[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #38418: Add telemetry (aka usage data collection) as opt-in feature in core

[WordPress Trac]

#38418: Add telemetry (aka usage data collection) as opt-in feature in core
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 Reporter:  mor10            |       Owner:
     Type:  feature request  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  General          |     Version:  4.7
 Severity:  normal           |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                   |     Focuses:
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Comment (by gibrown):

 There were a number of discussions about this in early October. I think a
 good summary is that there are a lot of hurdles in the way and currently
 no one has time to work on it.

 @azaozz and @iseulde probably also have opinions. Some of the original
 chats happened in core-editor also: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives
 /core-editor/p1475087414000621

 The prototype we narrowed in on was:
 - standalone WP plugin (https://github.com/iseulde/wp-data maybe)
  - standard JS api for sending data. Maybe taking it from Calypso's JS for
 how WordPress.com does user tracking: https://github.com/Automattic/wp-
 calypso/blob/master/client/lib/analytics/index.js#L128
  - sends pixel GET requests to a server (start out on AWS or similar for
 now?)
  - start recording some very limited things about the editor at first
 - pixel request logs get processed and pushed to Logstash
 - run an Elasticsearch/Logstash setup for storing the data for some period
 of time
 - Front end for aggregating results across the data

 Why this direction?
 - All technologies that have been deployed by .org systems folks before,
 and they just need to be adapted to work on .org servers.
 - Getting the systems deployed onto WP.org is a non-trivial step, and is
 unlikely to be a high priority. So we need a working prototype that can be
 proven and is likely to be easy to deploy.
 - Most of this will scale pretty well. Not to millions of users, but
 certainly tracking events for many thousands of users.
 - It's a step in the right direction

 Ultimately, I think the biggest blocker is getting someone with the time,
 inclination, and persistence to work on this. Getting it deployed onto
 .org is the right thing to do eventually, but I suspect it will take quite
 a while.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38418#comment:5>
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