On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 09:09:30PM +0100, oliver wrote: > Hello, > > > is it possible to see the number of downloads of packages from AUR, > so that it can be detected, how much interest in a package exists? > > Say, there are some users who do not have a AUR-login, > and just would install the packages that are there... which are possibly > outdated, but would nevertheless be interested in installing > newer package, if possible. > > If the download number is high enough, even if there > are not much votes (because some people may only > install stuff but are not interested in package maintaining and so on), > then at least interest of a package might be detected this way.
This is an extremely flawed premise. > I'm asking, because I think I can adopt some more packages, > but would of course only pick those that I find interesting. > > They might be interesting (topic), even if I wil not use > them by myself. > So, from that standpoint, I would then select by my own > interest and that of other people. > For packages that I use by myself, of course my interest is clear, > and I would pick such packages. This is really strange (non-)logic. The best maintainer for a package is one who is actively interested in the package itself and uses it. How else could you possibly support it? > But say there are 100 orphaned packages and 20 of them look > interesting, but I would not use them by myself, then I would adopt > those, who are wanted by many people. > (And any package that I want to install myself.) > > I hope I could make ckear, why I'm asking. > > Say, there are 5 interesting packages, but 3 of them > will not be used, because that stuff is not used any more > (maybe because better projects are to prefer), then three don't need > support I think. > > So, the tarball download numbers do matter in this respect. I disagree. Downloading a tarball doesn't mean you intend to build, install, and use it. > Is it possible to add them to the AUR-pages of a project? And display this how? A flat "download count" would be of little interest or value. Would it be reset every time there's a new PKGBUILD uploaded? Maybe only for pkgver changes? Would that include pkgrel bumps too? What about historical data? Trending? Unique by IP? Unique by IP within a given date range? If you want to make download count a useful metric, you have to do a lot more than display a raw counter. As you propose it, it's no better (and probably worse) than a vote count.
