Old modules

[Duncan Gibson]

> As far as getting stats from user installs as to which modules are
> being used or installed, I can see a number of issues with that.

I just threw the idea out to allow a bit of brainstorming. I know
that there are lots of aspects that would need to be discussed.
However, the non-negotiable item of the stats-gathering constitution
is that is must be on a voluntary basis. If it is obligatory, or
even just enabled by default, you might as well rename Lunar as
BigBrotherLinux, and that would be a 'double plus bad' thing[*].

Once you've got over that barrier, does the idea still make sense?
What information would actually be required? You would need to have
some unique ID so that the stats couldn't be skewed, just like DW
only counts one hit per IP-address per day. Would IP-address be good
enough? This might allow anyone to send stats. What if the system
used a mailing list, and only registered users could supply stats?

Another barrier crossed. What else?
moonbase version? does that come as part of 'lvu installed' ? Yes!
In fact, the output of 'lvu installed' looks exactly like what is
needed. Cool! so that means that this 'feature' could be as simple
as "lvu installed | mail -s 'Installed' something at lunar-linux.org"
or a new option to "lvu" such as "feedback" or "report".

What about the receiving end?
Use "procmail" (which I notice is one of the "Old modules", ha ha)
to filter the mail through a script to extract/process the data to
file, overwriting previous data for that IP- or mail-address.
Then a cron script to process the data files to build a web page.
How to present the data? Bar charts of number of users, from most
users to fewest users? Simply by name and version? By age? Cross
referenced against moonbase section? Would this info show up on a
new page, or integrated in Striker's splendid Modules page.

Other questions.
What about modules in 'zlocal'? This might give an idea of how
many people have picked up submitted, but not committed, modules
from the mailing list. Or Zbiggy's satellite modules.

OK, that's enough brainstorming from me for the moment. Time to
let other people pick holes in the idea. Feel free.

Cheers
Duncan / engelsman

[*] My apologies to George Orwell's "1984" for abusing NewSpeak.