[R] popular R packages

[Jim Lemon]

Hi all,
I'm kind of amazed at the answers suggested for the relatively simple 
question, "How many times has each R package been downloaded?". Some 
have veered off in another direction, like working out how many packages 
a package depends upon, or whether someone downloads more than one copy. 
The response about ranking packages by the number of questions asked 
about them may be interesting, but may not relate very well at all to 
popularity in terms of downloads. If people were constantly asking 
questions about one of the packages I maintain, I would be working on 
the help pages to improve them, not basking in the inferred glory of 
having a popular package. There is one way that the download count would 
be very useful for package maintainers, if no one else. Take as an 
example the package concord, that has not been maintained for a year or 
more since the content was merged into the irr package. If I knew that 
no one downloaded concord any more, I would surely petition those in 
charge of the archive to remove it or at least transfer it to the 
package museum. No point in having ever more packages on CRAN if they 
are never downloaded.

Jim