[RFC] Revamp Send Statistics

[EXreaction]

The more that is sent, the less likely the user is going to be willing to send anything.

I would recommend that, if that extended information is wanted to be kept, it be an extra option that the user can choose to or not to send.

[oddfish]

...

I would recommend that, if that extended information is wanted to be kept, it be an extra option that the user can choose to or not to send.

+1

[DarkBeing]

IMO any sent information should be done on an opt-in basis. Perhaps a setting like "Automatically send anonymous usage statistics" would let us bypass having to ask the admin each time we want to do it, but I do not agree with sending such information sans explicit consent.

....

this!

With the over sensitivity about sending any kind of information without consent or the knowledge of it, at least in Germany we would end up with lots of "complains". Regardless what kind of information is send.

[brunoais]

Problem:
Why - Offer cron
This means stats are sent often (as the content may be updated often). It also means that it isn't just run at installation which most likely happens for most installs.

cron may be limiting, no?
Why not check if the 3 months have passed every time one logins successful (or any other place that makes sense)? (at least as a fallback for not having crons in that server)
There are free servers without cron support. If we had such fall back (or feature like that) that problem wouldn't appear.
Besides, cron exists only on linux (maybe also in MAC (?)) but not on windows, on windows the API is quite different. Are you stating users that use windows servers are not going to send that data periodically?

Anyway, one can always use an external cron provider but who's going to "move a finger" to use those just to send statistics periodically to phpBB devs?

[canonknipser]

cron may be limiting, no?

But we have our cron.php, which also handles all e-mail-stuff etc.

[nickvergessen]

I think he ment the "fake cron system" phpbb has implemented for such tasks, which are called while a user visits the board

[MichaelC]

Problem:
Why - Offer cron
This means stats are sent often (as the content may be updated often). It also means that it isn't just run at installation which most likely happens for most installs.

cron may be limiting, no?
Why not check if the 3 months have passed every time one logins successful (or any other place that makes sense)? (at least as a fallback for not having crons in that server)
There are free servers without cron support. If we had such fall back (or feature like that) that problem wouldn't appear.
Besides, cron exists only on linux (maybe also in MAC (?)) but not on windows, on windows the API is quite different. Are you stating users that use windows servers are not going to send that data periodically?

Anyway, one can always use an external cron provider but who's going to "move a finger" to use those just to send statistics periodically to phpBB devs?

As Joas has said, we have the cron system which is a fake cron run by phpBB (although it can be set to use a real cron). Its used for a lot of phpBB tasks already.

imkingdavid: And I never said anything without user consent, they'd have to opt-in to the cron sending stats every quarter.

[imkingdavid]

imkingdavid: And I never said anything without user consent, they'd have to opt-in to the cron sending stats every quarter.

Well you never said anything about requiring consent, so I just wanted to make sure that aspect remained.

[MichaelC]

imkingdavid: And I never said anything without user consent, they'd have to opt-in to the cron sending stats every quarter.

Well you never said anything about requiring consent, so I just wanted to make sure that aspect remained.

The board should automatically, periodically, send statistics if the user allows it. Otherwise I do not think this would be too useful.

Well, they are redirected to it after an update but I do see your point. They probably don't send them often. Maybe have it so when they send statistics it adds a cron that will send it every 3 months and add a mention of this?

It also says 'Offer Cron', not 'Use Cron'?

[imkingdavid]

imkingdavid: And I never said anything without user consent, they'd have to opt-in to the cron sending stats every quarter.

Well you never said anything about requiring consent, so I just wanted to make sure that aspect remained.

The board should automatically, periodically, send statistics if the user allows it. Otherwise I do not think this would be too useful.

Well, they are redirected to it after an update but I do see your point. They probably don't send them often. Maybe have it so when they send statistics it adds a cron that will send it every 3 months and add a mention of this?

It also says 'Offer Cron', not 'Use Cron'?

I don't see the word "offer" or "use" in the quote you provided. Regardless, I'm not sure why we're arguing this?

EDIT: Oh, in the original post it says offer. As I said, that still doesn't flat out state that it requires approval. But my point still stands: why are we arguing this?