Posted 1 year ago #
The new version 3.2.6 adds Google Analytic code to your whole blog!
This is not acceptable and violates the German law and may the law of other countries!
I don't know what Shareaholic has in mind but this is no open source behavior!
I'm absolutely disappointed in where this good plugin is mooving...
Posted 1 year ago #
@Mr. NiceGuy, we added GA tracking code to:
/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/js/sexy-bookmarks-public.js
We're planning a lot of speed improvement for SexyBookmarks, and needed to know how the plugin was actually being used by real users on real blogs to better inform those decisions. All we really need to know is how many times is SB being loaded each day so we can plan for capacity.
btw, we made sure to use the most optimized version of the analytics code, which should not slow down anything.
We hope to remove the code in an upcoming release, or at the very least include an opt-in/out soon. Was not aware of the controversy in Germany around Google Analytics!
Posted 1 year ago #
@shareaholic
The problem is as followed:
If a website uses tracking software within Europe and escpecially within Germany (no matter wheter it is from Google or Bing or Yahoo etc.) you have to inform your users. You have to proofe that your users can see that information and be aware of it. It's part of the privacy policies within some countries (Germany, Austria etc.). If there is no information you may will be judged. In Germany the first penalty will cost about $4000. But the second time you gonna spend $200000.
And that could be because you are using tracking code without information and with no way to disable it. And they may will judge you, too.
So why are you doing this?
There are other ways to track that information.
Use a table where you save userid, date/time, url and bookmark service each time a user clicks.
This information could be send to you once a day/week/month (but take care because some countries don't allow to send privacy data like user-ip, user-id etc.).
You would have a win/win situation. The admin can see what are the most interessting articles and what is the most interesting bookmark service. Both have their statistics!
When you let the admin decide if he wants to send you the data that's a fair partnership and fair use of open source.
What you are doing is to ruin websites if they get judged.
Why don't you make it that way? I'm sure you have thought about it more than one second?!
Please think about it again...
Posted 1 year ago #
Sorry shareaholic, but i think like Mr. Niceguy.
For me, It is out of question to let this analytics code in the script. I just removed this code and hope, this is ok for you.
If not, then let me know it and I uninstall your plugin completely. I'm not willing to use this plugin with analytics code inside.
Best Regards
Stefan
Posted 1 year ago #
@Beedy, that is absolutely OK with us.
We will be looking into Mr. Niceguy's suggestion too, but that will take a bit more dev time. We're going to make it much easier (check box on admin) to opt-in/out in the next release. This is fastest for us to get done. Priority is to address this asap.
Posted 1 year ago #
Thanks shareaholic!
The opt-in / opt-out possibility will be ok for me!
Thank you for your quick answer!
Best Regards
Stefan
Posted 1 year ago #
Great to read that!
I appreciate your decission to find a way we all can use it without fear to get judged.
I really like that plugin and have no problem to share the date with you (except data that could identify users like ip or that because it's againt our law).
It also would be great if you decide to make a table to collect stats and share that information with us, too.
Posted 1 year ago #
This option has been built-in in v.3.2.7. See "Track Performance?" setting in admin panel.
Thanks guys!
Posted 1 year ago #
Thanks very much shareaholic for this option and your problem-free support!
Best Regards
Stefan
Posted 1 year ago #
Thanks for that! Good to use SB again :-)
One more question.
There is the text "Made with Much Love, these Icons are © Shareaholic" at the customization area.
Does this mean that the icons are NOT GPL?
I thought all plugins at WordPress.com have to be licensed under GPL?
Do we have to fear about Copyright claims from Shareaholic?
Could you add a license file or some statement to the readme.txt if that is not the case?
Posted 1 year ago #
Mr. NiceGuy,
You're welcome!!
That is correct.
The code needs to be GPL for wordpress.org hosted plugins. I believe WordPress' motivation behind this is that just in case a developer loses interest in a plugin and stops taking it forward, someone else can then pick it up.
The art work (non-software works) in Shareaholic is not GPL. The same way if a logo (ex. Twitter's, Firefox or even Shareaholic's) is used in a GPL product, doesn't necessarily mean that the logo can be modified/used by others without permission :)
You need not fear anything!! Just don't (per WP) do anything illegal, or be morally offensive! :D
Posted 1 year ago #
> I believe WordPress' motivation behind this is that ... someone else can then pick it up.
And you don't habe to watch for several license agreements :-)
Could you tell us (within the readme.txt or a license.txt) what we are allowed to do with the icons?
Can we use the icons on our site especially on a commercial site?
Can we use the icons on our sidebar to have the same look and feel?
It's absolutely OK to have a Copyright on Images, Icons etc. But the admins should know what they can do with them and what not?
It would be good to hear a word from Shareaholic that they're not going to serve notice when we using it ;-)
Posted 1 year ago #
@Mr. NiceGuy, You can use the icons on any page, as long as they are used/initiated from within the plugin.
If you would like to create another plugin for a sidebar, etc using the same icons, we would love to work with you, or anyone else. We love working with the community -- the contribution list for SB is long and awesome. We have open APIs, etc too (http://www.shareaholic.com/api).
I added to the last response:
You need not fear anything!! Just don't (per WP) do anything illegal, or be morally offensive! :D
We'll add a note to the readme.txt in a future release.
Posted 1 year ago #
It's no plugin - I want to use three of your Icons on the sidebar to link to our FB site, Twitter site and the RSS. I just want the same look and feel.
Is there a way to discuss this via PM?
Posted 1 year ago #
That actually sounds like it may be a great addon or companion to SB! -- "SB Follow" Plugin.
via email is best: jay _at_ shareaholic _dot_ com
Posted 1 year ago #
In the new version I found the option 'Track Performance'. i thought Shareaholic added a new report for bloggers to view the performance of each Share-Buttons to find which Icon performs more. But I couldn't find any report anywhere. So I started Googling to find where is that report they kept. And atlast I reached here and understand that there is no report. So Please don't confuse the bloggers. Also I don't understand why all the Icons URLs pointing to Sharealohic website, I doubt that would make the sharing process slow as it is accessing a 3rd party site instead of accessing directly Facebook/Twitter.
Posted 1 year ago #
@lovepress
- Reports are coming soon.
- There are many reasons to use a central API a) we don't need to do a new release just to update a service definition b) click tracking to report back to you c) makes it much easier to add new services d) maintenance is much much easier (we can now support over 200+ services; just need icons)
Posted 1 year ago #
Hi All:
We have an early preview of analytics reports ready. For those interested, please shoot a quick email to support at shareaholic dot com, and we'd be happy to hook you guys up!
This topic has been closed to new replies.
