Flathub-based recommendations data
This issue is intended as a discussion thread - it would be good to hear opinions and possibly draw up plans.
@bertob and I have been talking about app recommendations and we both agree that the mixed quality of the apps that are being recommended in Software is important. An app store needs an attractive front window.
It turns out that Flathub faces the same challenge as Software in this regard. It too lacks quality control over which apps are recommended. I think that it therefore makes sense to have a single source of data about which apps should be recommended, which can be shared by Flathub and Software. It probably makes sense for this data to be curated in Flathub itself.
The rough idea here is that Tobias and I would work in Flathub to generate an allow list of apps that are to be recommended. Flathub would use this data on its website, and would also make it available to be used in other clients, such as Software.
Since we are doing this, it might also make sense to generate the other app recommendations data (such as lists of editor's picks) in the context of Flathub.
On the Software side, we would need to verify what Flathub-based curation would look like on systems that don't have Flathub enabled. Some of the steps in #2053 (closed) will help here.
We'd have to decide exactly how the recommendations data would flow from Flathub to Software. For some cases maybe it could be packaged? For others there are advantages to downloading the data independently of package updates. @pwithnall I know you've previously been reluctant about this - which I get - but I'm not sure how we get around it if we want to avoid excluding new apps from the recommendations...