ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Rodney Dawes <rodney.dawes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 2015-04-08 at 21:23 +0200, Niklas Wenzel wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> 
> I've recently been really unhappy with the order in which applications
> appear in the Ubuntu Store.
> 
> 
> Apparently, apps are currently only sorted by their star ratings.
> However, when an app gets popular, users start to use the ratings
> section as a way to request new features or to report bugs.
> This often goes hand in hand with bad ratings and messages similar to
> "Implement A and I'll give you 5 stars". As a result, most top-notch
> applications are beaten by webapps whose owners give them a single 5
> star rating.

If people are using ratings/reviews as a means to demand features, then
I think that is a separate problem that needs to be dealt with properly.
IMO, such behavior would be out of line with the Ubuntu CoC, so we
should probably look into ways in how we can improve how users use
ratings/reviews, and keep people from doing this. Perhaps a way for
developers to flag problem reviews in the developer portal, would be
helpful here.


> This is exactly the reason why one cannot find Dekko and Telegram in
> the communication category easily.
> 
> 
> In my opinion, such an app with a single 5 star rating should never be
> shown above an app with hundreds of reviews and an average rating of
> 4.x.

The converse problem is also true however. Apps with no ratings at all,
will also continue be difficult to find, as they'll always end up at the
bottom of the list, if sorted by average rating.

> Brian Douglass has recently introduced an additional "heart rating" in
> his appstore [1] which does the job very well in my opinion.
> 
> 
> Would it be possible to use a similar approach in the official Ubuntu
> Store scope?

I think having two ways of rating the same thing will only complicate
matters, and provide a poor UX for our users, so it is not something
which I would like to see implemented. I think we should find better
ways of solving the social problems, that isn't just adding more ways of
allowing people say that they like or dislike something.

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