I don't write about Craig
On Tue, Nov 14, 2000 at 12:42:45AM -0500, Itai Zukerman wrote:
> [2] Hmmm... perhaps I'll set up a maintainer rating system. I've been
> looking for something to do...
I don't think a rating system is a good idea. For one very simple
reason: there are developers, for instance like John Goerzen, who
are very talented and experienced in the free software community.
A rating system could create a sense of discrimination. Mildly perhaps. [*]
And for another obvious reason, it might not work well. [+]
Please see the previous posts on this "measuring others" issue. I've
a nice suggestion which you might be interested in, too. The volunteer-task
matching system, if you have a look at my recent mail in that thread,
could be a more friendly infrastructure but still be able to solve some of
these problems which you write of. There's also a developer (whose name
I unfortunately cannot recall at the moment) who responded positively
to that suggestion. Perhaps you might want to co-operate on the design
and implementation.
Thanks!
[*] Why? Suppose that you are 16 years old and have been using linux for
2 years. Now you think it's time to join debian and make some small
contributions to the free world. But then you see some charts with
some unreachable numbers, and too many "top hackers". What would you
think? In my opinion such things hurt the principle of equality which
*must* be present in an online community.
[+] You probably guess what it is, but let me word it. The problem is
that any rating system can be exploited by people who want to see their
names on top. And people might take advantage of these ratings in
some unimaginable circumstances. Perhaps one would tell the other
person to "shut up, I've got a red-lemon rating" These all seem possible
and thus I think rating is something to be avoided.
--
Eray (exa) Ozkural
Comp. Sci. Dept., Bilkent University, Ankara
e-mail: erayo@cs.bilkent.edu.tr
www: http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~erayo
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