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mh7 | 3 years ago

Any evidence that telemetry actually works? (i.e makes the program better)

discuss

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charcircuit|3 years ago

Yes, the simplest example is crashes being reported.

Developers can see that a specific crash is being hit by 1% of their userbase and then check the logs to see what went wrong and where the cash happened. The fix is made the program is indeed better.

account42|3 years ago

You can let users report crashes. You can even prepare the data for them. You can even provide a wizard that automatically opens on crashes to help upload that data. But you need to obtain informed consent. Sending data behind the user's back without ASKING FIRST is not ok. Stop doing it.

eps|3 years ago

If it collects actionable data, yes, of course it works.

Crashes, common failures, UI/UX friction points, avarage usage patterns - all can be used to prioritize work to take care of things that have the biggest impact.

mh7|3 years ago

I asked for actual concrete evidence, not "can be used".

Is there an example of a program that was crap, implemented telemetry and then got better afterwards? (and of course controlled for factors that might have improved the program anyway)

I mean since telemetry advocates are so into how useful data is, surely they must have data on whether telemetry itself works?