Dangling by a Trivial Feature • Hacker News Board

Re: Dangling by a Trivial Feature

#61

Post by nickpp » Mon, Dec 24, 2012, 12:51 PM UTC

ricardobeat wrote: post #44

Jare wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why metrics and analytics have become superstars lately. Why hope for your users to tell you, when the software can do it by itself? Following the article's use case, the software could transmit the last dozen or so commands or actions performed by the user. In a simplistic scenario, how would you interpret it if 40% of your user's last commands are "Save"? Success, surely! How about "Undo"? The art and magic…

On the other hand, who wants their drawing software to track their every movement?

Ever heard of web-based software?

Re: Dangling by a Trivial Feature

#62

Post by winter_blue » Mon, Dec 24, 2012, 5:01 PM UTC

saidajigumi wrote: post #28

dreamdu5t wrote: post #17

This is why we should be using small, focused, interoperable modules instead of large monolithic frameworks and applications that try to do everything. A plugin architecture format shared by applications would be invaluable and solve this problem.

Folks have been musing along these lines for decades. There have been a few attempts. To date, they've almost all failed. The problem domain here is a lot more complex than anything we'd normally call a "plugin architecture". IMO, the problem is that this sort of interoperability pretty much requires the power of a full-on programming environment. If it's even possible, I think it also requires an architectural organ…

> To date, they've almost all failed.

Eclipse is an example of an immensely successful plug-in architecture-based software.

It's amazing how well plug-in ecosystem in Eclipse operates. For instance, I could install the PyDev plug-in and have an intelligent Python editor -- but at the same time the EGit plug-in provides seamless git integration that works with any language!

How all these plug-ins come together and play nice with each other to create a cohesive and powerful IDE is impressive!

Re: Dangling by a Trivial Feature

#63

Post by krickle » Thu, Dec 27, 2012, 1:38 AM UTC

josephlord wrote: post #58

krickle wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is hugely important. Any analytics had better be opt-in from a very visible and honest request dialog. Otherwise, quite frankly, it's unethical.

How do you feel about properly anonymous opt out logging? My feeling is that anything personal including user content and searches should be opt-in but opt out is ok for monitoring feature usage that can't be linked to an individual. Obviously online/web apps reveal at least this anyway. Does context web/mobile app/PC app make a difference?

My perspective is that you are using that person's processor time, so it's okay to have anonymous opt-out if they know what is happening, otherwise I don't think it's appropriate.