Another option is to use a formula similar to
IMDB's, which I assume
has been arrived at due to some amount of research.
IMDB only count registered active users towards their "Top 250" search (which
would be the equivalent of ignoring votes from anons).
Maybe a good idea for things that you think people are likely to try and cheat on.
How do extensions generally deal with images and
stylesheets that need
to be available outside the extensions directory, such as in the skins
directory, when users are accessing them through SVN?
Hooks, surely? The skins must have hooks in lots of convenient
places. What do you mean, available outside the extensions directory?
You're only running code inside the extensions directory.
The extension uses images for buttons for rating the pages, and these
buttons have to reside in a directory that is accessible through the
browser, /extensions is not. So, in this case, do extensions generally
just provide a tarball and have the user untar the images into the
skins directory?
Maybe have a look at the wikihiero extension (
http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/wikihiero/ )
For example if I type "<hiero>Y5</hiero>" into a Wikipedia sandbox,
then the resulting image path is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/extensions/wikihiero/img/hiero_Y5.png (i.e. proof-by-existence
that it is possible to store the
extension's images in the extensions directory).
All the best,
Nick.