As https://cogs.red will soon be available, I think we should make something to prevent “duplicate” cogs (very similar cogs by their name or their features) so only one cog will be shown. This cog should be chosen following its quality (code quality, error handling, stability…).
For example, I’m already excpecting a hundred of “say” cogs, but there is a difference between the one that’s 3 lines long, and the one that’s 200 lines long, with attachments support or some other things… A difference that cannot be seen by the users on the website.
That’s why we should do something to remove the low-quality cogs or feature the high-quality ones, especially when there are multiple cogs for the same thing.
The point of QA is to address some of your concerns like quality. However, it’s not our place to single out one cog. From our internal draft/documents for QA:
“Users need to have options. If the applicant can demonstrate how their cog is similar, but it provides additional utility it should be allowed. One or two people should not be allowed to have a monopoly on an idea and we should not reinforce that behavior.”
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To piggy-back on some of the things @aikaterna mentioned, there could be 7 or 8 cogs that do the same thing, with some slight variation. But the community will pick the one they like the most anyway. Sometimes that many not even be related to one cog being vastly superior or different. It may be because the developer is more active, or fixes bugs in a timely manner, or responds friendly to suggestions.