[GSoC] Automated Usage Stats Collection

[Mark Doliner]

On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 11:47 AM, Rishi Agarwal <rishiag.iitd at gmail.com> wrote:
> The basic idea is to provide a logging interface to plugin
> developers which they can use in their code for monitoring purposes (with
> proper restrictions to protect user privacy).

What sort of restrictions did you have in mind?

> 3. Add support for crash reports. Maybe, try to file them under already open
> tickets.

I think crash collection and reporting would be fairly independent
from usage stat collection and reporting.  It's not clear to me if it
makes sense to lump them together in a single summer of code project.

Also I don't think it's a good idea for crash reports to be tied to
already open tickets.  I think this would be difficult to implement,
possibly fragile, and susceptible to false positives.  It doesn't seem
worth the effort.

> 4. Website to display the stats. Also, every plugin developer can have a
> separate account on this to view his/her plugin's logs.

I wonder if it's really necessary to need an account to view this
information?  If the information really is anonymous then I feel like
it should be safe to make it public.  I see difficulties with trying
to keep the information semi-private, or visible only to the plugin
author (how would you enforce that the registered user is the plugin
author?  what would stop the plugin author from resharing the
information or sharing his account?).  Plus, account management is
inconvenient--why require an account if there's no reason for it?