TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Re: Follow-up to question about getting feedback from users
Subject:Re: Follow-up to question about getting feedback from users From:Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:41:34 -0700
For Web-based help systems, of course there's no problem. Any
security-conscious person knows that Web servers collect all kinds of
stats.
However, per MadCap's site, "The Feedback Server, not only tracks
reader activity on Web-based Help, but also on desktop documentation,
such as HTML Help and DotNetHelp."
That Feedback Server allegedly aggregates the data doesn't make it any
more appropriate or less intrusive to gather stats without the user's
permission. Or is that opt-in?
On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 1:27 PM, Sharon Burton <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com> wrote:
> Robert, hang on. You're over-reacting to something I'm not saying.
>
> Feedback is server-based and this feature does nothing more than any web
> server in this instance. My website provider, for example, provides me with
> reports about IP addresses, number of visitors
> daily/weekly/monthly/annually, search keywords that got people to my site,
> pages viewed, international location of said IP addresses, and so on. I
> can't tell you who visited, after a general IP address. I certainly can't
> tell you what any individual did on my website.
>
> Feedback is *NOT* tracking what you, Robert, as a person does and then tells
> people what you are doing. It doesn't do that. It tracks what users are
> doing in that it tracks what words people are searching on and where they go
> from there. It generates reports about what keywords people are searching,
> what pages are getting how many hits, what keywords are not returning any
> results and some other things.
>
> It's not doing any more than any website provider is doing for the most
> basic of web sites. You don't know that is when you visit a website
> happening and your life is going fine, right? Well, Feedback is doing
> something similar to help tech comm people see what and how the docs are
> being used.
>
> But Feedback doesn't track what Robert is doing, it track what this user is
> doing.
>
>
> sharon
>
> Sharon Burton
> MadCap Software Product Consultant
> Managing your content, one topic at a time
> www.anthrobytes.com
> 951-369-8590
> IM: sharonvburton -at- yahoo -dot- com
> Twitter: sharonburton
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: robert -dot- lauriston -at- gmail -dot- com [mailto:robert -dot- lauriston -at- gmail -dot- com] On
> Behalf Of Robert Lauriston
> Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 1:15 PM
> To: sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com
> Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: Follow-up to question about getting feedback from users
>
> "The users never know it's happening and it's completely non-intrusive."
>
> Excuse me? If an application is tracking something I do without my
> permission and submitting it to the vendor or a third party, that's an
> intrusion. That sort of thing has to be opt-in or it's a violation of
> trust. In some places, I believe it's illegal.
>
> How does the app submit the information it collects? If it "phones
> home" using the Internet, my security software would trap it and ask
> if I wanted to allow the communication. If I had not previously opted
> in, I'd be on the phone to the vendor immediately.
>
> On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 1:00 PM, Sharon Burton <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com>
> wrote:
>> It's not tracked like "we know who you are and we'll visit you at home one
>> dark and cold night". It's tracked like usage statistics, searches,
> keywords
>> and so on. You can see what users are looking for, where they are going in
>> the help to find it, what aren't they finding, where do they spend time in
>> the help docs, what do they never ever look at, and that sort of stuff.
>>
>> The users never know it's happening and it's completely non-intrusive.
>>
>> If you're interested, go look at MadCap's site or call the sales desk and
>> talk to them. It's an amazing product that helps you find out what your
>> users are doing, as tho you were looking over their shoulder while they
> use
>> the help.
>>
>> sharon
>>
>> Sharon Burton
>> MadCap Software Product Consultant
>
>
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
