View Full Version : Voting possibility for feature request @ trac
I fully understand and respect this (http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=What_is_XBMC_%26_What_Can_it_Do%3F#When_wil l_this_and_that_feature_or_function_be_supported_b y_XBMC.3F) statement of developers.
However, it would be still great to have a voting feature on Trac, with which the plebs:blush: might be able to express it's wishes to orientate Devs, which are the most missing/ wanted features.
As sho pointed out, there is a plugin for Trac to implement this functionality:
http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/VotePlugin
Of course I really don't imaginate this as an enforcment or a tool to push developers into any directions, but I think it would be helpful also for them.
So would it be possible to implement this plugin?
Gamester17
2009-01-09, 17:41
+1 for adding user voting to trac
Reddit-style voting on Trac Tickets (allow users to vote for feature requests and such):
http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/VotePlugin
and/or alternativly (or if possible as a extension) Five Star Rating:
http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/FiveStarVotePlugin
:cool:
quake101
2009-01-09, 18:33
+1
Great idea. :)
-1
we wont care
or to put it as i did on irc;
17:42 < cptspiff> users can vote over my dead white shiney ass
-1
I donīt find it usefull, I wonīt be implementing stuff unless I want to do it, no matter if the ticket have 2 million votes yes. I will implement something if I feel like it, if I want to, If I find it fun to do..
rwparris2
2009-01-09, 19:24
-1
The best way to convince a dev a feature request on trac is worthwhile IMO is to comment on it and provide legitimate examples of how it would be used & why the current system is not good enough (convince them that THEY want it too).
Enabling voting would strongly imply that the devs are willing to listen, then when they don't, it gives users more reasons to moan (zzzomg!? why didn't feature x get added look how popular it is!).
-1
The best way to convince a dev a feature request on trac is worthwhile IMO is to comment on it and provide legitimate examples of how it would be used & why the current system is not good enough (convince them that THEY want it too).
Enabling voting would strongly imply that the devs are willing to listen, then when they don't, it gives users more reasons to moan (zzzomg!? why didn't feature x get added look how popular it is!).
Exactly.
Btw.. -1
quake101
2009-01-09, 20:14
What if you limit what users that can vote on the system? (maybe via forum group: member post count, member account age, etc)
althekiller
2009-01-09, 20:33
Then the limited users bitch. Not that any of those metrics make a person more or less qualified to voice their opinion anyway. Clicking a check box is far too easy, if you're really passionate about the feature you'll do like rwparris2 said and make a worthwhile comment. If I read any "OMG I WANT THAT TOO LOLZ!!11!!" comments on trac they will count for -10 in my book.
If that wasn't clear, -1.
Wow, that is not a warm welcome from those, who would need to primarily accept this... I understand your points, but let me explain in bit further.
Enabling voting would strongly imply that the devs are willing to listen, then when they don't, it gives users more reasons to moan (zzzomg!? why didn't feature x get added look how popular it is!).
I absolutely agree, that this kind of behaviour would be a bad side affect, that's why I mentioned, that personally I didn't raise this to invent that weapon. So to keep this between borders, some kind of limitation would definitely needed. (For example, someone cannot vote without some detailed reason to vote and/or have to contribute with comments and ideas on the sepcification of the request, etc)
The best way to convince a dev a feature request on trac is worthwhile IMO is to comment on it and provide legitimate examples of how it would be used & why the current system is not good enough (convince them that THEY want it too).
My fear here, and this is the real reason I raised this up:
Let's assume there is a very old feature request, which you like, but already "forgotten" by every Devs, it is 1 of the ~450 active feature request somewhere near to the end with last update deep in the past. Even if you comment and provide more ideas to it, how do you give focus on it? There is no tool/way today to bring it to the front. Or how should it work? Shall I ask althekiller, that "hey, althekiller, I added some new comment on this ticket, could you please have a look?"
So the idea is just to give some attention/ focus on those features, which more people would love to see. Than you guys can think about it, and obviously the right is yours to say no. Moreover, if once a feature decided not to develop or you really don't like it for any reason, it could be closed and remove from the voting.
You could make the results only available to the Devs. If we can't see that you are ignoring a popular request we can't bitch and moan. A worth while description of how the feature would be used and why it would be nessasary because all the voting would do is get the idea in front of the devs. The original suggestion would have to do the rest.
rwparris2
2009-01-09, 22:50
Let's assume there is a very old feature request, which you like, but already "forgotten" by every Devs, it is 1 of the ~450 active feature request somewhere near to the end with last update deep in the past. Even if you comment and provide more ideas to it, how do you give focus on it? There is no tool/way today to bring it to the front. Or how should it work? Shall I ask althekiller, that "hey, althekiller, I added some new comment on this ticket, could you please have a look?"
Sho & Gamester17 (and others?) do a good job of adding people who might be interested in monitoring the ticket. If they're not interested, they will remove themselves and no amount of voting will change this.
When you comment on trac, it emails all the people added to the CC (carbon copy) list. Once you comment, you're automatically added to the CC list, so you will be emailed everytime someone comments or status changes from that point on as well.
