[Ardour-Users] ardour & "phoning home"

[fred]

Due to my poor english, can't express what I think in a better way Nedko 
does !

This phone home thing sounds like a "windows agent", if remember the name
correctly ?

May I suggest to inform people they have to include an option, say 
"--PHONEHOME=1"
when compile ?  It could be a check box before or after the subscription 
one,
with some teasing like "Help Ardour ! Let Paul know more about your 
system", and YES,
you have to brainstorm a lot to find the right words to make people 
understand you're
not big brother's cousin !!

To alert on new version, you may ask for a valid mail before download 
and mail-list ?

Personally, it should be ok to send a mail to "Ardour's robot", with an 
attached file
generated in the launch phase of Ardour. Just add a repertory and create 
a file
with in what you like, is it difficult to program ? From user side, it 
could be his little
time invest in Open Source. Hey, some proudly feeling here !

Please, never enable this by default !
Fred

>> Why am I adding this to Ardour?
>> --------------------------------------
>> * better data on how much Ardour is actually used
>> * better idea of the balance between OS X and Linux platforms
>> * a way to alert users that new versions are available

>>
>> Please don't enable send of any data by default. It will violate privacy
>> and will put bad karma on Ardour.
>>
>> If the user has not yet chosen her preference, Ardour should be to ask
>> by opening a dialog with at least two checkboxes, one for sending usage
>> data and other for new version checks. If the dialog is closed without
>> Yes/No button press, Ardour should assume No.
>>
>> It is awful idea to send usage data by default. Policy forcing is in the
>> domain of distributions. When a user chooses to compile from source, she
>> wants control over behaviour, not a dictatorsip violating the
>> anarchistic virtue of the open source liberty.
>>
>> In the Internet age, statistic data ownership means capital. It is fine
>> to ask users to donate like this, but don't force them to do this by
>> default. It will nullify the the positive attitude and may even make it
>> negative.
>>
>>     
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