Why not upgrade? was (Re: [wp-hackers] Maintenance release, first gate of "is the issue major?")

[Computer Guru]

Yeah, it's very simple.
You *don't* send a ping.

You do *all* the checks locally. It's what I do with my programs and scripts, and it works great.
Just have the local WP install grab a text file off the automattic server that contains the latest version (for instance grab version.php from the repo), and *locally* compare the version in that file to the version installed.

That simple. No one ever knows what version _you_ are running, and the only information being exchanged is what version is the latest that exists.

I think that addresses the privacy concerns?

Computer Guru
Founder,
NeoSmart Technologies
http://neosmart.net/blog/


> -----Original Message-----
> From: wp-hackers-bounces at lists.automattic.com [mailto:wp-hackers-
> bounces at lists.automattic.com] On Behalf Of Craig
> Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 10:24 PM
> To: wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
> Subject: Re: Why not upgrade? was (Re: [wp-hackers] Maintenance
> release, first gate of "is the issue major?")
> 
> I like the idea of giving people a notice/warning/heads-up about a new
> release, especially one that is done for security purposes. However, if
> you
> put something into the core that sends a ping to the WP Mother Ship
> stating
> what version is running, and then the Mother Ship sends that
> installation
> instructions to inform the user, then people will howl about privacy.
> 
> In order to do this in a way that minimizes such claims, you really
> should
> have something in the Install routine that clearly illustrates an opt-
> in
> choice to be notified of updates and what information may be
> transferred and
> how one's privacy is assured.
> 
> Given that I am code-clueless, there may be a way to accomplish this
> without
> raising the ire of privacy advocates, in which case you can simply
> ignore my
> comments. :^)
> 
> Craig.
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