[wp-hackers] Automatic feedback from users

[Callum Macdonald]

Omry, you misunderstand.

If the user disables their plugins before running the update, how can we 
record which plugins are active?

As I said in my previous email, "I've heard talk about auto-notifying 
users when plugins are updated." I believe this is already being 
implemented as part of the move wp-plugins.org. Therefore, I was 
suggesting adding the statistic gathering onto the existing project, not 
the other way round.

Cheers - Callum.

Omry Yadan wrote:
> 1.
>
> I was thinking in the direction of having this functionality in
> WordPress core, and not as a plugin, so your concern about disabling the
> plugins is not relevant.
>
> I can think of a few options to ask, for example in the initial
> installation screen we can have a sentence with a checkbox (for
> installing users), and we can also pop up some message in the admin
> screen if a user never answered the question before (by saying yes or no).
>
>
> 2. see below.
>
>
> 3. this is a part of the system information I think we can send once the
> user say it's okay to send system information.
>
> in FireStats I send the following bits (not all are relevant to wp, but
> to get the idea):
>
> /**
>  * System information includes:
>  * Unique firestats id
>  * FireStats version
>  * Installation time
>  * PHP version
>  * MySQL version
>  * Server software (apache? IIS? which version?)
>  * Memory limit
>  * Number of sites monitored
>  * Number of sites monitored from each type (how many wordpress blogs,
> how many drupals etc).
>  */
>
>
> for wp we can also add plugin and their versions.
>
> its tempting to add a notification mechanism that tells the user about
> updates, but let's not mix those two things.
>
> this should be strictly for statistics, I don't think it would be wise
> to bundle any functionality with it.
>
> something like that should probably be implemented and designed separately.
>
>
> Personally I don't have much time to put into coding this, but I will be
> willing to provide code that does similar things, for both the server
> and client side, to kickstart the effort.
>
>
> Callum Macdonald wrote:
>
>   
>> I think this is a great idea and would provide some excellent data to
>> base decisions on. It would also be fascinating data.
>>
>> Questions:
>>
>> 1) At what point would we ask the user to give permission? You
>> mentioned the Upgrade script, I think that would be sensible, except,
>> users are "supposed" to disable all their plugins before they upgrade.
>>
>> 2) I've heard talk about auto-notifying users when plugins are
>> updated. Could we add this functionality? If each WordPress
>> installation has a unique ID we could easily gather stats.
>>
>> 3) Could we add a second question to the install? Currently we ask
>> "Notify XXX about new posts", we could also add "Notify WordPress.org
>> about my server environment, plugins and tell me about plugin updates".
>>
>> I'd also be happy to put some time into this.
>>
>> Cheers - Callum.
>>
>> Omry Yadan wrote:
>>     
>>> Hi all.
>>>
>>> when developing software, in many cases we are guessing things and
>>> continuing assuming this guess is true.
>>>
>>> that's the nature of the work, and this will not change.
>>>
>>>
>>> recent examples:
>>>
>>> * sticking with PHP4 for now: based on the guess that PHP4 is still
>>> dominant and will stay dominant in the near future.
>>>
>>> * holding on to PHPMailer: based on the guess that it's good enough for
>>> 90% of the users.
>>>
>>>
>>> and so on.
>>>
>>> wouldn't it be nice if at least for some of those things, you would be
>>> able to base your actions on facts instead of on guesses?
>>>
>>>
>>> In FireStats 1.3, I added an option for users to send me system
>>> information.
>>>
>>> on the first run, I ask them if they agree, and if they do I send the
>>> information to my server when ever something changes.
>>>
>>> this allow me to get a good idea about the popularity of various php
>>> versions and mysql versions among my users, as well as to know about
>>> some usage patterns (in my case - how many sites each instance of
>>> FireStats is monitoring on average, for example).
>>>
>>>
>>> I intend to make some of the information I obtain public when I get the
>>> time, for now just take a look at this:
>>>
>>> http://misc.firestats.cc
>>>
>>>
>>> so, my suggestion is to add a similar mechanism to WordPress.
>>>
>>> this can also send a list of plugins users are using, provide a lot of
>>> information on what users want from WordPress.
>>>
>>> for example, if you find that 15% of the users are using some kind of
>>> email plugin, it's a pretty strong indication that the "90% of the users
>>> are happy with current mail support" is false.
>>>
>>> another example: if you see that 10% of the users have some kind of
>>> podcast plugin installed, it's a strong indication that at least 10% of
>>> the users of WordPress are podcasting.
>>>
>>>
>>> I am willing to help on the technical level with this, I have a pretty
>>> robust solution for this that will work even if the server does not have
>>> http access (data is sent from the client browser).
>>>
>>>
>>> just to stress the a point here:
>>>
>>> I am not suggesting spying on users: we will only get information from
>>> users that agree to help.
>>>
>>>
>>>     Omry.
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> wp-hackers mailing list
>>> wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
>>> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
>>>
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
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