I have coder's block about how to do the submission system for MetaExtension (a free extension for Chrome that shows a small icon in the address bar whenever there are relevant extensions available for the site you are visiting). I've listed several options, but none of them make me feel like aha this is it.
My goals:
- Good quality lists
- Good coverage, at least some extensions for all popular sites
- Efficient, not requiring hiring / spending own time
Way 1:
Wiki style. Anyone can just edit the list for a site.
> Someone could spam all the lists with their app.
- Well wikipedia has this same issue?
- Or could limit that one app can only appear in N lists.
> What if there isn't anything yet for a site? Maybe right-click menu could "edit this site" then.
> Could still have admins too, but their job would just be to look at changes.
Quality: neutral
Coverage: good
Efficient: yes
Way 2:
Submit & approve.
> There will be less submissions because you can't see the effect right away.
> Need admins to approve the submissions.
> There needs to be some interface for admins to rearrange the apps anyway.
Quality: good
Coverage: bad
Efficient: no
Way 3:
Submit & upvotes.
> Users could see extensions immediately.
> Everyone needs to have an account.
> Still need to protect against spammers upvoting their own stuff.
> Probably wouldn't be a critical mass of users for upvoting to have any point.
- Popularity isn't necessarily the best way for ranking. Some app could be very relevant
and useful for a site, but not that popular. Some very very popular app could be then
only slightly relevant to the site and rank higher because of popularity.
Quality: good
Coverage: neutral
Efficient: yes
To avoid getting blocked by this issue, I've decided to make an initial list focusing on coverage myself for the top 1000 sites and then release the app with a very basic submission system and see what happens.
