On Thu, 14 Oct 1999, Frederick Bruckman wrote:

> Besides, just because someone installs a package, doesn't mean he
> likes it, or that he he uses it. These are all three orthogonal.
> 
	Agreed, though if someone leaves a package installed then
	there is a reasonable chance they think it has some merit
	(no guarantee of course).

> A more innocuous alternative might be to set up a cgi interface to a
> simple database, then ask people to fill out a survey at that url.
> Printing such a message after every successful install strikes me as
> cheesy, but not particularly offensive. Something like what I have in
> mind can be found at <http://www.macbsd.com/~spearce/>, "The MacBSD
> User Survey Project".

	If you take this route, I'd be more inclined to ask them for
	the output from something like
		pkg_info |awk '{print $1}' | fmt
	plus some unique per machine identifier. Makes it easier to
	'batch' the information update.