What type of list is more useful depends on the prospective user's starting point. The person you described does need to be approached with reasons to use a particular module; I think there are certainly far worse things you could do with your time than to compile a list of reasons from all the replies on previous instances of the subject, which would give a convient place for us to point to the next time the topic came up.
If, on the other hand, your desired audience is people who already frequent the site and who are inclined not to re-invent wheels (without good reason), then a list of poorly-written modules is more valuable than a list of good ones. When I have to do something I've never attempted to do before, I tend to look to see if there are any modules which might help me. If I find them, I am inclined to assume they work and initially believe that any problems I have are caused by my own lack of understanding. I expect the module to work as advertised, so I am unhappy to discover when one does not.
To me it is not mean-spirited but helpful to be warned about potential problems. If we lack the ability to say anything bad about something that truely is bad, then we appear either blind or corrupt, and either way we do users a disservice by keeping knowledge from them.
After further thought, I suppose the idea I want to question is the list itself more than the good or bad list. Unless the list is a summary of a discussion of the module, I think its use is limited. If lots of people are saying a module is bad, I want to know why. Likewise, I imagine the person who has just hand-rolled some code wants reasons why the standard module is better, not a list of 8 people (whom s/he doesn't know) who say so. The question you mention ('...how do you know that module is any good') is perhaps better answered with 'this is why' than 'this is who says so'.
I don't mean to discourage some sort of rating system. I think the idea of maintaining some standard evaluation is very important. I just think that only a list, just like only a mention of benefits, shortchanges those who would benefit from the review.
Maybe you could add links from each module you list to the appropriate module review where approving or disapproving monks could state their feelings in more detail?
In reply to (kudra: list, or discussion?) Re x2 kudra: Sanctifying Modules
by kudra
in thread Sanctifying Modules
by extremely
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