[Distutils] PyPI Download Counts

[Alex Clark]

anatoly techtonik <techtonik <at> gmail.com> writes:
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> I'd say that not getting access to download stats from the start is a fail
on the side of PSF or whoever involved in coordination with Fastly. There
are many CDN providers out there and I suspect so far only Fastly was
contacted. The primary responsibility of that coordinator is correctly
sending the message for CDN provider that PyPI is a public exhibition of
their service quality, and not a tax exemption for charity. I'd say Fastly
should be interested to help with making us download stats exposed in a
convenient API friendly way, because real-time stats is the key feature of
their marketing advantage as I see it.
> 
> 
> Infrastructure will be setting up a secure method for receiving these logs
at which point PyPI can use them.
> 
> 
> 
> Is it done already? I am free to some degree to help with that. What is
the current problem to tackle on?


+1 


<small_rant>But: this happens all the time in open source communities, even
mature ones. Someone volunteers to perform some complex task and
hand-waves-away some requirement they don't personally feel is important
under the "too hard" or "I don't have time for that, I'm doing this" umbrella.

Someone else comes along and says "wait, what happened to XXX?" at which
point others join in to emphasize the importance of XXX. At this point, it's
more clear whether or not XXX is actually important. But during this time:
XXX is broken and many people on both sides are unhappy.

GOLDEN RULE: That's why even in open source, the "golden rule of OPS" is
still important: PLEASE DO NOT BREAK SHIT. Even if you are fixing other more
important functionality and don't think XXX is important. Or if XXX and the
thing you want to do cannot co-exist, then make sure you get extensive
buy-in from a large percentage of folks before you consider removing XXX. If
for no other reason, then you will most certainly draw unwanted attention to
yourself (which is especially frustrating in the context of "trying to do
good things").
</small_rant>

Anyway, I've seen this so many times I don't even get angry anymore. Because
I know everyone involved has nothing but the best intentions. In this case,
I'd like to see the download count functionality restored. (I spent a full
year building a website whose almost-sole-functionality relies on download
counts existing and working properly.) So, please call me when they are
back.:-) And if I can help in anyway to make that happen, please let me know.


Alex





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Alex Clark · http://about.me/alex.clark