Tracking Installs

Reines · 2008-09-16 02:59:30

In the spirit of harvesting data I have been thinking about how best to track FluxBB installs. PunBB 1.2 had Punres Stats, but I think for FluxBB 1.3 it would be nice to have it done officially and hopefully we can convince a larger percentage of users to participate in it.

It is nice for users and forum admins to be able to visually see how their forums are growing and how they compare with others out there, as well as for users to find other forums they may be interested in.
It can also be used by us to look at things like what languages are used most, what extensions are most popular, what type of database most people use and what versions of PHP etc are being used, which can help us decide things like which languages we should provide support in and what versions of databases/PHP we need to support.

I think this would probably be best implemented as an extension (would mean it is 100% optional and you would need to specifically install it if you wanted to participate) that can call home every so often and send:

Board title/description/URL
FluxBB version (if it is set to be displayed), List of installed extensions and their versions (probably an option to disable sending this)
Default language/style & URL scheme
Number of verified/unverified users, Number of topics/posts
Number of users using each installed language/style
Webserver software & version, PHP version, PHP Accelerator & version, database software & version, database size

On the frontend side of things I would probably aim to do something similar to what Punres has at the moment, listing the tracked boards and allowing ordering by various ways as well as searching through them. We could also have some graphs showing the use of different languages/styles/URL schemes/extensions/databases/webservers. For each board it would probably show the current number of users/topics/posts, and graphs of the growth since it started.

Before making a start on this I would like to hear peoples opinions. Do you like the idea? Would you participate in it? Is there anything else you think it would be interesting to track? Is there anything I have suggested tracking that you would not want recorded?

Connor · 2008-09-16 03:11:56

I think it would be nice to split it into sections, make each section optional, so for example someone could not send webserver info, but they could send number of posts etc.

Also it would be nice to have an anonymous mode, which would allow the forums stats to be included in the global stats but not allow anyone to view their specific stats from the stats site.

It might be nice for a local stats extension too (either part of the same extension or a related extension) that just displays stats on a forum.

Gizzmo · 2008-09-16 03:38:36

Why not just make a settings page and a check box for each piece of information, to allow or disallow the info you want to share or not share.

Connor · 2008-09-16 03:41:35

Gizzmo wrote:

Why not just make a settings page and a check box for each piece of information, to allow or disallow the info you want to share or not share.

That is what I meant by split into sections

Reines · 2008-09-16 03:41:35

Yes that would make sense, it's what Connor was suggesting, and vaguely how I grouped them into bullet points up there.

eternal243 · 2008-09-16 09:02:41

Sounds like a good idea to me. I say go for it

elbekko · 2008-09-16 09:11:40

Sounds good to me. We could perhaps link it to the extension repo to have a rough estimate of how many people are using a certain extension.

Jérémie · 2008-09-16 10:22:37

Reines wrote:

Do you like the idea? Would you participate in it?

I always think my ideas are great ideas

However, I think there's a need to make a difference between FluxBB group usage and public usage.

For example, I might not want to display my FluxBB version number to the public (maybe to slightly decrease security issue if I fall behind on maintenance), but I don't mind at all letting the devs know it.

About styles, I would suggest some kind of verification being done to check if the style is what it say it is. On PunBB, a lot of people seems to only use the Oxygen style but in fact they edited it to suit their needs (sometimes it has nothing to do with Oxygen anymore) instead of creating a new style folder.

liquidat0r · 2008-09-16 12:21:08

Perhaps a nice way to encourage people to participate would be to have some lists of forums on the homepage, (or somewhere else on the site).

Top 10 Forums
Forum 1
Forum 2
Forum 3
Forum 4
Forum 5
... etc

Random FluxBB Forums
Random Forum
Random Forum
Random Forum
Random Forum

etc

Last edited by liquidat0r (2008-09-16 19:55:50)

SuperMAG · 2008-09-16 19:23:51

did u check the wordpress stats plugin, i think it has also very nice features like, refrals, number of views, etc

Das Tier · 2008-09-18 05:42:46

Gizzmo wrote:

Why not just make a settings page and a check box for each piece of information, to allow or disallow the info you want to share or not share.

Thats sounds the best as its good to share a limt of info to better a software in some why.

Christian · 2008-09-18 08:08:26

Das Tier wrote:

Thats sounds the best as its good to share a limt of info to better a software in some why.

Und jetzt nochmal auf Englisch.

Loa · 2008-09-18 09:09:49

As Connor stated it would be good if some stats where optional. Really awsome if you could choose if you show up on your stats site or not.

I have no interest to show my forum stats in public as most of my forums are for study groups and different small gaming communities, that is closed groups.

But for development of Fluxbb then I would have that extension on for sure.

Last edited by Loa (2008-09-18 09:10:47)

Das Tier · 2008-09-18 11:12:31

Christian wrote:

Das Tier wrote:
Thats sounds the best as its good to share a limt of info to better a software in some why.
Und jetzt nochmal auf Englisch.

How can i say it any better then that??

