On Thursday 03 July 2008 16:38:55 Rick Fisk wrote: > People use CPAN to solve a particular problem. They don't go looking to > download packages merely because they exist or are popular so I don't > see a parallel between CPAN and Cnet. > > The idea of displaying download rates in my view is not to create a > popularity contest but to give the consumer an idea of how active is a > particular module.
A statistic ripped away from its context ceases to be a stastistic; it's merely a curiousity. The fact that the Haskell programming language, for example, had the largest growth rate in job postings last year of any programming doesn't mean that you should learn Haskell if you want a job -- that company has already filled both new positions. Any new information presented to people should be useful, and hopefully as immediately obviously useful as possible. What do download rates need to be useful? -- c
