Re: Re: UK Project Opportunity

On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 01:52:08AM -0200, Manuel Lemos wrote: <snip> > > > Having to register to download classes from phpclasses.org is a > > nuisance. Manuel says this is up to the individual developer. This may > > be technically true, but Manuel *offers* this as an option. Contrast > > Source Forge, which performs a similar function but does not require any > > registration to download anything. I imagine that the registration > > allows Manuel to tightly monitor site usage in a variety of ways. > > Actually it is much more than that. If you download a package, the site > keeps track of that and next time the package is updated, it send you an > e-mail alert so you can get the latest version, unless you do not want > to be notified of course. > > Also the site counts how many distinct users downloaded each package and > builds top download rankings . If you download a package more than once, > it only counts once, so the top download charts are accurate, making it > fair for everybody. > > For users this may not be very important, but for authors it is very > motivating. Authors are happy that the site lets their users know about > updates of their classes. Authors also like to see the progress of their > packages in terms of users that have downloaded it. > > The site also provide a blog for each package, so when the author wants > to post something new about the class or ask for feedback, a message is > sent to the users that downloaded the package. > > There are other compelling reasons but this is basically why more than > 2600 authors submitted over 5000 packages. The site gets them attention. > > Other sites like Sourceforge cannot provide this level of attention > precisely because they do not require users to download even if the > authors wanted that. This type of question has been asked many times on this list, particularly for "voting" type projects: How do I ensure that a person can only vote once (etc.)? No answer I've ever seen, besides insisting on a registration/login, has ever been satisfactory. The above is a real-world example of this in action. And as Manuel details, it has some definite benefits to users and developers. Again, having to register/login is a pain. But ads are a pain, too. It's a trade-off. Paul -- Paul M. Foster