[R] Feature request: rating/review system for R packages

[Ben Bolker]

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