually pretty cool. Good job guys 🙂
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I really dislike the bars (not to mention it looks like I’m getting the finger all the time); I loved the dots graph.
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I like it….now only if I had tons of readers to make those bars go up……sigh.
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Thank you WP. Thanks a lot. Keep up the good work and keep it coming.
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I have been away for a week so was surprised to see the new stats on my blog. The best thing is that whether they are bars or lines I am enjoying watching my crime blog grow. Thanks for another new feature guys.
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I like the redesign, but i am left with a question on exports. Why is it not possible to export daily figures into a csv file?
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Oops, I only now noticed the link to your post in the stats. Ditching flash is a good idea, but:
“During the redesign we went with bar charts because the end of one day and the beginning of another shouldn’t be connected. Each day starts at zero and we think bar charts work much better for this type of data. We hope you’ll agree once you get used to the change.”
is arguable. The stats collecting software does seem to restart from zero at midnight its time, granted. But midnight its time seems to be my noon, and 22 further different times for users in other time zones around the earth. So disconnecting days by using a bar chart may reflect more accurately the experience of the software, but not the experience of the people the stats are about.
This issue also obtains for color differentiation of the “week-end”, which is Judeo-Christian: maybe your stats software is, but many WordPress users aren’t – if I correctly recall, that was one of the issues raised when Microsoft applied to have its XOOML accepted as ISO standard. Oh well, stats visualizations are just a kind of visual shorthand. But this leads to something else:
You made a laudable effort shoving up the link for the Summary tables, which are the real stats, to below the graph. Would you consider giving this link another little push to show it above the graph, in the division that starts under the header of name of the blog ()? Putting it there might be handier for people who read the stats with a sreen reader: it seems more logical than present location of this link in the division headed “visits”.
Lastly: would it be feasible to make these summary tables downloadable as .csv files, as Wikispaces..com, for instance, does? In the case of etcjournal.com, we are several authors, but only 3 of us have access to the stats page, so every month, the owner of the blog sends the stats as a screenshot of the graph for monthly views to all authors, and when I have time I add a roughly edited copy of the page of the summary tables. But it would be much simpler if we could send the .csv file/s people could then open in a spreadsheet.
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Hi. Some of us prefer Flash and don’t like the iPad/iPhone, but will have to accept this and adjust. But, I’m still keen on my Android and its’ Flash capability 😛
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Very handy, thank you. 🙂 By the way I wish my blog would appear on the dashboard too. Maybe someday huh!
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Love the new Sexy stats. Makes it easier than looking at that line graph
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I’m siding with the minority on this. I liked points and lines–it looked like a mountain range to me that showed the peaks and valleys of my blog’s popularity. Don’t see anything sexy about the new look. Clunky yes, sexy no.
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What happened to the syndicated view stats. Used to be that you could select a particular post and view the onsite views and the syndicated views. The syndicated views are now missing. This is very frustrating.
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They’re still there in a stacked bar chart.
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I liked the old chart, but the new bar graph is neat. I might suggest the bars be thinner, which could make it almost a middle ground between the two styles. Regardless, the modules for additional info are greatly appreciated. Again, another thing I’m liking about WP is the push to provide more service and more flexibility. Thank you.
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I love this new design, but it would also be great if I can put Google Analytics on my WordPress.com blog.
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I wish I could see also from where the visitors are coming from, through IP-address recognition. Can that be done, please?
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The stats looks better to me, they are more clean.
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I like the new bar charts. What I don’t like is when I click on refresh the stats jump all over the place. Sometimes up, sometimes down, the stats on the chart don’t jive with those below, or in the individual post data. I don’t know what to believe, and I can’t trust them. Please look into this and resolve what is happening.
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Love that y’all are continually improving wordpress…but I miss my cute line graph. 😀 I’ll adjust!
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Please being back the line graph. Also, I want to click once to see the stats for today and yesterday, not have to open separate tabs. I use this feature a great deal and also on other web packages. The wordpress line graph was by far the easiest to dsee at a glance than the bar charts. Can we have the option to switch back to the old format?
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I also liked this new chart very much.
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“Old Lines” were much better than this new something… besides, who cares?
