Improving the suggestions forum

[Tigratrus]

I don't think it should be the "default" but I can certainly see a LOT of uses for the vote up/down mechanism. I'd esp like to be able to set thresholds so that you can use it to identify the most useful threads. That would be invaluable in winnowing the wheat from the chaff in User Generated Content. I'm kinda guessing that that might be part of where XF is headed with the "Like" function, interested to see the specific implementation they go with...

In regards to the OP, I agree that we REALLY need a way to filter out and consolidate the suggestions forum here, there's a lot of duplication and "noise" which has got to make it difficult to extract meaningful information to inform Kier and Mike's decisions about development priorities. Kinda a natural consequence of having such a naturally enthusiastic community!

 

[Dean]

In regards to the OP, I agree that we REALLY need a way to filter out and consolidate the suggestions forum here, there's a lot of duplication and "noise" which has got to make it difficult to extract meaningful information to inform Kier and Mike's decisions about development priorities. Kinda a natural consequence of having such a naturally enthusiastic community!

How about a locked sticky thread that only Peggy maintains for the time being? That way people can at least find threads of interest to post in. Might make Peggys job easier too?

Specifically a list of suggestions with links to the threads about them. It would never be totally comprehensive, but at least 10-20 of the most popular.

 

[Chris M]

How about a locked sticky thread that only Peggy maintains for the time being? That way people can at least find threads of interest to post in. Might make Peggys job easier too?

Specifically a list of suggestions with links to the threads about them. It would never be totally comprehensive, but at least 10-20 of the most popular.

But how do you determine the most popular? Thread-voting is a great idea and could be used for many things on this forum and on one of your own.

 

[Safin]

Imo a simple thread voting or suggestion voting system like google moderator will be good : http://www.google.com/moderator/

The only issue with such a system is that most people tend to vote yes or no without really giving it much thought or about the consequences of that feature.. I have personally experienced this. Once you ask them to justify your ranking or why you voted the way they did, they won't have a good justification. So even if this is implemented, imo devs should use their own discretion a bit

 

[Dean]

But how do you determine the most popular?

That would be up to Peggy. Just some of the same ideas that are created over and over. She could use the information to copy/paste links and close/merge duplicate ideas however she wants. It would be a laid back/informal system until something else could be done, maybe a few days, possibly longer.

It was just an idea what could happen at this time with the existing situation. In no way am I implying the other suggestions are not good ones.

 

[Alpha1]

Somehow members should be polled about all suggestions. There should be a way for members to go from suggestion to suggestion, voting on each of them. If that means reading the whole suggestion forum and navigating trough it, then its a fail.

 

[feldon30]

If you have a suggestion, please:

• Look at the current list of suggestions.
• If you find one that is similar to your idea, click LIKE on the first post.
• Only if you have not found any existing suggestion that's similar, start a new thread.

 

[Peggy]

I've been moving out suggestion threads that weren't really suggestions, merging duplicates, etc. We are working on streamlining the suggestions forum further.

 

[Grover]

Custom Thread Fields

Imo a simple thread voting or suggestion voting system like google moderator will be good : http://www.google.com/moderator/

The only issue with such a system is that most people tend to vote yes or no without really giving it much thought or about the consequences of that feature.. I have personally experienced this. Once you ask them to justify your ranking or why you voted the way they did, they won't have a good justification. So even if this is implemented, imo devs should use their own discretion a bit

Yeah, I think for most customers/end-users (like myself) it is really difficult if not impossible what technical consequences a feature brings. I can only have a clear view on the userexperience of things, I do not know a thing about programming. Having said that, I am forever (since 5 !!! years) suggesting to vBulletin this:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?158271-Custom-Thread-Field-System

Custom Thread Fields. When o when I wonder will there be a forumpackage that introduces this? I will open up sooo much possibilities and make the system really, really flexible. For example, Custom Thread Fields could be used in this example for a 'yes/no' voting system for only the Suggestions Forum.

 

[Alpha1]

After having used uservoice for years, I'd now not use it as a perfect example anymore. Uservoice limits the number of ideas you can posts, which is non-constructive. It has other advantages though. Most importantly it invites people to vote on suggestions.

What the xenforo suggestions forum is missing is:

• A clearly visible ranking of top voted suggestions in sidebar or tabs (expecting users to sort in a hidden interface is really not K.I.S.S.)
  
• A clearly visible ranking of popular (top viewed suggestions this month) in sidebar or tabs.
• A list of your suggestions in sidebar or tabs.
• New suggestions on forum index sidebar.
  
• Thread Fields to indicate:
  - category
  - version implemented
• A way for the OP to change/improve the suggestion. As this very post clearly illustrates.