# How do you feel about Julia Observer?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577>\
**Category:** Community\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [December 11, 2018, 9:21pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577 "2018-12-11T21:21:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![djsegal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/djsegal/32/13752_2.png) [@djsegal](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/djsegal)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 9:21pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/1 "2018-12-11T21:21:33Z")

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As we’re getting to the two year mark of [JuliaObserver](http://juliaobserver.com), I thought it was a good time to check in w/ you guys.

Currently, the website has ~1k weekly users, with an average session time of 3-4 minutes.

[http://juliaobserver.com](http://juliaobserver.com)

  

If you could, please fill out the following poll. All comments are welcome, so be as honest as you want.

_Poll ([view on site](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/1))_

  
// hope you're all having a good holidays! here's to another lap around the sun 🥂

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**Author:** ![shorty66](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/shorty66/32/3254_2.png) [@shorty66](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/shorty66)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 10:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/2 "2018-12-11T22:08:58Z")

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I like Julia Observer, but i kind of miss [pkg.julialang.org/pulse.html](http://pkg.julialang.org/pulse.html)

I liked the first graph reporting number of packages per version and the 14-Days stars change. These may be quite easy to add to julai observer though.

I also feel like julia observers design is more suitable for big screens or maybe touchscreens. I’m on a 14 inch screen and would like a higher information density.

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**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/3 "2018-12-11T22:49:44Z")

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I like the _Observer_ and it’s definitively a very useful service. It also got an extra responsibility when got linked directly from Julia home page. So the information it displays should be the most accurate as possible but it turns out that it’s difficult to make corrections. I’ve opened an [issue](https://github.com/djsegal/julia_observer/issues/101) some months ago to fix a bit of that info (a package classification issue) but nothing happened. I understand that it relies on julia.jl to get the info (where I also submitted a PR) but the fact is, no update took place.

In summary, my point is that it should be easier to improve the quality of the information displayed in the _Observer_

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**Author:** ![foobar\_lv2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@foobar\_lv2](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/foobar_lv2)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 11:09pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/4 "2018-12-11T23:09:29Z")

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I like the observer. I wish either the observer or julialang/pkg would attempt some editorial guidance. See [https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-ecosystem-learning-from-others-mistakes/18028/51](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-ecosystem-learning-from-others-mistakes/18028/) for a long discussion.

What it boils down to is some human-maintained subset of “high quality” packages, even if this ends up as a super subjective and unprincipled directors cut.

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**Author:** ![oheil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oheil/32/220745_2.png) [@oheil](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/oheil)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 9:56am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/5 "2018-12-12T09:56:09Z")

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I am unsure about its usefulness. I am missing a very simple but large(huge) page, with every package available/registered just to be able to use the browsers text search function. This fancy javascript auto line adding when scrolling down does not give any better usability (it’s by the way annoying in discorse too). And I guess it is not the best for being indexed by search engines. So this is an example for responsiveness without benefit. There are still double entries in the categories (e.g. Statistics, i didn’t check for others).  
So all in all I think it should be less mobile/responsive/fancy and more simple with “higher information density”, to quote above.

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**Author:** ![leethargo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/leethargo/32/6004_2.png) [@leethargo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/leethargo)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 10:13am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/6 "2018-12-12T10:13:15Z")

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What I like about it especially is the reverse dependency list, that is, for the current package, show where it is used. This information is not so obvious from browsing raw GitHub.

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**Author:** ![ArchieCall](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/archiecall/32/206_2.png) [@ArchieCall](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ArchieCall)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 1:26pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/7 "2018-12-12T13:26:11Z")

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When searching for packages a scroll down box is presented with packages meeting the search requirements

- this list goes away too fast if you are trying to read a long list
- if the list extends below the screen bottom, items at the bottom cannot be reached

Other than these two nits JO meets my needs.

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**Author:** ![Zach\_Christensen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/zach_christensen/32/7220_2.png) [@Zach\_Christensen](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Zach_Christensen)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 9:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/8 "2018-12-12T21:57:02Z")

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I love it! I like learning a package I’m new to by finding other packages that depend on it and looking at their implementation. Observer is great for this. It does get a bit slow in my browser but I’ve also been known to get frustrated with how slow my microwave is

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**Author:** ![nalimilan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nalimilan/32/147_2.png) [@nalimilan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nalimilan)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/9 "2018-12-14T15:15:11Z")

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JuliaObserver is very useful, it’s essential to have a view of packages by category and sorted by popularity (else you get lost given how many packages there are, including unmaintained ones). Though categories are not always right, and it’s a bit inconvenient to rely on Julia.jl for that. I was thinking you could extract the GitHub tags too? That way maintainers can directly control how their package is classified.

