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Anonymous Data Plugin [Official GS Plugin]
#1
I have been asked a lot over the last few months (turning into years) about what type of people are using GetSimple, and how they are using it. I never had answers, and I knew even if I polled the great community members in these forums, I would never see the whole picture.

In response to that, I've created a plugin that will be included in the 3.1 core that submits completely anonymous data back to our servers so that we can see the how/who/why/where (in completely anonymous data chunks) people are using our wonderful CMS product.

Once 3.1 has been out for a while, I will crunch the data and share with the community what we've collected. I feel this can be some very interesting data even though one submission is nothing to shake a stick at by itself - it will be very telling data when they are all aggregated together.

For starters, I want to assure everyone that there is absolutely no way I/we can tell who is submitting this data. Below is the type of XML file that gets sent to our servers. This is it - no other hidden data being sent - absolutely nothing else.

Code:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<data>
<submission_date>2011-12-08T08:16:38-05:00</submission_date>
<getsimple_version>3.1B</getsimple_version>
<language>en_US</language>
<timezone>America/New_York</timezone>
<php_version>5.2.17</php_version>
<server_type>FreeBSD</server_type>
<modules_missing>["ZipArchive"]</modules_missing>
<number_pages>18</number_pages>
<number_plugins>4</number_plugins>
<number_files>44</number_files>
<number_themes>1</number_themes>
<number_backups>2</number_backups>
<number_users>1</number_users>
<domain_tld>info</domain_tld>
<install_date>02-11-2011</install_date>
<category>Internet</category>
<link_back>yes</link_back>
</data>

This is the data from the get-simple.info installation of GetSimple.

Let me explain a couple fields: The "install_date" is taken from the filetime of the /data/.htaccess file (which should never get overwritten during normal updates). This is meant as just a rough estimate - but should be useful information none-the-less. The "category" field is an optional dropdown that people can choose or not choose to set.

There are a few other software packages that do this too... DokuWiki comes to mind - so GetSimple will not be the odd piece of software that does this when no one else does.

Also, I'd like to make note that I purposely did NOT make this plugin i18n compatible. This is because due to the sensitive nature of this plugin, I wanted to make sure that the text stayed in my words, and not through a translator. I trust our developers, I just prefer to make sure the text stays mine.

Please add comments & problems to the plugin below. This plugin will only be compatible to GetSimple version 3.1 and higher.

I hope everyone understands how this data will be very beneficial to us understanding our users. Thanks!
- Chris
Thanks for using GetSimple! - Download

Please do not email me directly for help regarding GetSimple. Please post all your questions/problems in the forum!
Reply
#2
ccagle8 Wrote:I have been asked a lot over the last few months (turning into years) about what type of people are using GetSimple, and how they are using it. I never had answers, and I knew even if I polled the great community members in these forums, I would never see the whole picture.

In response to that, I've created a plugin that will be included in the 3.1 core that submits completely anonymous data back to our servers so that we can see the how/who/why/where (in completely anonymous data chunks) people are using our wonderful CMS product.

Once 3.1 has been out for a while, I will crunch the data and share with the community what we've collected. I feel this can be some very interesting data even though one submission is nothing to shake a stick at by itself - it will be very telling data when they are all aggregated together.

For starters, I want to assure everyone that there is absolutely no way I/we can tell who is submitting this data. Below is the type of XML file that gets sent to our servers. This is it - no other hidden data being sent - absolutely nothing else.

Code:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<data>
<submission_date>2011-12-08T08:16:38-05:00</submission_date>
<getsimple_version>3.1B</getsimple_version>
<language>en_US</language>
<timezone>America/New_York</timezone>
<php_version>5.2.17</php_version>
<server_type>FreeBSD</server_type>
<modules_missing>["ZipArchive"]</modules_missing>
<number_pages>18</number_pages>
<number_plugins>4</number_plugins>
<number_files>44</number_files>
<number_themes>1</number_themes>
<number_backups>2</number_backups>
<number_users>1</number_users>
<domain_tld>info</domain_tld>
<install_date>02-11-2011</install_date>
<category>Internet</category>
<link_back>yes</link_back>
</data>

This is the data from the get-simple.info installation of GetSimple.

Let me explain a couple fields: The "install_date" is taken from the filetime of the /data/.htaccess file (which should never get overwritten during normal updates). This is meant as just a rough estimate - but should be useful information none-the-less. The "category" field is an optional dropdown that people can choose or not choose to set.

There are a few other software packages that do this too... DokuWiki comes to mind - so GetSimple will not be the odd piece of software that does this when no one else does.

Also, I'd like to make note that I purposely did NOT make this plugin i18n compatible. This is because due to the sensitive nature of this plugin, I wanted to make sure that the text stayed in my words, and not through a translator. I trust our developers, I just prefer to make sure the text stays mine.

Please add comments & problems to the plugin below. This plugin will only be compatible to GetSimple version 3.1 and higher.

I hope everyone understands how this data will be very beneficial to us understanding our users. Thanks!

Cool, this will be very beneficial.
Reply
#3
mmm.. thanks for sharing and your concerns about our opinion.

In fact, I'd prefer some other way of collecting information.. E.g. you could have provided some sort of questionairy/survey which appears as an extra page in the admin panel, and dissapear as soon as survey is submitted, but will not be obligatory...

I'd openly ask almost ANY question in this survey - by this you could have had much more clear information about happy users of GetSimple ))

This is just my humble opinion..
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#4
0zz Wrote:but will not be obligatory
this way wont either. It's a plugin that you actually have to go into and click "submit" on. Delete the plugin, or don't click submit if you don't want to participate.

I still might do a survey/poll in addition to this to get some general question/answer things out of the way. A plugin works best because it can get the systematic data much easier than any human could. (Do you know how many files you have in your /uploads folder or what Server OS your host is running? If you do, you will obviously would be in the minority...)
- Chris
Thanks for using GetSimple! - Download

Please do not email me directly for help regarding GetSimple. Please post all your questions/problems in the forum!
Reply
#5
Code:
Notice: Undefined variable: success in /home/p30318/www/themes.ru/plugins/anonymous_data.php on line 128

Notice: Undefined variable: error in /home/p30318/www/themes.ru/plugins/anonymous_data.php on line 131

Notice: Undefined variable: preview_data in /home/p30318/www/themes.ru/plugins/anonymous_data.php on line 138
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#6
Notice: Undefined variable: missing_modules in /home3/chagamus/public_html/mysite.com/plugins/anonymous_data.php on line 90

Warning: filemtime() [function.filemtime]: stat failed for /home3/chagamus/public_html/old-russian-wood.com/data/other/.htaccess in /home3/chagamus/public_html/mysite.com/plugins/anonymous_data.php on line 98
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