ProWeb · 2008-09-20 04:00:16

I love punres and the way it tracks my site stats. I've ALWAYS wanted this as a mod on my site so I could run these stats myself. It would be cool if a site existed like punres, but for Fluxbb.

Regarding having it as an extension, here are my thoughts:

1) I think super high level usage information should be available to the admins / developers of this site to every install on FluxBB. I'd have it be a default setting on every install that each new forum sends usage stats back to the developers. Just make it an opt OUT of every install. People may not like it and they can opt out, but in general I would expect it would be for the common good of the community.

2) Opt in: Have another option for people to make their site / stats public. Sell it as a feature to get news out about your forum and potentially more new visitors (which forum owners don't want that?)

2b) If admins Opt in, give them sub-options so they can choose which info they want displayed, e.g., users, posts, threads, version, country, etc. etc. etc.

Again, I wouldn't make the main data gathering an opt in / extension or you won't have many people using it. Make it easy to select during setup and sell people on why to make their info public (exposure, statistic tracking, etc.) and you'll get lots of info that will hopefully build up the community and the project.

Vovochka · 2008-09-21 21:45:57

Why is this mod so important?
http://fluxbb.org/trac/ticket/43
http://fluxbb.org/trac/roadmap

To tell the truth, I'm disappointed. Milestone "1.3 Beta3 - Feature Freeze" is still not reached, but there is the new one "1.3 RC1", which includes new features as this addon.

Developers, when finally we'll see stable FluxBB version? Are you writing for writing (not for result)?

Connor · 2008-09-21 21:53:36

The reason for the 2nd milestone is for us to put tickets that aren't a priority in. Our priority is to do the tickets for beta 3, but the fact is, we can't always work on them, atm we are waiting for Pauls final markup commit, so until then we are spending our time on other less important jobs.

liquidat0r · 2008-09-21 21:53:55

Vovochka wrote:

Why is this mod so important?
http://fluxbb.org/trac/ticket/43
http://fluxbb.org/trac/roadmap

I'm not going to argue it's importance either way, but what I will say is that the developers would like something to be getting on with while they wait for mark-up and CSS updates.

Vovochka wrote:

To tell the truth, I'm disappointed. Milestone "1.3 Beta3 - Feature Freeze" is still not reached, but there is the new one "1.3 RC1", which includes new features as this addon.

What's wrong with planning?

Vovochka wrote:

Developers, when finally we'll see stable FluxBB version? Are you writing for writing (not for result)?

"When it's ready" - I'm pretty sure they'll say that.

Gizzmo · 2008-09-21 22:08:11

Vovochka wrote:

Developers, when finally we'll see stable FluxBB version?

Soon

SuperMAG · 2008-09-22 07:55:10

i was also thinking, why you guys started with the stats extension. i mean its not that important since you can get stats from other websites etc.

you guys should start on important official extensions, those should be first, at least released as a beta, the only official extension released till now is pm.

oh well it doesn't really matter, since all the these things will take time you know. keep up the good work.

Connor · 2008-09-22 08:27:28

Its hard to work on most of the extensions without the markup being finalised, and you have to realise, this is our hobby not our job, if we want to concentrate on some things more than others then thats just the way its going to be.

Also, we want 1.3 out as much as everyone else, we're not holding anything back from the public here.

Jérémie · 2008-09-22 08:46:54

Connor wrote:

Also, we want 1.3 out as much as everyone else, we're not holding anything back from the public here.

Give us the secret final release of FluxBB! Free the code! Gimme gimme gimme...

Reines · 2008-09-22 09:23:01

Our top priority is getting 1.3 Beta3 out, however as mentioned we cannot really do anything more to it until the markup and CSS is complete. This also means that we if try making extensions now they will just need changed once the markup/CSS is complete, so the most sensible thing to work on is the site itself. I've actually taken the milestone markings off the stats system and the migration tool, ideally we would like to get them done in time for the final release, but there is no real need for them to be done for RC1 (other than it'd be nice to have some time for extra testing).

Also the stuff with RC1 milestones should not take long at all, so assuming we don't find too many bugs in beta3 we should be able to go to RC1 quickly.

SuperMAG · 2008-09-22 14:01:45

good to know, i hope that paul finishes his work soon

irmikeyb · 2008-09-22 19:42:22

Wasnt paul waiting for this past weekend here to finalize the marup/css?

Forums

#1 2008-09-16 02:59:30

Tracking Installs

#2 2008-09-16 03:11:56

Re: Tracking Installs

#3 2008-09-16 03:38:36

Re: Tracking Installs

#4 2008-09-16 03:41:35

Re: Tracking Installs

#5 2008-09-16 03:41:35

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#6 2008-09-16 09:02:41

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#7 2008-09-16 09:11:40

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#8 2008-09-16 10:22:37

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#9 2008-09-16 12:21:08

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#10 2008-09-16 19:23:51

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#11 2008-09-18 05:42:46

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#14 2008-09-18 11:12:31

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#15 2008-09-20 04:00:16

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#16 2008-09-21 21:45:57

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