in reply to CPAN ratings without reviews harmful or not?

Honestly, not only are ratings without reviews harmfull, but when I'm comparing modules and all the review says is "It rocks!" or "It's the best!" and then gives it five stars, that doesn't really help me that much either. I understand you want to give feedback to the authors, but remember that us users try to use these reviews to help evaluate the code.

How about saying a little of what it does, what it does well, what it doesn't do well, and what it needs? I'm not recommending you ramble on for ten or so paragraphs like I do, but a little more thouroughness would really be appreciated.

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Re^2: CPAN ratings without reviews harmful or not?
by Solo (Deacon) on Aug 19, 2004 at 18:24 UTC
    My intent is not to give the module authors feedback--there are already mechanisms to do that--but rather to give the programmer looking for which CPAN module, of the 7 that fit their purpose, an indication of which is most widely used. In this case, I would seriously examine a module that had a rating of 4 with 75 rankings/reviews over a module with a 5 rating but only 2 reviews.

    If there are already 2 or 3 reviews, how much more can be said about the module, and how much more will the searcher actually read? How many people read ALL of the reviews on sites like Amazon? After a point, it seems more useful to me to have a statistically relevant sample size than a more detailed critique. 2 ratings, after all, must be assumed to be the module author and his mom. ;p

    --Solo

    --
    You said you wanted to be around when I made a mistake; well, this could be it, sweetheart.
[reply]

      Right, but what if the module with 75 ratings is eight years old, is well known, and published in three different books, and the other module with five ratings is only a year old but happens to be a vast improvment over the older one?

      I agree that you shouldn't repeat what's already been said, but I've seen modules with, say, seven rantings/reviews where not one reviewer ever bothered to say why it was so good, just that it was, and that doesn't help me that much when I need to compare it with something else.

[reply]
        seven rankings/reviews where not one reviewer ever bothered to say why it was so good, just that it was, and that doesn't help me that much when I need to compare it with something else.
        It would help if you consider a sample size of 7 to be relevant. It also helps if that number is significantly higher than the number of ratings of what it compares with.

        It is a matter of supportability alongside quality. If the greatest module ever written is used by no one, then you're on your own when trying to use it. If the worst module in the world is used by everyone, you're in good company when asking for help.

        --Solo

        --
        You said you wanted to be around when I made a mistake; well, this could be it, sweetheart.
[reply]
Re^2: CPAN ratings without reviews harmful or not?
by Anonymous Monk on Aug 19, 2004 at 18:13 UTC
    Good module!!!! A++++++++++!!!!!!!!!!! Will use again!!!!!!!!
[reply]
      I believe the correct spelling for that is "!!!!!!!!!!!11".
[reply]

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