Will those of us off-line be able to participate?
 
 

Analytics? 
Yes!
Great idea!  I will definitely participate.
 
Opt-In?  
No!
The default should always be opt-out.  Despite my decision above to participate, I dislike it when software pre-empts my opt-in stance
 
Rewards?
No!
Worth asking, but I think it'll backfire.  You want people to opt-in because they see value, and my guess is that you'll attract the "right kind" of information that way
 

Another thought is that there is a problem report section of your forum stacked with posts from users who took the time to analyse and report bugs. That might be a good place to start if you are looking for relevent feedback that will vastly improve Sonar!

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
 
One thing to look at is that the definition of DAW's is changing and we need to cater to all classes of users... Producers and mix engineers are a relatively small segment of those who use music software.

Completely agree with all of that. And it's really nothing new or even especially complicated. Fender wouldn't have a business if they only catered to people who make their living playing the guitar. Same thing applies here.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]

VariousArtist
The default should always be opt-out.  Decide my decision above, I dislike software pre-empting my opt-in stance

 
Peter it defaults to opt in with anonymous data. However there is a sticky clear toast notification that tells you this so its not done without your consent at all.

I'm perfectly fine with sharing my usage and will definitely opt-in.  I will most likely not need mine to be anonymous either.  I think this is a great move for Cakewalk and I want my usage to count :-) 
 
But...  I just have a negative connotation to any software I install that makes the presumptive move to opt-in as default.  It won't affect me in this case, but perhaps others might feel the same but you may not hear it from them. 
 
Aside from that, I think you might get a clearer, more meaningful picture if the user is deliberately opting in.  That's purely me guessing, but just my sense of what might transpire... 
 

John T
An achievements system doesn't appeal to me. I use Sonar to get work done. I'm not interested in earning badges, and the thing that would send me running for the hills almost immediately would be any kind of nag or notification telling me I could get some digital trinket for using EQ a certain way. I struggle to imagine anything more irritating and distracting, and I know a lot of guitar players.
 
More generally, and more seriously, the idea of rewards for participation sounds totally reasonable. But incentivising certain behaviours is not only annoying, it's the exact opposite of analysis.

Well first of all, I agree - but I hope everyone got the humor in what I bolded!

As usual, a lot of blather and backbiting... Beep saying he doesn't have time to get into detail cause he has a lot of stuff going on then camping out on the thread and commenting on every utterance, offering nothing new, and a bunch of people just really wasting time saying stupid things about something that's been announced.
 
Craig made a bunch of lucid points, as usual... a few others too...
 
My feeling is if you don't think it's for you, don't enable it.  Shut up, go away and actually HELP on another thread.  I could care less that YOU don't like it because your mamma wears red shoes... mind you, whatever "it" is is very unknown at the moment... but that never stopped humans... look at Trump.
 
On almost every level our species is wanking and wasting precious energy on utter garbage while things REALLY fall apart.  10 comments, quoting something and agreeing is just wanking...about something you know absolutely NOTHING about yet.
 
I'll go away now.  Google analytics my breathing, as does the entire interweb these days... so this "oh NO!" discussion is pretty stupid.
 
People are becoming very sick creatures...extinction seems inevitable.  It's everywhere and makes me very sad...I need more therapy to cope...
 
 

Anderton

John T
An achievements system doesn't appeal to me. I use Sonar to get work done. I'm not interested in earning badges, and the thing that would send me running for the hills almost immediately would be any kind of nag or notification telling me I could get some digital trinket for using EQ a certain way. I struggle to imagine anything more irritating and distracting, and I know a lot of guitar players.
 
More generally, and more seriously, the idea of rewards for participation sounds totally reasonable. But incentivising certain behaviours is not only annoying, it's the exact opposite of analysis.

Well first of all, I agree - but I hope everyone got the humor in what I bolded!

Lol I agree especially with the bolded text :)

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
rather it collects other data that gives us direct insight into how users use the software. Other than by manually interviewing and observing thousands of users around the world there is absolutely no way for us to learn this.

^^This. I call it the "looking over someone's shoulder" effect. As some of you know I've written a lot of manuals in my time. As part of "proofing" a manual, I find someone who doesn't know the gear, hand them the manual, and watch them go through it. Granted it's a very primitive form of analytics, and not very complete to say the least, but "watching over the shoulder" has resulted in major improvements in those manuals over the years. 
 

Anderton

backwoods
yeah-- you suck Noel :) 

Full disclosure: I have never heard Noel play "Stairway to Heaven" at a Guitar Center.

i know Noel is a terrific player
 

Anderton
I call it the "looking over someone's shoulder" effect.

This about sums up what I don't like about analytics.  I'd like some more detailed examples of what might be collected and how it could help in Sonar's future.  There are very powerful functions that many probably don't know about so will never use, or that have bugs so that those that know of it won't use it either.  Does that mean the function can be removed because no one is using it ?
 
If we opt-out (one more thing to think about) will Sonar still record everything, but just not send it out ?
 

tenfoot
Another thought is that there is a problem report section of your forum stacked with posts from users who took the time to analyse and report bugs. That might be a good place to start if you are looking for relevent feedback that will vastly improve Sonar!

I'm in total agreement with this.  I spent the better part of a couple of days investigating and documenting a bug which I reported in that forum.  Others have done much more.  They never got a pc module for the effort, nor much encouragement.  The problem reporter is impossible to use when the issue is complex so I gave up on that.

Paul P
There are very powerful functions that many probably don't know about so will never use, or that have bugs so that those that know of it won't use it either.  Does that mean the function can be removed because no one is using it ?
If we opt-out (one more thing to think about) will Sonar still record everything, but just not send it out ?

 
It doesn't mean the feature will be removed but it could help us determine how much attention to give that specific feature in the future. Or on the other hand it might help us understand how to expose that feature to users in a more intuitive way if it indeed is useful but buried.
 
Opting out is the same as zero analytics. No data is saved or sent ever.
 
Regarding bugs I've already said that its different from this. Analytics is not designed to find bugs, its to understand workflow.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]

Paul P
There are very powerful functions that many probably don't know about so will never use, or that have bugs so that those that know of it won't use it either.  Does that mean the function can be removed because no one is using it ?
If we opt-out (one more thing to think about) will Sonar still record everything, but just not send it out ?

 
It doesn't mean the feature will be removed but it could help us determine how much attention to give that specific feature in the future. Or on the other hand it might help us understand how to expose that feature to users in a more intuitive way if it indeed is useful but buried.
 
 
 
Regarding bugs I've already said that its different from this. Analytics is not designed to find bugs, its to understand workflow.

I think that is the point Noel. If we aren't using an advanced feature because of a bug involving an annoying workaround awaiting a fix, wouldn't analytics only make it less likely to get attention because the data you receive tells you no one is using it?