[Python-Dev] PyPI comments and ratings, *really*?

[Baptiste Carvello]

Robert Kern a écrit :

> While I do have a couple of packages on PyPI, I use PyPI as a consumer 
> of packages much more frequently, every day in fact. 

Another "consumer" opinion: when investigating a new package, I usually look for 
the following things, in that order:

1) the "big picture" description: is there a coherent design? does it fit my 
needs? On PyPI, the description field should provide that.

2) the changelog: is the project still alive? are bugs fixed, or just features 
added? is the code rewritten from scratch for each release? Well, every project 
on PyPI should have a public changelog, so a link to that fits my need.

3) documentation: I don't necessarily care for the number of lines, but more 
whether it is understandable and goes into sufficient detail to not leave me 
guessing. Again, a link to the docs fits my needs. A single number (number of 
documentation lines,...) does not.

4) a mailing list archive (or newsgroup, or web forum), where I'm looking for 
signs of a healthy community. I usually go for the -devel list, but a -user list 
will do as well if the committers keep an eye on it.

If a healthy community exists around a project, I will completely disregard 
comments, if present: time invested in the community speaks louder than the 
opinion of random bystanders. Only for small projects with no real community 
will I look at the comments (+ answers from the author) in order to make an 
opinion on the developpement process. I always disregard ratings.

So as a conclusion about comments, they can have their use for projects without 
a publicly archived mailing list, but can otherwise be *replaced* by a direct 
link to a list archive. This could be a reasonable default for PyPI: disable 
comments when a link to a list archive is provided.

While my experience may not be that of a typical user, I believe users will 
ultimately make use of all information they are provided. So it is important to 
provide the most relevant information, and not just what naive users ask for.

Cheers,
B.