You're trying to tell me that writing to a text file uses more overhead than serving up javascript
Yes it does, oddly enough. Think, if every one of the thousands of X10 users has an access log, it would take up a specific amount of hard disk space - space that could be used for users storage. Serving a javascript takes no hard disk space and only a tiny amount of RAM which can then be reused. As for bandwidth, sending a string or a 1x1 GIF takes less than 100 bytes, which on a standard internet connection takes a few milliseconds.
I have, however heard it suggested by staff in posts to this board, that GA may be what pushed a given site over the resource limits, causing a suspension
I don't know who told you that, but that is 100% false. Google Analytics, as I said before, has absolutely nothing to do with the server and takes no server resources; therefore it would be impossible for it to create a resource usage suspension.
I did a quick test on my site with Google Analytics installed: it adds a small javascript that takes a few milliseconds to load - that is hardly resource intensive.
Why do you think Google recommends "sampling" for high volume sites? Because it eats resources
As to sampling, Google has
this page dedicated to it. There they explain that "sampling speeds up processing
for reports", not when transmitting data to the server. Also, it is suggested only for pages with "millions of pageviews per month", which I don't think applies to many, or any, users on free hosting. Even for large reports, it is only "eating" resources on Google's huge server farms, rather than on the smaller X10hosting clusters.
The admins here may enable logs again in the future, but I really don't see the point. They have the choice of using server resources or offloading it to Google or whoever - I think you can see which is the better choice.
If you really want raw access logs, go for paid hosting. You are complaining about a free service, be thankful for what you are given.
