It should be opt out by default and well communicated.
Opt out by default? You mean opt in.
Just ask the user on the first launch.
Ask HN: Should open-source projects allow disabling telemetry?
11–20 of 33 posts
Re: Ask HN: Should open-source projects allow disabling telemetry?
#12"We feel like it’s a fair ask" - exactly - it's a fair ask, so the user should decide. Nobody can force you to change your mind, but if you don't, prepare for forks with the option disabled.
Also, the issue is not really about that - it's about the submitted data not being anonymised. That's the bare minimum you should be doing regardless of the information being opt-in/out.
Re: Ask HN: Should open-source projects allow disabling telemetry?
#13I've [argued](https://benconrad.net/posts/230717_fundingOpenSource/) that oss developers need to have real world use information in order to ship good software. Contra some here, I think oss developers that don't understand how users use their software can't maintain or improve it.
Re: Ask HN: Should open-source projects allow disabling telemetry?
#14"We feel like it’s a fair ask" - exactly - it's a fair ask , so the user should decide. Nobody can force you to change your mind, but if you don't, prepare for forks with the option disabled. Also, the issue is not really about that - it's about the submitted data not being anonymised. That's the bare minimum you should be doing regardless of the information being opt-in/out.
The user can decide, by not using the software.
Re: Ask HN: Should open-source projects allow disabling telemetry?
#15If you allow opting out throw away the telemetry. At your scale your results will be garbage with opt out. Don't even bother.
Re: Ask HN: Should open-source projects allow disabling telemetry?
#16[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Should open-source projects allow disabling telemetry?
#17I think they should always allow it, just simply because... if you don't you might lose users, they might fork it and make a privacy-first version, then we get more fragmentation.
FOSS has so much fragmentation trouble already.
Re: Ask HN: Should open-source projects allow disabling telemetry?
#18You should allow for the user to disable it preferably during install. Just try to allay their fears by communicating that it is anonymized and how it's important to help improve the software by providing this feedback.
Another option that I've seen is to inform the user that there is telemetry, but make the option to disable it some kind of configuration by editing a JSON file. This way you still allow for the option to disable telemetry, but add a small amount of friction to do so.
Re: Ask HN: Should open-source projects allow disabling telemetry?
#19"We feel like it’s a fair ask" - exactly - it's a fair ask , so the user should decide. Nobody can force you to change your mind, but if you don't, prepare for forks with the option disabled. Also, the issue is not really about that - it's about the submitted data not being anonymised. That's the bare minimum you should be doing regardless of the information being opt-in/out.
The user can decide, by not using the software.
Sure, but for opensource it also means the user can maintain a forked version. It's up to the project to decide if they prefer to fight over privacy, have a fractured community, and possibly custom patched packages in some distributions - or do they explicitly ask about telemetry instead.
And in practice, do you gain enough from active collection to justify the fight? What about instead searching GitHub for digger being used in the public pipelines and building stats from that?
Re: Ask HN: Should open-source projects allow disabling telemetry?
#20What does "wrong" mean in this context?
It's your project you can manage it however you want. I'd recommend communicating this clearly at least but otherwise listen to your users(in aggregate) and make your decision.