[wp-hackers] WP Plug-in Manager

[Jason goldsmith]

Downloads are NOT a valid metric of use and in fact are totally
misleading when used as such.

The easiest example is this:

I write a plugin to send emails when a new post is added.
Every WP user decides they want this, so they download it.
I now have 11,000 downloads.
Everyone decides that my plugin sucks, in fact instead of e-mailing
post notices, it e-mails spam for porn websites.
You write a new plugin to handle email notices 6 months later.
The jaded existing user base doesn't want to deal with that mess again
so they avoid it, but a few brave souls download it.
You have 25 downloads.

Joe Noob goes to the plugin repository and looks for a mail plugin and
sees my plugin and yours. Since downloads are being used to show
"usage" he downloads my plugin and now I have 11,001 downloads...my
plugin keeps getting more popular.....in fact, unless one of the
people who downloaded my plugin originally goes to download yours, the
delta between our supposed popularity will remain nearly constant over
time.

This is not helpful in any way to anyone.