# SourceCred Python Exploration

**URL:** <https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/sourcecred-python-exploration/557>\
**Category:** Initiatives\
**Tags:** ✔️completed\
**Created:** [January 2, 2020, 8:59pm UTC](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/sourcecred-python-exploration/557 "2020-01-02T20:59:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![burrrata](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sourcecred.io/burrrata/32/135_2.png) [@burrrata](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/u/burrrata)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 8:59pm UTC](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/sourcecred-python-exploration/557/1 "2020-01-02T20:59:48Z")

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# Description

* * *

Explore creating a python implementation of SourceCred to make it easier to hack on and experiment with.

  

# Status

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Completed

  

# Champion

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@mzargham

  

# Benefits

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This will make it easy for data scientists and programmers to hack on SourceCred if they’re not familiar with Javascript or FlowJS.

  

# Implementation Plan

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Write the code. Explore the model.

  

# Deliverables

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A GitHub repo with a SourceCred python implementation.

  

# Dependencies

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The [original SourceCred codebase](https://github.com/sourcecred/sourcecred).

  

# References

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> [@Changing the CredSperiment weights](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/changing-the-credsperiment-weights/540/8):
>
> You raise some interesting questions @burrrata. As I said on the [Spontanious Community Call](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/spontanious-community-call/543) (thx for the great writeup on that btw!), I’m OK with the new weights. They make sense to me, even if my share has gone down (for now). I need to think more on some of these issues, but just thought I’d share my 50,000 ft view of some things: Cred scores =! lifetime value contributed, yet. While that’s the basic goal, I sense that they are being used as a lever to adjust incentives until Incentives and…

  

# Contributions

* * *

> **[GitHub - sourcecred/research: Repository for research-related items on...](https://github.com/sourcecred/research)**
>
> Repository for research-related items on SourceCred's agenda

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![decentralion](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sourcecred.io/decentralion/32/7_2.png) [@decentralion](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/u/decentralion)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/sourcecred-python-exploration/557/2 "2020-01-03T00:36:14Z")

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Personally, I don’t consider this initiative completed, as we don’t have the deliverable of a maintained or usable Python implementation, and there isn’t much evidence that the benefits listed were realized. I would call it “attempted” or “abandoned”. (I’m not trying at all to denigrate the work that went in – but I think we should maintain a relatively high bar for what it means for an initiative to be “completed”.)

If others think I’m wrong on this point, please feel free to correct me.

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**Author:** ![decentralion](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sourcecred.io/decentralion/32/7_2.png) [@decentralion](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/u/decentralion)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/sourcecred-python-exploration/557/3 "2020-01-03T00:38:13Z")

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Followup: if we view the initiative as retroactively meaning “do whatever it was, that was done, in the Python exploration”, in that sense the initiative was completed. However, it wasn’t particularly high-impact, since (afaik) no one has used that repo since. In that case, maybe it is reasonable to say this initiative is completed, however since it isn’t much referenced by other initiatives, it won’t receive much cred.

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**Author:** ![burrrata](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sourcecred.io/burrrata/32/135_2.png) [@burrrata](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/u/burrrata)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 12:56am UTC](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/sourcecred-python-exploration/557/4 "2020-01-03T00:56:31Z")

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> [@decentralion](#):
>
> I don’t consider this initiative completed, as we don’t have the deliverable of a maintained or usable Python implementation

The nature of Initiatives is to do a thing, not maintain a thing. If the implementation was created and it worked at the time then it would complete the Initiative. I haven’t actually tried the Python implementation, but I assumed that it was working at the time. Are you saying here that it doesn’t work currently, or that it didn’t ever work?

> [@decentralion](#):
>
> if we view the initiative as retroactively meaning “do whatever it was, that was done, in the Python exploration”, in that sense the initiative was completed. However, it wasn’t particularly high-impact, since (afaik) no one has used that repo since. In that case, maybe it is reasonable to say this initiative is completed, however since it isn’t much referenced by other initiatives, it won’t receive much cred.

This was my thinking exactly. In order to make this more clear, what if we created a “SourceCred Python Implimentation” Artifact and then made this an Initiative to “Setup A SourceCred Python Implimentation?” This way it would be clear that the Artifact exists and this Initiative was to create it. Then if anyone wants to help maintain the Artifact they can create a new Initiative to do so.