[wp-hackers] Reviews for Plugins

[Ryan Frankel]

I think the real issue here is that WordPress.org would have to be on-board with this.  The issues with identity management and what the UI should like like are problems that can be solved.  They might not be simple but they are doable.  But, when it comes down to it, if the repo doesn't support something like this then there is not much hope.  

I do like the idea of using Gravatars though.  Which brings me to another thought similar to this…it would be possible to create a plugin that does something similar to this and stores reviews elsewhere.  Basically, you would just have to report the current users e-mail, the plugin slug, and their rating.   It could be a separate web service that does this sort of thing.  I think the problem is that the ratings wouldn't be shown in the repo though.

Ryan

On Nov 1, 2011, at 5:41 PM, Jeremy Felt wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 13:41, Otto <otto at ottodestruct.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 3:20 PM, Eric Mann <eric at eam.me> wrote:
>>> The biggest stumbling block here is integration with the repository.
>>> 
>>> So to anyone in-the-know about WordPress.org ... is there an API
>> available
>>> for this so we could put together a patch?  Just thinking things through,
>>> we'd probably need some kind of authentication hook (OAuth?) so that
>> people
>>> only vote once.  Besides that, just knowing *how* to submit the vote and
>>> get rating information back from the system would be valuable.
>>> 
>>> Unless such an API already exists or could be built ... we aren't going
>> to
>>> get much further than screenshots and mockups.
>> 
>> No API or way to do this exists at this time.
>> 
>> The problem with the stars is that the user clicking them would have
>> to have a WordPress.org account. This isn't doable unless you figure
>> out some way to work around that.
>> 
>> Also, I don't necessarily like the idea of the stars being visible
>> right in the admin. Kinda cluttery, and relying too much on .org
>> connectivity. Maybe an alternate approach entirely should be
>> considered first.
> 
> 
> At the risk of restating the obvious, a restrictive issue here is identity
> management.
> 
> 1) Plugins are installed without identity confirmation. That's good.
> 2) Plugins can only be rated on WordPress.org with strict identity
> confirmation. Avoids cheating, but makes it harder to rate.
> 
> It seems that the issue is made more restrictive by the fact that
> WordPress.org doesn't exactly scream "create an account" during the plugin
> process unless you're a developer.
> 
> Is it feasible to tie in Gravatar as identity management for plugin
> ratings, seeing as it's already baked into core as an identity service of
> sorts? Of course, WordPress.org would still need some kind of API for
> anything like this.
> 
> - Jeremy
> _______________________________________________
> wp-hackers mailing list
> wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers