Extension popularity?

[Fazzah]

Hey all,

I've been thinking, would there be some easy to implement way to "vote" or poll the extensions to create some kind of statistic showing packages popularity?

Don't have any concepts myself, just a random thought appeared in my brain.

[vinnie]

I think that somewhere they will have statistics of donwloaded file  (how many times a file has been downloaded and how long is in the repository)
Probably with a combination of these two hypothetical data we may already have a packages popularity. 

[Rich]

Hi Fazzah and vinnie
The topic of download statistics has come up at least once before, and the answer was that those numbers
are not currently tracked.

[Fazzah]

I think that somewhere they will have statistics of donwloaded file  (how many times a file has been downloaded and how long is in the repository)
Probably with a combination of these two hypothetical data we may already have a packages popularity. 

what about mirrors, tho?

[Rich]

Hi Fazzah and vinnie
Download statistics are merely that, download statistics. To use them as a measure of popularity would only serve
to create a self fulfilling prophecy. As the number gets bigger, more people download it. As more people download
it, the number gets even bigger. It is not an indication of how many people actually wind up using the software or
how satisfied they are with it. A mechanism by which users could rate the software on a scale of say 0 to 5 that
would show the average rating and how many users rated it might be informative. How effective it is would be a
function of the level of user participation. Something similar to the Member List page with sortable columns for
extension name, average rating, and number of ratings would be sufficient. Radio buttons to select a rating and
a vote button would complete each line.

[vinnie]

Hi Rich

Maybe it is not essential but would be nice, but I also understand that you can not have everything!

If I were to make a list of things I'd like to see in Core, I think popularity still would not be in the first place

[Rich]

Hi vinnie
My intention was not to dismiss the idea, merely to express my opinion that download statistics don't really
tell you much.

[Fazzah]

Completely agreed that download stats don't tell anything - having mirrors basically makes this approach obsolete.

An app ranking system similar to one on i.e. kde-apps would be nice. Of course, it's far from being required or needed, but surely would be nice.