How would you change the extensions directory at Joomla.org?
At the January Joomla User Group meeting in Milwaukee, I gave a presentation entitled Selecting and evaluating extensions for Joomla. Of course we discussed at length the Joomla Extensions Directory (JED) and its various advantages and disadvantages compared to other directories.
Completely independently, a similar conversation has been brewing amongst the JED illuminati (aka ‘JEDIs’ or JED editors). However, the JEDI discussion has been focused less on the comparison to other directories and more on ways to improve the JED while reducing the tedium that comes with curating such large collection of information, reviews, votes, etc...
One question that we keep coming back to is as follows:
What does the Joomla community want from the JED?
To help answer this question, I’ve set up a poll over at JUG Milwaukee. This poll lists some options we’ve been discussing to improve the JED. Please head on over, take a second to register and then vote and/or comment as you like.
*Full Disclosure. The author is currently a member of the JED editorial team with 3 listings on the JED.
Completely independently, a similar conversation has been brewing amongst the JED illuminati (aka ‘JEDIs’ or JED editors). However, the JEDI discussion has been focused less on the comparison to other directories and more on ways to improve the JED while reducing the tedium that comes with curating such large collection of information, reviews, votes, etc...
One question that we keep coming back to is as follows:
What does the Joomla community want from the JED?
To help answer this question, I’ve set up a poll over at JUG Milwaukee. This poll lists some options we’ve been discussing to improve the JED. Please head on over, take a second to register and then vote and/or comment as you like.
*Full Disclosure. The author is currently a member of the JED editorial team with 3 listings on the JED.
Views: 8
Tags: JED, Joomla, extensions
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Comment by Mustaq Sheikh on March 8, 2010 at 11:49pm -
I would suggest;
1. A Team of Volunteers that can deliver a more consistent service. There are times when there is no activity on the JED ( extension approvals, Review Approvals and the l;ikes ), because the Volunteers are involved in the "Real" World or otherwise indisposed. It would be great if this could happen.
2. A bit more transparency, eg. Currently there is a policy where the JED is not obliged to give feedback to someone using the "Report" feature on the JED.
3. A dedicated JED Forum Team.
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Comment by Victor Drover on March 8, 2010 at 11:51pm -
Good comments. Can you post these on JUG Milwaukee and also vote?
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Comment by Victor Drover on March 9, 2010 at 12:23am
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Comment by Mustaq Sheikh on March 9, 2010 at 12:30am
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I could not find any links on JUG Milwaukee on the tipic, thanks for updating your blog post. I want to add also;
4. Consider appointing an ombudsman or similar for Conflict resolution.
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Comment by Daniel on March 9, 2010 at 12:32am -
@Voting - Do we have to go and create new accounts and click links in emails etc just to vote??
Why not set up a poll using one of the free poll hosters that anyone can then vote on.
As for my opinion. First voting.
Almost every "non 5 star" vote that has a comment I can think of a good reason why that vote shouldn't affect the tally.
- they did it because they didn't like having to pay for it (happened yesterday)
- they have a plugin that damages the output somehow, which stops our extension working properly, and they give us a 1 star for another dev's shitty plugin (happened 3 times recently)
- They had an issue that was support related and we could have fixed if they had come to us first, and often is fixed, but the vote and comment remain
- They had an issue that was fixed in a later release, so their problem no longer exists
- They didn't understand how things operate. (They added articles but didn't see the results instantly, but are ignorant of the fact that setting the "cache" to 2 weeks stops it being updated. Happened 4 or 5 times recently)
and so on
But I can't think of a good reason other than we gave terrible support that would justify a "permanent" bad review. Even then what if the developers improve their support? What if they just had a bad day for that one customer.
Yes it could be said that they will average out, but even a couple of 1 star votes totally wreck someone's average, and eventually make it impossible for them to reach 5 stars. (remember David Posting a big thread about how almost no extension with over 100 votes has 5 stars, despite having only a few 1 stars due to rounding)
I do not have a solution btw. Or even a more workable suggestion, just that something seems wrong with one or two people being able to shatter your extension ranking because they:
a) don't want to pay for it
b) are too inexperienced to realise they are making the mistake (arguable that we should make it easier to notice they are)
c) caught you on a bad day, or even worse on a holiday in your support and vented on the JED
d) gave no comment at all!
3) all sorts of other childish reasons that shouldn't allow them to have such a huge amount of power over your success/failure
I did make one possible suggestions a while ago, to give the 'mean' score and not the 'average'. i.e. take off the top and bottom 5-10% of votes before calculating.
Also we should do away with anonymous voting. I have made my reasons for this clear on many occasions, but basically anonymous voting is the single easiest way to exploit the JED, and offers nothing of value at all, because without a comment there is no what to tell why the extension received that report.
Thus for a customer they get a bad impression of an extension without knowing why and even without knowing if it applies to them.
2. Approvals
We have an internal joke about a new process for development.
Old method:
Idea -> develop ->release -> submit to JED
New Method:
Idea -> submit to JED -> develop ->release-> update JED submission to have real extension ->wait for approval from JED
The sad truth is that approval currently takes longer than development for a lot of simpler extensions.
Possible alternatives:
"approved" developers. After you have had 2+ extensions approved, or 1 for a long time without incident, you might be able to go onto a fast track list which gets you automatic approval. BUT if you screw it up you get taken off the list for X months, and have to earn your way back in again.
More editors.
Paid editors sponsored by advertising (I know this one won't happen but I think it should anyway)
I shall think about some more.
p.s. this was meant to be constructive
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Comment by Victor Drover on March 9, 2010 at 12:36am
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Daniel, can u post this and vote at JUG Milwaukee? Will be easier to look at in perspective with the votes.
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Comment by Daniel on March 9, 2010 at 12:36am
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btw further to my comment. While I can see that lots of 4 star and down votes shouldn't be counted, so would lots of other devs feel the same way so eventually we would just end up with every extension at 5 stars,which makes it completely pointless.
Hence why it is a difficult thing. Perhaps Only comments should be allowed.
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Comment by Daniel on March 9, 2010 at 12:39am
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Quote from myself:
@Voting - Do we have to go and create new accounts and click links in emails etc just to vote??
Why not set up a poll using one of the free poll hosters that anyone can then vote on.
end quote
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Comment by Mustaq Sheikh on March 9, 2010 at 12:51am
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Why not set up a poll using one of the free poll hosters that anyone can then vote on.
I agree with this. You will get more input this way. I remember seeing a thread on the JED Forums with some great ideas related to this topic.
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Comment by Victor Drover on March 9, 2010 at 12:54am
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just trying to get 1 vote per person. I know, a bit of a pain.
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