dsource and ranking vs. rating

[Knud Soerensen]

In the tread DSSS, Dsource and cpan it have been suggested that dsource should
implement a rating system like on the matlab site and the firefox extension site. 

I would like to suggest a ranking system instead of the rating system.

In a ranking system every user have a list with rankings,
when ranking a new project the user add it into the ranking between 
two other projects.

Some of the problem i see with a rating system is:

  * Different users might use different bases.
  One user might examine code quality, user interface, documentation etc.
  and give 3 points on basis on this analyses.
  Another might just give 5 point to every project he likes.
  That a ranking system compare the project with each other help make a
  common basis for reference.  


  * It difficult for a user to change his base.
  Imagine a user discover a new brilliant project 
  that is much better than the project he already
  have rated with max points. 
  To rate the new project fairly he would have 
  to go back and re-rate all his rated projects. 
  With ranking he can just put it at the top.

  * Low differentiation between top projects.
  Given most users only rating the projects they like.
  As a result,an extremely good and a very good project will have almost the same average score and 
  the total sum will tell more about the popularity than how good it is.   
   

A advantages of the ranking system is that it provide 
much more data for data mining.

Your can extract a value and make a simple average like with a ranking.
Your can run most voting system on the data, but you also have data which can 
tell you that n users think that project x is better than project y. etc.