On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 9:48 PM J. Ryan Stinnett <
jry...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 1:20 PM, Joe Walker <
jwa...@mozilla.com> wrote:
> > What questions do we have that need the data gathered by this?
>
> The main questions I am after are "does anyone use feature X?". This
> can help guide decisions on the priority of marketing, adding related
> functionality, and maintenance work for features. In the vein of
> "Great or Dead", it may also lead us to remove things no one uses.
>
But when G||D was announced, we talked about removing things that are not
used and didn't come up with anything.
Maybe Jeff has more of an idea how often he's needed more detailed data,
but in general I think we should have still more concrete questions for
which we need more data before we gather it. Otherwise we spend time
collecting data that we probably wont use and risk that when we need it we
find that the data isn't quite measuring the right thing.
Today, our main data collection is:
>
> * Was an entire panel opened ever by a user?
> * How many times is an entire panel opened?
> * How much time is spent in an entire panel?
>
> We could be collecting much more specific data. We have so many
> buttons, options, menu items, tabs, modes etc. which are specific to
> particular features.
>
> To pick a random example, the Debugger has an options menu with
> off-by-default things like "Auto Prettify Minified Sources". I have
> currently have no idea how many people use that. If it breaks, it's
> hard to say how important that is relative to everything else.
>
> This data can help guide decisions like this. I am not saying it
> determines the answer, there are always many variables to consider,
> but I think helps to have some data as opposed to none.
>
>From an overall cost point of view we pay for the data in further delays to
getting read-write to the storage panel (assuming Mike does it), and also
some measurable code bloat if every action grows by 3-5 lines.
Hence - time-limited telemetry to answer a specific need sounds great, but
lets be specific about the actions we'll take as a result of the data we're
gathering. Also lets consult Jeff.
Joe.