I would not do this. I would also like to know how much my modules are used, but I think this would be the wrong way to get that information.

First it doesn't tell you the whole story: you would not see PPM, but also RPM, ports, eports... users. And you would get lots of people installing modules that they will never use. Plus what happens if someone downloads the module, then installs it while online? You will end up increasing significantly the complexity of the install process, for no benefit to the user.

But the basic reason against it is that it would run contrary to what I think Open Source stands for. Of course you always get a nice ego boost when you learn that <insert big corporation, personal hero or favourite arch-ennemy name here> uses your software, but that's not the point. The point is to release code that you are proud of. With no ties attached. "Phoning home" is for closed-source code. And lots of people hate it. I would not be proud to do it. I would feel that I would break the trust that users put in me.

BTW, did Larry try to track who was downloading Perl 1?

In reply to Re: Gathering module usage statistics by mirod
in thread Gathering module usage statistics by Juerd

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.