A better rating system for extensions

[isidorn]

Hi, VS Code PM here 👋

Original issue reported in VS Code repo here by @wwmyers microsoft/vscode#92377

Problem:
I feel like just displaying an install count with a star rating isn't very accurate in VSCode. Most seem to just uninstall the extension if they don't like it instead of rating it. Many that do rate it are probably just friends helping out. I've seen extensions with several thousands of installs with very few ratings, if any at all. Also with very few ratings, if even just 1 user finds a bug that's yet to be fixed, and gives it a poor rating, that can ruin that extension. Another thing, with more installs, that extension gets more popular for next to no reason if many users aren't even using it. That can easily be manipulated with the info page making it sound better than it may actually be. To me, that's kind of deceiving.

Solution:
Instead of using just an install count with a star rating, use an install count with a percentage of users that still have that extension installed. In my opinion that's a much more accurate rating towards how many people actually like that extension. Most aren't going to want to keep an extension installed cluttering it up with what they don't want or dislike. Can still keep the star rating, but I think a percentage of users actively still using can be very useful in knowing how great it might actually be.

[isidorn]

My thoughts are that this idea makes sense and that the uninstall rate could be a real indicator. I hope we have uninstall data.

[wwmyers]

If uninstall data isn't available. Maybe try coding in a search that checks how many accounts has that extension in their list of extensions.
2 things need to be looked at for this way to work for accuracy. 1) Does reinstall counts add towards the install count after an uninstall? 2) Does installs on new devices count as an install from the same account?
If so, those factors would have to be accounted for.

Another option to consider. Instead of displaying the install count since that's been somewhat mislead for awhile now, just show the number of accounts that has that extension on their list. This way instead of showing a low percentage of users still using. You can actually see how popular that extension really is. Some of these popular extensions with millions of installs, that might only have 10% still using verses a new extension with 5k installs having like 80% still using. That 10% could ruin that extension even though there might be 100k actually using it verses only 4k from the 80% of 5k extension. That 100k is still a lot of people using. Might also prevent annoyance from the owners of the popular extensions. Just a thought.

[zxch3n]

I think it'll be very helpful if people can rate directly from VSCode when they already log in with a Github account. Right now it's too complicated to give a rating. Few people have vs marketplace logged in on their machines.