If a developer is not using maemo.org Extras neither maemo.org Downloads then it makes sense that he doesn get maemo.org karma, isn't it?

The downloads from the repository are also counted in maemo.org downloads. They are synchronized every X time. Where X is a value that X-Fade knows ;-)

Download counts are updated by clicks on the install icon(live) and are corrected once a week by the actual download stats we receive from the caching network. So in the end we only count actual downloads from the repository.

We're looking into going from weekly to daily corrections, but that requires some changes and bureaucracy, so that might take a while still.

Another thing we could use is the app karma feature (In Downloads). App karma is basically going to show which apps are relevant. (Relative downloads stats, comments and ratings are being used there)

This app karma can be used as a modifier for the actual karma the developer gets for that app. App karma is a float value between 0 and 1.
The most relevant apps with have an app karma value of very close to 1.

Calculation could be then be:

Example:

This would also mean that once your app gets less relevant, your karma for it will go down. It will be more dynamic and your karma will fluctuate a bit.

A random thought on download karma... Merging versions with downloads is a bit tricky, right ? I mean, when you push something to extras, you will certainly see a surge in downloads from people who are updating in addition to those who are installing for the first time. This means projects updating more often will certainly see a higher number of downloads even with the same userbase...

... and now, the kicker...

What if we use these spikes as an additional metrics in some form ? After all, the volume of the spike is the approximate numbers who still have it installed. So it is possible to measure uninstalls, even if in an indirect form. Yes, I know, some people never update, but the point is that the metric will be equally wrong on all projects, so you do get a realistic comparison of userbases. Note that this wont work if you update software TOO often as the update dispersal can take a while.

See this graph from maemo mapper - you see a steady stream of downloads, but the spikes containing the updates are those which show the real userbase increase.

EDIT: I'm not saying this should replace download count, but could be something like the t.m.o. posts vs thanks karma. Download karma (=posts) is cheap, update karma (=thanks) is value.

Not really, there are several people who work on projects that thousands of people use and attract people to the platform that never get put in the garage. Do these people not deserve some sort of Karma for their efforts? Perhaps its impossible to quantify perhaps its not. You can see here http://logs.penguinbait.com/index.html. I have dedicated my home website to mainly Nokia Tablet related traffic. Additionally my numbers from tablethacker.com which is also dedicated to Nokia Internet Tablets are even greater. So I am just saying should there be a way for people who have continuously supported the platform, drawn many people to the platform, published many packages but never in the garage to receive some sort of karma for their efforts.

I understand the fact that you want things to be put in the Garage and in maemo extras. I feel as though there should be some sort of QA approval process if something is going to be placed into maemo/extra's so users can expect some level of consistency. While I think that "hackers" or "hacks" providing beta software at best should never be placed into maemo/extra's I still think they play an important role in the community.

It does make sense that maemo.or karma is measured against factors maemo.org can register. But if you have additional ideas please submit them in the Brainstorm proposal we are discussing.

Note that I'm not mentioning Garage at all. Host your code wherever you prefer.

We are talking about distribution channels. You have extras-devel, extras-testing and Extras for your software in unstable, testing or stable quality. If you need something else then file an enhancement request or an idea in the Brainstorm proposal that started this thread.

And we are talking about maemo.org/downloads that, true, if you are distributing "hackish" software you better don't use.

You can use bugs.maemo.org and that activity will bring you karma.

Yo can talk here about your software, bed thanks and get karma for it.

You can blog about your software and get thumbs up getting karma as well.

The system is probably not so bad when you have 377 karma http://maemo.org/profile/view/penguinbait/

atila77, your reasoning about downloads is very good! Maybe we need to use those peaks for karma instead of full downloads, indeed. Could you please submit the idea? It seems that we can keep the ratio 100 downloads = 1 karma for these peaks? If v1.0 gets a peak 1000 downloads you get 100 karma points. If v1.1 gets a peak of 1500 you get 150 instead of 100. But if v1.1 gets a peak of only 200 then you get 20 instead of 100. Makes sense.

XFade's point about app karma is also good. We should use it somehow to add karma, but perhaps not to diminish karma. We have talked many times about users diminishing karma by 'being older' if they don't add new karma, to make old disappeared contributors go down the ranking while new contributors very active go up up. It lools that this way would be enough to get minus karma. Just like we do with news, they push your karma up but won't push it down.

If karma app is a value between 0 and 1 then waht about this:

karma points = max app karma * 100

I think nobody has really explained how karma is currently calculated for appliactions (Products in profile page).

You get couple of points (<10) for having an application in maemo.org/downloads, then you get additional points for the rating. Maximum karma for one application is 45 or so. I couldn't find the formula so this is from memory. There is no karma for downloads.

Garage karma is called Groups in profile page. If you have single project where you are the maintainer you get 9 points ( I think it is 3 for having an account, 3 for being member of a project, 3 for being maintainer of a project)