All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

Having fun with cpanratings.perl.org

ethan on 2004-07-09T21:13:54

Hmmh, let's see. A while ago, Randal L. Schwartz gave one-star ratings to all modules by Domizio Demichelis due to a rather questionable practice in all their Makefile.PLs. Now their author seems to have launched a counter-attack, by having two people (Massimiliano Ciancio and Carlos Molina Garcia, two Italian sounding names, go figure) give all of his modules five stars.

I am now almost tempted to create a couple of alter egos which will downgrade his modules. Might be fun to see new Italian CPAN raters spring into existance after that to hand out five-star ratings to these modules again.

Really very tempting, if it just wasn't so childish.

subjectivity vs objectivity

nicholas on 2004-07-09T21:33:56

Which is why I like quantative assessments such as CPANTS much better. I really ought to look behind the sofa and see if I can find some tutits to help implement a citation index for CPAN

Re: Having fun with cpanratings.perl.org

jmcnamara on 2004-07-09T23:24:13

Re: Having fun with cpanratings.perl.org

The first name is without a doubt Italian but the second seems to be Spanish.

Perhaps it isn't a conspiracy. Perhaps they voted in reaction to Randal's vote.

I think that a one star rating on all the modules was unfair. They should have been rated on their usefulness, implementation or efficacy. Instead they were downrated to make a point. That was unworthy.

John.
--

Re: Having fun with cpanratings.perl.org

merlyn on 2004-07-10T03:32:59

They're also highly unmaintainable, because they use a style of indentation that truly is a mistake.

However, if I could find a way to simply delete my 1-star ratings (which apply only to an outdated version), I would. I have not found any way to do that though.

I think arbitrary five-star ratings are clearly an abuse of the system though.

Re: Having fun with cpanratings.perl.org

rafael on 2004-07-10T07:28:43

This indentation style might be unusual (and ugly) but I'm not convinced it makes things more unmaintainable. For maintainers flexible enough.

Re: Having fun with cpanratings.perl.org

dd on 2004-08-01T09:49:12

> They're also highly unmaintainable,
I can assure you: I am maintaining my modules just *perfectly*. The day I will need a maintainer, I will edit that style as needed, (or I will find a more flexible maintainer)

> because they use a style of indentation that truly is a mistake.
It may be difficult to read the first time because you are not use to it, and this is a con, but other people use it for the many pros you can find here:
http://perl.4pro.net/perlish_coding_style.html
and since perl doesn't complain about it and since a few people find it useful, where truly is the "mistake"?

> However, if I could find a way to simply delete my 1-star ratings (which apply only to an outdated version), I would. I have not found any way to do that though.
What about sending a kind request to the cpan-rating maintainer, asking him to kindly delete them?

> I think arbitrary five-star ratings are clearly an abuse of the system though.
And what do you think about the arbitrary one-star ratings?

ANY rating/review is arbitrary by definition [*], since it puts into evidence the aspect(s) which is more interesting for the reviewer, exactly as you did regardless any other positive feature my modules may provide.

Regards

Domizio Demichelis

[*] arbitrary: based on or subject to individual discretion or preference or sometimes impulse or caprice
(antonym) nonarbitrary, unarbitrary: not subject to individual determination

Re: Having fun with cpanratings.perl.org

beppu on 2004-10-11T18:25:05

If we're going to be anal about indentation, we might as well be coding in Python. I also took some time to look at his code, and while it may look unusual, it does not look sloppy.

Why do you have to be so mean?

My two cents on the cpanratings issus

larsen on 2004-07-10T12:51:38

I should probably stay away from this thread: being the author of CGI::Builder::TT2, I'm directly involved. But, since it lets me point out some things that are currencly giving me "troubles", I'll speak:

  • Carlos, thank you for the 5/5, but if it's only to counterbalance Randal's 1/5, I'd prefear you didn't rate my module :)
  • I think Randal has been too quick in rating my module, and Domizio's ones. I made a mistake releasing CGI::Builder::TT2 0.01 as it was, and I'm not arguing on this point, but I corrected it quickly, just after talking about the issue with Randal and Domizio.
  • I know that a CPAN rating is not ad personam, but this was my first CPAN contribution, and I am sorry for this "taint", particularly for the "[...] (and perhaps any other by this author) is on my "Never Use or Recommend" list." part of Randal's rating. If this can be updated, good. If not, just a bit less good: there's time and space to make this "assessment" false :)

Hello!!!

mciancio on 2004-07-31T21:39:04

Hello!!
I'm here!
I exist!
I am not an "alter ego".
I am Massimiliano Ciancio.
My name DOES NOT SOUND Italian: it IS Italian.
I am on Internet since 1996 (do you know Google? Please, use it!).
I studied Computer Science at the University of Pisa and I was already working with computers when you were just a kid, but - more important - I never said anything about someone without knowing anything about him.



