ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Jamie Strandboge <jamie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 04/08/2015 02:38 PM, Rodney Dawes wrote:
> 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.
> 
That seems fine. Related, for a while there was no way to modify the rating you
previously gave to an app-- does anyone know if this has been resolved?


-- 
Jamie Strandboge                 http://www.ubuntu.com/

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