[jdev] Jabber Community Site : Call for Help

[Richard Dobson]

> Yes, a baseline criteria plus user ratings is a good way to create an 
> unbiased
> listing.  However, I still say this list should be chopped off at a small
> number like 4 (and actually, I'd be surprised if even 4 clients qualify on
> each platform anyway, depending on the criteria). Maybe there could be a 
> way
> to view the full list if desired, but we would present the trimmed list to
> newcomers.

Yea thats fine, for first time users present the say top 5 rated clients, 
also maybe making features of new clients that are getting high ratings but 
maybe havent come high enough in the list yet. But restricting the list to a 
certain total value IMO is a bad idea because it creates the possibility of 
bias when a community site should be striving to avoid bias wherever 
possible, also if the list were fixed at a certain level it restricts the 
ability for new cool clients that maybe better than all who have come before 
them from getting a foothold, and also may make the developers of the 
clients high up the list more lazy about improving their clients, having a 
large listing sorted by ratings is the best way to keep things upto date 
IMO, so if a developer got lazy and didnt keep it upto date it would start 
getting negative reviews compared to other clients and it would drop further 
down the list, allowing the clients that keep things competitive high up 
there, it also gives developers who are further down the list something to 
strive for.

> Imagine if the listing was just the jabber.org list with ratings.  Yikes, 
> I
> think we'd scare everyone away. :)

Yea it could given how it is presented now, but I think that is mainly 
because that list is not giving them any hints as to what are the best 
clients and which ones they might want to try first, a rating sorted list 
along with helpful things like screenshots and reviews will make the process 
of picking the users first client a far more easy and far less daunting 
task, which is IMO where people would be scared off, not because there is a 
big list but because there is nothing to help them reliably choose which one 
is best and they think they will have to go through and try them all out 
which makes them more likely to say to themselves "stuff this ill just stick 
with MSN, it looks better than most of these anyway".

Richard