My CGI::Builder review is due to MY GOOD OPINION about this framework, due to the help it provides me.
Do you still think my opinions are just invented? Just take a look at the CREDIT section of the doc, and the examples distributed with the CBF.



Who are you to say that my opinion is unfair?
AND THAT I DON'T EXIST!!!! :-)))



You wrote about yourself:
"Being a 23-year old chap living in the most western town of Germany. Stuying communication and information science and being a huge fan of XS-related things."



Well! Continue studying. Maybe you'll learn to respect other people and other people's opinions. (and how to use Google! :)



Bye
Massimiliano Ciancio // the same of the review :-)

Having fun with you!

dd on 2004-08-01T09:32:18

> if it just wasn't so childish

Thank you for saving everybody from one more childish action of you, because your post itself is already childish enough, since while you did take the time to do offensive irony, you didn't take the time to verify the following:

1. Verify that Carlos Molina Garcia is from Venezuela, as you could have seen by just doing a Google search even BEFORE thinking about your post
2. Verify that both Massimiliano Ciancio and Carlos Molina Garcia "springed into existance" as regular users of the CBF and wrote their posts and examples in the CGI::Builder and Template::Magic mailing lists long before their ratings, as you could have seen by just browsing the ML Archive or again, by doing a search on Google even BEFORE thinking about your post

> two Italian sounding names, go figure

"go figure" what??? Although Carlos is not italian, what do you mean with that? Your irony sounds offensive to all the italian programmers (and to me, being an italian), so you should explain its meaning or - better - write a public apology.

> I am now almost tempted to create a couple of alter egos
> which will downgrade his modules

Ohhh... thank you for revealing us such a shamed aspect of your personality, I really appreciate your sincerity. Anyway, I suggest you to save your "alter ego" invention for writing some fake but good review about your own CPAN modules [*].

Even without your downgrading, a few other non-italian regular users of the CBF and its mailing list have "springed into existance", reviewed and rated the modules based on the real usefulness they received not just from my work, but also from the support of a few other authors of other CBF extensions. I don't know whether this truly hurts you, or it's just you way to appear smarter, but a good psychologist may help you.

Regards

Domizio Demichelis

[*] I didn't find your CPAN directory, please could you post here the list of your published distributions? I don't know if they are more useful than your posts, but I'm sure that they would be more interesting for perl users than your irony, your pigeons, the European football championships, the Carnival, the snow, the weather, ... and every other less "childish" (but too often OT) posts you usually need to share with the perl community.

Re:Having fun with you!

ethan on 2004-08-01T12:16:14

Thank you for saving everybody from one more childish action of you, because your post itself is already childish enough, since while you did take the time to do offensive irony, you didn't take the time to verify the following: ...

So I was wrong. Hardly the first time that this has happened, and neither will it be the last time. It isn't worrying me a lot. It isn't uncommon to sense fishiness under the circumstances that I described. Tough luck that my assumptions were wrong. On the other hand, it has provoked a few rather amusing replies.

"go figure" what??? Although Carlos is not italian, what do you mean with that? Your irony sounds offensive to all the italian programmers (and to me, being an italian), so you should explain its meaning or - better - write a public apology.

Provided that I really was being ironic, why should I be apologizing then? If it was ironic, clearly I must have meant it the other way round.

Ohhh... thank you for revealing us such a shamed aspect of your personality, I really appreciate your sincerity. Anyway, I suggest you to save your "alter ego" invention for writing some fake but good review about your own CPAN modules

I wont rate my own modules unless I see a reason to give them a bad rating and thus discourage their use.

Even without your downgrading, a few other non-italian regular users of the CBF and its mailing list have "springed into existance", reviewed and rated the modules based on the real usefulness they received not just from my work, but also from the support of a few other authors of other CBF extensions. I don't know whether this truly hurts you, or it's just you way to appear smarter, but a good psychologist may help you.

I am not even a tiny bit concerned with your modules or in fact anybody's modules that live in a niche that I have taken no interest in. I think I lack this kind of vanity altogether.

I didn't find your CPAN directory, please could you post here the list of your published distributions?

So now it's you that didn't do a very thorough research if you consider that I've mentioned quite a few of my modules in my journal so far. This is my CPAN directory.

I don't know if they are more useful than your posts, but I'm sure that they would be more interesting for perl users than your irony, your pigeons, the European football championships, the Carnival, the snow, the weather, ... and every other less "childish" (but too often OT) posts you usually need to share with the perl community.

If there's a charter that dictates on-topicness, I must have missed it. Other than that, people are free to ignore my journal altogether.