[wp-hackers] Automatic feedback from users

[Computer Guru]

Simple enough: _WordPress_ upgrade should automatically disable
plugins and make a list of which were active.

This list can be uploaded to a server somewhere, and even better, once
upgrade is complete it can attempt to re-enable that list.

This will hit two birds with one stone:
The list of plugins
Issues caused by users not disabling plugins when updating.

On 9/15/07, Callum Macdonald <lists.automattic.com at callum-macdonald.com> wrote:
> 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
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> wp-hackers mailing list
> >> wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
> >> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
> >>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > wp-hackers mailing list
> > wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
> > http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
> >
> >
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> wp-hackers mailing list
> wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
>


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