[aur-general] pkgstats and unused [community] packages

[Loui Chang]

On Tue 26 Oct 2010 16:36 +0200, Xyne wrote:
> On 2010-10-26 08:20 +0800 (43:2) > Ray Rashif wrote:
> > I take back part of what I mentioned earlier. There are indeed some
> > packages that I believe no one uses. The best way to handle this is to
> > selectively remove each package that we still want to keep from the
> > wiki list. I've added a filter list, so remove from there (and not the
> > original). Wiki diffs would tell us what has been removed (and by
> > whom).
> > 
> > Set up a timeframe along with an official discussion period for this,
> > i.e how long we have until the filter list is final. And then the
> > voting, if needed.
> 
> I can see the point of removing orphans but I still think that using
> pkgstats as a metric is a bad idea for everything else. Casual users,
> i.e. those who are not actively involved on the forum or IRC won't
> even be aware of pkgstats.  Really, who installs a distro and actively
> looks for a way to submit user data?

> And please don't try to tell me that the only users who matter are the
> ones who form the core community.

I wouldn't say that. I would say that the only users who matter are the
ones that participate. For example you can't justly complain about the
results of an election if you haven't educated yourself about it and
voted.

I believe that before any action is taken to move packages back to
unsupported there should be a public notice, and users should be able to
give feedback.

> Several of those packages are niche packages too (e.g. python-sympy,
> vtk, avogadro), but ones that are important within their niche. If
> they are actively maintained then I see no reason to remove them even
> if they are not commonly used by the subset of users who submit stats.
> 
> As it stands, I would support removal of the orphaned packages listed
> above but not the list based on pkgstats alone. We need a better usage
> metric for repo packages.

Let's be clear here. This isn't about removal of packages. It's about
moving packages from one repo to another. Community to aur/unsupported.

> Personally I think it would be better to implement a simple online
> vote and inform users that a package is a candidate for removal in a
> post_upgrade or post_install message. Users could then vote to keep
> the package and if it passes a threshold (e.g. 10, as required by
> AUR), then it does not get removed.

Hmm, now that's an interesting idea.
I like the idea of people giving feedback, and voting. I'm not too keen
on putting it in a package's install scripts though.