[wp-hackers] Automatic feedback from users

[Callum Macdonald]

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.
>
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