R help - Mar 2011 - 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]]

> 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



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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