There is a Poll running on the front of the PyPI page – you have to log in to see it/vote. This poll is asking a question about the new feature(s) of allowing users to comment/5-star-rate a given package in the index.
Some of the Pros/Cons have already been added to the python wiki here, as well as this bug report here. The catalog-sig has some of the discussion as well.
This poll was created in part by this Python-Dev thread. I obviously make my opinion known.
Given my vehemence in the python-dev thread; I’d like to point out I am not against giving package consumers a voice – however, I do not think that as-implemented, these features serve anyone.
As developers of, moderators and community members on any number of social news and voting sites will point out to you – getting the system right takes a lot of time, and planning. Why not borrow pages from their play books?
You also can’t give the users a voice at the cost of the package maintainers – a balance has to be made. You have to protect and moderate out astroturfers, spammers, coordinated attacks against a given package, etc. It’s hard to get right, but easy to get wrong.
With regards to the rating system, Zed Shaw recently had an interesting piece on the bimodality of 1-5 rating systems. Comments on that here and here.
In any case; Martin put the poll up as he wants to get people’s opinions via the votes on this issue. Please take a moment to do so.
If you have suggestions on the actual implementation of a full-blown system for dealing with this, please drop an email to the catalog-sig mailing list.