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Hey all!
I think it would be awesome to not only know the number of downloads your addon has, but also the number of people actually using it. This can be easily done trough the minion, and even while this reduces the measurement to people only using the minion, still the data is useful.

But thats just my €0,05.

If you want to add some kind of "tracking cookie" you can create a module yourself and ask people to install it. I WILL NEVER try to track this type of information, especially without consent of the user involved.

The API is available. If you really want this feature, you can create a module yourself and ask your users to install it.

I don't want to track whatever they do with the addon, just if it's installed or not. That isn't something sensitive when it comes to privacy?

The only thing i can think of would noting number of updates (if possible) since this would (in theory) closely resemble people currently still using an addon after initial download.

Aside from knowing which toons had the addon activated i cant imagine any more accurate measure. Digging for that specific information however I would see as an invasion.

Installed (present in the addon folder) doesn't always mean used though. I would imagine a large portion of the populace stop using an addon well before they actually remove it. I know I have to do periodic cleaning of my addon folder and wtf folder for addons i stopped using some time ago but never bothered to actually remove. I could be in the minority on this however.

My personal question on this is, How would the overall data be useful aside from deciding whether or not to continue working on a project due to lack of users?

Not knocking the idea. I'm just genuinely curious.

I think that for the rankings of addons on WoWInterface the number of downloads is irrelevant, while the number of people using it is. And I just like to know how many people use my addons :D

I think an alternative, and possibly better way, to track this would just be to track downloads per version. Not sure how much work that would be, but it would accomplish the same thing with fewer privacy implications.

edit: By this I mean tracking it outside of Minion.

To me, it is definitely a privacy issue

I think this was discussed before. Feel free to suggest it in the site requests :)

As far as I'm concerned, it's nobody's business what add-ons I use. Yes, it is very much a privacy issue.

No, I think you understand me the wrong way. The author doesn't see what addons you use, only if you use one of them. They will never know all the addons that you use. And about the downloads per version, it doesn't work, because that assumes that every that uses your addon updates with every new release and that you don't get any new users.

And about the privacy, it shouldn't be a problem if there is an option to disable it?

I feel it should never be opt-out, only opt-in. I hate opt-out, it always seems very sneaky and makes me want to opt-out just out of principle. And still. It's nobody's business even if I'm using one particular add-on. You already know it's been downloaded.

Maybe I'm more sensitive about privacy than others on the site, but there's my opinion out there.

They have enough problems trying to get Minion to update the correct addons without installing the wrong addons, why bother them with tracking stuff?

i think people are getting a bit overprotective with the privacy angle. you don't need to know what addons a person uses. indeed, you don't need to know anything about the person at all. you simply add to one WOWI database counter when a person installs the addon for the first time, and you add to another one when they do an update.

two numbers on the WOWI site that have no information about anybody in them. they are just integers and no information about the user was transmitted to WOWI. this is no more a privacy violation than the current d/l count.

edit: of course, this would not work for manual d/ls. so probably kind of pointless.

I agree wholeheartedly with lilsparky, and I doubt I could of said it better myself.

I had been thinking about this for a while, and I think that the downloads per update option is probably the best. In the absence of a feature like this (and because I'm too lazy to work it out myself) I use the number of favorites, which I always think is more helpful than downloads, as someone might download my addon, think it's rubbish (:() and not use it again.

Fodaro
Author of CharNote

I personally never mark an addon as favorite. I either use it or regularly update it. Well until I stopped playing WoW that is :D

Favorites are there to make it easier to access your addons. And most importantly, notify you when they are updated so you can see the changes; significant or not. This allows you to get the bugfix you have been waiting for, etc. without having to check on it every so often.

You're being a little over-sensitive there in my opinion.
He merely stated his opinion and he hardly belittled anyone else's and simply stated he could not understand their opinion.

Agreed.


message to short blah blah blah blah

There seems to be two different topics here. The original topic everyone else is discussing, and a completely different one you are trying to bring into it. Lets stick to the original topic.