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**Author:** ![Zach\_Christensen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/zach_christensen/32/7220_2.png) [@Zach\_Christensen](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Zach_Christensen)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 9:21am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/10 "2019-03-28T09:21:44Z")

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Did observer suddenly get faster? I just noticed it was working really quickly this morning.

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**Author:** ![djsegal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/djsegal/32/13752_2.png) [@djsegal](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/djsegal)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 8:07pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/11 "2019-03-28T20:07:40Z")

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There probably were just fewer users on because it was broken the past couple days.

// upgraded the servers a few months back, but it shouldn’t be that noticeable 🙂

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**Author:** ![ufechner7](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ufechner7/32/51363_2.png) [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 7:02am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/12 "2019-03-29T07:02:25Z")

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The categories are not good. For example the categorie “Control” is missing. There are lots of good control packages for Julia, see for example [JuliaControl · GitHub](https://github.com/JuliaControl) .  
There could also be a categorie “Control and Simulation” which then should include Modia.jl and many others.

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**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 11:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/13 "2019-03-29T11:43:17Z")

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And it’s also very difficult to interact with the system. I’m trying to reclassify GMT.jl since last September but not successful yet.

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**Author:** ![djsegal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/djsegal/32/13752_2.png) [@djsegal](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/djsegal)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/14 "2019-03-29T17:46:23Z")

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@joa-quim, I just [pull](https://github.com/djsegal/julia_observer/blob/2333cf68442e360ea51cea967e2f0643d7050e66/lib/tasks/decibans.rake#L34) in information from Julia.jl’s [db.csv](https://github.com/svaksha/Julia.jl/blob/master/db.csv) file. I would advise making a PR to update that file?

The whole purpose of the website was to collect information (on Julia) from N sources, ~5 times a day. I tried to distance my own biases and moderation from the process.

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**Author:** ![ufechner7](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ufechner7/32/51363_2.png) [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/15 "2019-03-29T22:11:27Z")

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What is this db.csv? How is it created and maintained? And by whom?

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**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2019, 12:16am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/16 "2019-03-30T00:16:21Z")

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> [@djsegal](#):
>
> I would advise making a PR to update that file?

You mean this one?

> <https://github.com/svaksha/Julia.jl/pull/146>

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**Author:** ![Marc.Cox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/marc.cox/32/7514_2.png) [@Marc.Cox](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Marc.Cox)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 9:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/17 "2019-10-24T21:42:12Z")

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Hi @djsegal ,

Heres to wishing you luck with [Juliaobserver.com](http://Juliaobserver.com) 504 error ( gateway timeout ) .

And here’s a first shot at the issue per AWS [AWS offers solution to resolve 504 Errors with Cloudfront CDN](https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/resolve-http-504-errors-cloudfront/)

If the site has been hacked down what is Amazons AWS SLA to restore service ?

Good Luck and message me if I can help you.

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**Author:** ![oxinabox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oxinabox/32/206603_2.png) [@oxinabox](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/oxinabox)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2019, 9:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/18 "2019-10-25T21:42:57Z")

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I miss JuliaObserver

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Marc.Cox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/marc.cox/32/7514_2.png) [@Marc.Cox](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Marc.Cox)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/19 "2019-10-27T19:33:55Z")

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Hi @oxinabox ,

Its been down over a week now, and its not clear if anyone is working on it .

All the alternative “work arounds” are extremely cumbersome and weak substitutes;

Would you or anyone else on this thread know who to contact, offer help to etc. ?

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**Author:** ![oxinabox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oxinabox/32/206603_2.png) [@oxinabox](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/oxinabox)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577/20 "2019-10-27T20:12:21Z")

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@djsegal

I think it may have intentionally been allowed to lapse,  
on the theory that the new and enhanced [pkg.julialang.org](http://pkg.julialang.org) could take its place  
but it is yet to get to be as good.

As I understand it JuliaObserver was effectively frozen since the registry change over in April.

[Next page](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-you-feel-about-julia-observer/18577.md?page=2)