[R] popular R packages

[Matthew Keller]

Hi all,

Put me in the camp that says more information is better than less
information - even if imperfect. Interpretation can be left to those
using the data.

Also, "popular" can mean many things. An alternative to number of
times a package is downloaded would be a ratings system, where R users
can supply starred ratings or something (much as they do on netflix or
amazon). Combining this with # of downloads would give users some idea
about the users' perception, impact, and possibly the quality of a
package. Obviously it would be imperfect, but it seems to me this
would be better than the even more scant and more imperfect
information currently available. I wouldn't advocate that such
information be used in the same way a citation index is, but it might
prove helpful to users who are confused (even paralyzed) by the ever
burgeoning number of R packages.

There was a discussion on this a while back in which Bill Venables
said: "To me a much more urgent initiative [than rating responders on
R listserves] is some kind of user online review system for packages,
even something as simple as that used by Amazon.com has for customer
review of books. I think the need for this is rather urgent, in fact.
Most packages are very good, but I regret to say some are pretty
inefficient and others downright dangerous.  You don't want to
discourage people from submitting their work to CRAN, but at the same
time you do want some mechanism that allows users to relate their
experience with it, good or bad."

Find the whole thread here:
https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2007-December/147323.html.

Matt


-- 
Matthew C Keller
Asst. Professor of Psychology
University of Colorado at Boulder
www.matthewckeller.com