Package Recommendations

After working with the Package Recommendations system, I think there are some things that can be improved to increase its usability.

The biggest problem I see is that clarification requests do not appear to generate e-mail notifications. I haven't submitted any requests for recommendations so I can't say for sure that the authors of the request do not get notifications, however the sheer number of the unanswered clarification requests lead me to believe that they don't. If authors and those members attempting to help could be notified, it would definitely improve this area.

If e-mail notifications are problematic, then a counter of clarification request would help a little. When you look at the list of requests, all you see is the number of recommended packages, or a big 0. I can imagine the authors coming back to check if there has been any activity on their requests just look at that zero and move on without ever opening it to see the request for clarification.

As someone trying to help where I can, it would be useful to have a page that only displays the recommendation requests where I have requested clarification, although it really wouldn't be needed if I can get notifications when someone answers me.

There are a lot of requests for recommendations which are better suited for the expert forum since they want to know how to do something more than a package to do it. What happens if I where to down vote these requests? Are they notified? If so, it could be useful to use the down vote to get their attention and then a note in the clarification to send them to the appropriate place to get help.

Dave

Dave, thanks for your participation. It has been helping to test the system and see how it should be improved.

I am not sure if the problem is that clarification requests are not being notified. In general the site sends a private message which is also notified by email.

We can make a test. Just post a recommendation and I will post a clarification request to see if we get the notifications. Can you try that so we test it for sure?

Anyway, if the requests have no clarification, the intention is to remove the requests. Unfortunately I have been so busy with other things that I have had little time to look at that myself.

Downvoting requires that you explain your down vote, so a notice would be sent to the poster, but not to the site moderation.

One possible solution is to have a button for any user to report inappropriate recommendation requests, just like there is in the support forums. This way other users could flag requests that are vague or spammy. This way I could figure and remove bad requests faster.

Do you think if there was that button you would use it to help cleaning up bad recommendation requests?

Of course, accepted reports that lead to removal would get you some reputation points, probably as Reviewer or Moderator.

As for recommendation requests without recommendations, that is because not every user appreciates giving recommendations, so only a few people like yourself are participating.

Anyway, I have a plan to increase the engagement for that. The idea is to give the possibility for other users to earn privileges by participating in the recommendations section.

For instance, if you are an author and have a package in a queue to be approved, you could "buy" the privilege to get priority approval for your package redeeming your Advisor points earn giving package recommendations.

What do you think? Do you think that could make other users participate more in the recommendations sections, either giving recommendations, or flagging bad requests?

I have added a test request, ask for clarification and I will see if I am notified. I do know that I was not notified when an author answered my request (the one who has so far).

If a button was made available to flag action from a moderator, I would use it in some cases. There are requests in there for packages to bypass security measures on sites or provide a means to mass message phones. These are legitimate requests, however I will not be sharing my knowledge with them. There are some that are just posted in the wrong place and I would like to see them posted in the experts forum where I could help.

As far as the reward system to have spendable points, I can only speak for myself... I am currently submitting packages for things the site does not have, or at least I couldn't find. I want to get the USA rankings up, and learn about things I don't get to experiment with much, so everything I submit has a chance to be notable. I am not, nor would I personally be influenced by spendable points. The package will get approved when it gets approved, I already have it, since I wrote it. Keep in mind that this the opinion of an old programmer, the younger generation may want that, skip to the front of the line ticket, me... I allow little old ladies in front of me at the checkout counter.

Dave

It looks like the authors are being sent the notification, so scratch that one off the to do list :)

Now I am not sure why someone would make a request and ignore messages when someone is trying to engage them, especially on recent requests that get a response within a day or two.

Oh well, guess I will just give them a week or so and if they haven't responded, figure they never will and move on.

Yes, it is not a problem with notifications.

Maybe the requester lost patience and solved his problem some other way.

It may also that email messages may not be arriving due to spam filters.

An alternative method to notify users is to send Facebook notifications. That would require asking the user to enable Facebook in the Social Networks page. That could be done right after the user asks a recommendation request telling "If you want a faster notification when you get recommendation, please add your Facebook account here".

As for privileges that you could redeem with reputation points, requesting priority approval of a package was just one example of planned privileges that may be interesting for some contributors to make the site more pleasant for them.

Here are several other examples of planned privileges. Just let me know if any of these privileges would be interesting for you.

- Have access to packages not yet approved
- Have access to special reports about how you have been doing over time for instance in terms of reputation or popularity of your packages
- Use the ad space in your package/author pages for you own ads
- Personalization of your package/author pages using custom themes for instance
- Have packages featured in listings, for instance getting priority in search results
- Track the accesses to your package, forums, blog pages using Google Analytics so you can see how many accesses you are having there
- Have priority contact with companies willing to hire
- Boost exposure of classes in site ads for a given period so you can have more interested users

I see 2 that would be interesting...

Using ad space
Priority contact with prospective employment