> To be clear, I do not support software having spyware...

I've edited the original post to make clear that this is a strawman proposal 
for discussion.

> I don't know what legal issues spyware may have, even if its possible to turn 
> it off.

Many programs "check for update".  Software from larger companies do more, but 
of course, they likely have more monetary resources than Geany does.

>  And anyway statistics tell you what people use now, not what they might use 
> if it was added or an existing unused feature improved.

Agree.

> And really, Geany isn't guided by statistics, but by what people contribute. 
> No matter how many statistics there are, if nobody contributes a change it 
> won't happen.

Agree.  This is true of smaller open-source programs with limited funds.

> There are no paid directed developers following a master plan shaped by 
> gathered statistics. Its all whatever people contribute, either their own 
> ideas, or ones they get from feature request issues, or from issue 
> discussions/arguments, or stolen from other projects, or whatever. Then the 
> only filter on the contributions is if the (volunteer) committers have the 
> time and interest to review test and merge changes.

Perhaps usage statistics would encourage committers to consider changes that 
they might not otherwise be motivated to consider?

> If somebody thinks a pull request is not suitable they may simply say so, or 
> suggest changes, or totally ignore it, although getting _no_ response is rare 
> for pull requests, but more so for feature requests. As people might have 
> noticed one of my bugbears is people who want to effectively remove existing 
> features by replacing them or simply deleting them. IMO thats like saying "I 
> don't want it that way so nobody can have it" and a better approach is to try 
> to add the new feature as additional functionality, or provide an option to 
> select it (if it can't coexist with an existing feature) or put it in a 
> plugin so the user can decide to include it or not.

People who ask for a feature to be "changed" would likely be satisfied with an 
option for their request.

Knowing the usage of a feature would help with determining whether an outright 
change would be acceptible.  Maybe "no one" is using the feature because it has 
wonky behavior.

> Of course as all volunteer time is limited, large changes can sit for a long 
> time before anyone has the time to review, test, and merge them. Especially 
> in these "interesting" times. So Geany tends to move in small steps 
> punctuated by occasional lurches, which makes it fun but occasionally 
> frustrating grin.

Maybe usage statistics could encourage more activity on large changes?


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