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It’s very good! I’m like it!
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Yeah, hate it. My high traffic days look like they are flipping me off.
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How is a ‘visit’ defined? Is it a visit to the site in its entirety, or the total number of views of pages and posts? I.e. if one person visits my site’s homepage and then clicks through to three seperate posts, is that four views, or just one?
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We count views, not visits. If one visitor clicks through to 4 pages it counts as 4 views. See https://wordpress.com/support/stats/ for more info.
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This gives a great and a cleaner feel.. i like it!
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I like the bars but I get a little envious when it comes to the number of visitors. I’ve never had more than 60 persons on one day.
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i agree the bars looks a lot better and a lot cleaner, but sexy? Until there is super models in place of the bars this isn’t very sexy.
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I am not pleased with the new stats sheet. First, I can no longer see the email subscriptions list. Second, I only can see one day at a time as far as what links my readers click on. I do like the bars, that works well. However, I have spent a half-hour and left a comment on your help page trying to locate the email subscriptions. Where is it?
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They are in the General section. Click on the Subscriptions tab.
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Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I liked the dots and lines.
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I would like to have the line charts back. The line chart helps you see trends in number of hits more easily than the bar chart. For this type of data, I would tell my statistics students to use a line chart.
The other rollover info and shading of wekend days that has been added is great – no reason this can’t be implemented along with a return to the line chart.
Thanks for working to continually improve the tool.
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I like the changes there’s just one stat that I miss from google… where people are viewing from. I’m very happy with my switch from Blogger, but I do miss seeing where in the world someone is reading my blog. Even if it was just one person from Russia, or a stranger in France I liked to see that. Any chance you could bring that feature to WordPress?
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Lately your work on wordpress.com (not just wordpress.org software) is astonishing !
It would be wonderful to see this new feature in “Wordpress for Linux Android” as I recently use it more and more (blogging on my couch is way better than my chair 😛 )
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Okay, seriously? Love it. No more Flash! But you know what’s missing? Music. Seriously. When I ran my mouse over the bars, I expected each one to play a musical note. Say, like, taller bars would make higher notes, lower bars would play bass. How cool would that be? Listen to the sound of your stats! That’d be music to me!
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I prefer this way too — super sexy 😉
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I do agree with Mike but IMHO why not give the people a choice, is simple a flag on the configuration and anyone is happy. Default is bars but if you happen to prefer lines … then you give the option. I love the fact that now I can see the stats in my iPad =:p
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I love the new bar charts! The Flash stats were slow and ugly in my opinion. I think the Flot library integrates nicely with WordPress.
Cheers,
Trevor Sullivan
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All is great but when are you going to translate it? I see it as Site Stats when the previous version was Статистика (in Bulgarian). Same goes for the comments and manage comments. My dashboard is too bilingual to be called sexy 😦
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You can submit any translations at http://translate.wordpress.com/projects/wpcom
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I do not whether I should be lucky or unlucky that I did not happen to witness the old indices and charts on wordpress since I have joined it yesterday. I think the chart above needs further improvement and a lot more stats can still be added to it. For e.g Blog-to-blog comparisons, Highest Response Generating blog etc.
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I would make the bars at least half their present thickness to get more data on a page. The thick bar tells you nothing. Thin would show more info and may make people happy.
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The thickness is dependent on the size of your browser window.
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I kind of like the way it looks now.
How do I get 21,243 hits a day?
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The new stats are an interesting change. I’ve been able to locate all of the options that were available in the old format, and I do like the new highlighting of Saturday and Sunday.
As a side note: I really like the support and improvements that WordPress.com is continuously providing. I feel that the blogging site I have chosen is well-staffed, well-supported and is always on the lookout for new goodies to pass my way. WordPress.com doesn’t feel static or anonymous; even though it’s very popular and used by many people and groups, as an individual blogger I feel like my itsy-bitsy personal blog is being given attention. Thanks!
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I like the bar charts. However, it would be nice to be able to see syndicated daily views as well . Perhaps stacked on top of on-site views? In a different color?
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I have to agree with the majority – I like it…but it does take getting used to.