In addition to this, most devs monitor the forums pretty well and will notice activity in a thread about whatever feature request. If a thread dies down for a few months, it is OK to bump as long as you present some sort of new information (imo. If it is a popular request it will bring back activity to the thread and the devs can re-decide if they want to anything with it or not
The idea is cool, flagging which features folks want, and voting does do a good job of that. Anyone can submit a patch, so some folks may just look and see, wow x number of folks say they want this, I bet I can make a patch for that. But maybe the votes should be done by the PM and not the user.
For the user, wouldn't it be just as easy to do like this thread it doing and bring it to attention again in the forums with the details of what/why and have the discussion.
User to forum.. blarg.. I wanna do xyzabc145 but i want it to be xyzbac154 format....
PM tags vote counter or rating.
- just my 2 peighinn
althekiller
2009-01-09, 23:18
@olympia, If I get my way, we'll have a "view all tickets by activity" sort, which should alleviate your concerns. Most of the sorts we have now are more or less useless.
@olympia, If I get my way, we'll have a "view all tickets by activity" sort, which should alleviate your concerns. Most of the sorts we have now are more or less useless.
Well, that's a great idea too. I wanted already to include something like this in the original post, but forgotten. So if we had have a sort on "activity" and /or on "last update", could lead not to forget "active" feature requests.
When you comment on trac, it emails all the people added to the CC (carbon copy) list. Once you comment, you're automatically added to the CC list, so you will be emailed everytime someone comments or status changes from that point on as well.
Well, to tell you the truth, I wasn't aware about that, thank you for making me less blind... :)
@olympia, If I get my way, we'll have a "view all tickets by activity" sort, which should alleviate your concerns. Most of the sorts we have now are more or less useless.
you mean like this?
http://www.xbmc.org/trac/query?status=accep.... (http://www.xbmc.org/trac/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=new&status=reopened&order=changetime&col=id&col=summary&col=status&col=type&col=priority&col=milestone&col=component&col=changetime&owner=&desc=1)
good points from both sides by the way.
-1
we wont care
or to put it as i did on irc;
17:42 < cptspiff> users can vote over my dead white shiney asshttp://www.neogaf.com/forum/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://www.neogaf.com/forum/images/smilies/laugh.gifhttp://www.neogaf.com/forum/images/smilies/laugh.gif
I read this thread only to read what spiff had to say about it! http://www.neogaf.com/forum/images/smilies/laugh.gif
You didn't let me down!
Edit: and even if I'm just an end user, I am too against this proposal. Devs to this on their own free time, on a volunteer basis. Voting won't change a thing, I'd say.
jmarshall
2009-01-10, 00:58
The only advantage I can see with allowing voting is that it might cut down on people bumping a trac report with "I want this too", which is worse than someone voting. Given that we haven't really had a problem with that, I don't see the need for the voting.
The sort of things that don't get developer support early on (whether that support consists of "sure, I'll do it" or is more "patch welcome, here's some suggestions") are generally not going to be implemented at all by the core team, and may not even be accepted, though these are usually flagged as such.
I think a useful addition might be some (completely optional, and only developers may fill them) fields to specify things like:
1. Acceptable with a patch (this allows filtering of suggestions for new devs with stuff that isn't being actively worked on.)
2. Perhaps some indication of difficulty level of the above?
I know I'd be willing to go through some of the FR's and fill in some of the above fields if I felt that it'd be useful for new developers.
That's really what trac is all about, after all :)
Cheers,
Jonathan
intersol
2009-01-26, 14:16
Let's explain the problem a litte: Because i didn't found a vote option the issue http://xbmc.org/trac/ticket/5096 i added a comment. After a while a comment from d4rk: "please respect that only developers comments goes on trac, so no "+1" here thanks, we use the forums for that."
People are used to voting and it is a comon practice even in non-open-source environments. it's a simple and clean way of measuring the need for one feature or another. Nobody says that the developer must solve the issue based on this information but it would be foolish to ignore it completly.
Measurement of "popularity" on the forum is hard and maybe almost imposible to track correctly.
The true question about voting: why whould somebody refuse to add a voting feature (if it's not too hard)? The only plausible response it would be that he do not care about the others and he want to do only they like.
And yes, adding votes will let the trac more clean, because people will not be required to add silly comments.
Also, I should add that it shouldn't be a problem for any core-developer to write in a comment that they do have the resources to do it but they will appreciate a patch.
PS. Maybe somebody should add a "score" for measuring some people 'ego' ;)
claiming ego has anything with this is just low
jmarshall
2009-01-27, 02:04
The point is: The votes WILL be ignored by seasoned developers.
Whether they're useful for new developers is a possibility - I don't know. I can just see the situation where "l33t feature that no dev cares about" gets a few thousand votes, and ya'll get pissed off that we still don't do it.
@intersol: OT: That would have been Gamester17, not d4rk.
Cheers,
Jonathan
All I know is I'm greatful for everything and honestly if the term "ego" comes up the team is my hero and around me they are allowed to have an ego.. ;)
Other than that I've seen this is a hobby thrown around by many and if their hobby helps out my hobby then I'll take anything. Devs in my experience from projects either.
Add what benifits the project
Add what they want
Am I or anybody else to sway that process with a vote? I'm sure the vote could be cast and 1,000,000 votes for one thing shows what is important to the masses, but lets face it. The masses are not doing the coding.