> But other
> page count systems have been removed in that past by Brion because of
> privacy reasons.
Well, it *is* a pretty good reason. If you store any logs and are a
high-profile source of public information and those logs can in any
way be linked back to a specific user, then you must assume that
sooner or later someone may take you to court to get access to those
logs. Suppose a "person of interest" has been reading Wikipedia
information on the chemistry of explosives, or reading up on
biological pathogens, or military installations, etc etc etc. That is
exactly the kind of thing that certain areas of law enforcement would
like to know, and be able to use against people in court. Before you
say "conspiracy theory!", remember that Google has this problem (for
searches that people have conducted, which it does record), and
libraries have this problem (for books that people have borrowed,
which libraries also record). I'm actually surprised that the
Wikipedia has not had this problem yet, and I can only presume that
it's because there are no logs. The single easiest way to avoid the
problem is to not keep any logs (besides those which are already
public, such as the edit histories). There's a counterargument that
some of these people may really be evil, but the reality is that the
databases are located in the US, and the current US government has
repeatedly demonstrated a thorough contempt for civil liberties
(fingerprinting foreign nationals entering the US as though they were
criminals, arresting people wearing T-shirts with protest slogans,
illegal wire taps, indefinite imprisonment without due process at
Guantanamo, the practise of "rendition", arresting people
photographing bridges, and the list of abuses goes on and on and on).
For my 2 cents, concern over legal problems & potential abuse of the
data far outweighs my desire to know how many people have viewed say
the "Mickey Mouse" page.
All the best,
Nick.