Your ‘sexy’ tag worked – I clicked it!
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WordPress – the blog platform that never sleeps – presses on!
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I don’t understand why it had to change. It was great as it was because you could get everything in one view. It wasn’t broke and then you broke it.
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I think lines and bars are both sexy but, being able to choose whether you want lines or bars for stats would have pleased people on both sides of the fence.
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Nice, thanks. More importantly the page loads faster now.
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It’s a bit different, but I think I’ll like it once I’m more used to it.
Now that I think about it, it does look better than before.
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I’m glad I just started this blog only a couple weeks ago and never knew the non-sexy stats. All I know is sexy!
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Looks awesome guys. I can only wish to get as many views as the lowest stats up in the screencap. But I’ve only just started so you never know. Keep up the good work.
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I like the points and lines one better.
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I like the old ones better.
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I much preferred the other version. I thought it was easier to get a quick glance overview. I did already contact support about this and they said there was nothing that could be done. Oh, well! I guess I will have to get used to it.
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Would it be possible to add a stats module that shows the locations of readers? For blogs with lots of international readers, it would be great to be able to find out which countries readers are coming from.
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Normally I’d say it’s a shame to pander to the sad, Apple-hugging herd, but I’ll let you off as the new stats look good (and sexy) for everyone. And a web-design guy called Jakob Nielsen has always had a thing or two to say about Flash…
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Your bringing SEXY back! I love the stat section, but I also LOVE data. Thanks so much!
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Like the new stats look, thanks.
As for the future, any chance the incoming links from search engines could be hot links, so we could see quickly on which page we were found, Cheers!
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extreamly nixce…
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Just noticed this now.
I spoke to WordPress, it had this to say:
I’m bringing sexy stats,
Them other blogs just don’t know how to act,
I excel where they all lack
WordPress just rocks and that’s a fact
(Take ’em to the dash!)
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I love the bars on the stats! Keep up the good work!!!
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Thanks a mill! It’s great! Love it!
Cool to see the visits from another angle!
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I prefer the bar charts. I can easily visualize the frequency of the visitors on a daily basis. Thanks.
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…I won’t be changing my mind about the bar charts.
I work with charts and mapped data a lot, and this is not an improvement.
Bar charts are definitely not sexy unless you think pocket protectors and cell phone belt holsters are sexy.
Line charts allow visualization of trends more readily and that’s what many of us are looking for when we turn to our stats.
I like the idea that there would be more customization in the future. If you want to make this really sexy, expose the options to allow us to visualize our data in a variety of ways and select the presentation that works best with our intentions and way of thinking about our blogs.
Choice is sexy. Having someone else dress you in THEIR favorite color is not.
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This is a nice addition. I wish I got as many views as there are in the flowchart! LOL
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uber sexy adn thanks for this improvement!
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Well I do not by any means wish to impede on forward progression, although I must admit that I prefer the classic line chart as opposed to the newer chart. I find that the newer system makes viewing stats much more awkward and overall the classic line graph was able to show you trends in a much more accurate and time-saving manner. I would definitely be supportive of the return of the much loved line chart. However, I thank you all for the improvement in compatibility with other browsers and the like even though it is not for me.
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I like this so much better. Everything you want to know, clean and simple. Good stuff!
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don’t know that “sexy” is the term I’d flaunt for charts like these … but I agree that they’re nice 😉 and I too prefer bars to lines, though I don’t see what it would hurt to offer a choice between the two.
thanks.
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I like it- would like to be able to see who is looking at my blog or if they are not a subscriber, where they are viewing from at least- city, state.
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Always to follow you(news) not possible…Great ideas and aplications.Thanks.Really Sexy XD
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Greatful works and results for bloging…I agree !
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You got it right! The new Stat page is SeXy!!! Good one WordPress Team
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Great sexy stats….
Grosir Sepatu Safety
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I like the new stats much better, because it’s more responsive now, and it’s not blocked by FlashBlock or similar browser addons. Great job, guys!
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Its all about moving forward, change does that sometimes – then at other times change is not needed, in others words good job, but I liked the old stats much more better. There simply wasn’t anything wrong with the other version so why the need to change it?
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