Message-ID: <68b1e2611001191351y3185b6bax8d99956e39e3dc4c@mail.gmail.com>
Date: 2010-01-19T21:51:37Z
From: Liviu Andronic
Subject: Number of download.
In-Reply-To: <d8ad40b51001191230w6e6cc8b1gc5ea95086979aeaa@mail.gmail.com>
On 1/19/10, Barry Rowlingson <b.rowlingson at lancaster.ac.uk> wrote:
> In a similar vein, has anyone ever put any 'phone home' code in a
> package, so that authors can track usage? Something in the package
> startup code that pings a logging server, for example?
>
> Yes I know doing such a thing without telling the user and giving
> them an opt-out is evil.
>
Why would this be evil? For R, for example? I've already read some
objections to this on r-help, but I'm not sure I understand the
reasons. As long as the 'ping' happens once, at first start,
anonymously, and requires confirmation from the user, I do not see an
issue with the behaviour.
Regards
Liviu