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Brainstorm: RevOnline curation

Posted: Thu May 15, 2014 11:49 pm
by FourthWorld
We know we can all benefit from a robust, reliable way to share libraries and tools, a single resource we can turn to for finding the code we need to finish our projects quickly.

RevOnline was designed with this in mind, and while some have reported operational issues with those folks are currently working with other community members and the core dev team to address them, so let's assume RevOnline can resume that role reliably going forward.

Many community members have expressed an interest in seeing RevOnline content be curated, so that we can more easily find libraries and tools of high value to our work.

Historically, RevOnline has been inclusive, allowing contributions without any curation process.

So the question for us to brainstorm here is:

Do we want to see RevOnline curated, and if so how do we decide what goes in and what doesn't?

Re: Brainstorm: RevOnline curation

Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 12:21 am
by Mag
What is RevOnline?

Re: Brainstorm: RevOnline curation

Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 12:38 am
by icouto
In order to be inclusive, in principle all submissions would have to be accepted. This could create an issue where it becomes difficult to find resources that are tested, proven stable, and discover which ones are more widely used - as all get lost in a sea of submissions... Looking at what has been done by other large-scale open source projects, who have user-submitted plug-in libraries, here is what is known to work well:

1) Resources should be classified using user-defined tags - these tags can be added, deleted and searched by all. Over time, this creates self-defining and self-curating categories: they are inherently useful to users, and require very minimal intervention and culling from administrators.

2) There should be a compatibility rank: when a plug-ing/extension/library is added, users should be able to download and instal it, and then RATE it, as to whether it is compatible with their setup, or whether it has conflicts (either with the bare-bones IDE, or with other extensions and plug-ins). Note, that this is NOT a ranking based on features and functionality, or on how much a user "likes" the resource - it rates ONLY its compatibility with their instal and configuration. This creates a self-curating system of resource compatibility.

3) Resource (plug-in, extension, library) developers should have their OWN product page, which they manage in their own domain - not within the resource library itself. The resource entry in the library should have LINKS to the resource's home page, forum, guide, issues, etc. (if available), but these should be held and managed by the developer themselves, in an external domain. This reduces the amount of resources the project has to make available for plug-in developers, and means that plug-in content (such as content in discussion forums and issue trackers) has to be curated and maintained by the developer themselves.

4) Users should be able to search for/instal/update/uninstal the resource from within the product itself - this reduces the number of steps the user needs to find the resource they need, and has a huge impact on adoption of the plug-in system overall. This also makes it easy to track how often plug-ins are being installed and uninstalled, and creates self-updating usage statistics.

I hope these suggestions help - I'm sure others will have many more.

Re: Brainstorm: RevOnline curation

Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 12:52 am
by FourthWorld
Mag wrote:What is RevOnline?
Click "User Samples" in the IDE toolbar.

Re: Brainstorm: RevOnline curation

Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 1:49 am
by Mag
FourthWorld wrote:
Mag wrote:What is RevOnline?
Click "User Samples" in the IDE toolbar.
Currently I can't because I'm on iPad. Anyway I understand what is, thank you. BTW I suggest to change the name with LiveCode User Samples or another descriptive non-ambiguous name.

I vote for keep the actual situation allowing contributions without any curation process. if it is possible, would be great to improve search ability, rating/review process and reliability.

Re: Brainstorm: RevOnline curation

Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 1:54 am
by Peregrine
Icouto... That sounds a lot like the WordPress plugin directory, which I have used quite a bit. https://wordpress.org/plugins/ I think we could get some good ideas from there. A couple of things that it has that I'll mention that I like and use... 1) Screenshots. It's really nice to have a few, to get a sense of how something works. 2) FAQs 3) Changelog 4) User reviews and ratings with a nice little bar graph for every plugin.

Re: Brainstorm: RevOnline curation

Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 2:26 am
by icouto
@Peregrine: indeed, among the major CMSs, many have adopted these principles - WordPress, Joomla, and I hear that Drupal 8 is moving in that direction (ie., searching for and installing/unistalling extensions from inside the CMS itself).

But even programs on the desktop have followed suit: have a look at the 'Package Control' system that is used by Sublime Text (https://sublime.wbond.net) - which has recently been shamefully copied by the Atom text editor. This is a model that seems to work extremely well, and has certainly been instrumental in helping Sublime gain adopters from other competing editors.

Re: Brainstorm: RevOnline curation

Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 3:34 am
by capellan
Does the uploader will receive feedback from users and testers?

Re: Brainstorm: RevOnline curation

Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 9:00 am
by DanShafer
One idea I've had several times over the years I've been using this technology is to have user ratings on the RevOnline contributions. As it is, unless you recognize the author of a particular contribution, you're sort of "buying" something in the dark. But if 23 people have previously downloaded it and rated it 4 stars out of 5 -- and even better if some or all of them have provided brief comments about the utility, quality, compatibility, etc. of the code -- then you have some good guidelines to help you narrow your search for a particular solution.

A library that handles such ratings would be a delightful addition to the LC world as well!

Dan "Did Someone Say HyperCard?" Shafer