Re: Modifying GNOME-About to count users

[Eric Larson <elarson ximian com>]

On Wed, 2005-07-06 at 19:39 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> On Wed, 6 Jul 2005, Eric Larson wrote:
> 
> > Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 09:54:40 -0400
> > From: Eric Larson <elarson ximian com>
> > To: Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>
> > Cc: desktop-devel-list gnome org
> > Subject: Re: Modifying GNOME-About to count users
> >
> > > I've been advocating a simple enter-your-email-we-won't-spam-you form
> >
> > I can't imagine any casual system will provide very reliable data so why
> > worry about an email address. If it is the first time a person starts
> > gnome, maybe ask them to let us know they are running gnome.
> 
> Gnome has made great efforts to setup good defaults precisely to avoid
> annoying users with an endless stream of questions the first time they run
> things, and these questions are only asked when it becomes absolutely
> necessary.

I do want to point out that I totally agree with this :) 

> Previously I suggested bug buddy because it was a place where users were
> already sending back information to Gnome.org and something which
> distributions would not interfere with.
> 
> Alternatively you could ask users to provide feedback in places when they
> are already filling in a load of forms about their identity (galago?) and
> ask them if they would like to register as a Gnome supporter/user.

My original comment was just a suggestion. I don't really think it
should be in gnome-about or really anywhere else for that matter. If the
purpose is to get statistics then I think we are flat out of luck (which
I think is totally fine btw). If the goal is to use it for a marketing
campaign of sorts, then there are better ways then something within the
actual desktop. But just to clear, I really don't think it is necssity
or really that helpful. 

Eric