On Sep 18, 2010 1:19 PM, "Brad Gies" <rbg...@gmail.com
<mailto:rbg...@gmail.com>> wrote:
This is a bit long winded (sorry, but I need to explain what I'm
doing before I can ask the question).
Just wondering if I could get a few (hopefully few hundred)
opinions on this :
I developed an Exception Handler for my first Android app
(released the first month the market opened), which logs all
uncaught exceptions to my server, and since then I have gradually
refined it and improved. I'm now using it in my 4th public
Android app and a few private apps, and I find it extremely
helpful to find bugs that don't happen to me when I'm testing.
One thing I added that is proving to be extremely useful is an
AlertDialog when the exception occurs asking the user if it is OK
to contact him/her if I need more information to be able to fix
the problem, and a box for them to enter their email address if
they agree. I don't have good numbers for you on the acceptance
rate because most of my public apps already have the users email
address and for the private apps the company enforces their
compliance (or supplies the emails for me to use). BUT... it
looks like about 20% of users do enter their email address if
asked, and that is more than enough to be very useful.
I think I can increase the percentage of users that do supply
their emails addresses, and that is what my question is about :).
(I will ask it soon)
First, It has occurred to me that my Exception Logger might be
even more successful for me if other developers were also using
it because users might have seen it before and trust it when they
first see it in my apps. That obviously would only happen if
quite a few developers were using it.
Anyway... sorry it's already getting long, and I AM trying to
keep it from becoming a book. I have repackaged my Exception
Logger and will release it in the next couple of days for other
developers to use (the price is the good one - FREE). I will host
the thing on my server (FYI it's a Cloud based server so we can
increase capacity if needed) and any developers using it will be
able to log in and view the exceptions their app has generated,
and sort by time/date, user, and other fields.
NOW.. the question: I think the Exception Logger would be more
successful getting the users to agree to be contacted IF their
email addresses were kept confidential. Actually, I don't think
there is much doubt that would be the case. BUT, there is a
tradeoff. Obviously, most developers would prefer to see the
email addresses so they can manage the contacts a bit more
effectively without using my website to do it, BUT if the email
addresses are not confidential, fewer users will give them.
So here are what I think are the options:
a) keep the email addresses confidential, but developers can
send the user an email using my website, include both a reply
address which goes to my website and then forwards the email to
the developer, and also the developers email address so the user
could respond directly to the developer if they choose. I'm sure
this would have by far the highest success rate for getting
contact info .... but means devs have to use my website to send
the first email at least.
b) give the user a choice of keeping the email address
confidential or just giving it to the developer. This should also
have a fairly high acceptance rate by the user, but complicates
the process for them because they would actually have to read the
instructions to figure out how it works, and quite possibly a few
users would think they asked for their email addresses to be
confidential, when they actually checked the other option, and
would be upset if they found out later. It's also a bit more work
for me, for maybe very little benefit.
c) Don't bother keeping the email addresses confidential. All
my own apps work this way, and it is useful, but I'm sure either
of the other two options would have a better success rate of
obtaining the email addresses, and therefore would be better for
most devs to get information about problems in their apps.
I don't try the a) or b) options for myself because obviously I
could see the email addresses in my log files if I wanted to
look, and it would be a little deceitful to tell the user their
email would be confidential in that case, even if I did use them
properly ... BUT, I can do that for other developers without
stretching the truth at all, so I think it's worth the effort if
other devs want to use it.
So, please let me know what your opinions are.
I'm also hoping to get some idea of how many developers might
want to use this. I've already done almost all the work, so it
will be released even if nobody wants to use it. It freaks me out
a little to open up my server to an unknown amount of use, but I
am well setup to increase server capacity quickly if needed, and
I don't think the cost of doing this will be too horrible (I
hope). ...
Sincerely,
Brad Gies
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