F-Droid apps ratings and comments

[Ammar64]

Why the tracking Anti-feature ?
Obviously users know that their review will be sent somewhere and they can choose to cancel it.

[Licaon_Kter]

we’ll judge when it’s ready

[Ammar64]

New idea.

Add a new category in this forum for posting reviews about apps.

[Jens]

How about a new subforum with one thread per app?

[Ammar64]

@Jens

How about a new subforum with one thread per app?

This better be implementable using a script

[mpardo]

@TheLastProject

As someone who publishes to both F-Droid and Google Play, I can’t count the amount of times I feel regret for having spent any time coding because of certain people giving 1 star reviews on Google Play because one minor thing isn’t as they want and being extremely rude about it.

I understand ratings can help to give a better idea of what you’re going into, but the way it works on Google Play is EXTREMELY demotivating for developers like me.

I still completely agree with TheLastProject on this topic. This has also been my experience.

[rokejulianlockhart]

@mpardo, being able to disable reviews for your application would remediate that, I presume?

[cliffcoggin]

It strikes me as a waste of time and effort to institute a review system which the developer can disable. And all because some folk are too lazy to do their own testing of applications.

[ochadenas]

I support the idea of having ratings, if it is ensured that my own apps always get 5-star ratings.

[aotektrue]

@Licaon_Kter

so we should waste our time on abuse prevention for a rating system instead of maintaining the repo and the apps?

You mean to tell me there is no FOSS software that can be developed to monitor for abuse?
O.o

[aotektrue]

@Licaon_Kter

why did you so many of my posts if you think I’m wrong?

Just because you are correct in some points, doesn’t mean you are correct in all.

[aotektrue]

@Licaon_Kter

you don’t need to wait for me, you can do this right now with your Fedi account, or Facebook account, or blog, or Twitter or or or or or etc

This, gestapotube, rumble, and recently Substack (which I hope someone can make an APK for soon) is the most social media I’ve ever owned in my life (minus myspace; smh); so I can not "do this right now ".

@Licaon_Kter

Be the FLOSS contributor you want others to be!

You just brought up the reason why this is not practical for all FDroid/FOSS users:
TIME!
The mass general public is part of the labor force in this nation, and others, which makes the world go “round” (sorry flat earthers) and can not afford this contribution; as much as many would like to.
I.e. the mass general public is still on apples & googles D*** because of the following practical reasons:
no time to invest into learning about FOSS, how to install DivestOS/GrapheneOS,
into helping debug/code apps for Androids, etc etc etc.

Now, having said that, only every single individual user knows the Truth about what time they can and can not contribute, and that everyone needs check how much they really do value their personal pocket computer phone privacy and control.

[rokejulianlockhart]

@cliffcoggin

And all because some folk are too lazy to do their own testing of applications.

@cliffcoggin, review systems don’t exist for the purpose of providing issue trackers. They can function as them, but they are for reviews, which are a more broad concept. If a user has no qualms with an application, they may choose to praise it.

[mpardo]

@rokejulianlockhart

@mpardo, being able to disable reviews for your application would remediate that, I presume?

Not entirely. This would create the equivalent of a two-tiered system. Eventually those that opt out would experience some level of pressure to opt-in or be ostracized (at least that has been my experience in other areas , both software related and not, that have had similar systems).

Generally, two things that I have concluded over time are:

There are at least two schools of thought to everything. One for and one against.

Every option has advantages and disadvantages. It is the comparison of the collection of advantages and disadvantages for each option that results in determining the best option (for each person).

For me, not having ratings and comments is by far more preferable than other options (one of the reasons I no longer submit software to Google Play). To others, it is the opposite.

[rokejulianlockhart]

@mpardo

Not entirely. This would create the equivalent of a two-tiered system. Eventually, those that opt out would experience some level of pressure to opt-in or be ostracized.

@mpardo, I don’t understand how you expect this to apply. Do you assume that the moderation team of the default repository would enforce that all applications opt-in to being rated, perhaps? If so, that seems unrealistic.

[mpardo]

It would inevitably be other users of F-Droid.

[rokejulianlockhart]

@mpardo, I must be missing something. How could they force an application developer to modify his listing’s configuration?

[mpardo]

Not force, pressure.

[rokejulianlockhart]

I’m not sure I understand, but thanks anyway.

[cliffcoggin]

@rokejulianlockhart

review systems don’t exist for the purpose of providing issue trackers.

I did not say they did, but in order to review something one has to use it and test its suitability for its intended purpose.