[Ardour-Users] ardour & "phoning home"

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sat, 2010-08-07 at 09:55 +0200, fred wrote:
> 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 !

If such a 'thing' isn't enabled by default, people tend not to use it,
so it should be enabled by default, but regarding to data protection the
user always must be informed BY A BIG WINDOW ON TOP before any data is
read and/or stored and the user always must have the option to forbid
reading data.

> Fred
> 
> > > Why am I adding this to Ardour?
> > > --------------------------------------
> > > * better data on how much Ardour is actually used

To get better information about this, e.g. to know how many people do
use Ardour and how many don't donate etc. a form with some questions
would do the job.

> > > * 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.

IMO enabling by default is okay, but anyway there has to be a warning
window including checkboxes. Full ACK, if such a window is closed by
e.g. 'enter', this has to be a 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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