Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] A couple of points on the state of linux audio apps
From: Paul Winkler (pw_lists_AT_slinkp.com)
Date: Tue Feb 26 2002 - 15:10:32 EET
On Tue, Feb 26, 2002 at 09:00:11AM +0300, St?phane Rollandin wrote:
> hello,
>
> a few ideas about ratings:
>
>
> I think a form for optional comments is critical.
>
> Commented ratings could be considered as more important (weighted) than
> uncommented ones.
Maybe so. I think comments naturally have more weight anyway, so I
don't know if it's necessary to enforce that.
> Ratings older than 2 (or 1 ?) years could be just forgotten altogether.
>
Simple but effective. I like it.
Although, I'm thinking of making it 1 or 2 years *since the last known
software release date*. If a project hasn't been updated in 4 years,
then old ratings are still relevant.
> The ratings should just be displayed along with all other information
> relative to a given app, not used either to sort the apps, do a top 50 nor
> anything else that would make people look only for highly-rated apps.
> Otherwise we get a vicious circle and interesting but non-mainstream
> programs can quickly go into oblivion due to poor ratings.
I think the overall rating should be an average, not a total.
That way, if 10 people rate one app. an average of 7.5, and a single person
rates another app with a 7.5, they get the same rating; but you can see
at a glance that one is based on more user input, which is useful information.
So all it takes to get a good rating is a single enthusiastic user.
I do think filtering or sorting searches based on various criteria,
including ratings, is important. Do you really have time to
download and try 15 soundfile editors? No. That's the whole point
of a ratings system.
--Paul Winkler home: http://www.slinkp.com "Muppet Labs, where the future is made - today!"
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Tue Feb 26 2002 - 14:53:10 EET