Re: [R] Feature request: rating/review system for R packages
On 03/21/2011 04:33 AM, Janko Thyson wrote: ... Hi Janko, As Dieter said, Crantastic is an opportunity for R users to give both quickie ratings and reviews of packages. I have to say that doing a review isn't trivial. I feel that I should use a package for a while before I can review it, and the big packages would take quite some time to work through even the majority of functions, especially if you didn't normally use them. Nonetheless, I try to keep a running tally on the packages that I use, and when I've got a feeling for the capability, reliability and ease of use, I try to sit down and write one. I have an idea that many packages are downloaded and one or two useful functions are used a lot by any given user. Ben's idea has been floated before, but either no one has put it together or I haven't heard of it. That would probably produce a lot more information, and the sum of a package's usage is meaningful. Jim __ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
[R] Feature request: rating/review system for R packages
Dear List, I'm aware that this has been brought up before (e.g. http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/e6/help/09/03/7365.html http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/e6/help/09/03/7365.html ; https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2009-March/190902.html https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2009-March/190902.html), I couldn't find anything recent on the topic, though. After pondering all the pros and cons regarding the usefulness of a rating/review system for R packages, don't you think it would make sense to implement such a thing? Of course one could easily debate hours on how this should exactly look like (quality vs. quantitiy/popularity and such), but IMHO it would definitely be a start to have something like a simple version Amazon's review system available. It would allow you to form at least an initial opinion on purpose and quality of R packages before going at it. As more and more packages pop up on CRAN, I think it'd be great to have such a feature and that the time is ripe. Cheers, Janko [[alternative HTML version deleted]] __ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
Re: [R] Feature request: rating/review system for R packages
After pondering all the pros and cons regarding the usefulness of a rating/review system for R packages, don't you think it would make sense to implement such a thing? Or to look what is there, and how little it is filled: http://crantastic.org/ Dieter -- View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Feature-request-rating-review-system-for-R-packages-tp3391467p3391473.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. __ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
Re: [R] Feature request: rating/review system for R packages
Dieter Menne dieter.menne at menne-biomed.de writes: After pondering all the pros and cons regarding the usefulness of a rating/review system for R packages, don't you think it would make sense to implement such a thing? Or to look what is there, and how little it is filled: http://crantastic.org/ Dieter If I were feeling a little more ambitious, I would write a contributed popularity contest package (cf. http://lwn.net/Articles/75753/, http://popcon.debian.org/) that did the following: * recorded information on a user's configuration and installed packages and reported it *somewhere* (web server, etc.; R has plenty of communications facilities built in) for more intrusive but complete information: * gave users an option to install a `hook' that would report at some interval (regular? random?) which packages were actually loaded (on Unix-alike machines one might be able to use the 'atime' feature to guess when a package was *last* loaded even if it wasn't currently in use) * gave users an option to contribute further information (country, research field, etc.) * might pop up a window showing installed packages and offering users the option to comment or to give ratings to particularly good or bad packages, which would be sent to wherever ... This would be completely optional, but *if* word got around it could collect a useful (albeit completely statistically unsound) set of information. *If* I were writing this I would (a) be very clear in the package description etc etc what information would be collected and stored, where, and how it would be used; (b) carefully think about the tradeoffs between annoying users and collecting more information; (c) consult with the fine folks running CRANtastic to see if they wanted to somehow integrate it into their infrastructure. The big advantage of this approach is that you don't need to convince anyone from R-core to do anything, you just need to convince users to install your package. Ben Bolker __ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
Re: [R] Feature request: rating/review system for R packages
It's unclear to me, why the rating/review system should relate to entire packages. Would it not be more informative, if single specific functions would be rated and reviewed? I would like to see if + is rated better than -, or if more difficulties are reported for * than for /. I could then consider in the future to prefer sums over differences. best, Heinz At 20.03.2011 19:03 +, Ben Bolker wrote: Dieter Menne dieter.menne at menne-biomed.de writes: After pondering all the pros and cons regarding the usefulness of a rating/review system for R packages, don't you think it would make sense to implement such a thing? Or to look what is there, and how little it is filled: http://crantastic.org/ Dieter If I were feeling a little more ambitious, I would write a contributed popularity contest package (cf. http://lwn.net/Articles/75753/, http://popcon.debian.org/) that did the following: * recorded information on a user's configuration and installed packages and reported it *somewhere* (web server, etc.; R has plenty of communications facilities built in) for more intrusive but complete information: * gave users an option to install a `hook' that would report at some interval (regular? random?) which packages were actually loaded (on Unix-alike machines one might be able to use the 'atime' feature to guess when a package was *last* loaded even if it wasn't currently in use) * gave users an option to contribute further information (country, research field, etc.) * might pop up a window showing installed packages and offering users the option to comment or to give ratings to particularly good or bad packages, which would be sent to wherever ... This would be completely optional, but *if* word got around it could collect a useful (albeit completely statistically unsound) set of information. *If* I were writing this I would (a) be very clear in the package description etc etc what information would be collected and stored, where, and how it would be used; (b) carefully think about the tradeoffs between annoying users and collecting more information; (c) consult with the fine folks running CRANtastic to see if they wanted to somehow integrate it into their infrastructure. The big advantage of this approach is that you don't need to convince anyone from R-core to do anything, you just need to convince users to install your package. Ben Bolker __ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. __ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
