To get better statistics about Drupal Core usage (and module usage) to use in Drupal marketing I say we should remove the statistic submission of the Update module and get Drupal to send statistics all the time to drupal.org.
Why? Well, for one, accurate statistics (that most certainly show an increase) for Drupal usage is always good. Accurate statistics are good in markering.
Secondly, with services like DrupalStatus.org you don't need the Update module, they collect the data in some other way. When I don't need a module, I shut it off, and if a developer doesn't want the end-user/client to see the messages of updates or if the developer choose to use the DrupalStatus service (which I really like, and use every day) they shut the Update module off, and no statistics doesn't reach drupal.org. If DrupalStatus.org, and similar services, continue to grow and more and more website shuts off the Update module the stats will be very incorrect, and that is not at all good.
I've written more about it here: http://www.adamevertsson.se/en/articles/more-reliable-drupal-statistics, but the essence is what I've stated above - report all Drupal usage to drupal.org.
Yours fellow Drupalist,
Adam Evertsson
Comments
Comment #1
btopro CreditAttribution: btopro commentedI don't think you'll ever move this mountain personally in the name of data security / reporting without people's knowledge / in-ability for non developers to turn it off.
after the disclaimer: I really like the idea, I think it should be abstracted from update module but still made a UI checkbox that can be disabled if users so choose. I leave it on everything I do because I also like my projects getting accurate numbers but I'm not sure everyone feels this way for security, performance and personal reasons.
Comment #2
AdamEvertsson CreditAttribution: AdamEvertsson commentedI think you are right, btopro, and a checkbox is a nice option when looking at the alternatives. Since I'm not a programmer and not able to push this change through myself, I'll just have to see what happens. Perhaps there are more of the same thought for the upcoming versions of Drupal.
Comment #3
Dom. CreditAttribution: Dom. commentedI woul be happy to make this change, but as said by btopro in #1, it will probably result in a long discussion before it is approved...
Althought could you please clarify "where" you would like to set this functionnality ? To the module manager somehow (I don't know it's name but there is probably a set of serivce to handle modules [discovery, install, etc...]) ?
Comment #5
xjmThis is a duplicate of #1036780: Drupal.org should collect stats on enabled sub-modules and core modules I think. The next step for it is #1627676: Display stats on enabled components (e.g. modules included in a project). Thanks!
Comment #6
xjmSorry, I read more closely and saw that this issue is requesting that it be non-optional.
I think that is probably wontfix, but retitling and reopening so that can be discussed if it is the request. Sorry for the noise!
Comment #7
dawehnerI think what the issue argues is to make the reporting still optional, but not bind it to the update module, as with composer/other services you won't have update module installed, but rather make it as part of system module for example.
Comment #8
xjmAhh, thanks @dawehner for clarifying.
Comment #23
quietone CreditAttribution: quietone as a volunteer commented@AdamEvertsson, thank you for making this proposal.
Three and a half years after this issue was created the Telemetry Initiative was proposed in the core ideas queue. Even though that discussion is still ongoing it does has support and more discussion. Therefor, I think this can be closed and further work be carried out in the other issue.
Cheers