If I could change three things about the WordPress Ideas Forum, this is what it might be at first glance.
Voting System
I would change the one through five start system to a +1/-1 system. It would show the total votes for and against the idea. The total number of votes made and the percentages for and against it. This would be an improvement, because it shows quantitative results, not qualitative. The current 5-start system fails to show at a glance who is really for, against, or natural to the idea and it what quantity. Does 120 votes and 3 stars mean people are really for or really against the idea equally? Does it mean that most people are kinda for it, but a few people are really against? Or does is it some odd mix that just happens to work out to be 3 out of 5 starts. The +1/-1 system would do away with the middle ground. It’s now a go/no-go type situation. No more were going to kinda-sorta lunch the rocket. Or better yet, were not going to stall at the 10 second mark for two years.
Time-frame
The second change would be to limit the time-frame of ideas. Ideas should last no longer than two development cycles. In other words, the idea is induced in the current development cycle. It is voted on in the next development cycle. Then it is either put in the Go, No-go, or Retry At A Later Date list. The Ideas Forum should direct where development is going in the next couple of releases.
Representation
The third change would be to allow representatives. Basically you would have the power to vote toward any idea, but if you selected someone to represent you, then your vote would automatically copy theirs, unless you went and manually changed it. Meaning, if 99 people selected me as their representative, then any time I voted for something I would add 100 votes my way (99 votes on their behalf and 1 vote on my own behalf). The problem with this third change, however, is the fact that spam accounts or bogus accounts could multiple an individual’s authority. To undermine this cheating, I would suggest their be a minimum amount of account activity before they can elect a representative and that they must either remain active or continually re-elect the representative. The benefit of having representatives is that it should reduce the amount of repeat noise and help focus were development should happen. Not everyone has enough time to vote on every idea in every project their a community of, but they are smart enough to tell who has the same values and goals as their own.
Conclusion
I don’t think every idea I have is the perfect idea that everyone should follow, rather just some food for thought. Maybe this is a preview of things to come!?! WordPress is an Open Source Project and everyone is free to contribute if they wish. One thing I should mention about dreaming of changes is that it isn’t going to happen if we depend on the core developers to do it. They have their hands full and it’s not like it can just magically get done. If you want something done, your going to have to do it yourself. Depending how my schedule unfolds, I may submit some code to improve the WordPress Ideas Forum. What are three things you would change about the Ideas Forum?
How I Would Redo The WordPress Ideas Forum
If I could change three things about the WordPress Ideas Forum, this is what it might be at first glance.
Voting System
I would change the one through five start system to a +1/-1 system. It would show the total votes for and against the idea. The total number of votes made and the percentages for and against it. This would be an improvement, because it shows quantitative results, not qualitative. The current 5-start system fails to show at a glance who is really for, against, or natural to the idea and it what quantity. Does 120 votes and 3 stars mean people are really for or really against the idea equally? Does it mean that most people are kinda for it, but a few people are really against? Or does is it some odd mix that just happens to work out to be 3 out of 5 starts. The +1/-1 system would do away with the middle ground. It’s now a go/no-go type situation. No more were going to kinda-sorta lunch the rocket. Or better yet, were not going to stall at the 10 second mark for two years.
Time-frame
The second change would be to limit the time-frame of ideas. Ideas should last no longer than two development cycles. In other words, the idea is induced in the current development cycle. It is voted on in the next development cycle. Then it is either put in the Go, No-go, or Retry At A Later Date list. The Ideas Forum should direct where development is going in the next couple of releases.
Representation
The third change would be to allow representatives. Basically you would have the power to vote toward any idea, but if you selected someone to represent you, then your vote would automatically copy theirs, unless you went and manually changed it. Meaning, if 99 people selected me as their representative, then any time I voted for something I would add 100 votes my way (99 votes on their behalf and 1 vote on my own behalf). The problem with this third change, however, is the fact that spam accounts or bogus accounts could multiple an individual’s authority. To undermine this cheating, I would suggest their be a minimum amount of account activity before they can elect a representative and that they must either remain active or continually re-elect the representative. The benefit of having representatives is that it should reduce the amount of repeat noise and help focus were development should happen. Not everyone has enough time to vote on every idea in every project their a community of, but they are smart enough to tell who has the same values and goals as their own.
Conclusion
I don’t think every idea I have is the perfect idea that everyone should follow, rather just some food for thought. Maybe this is a preview of things to come!?! WordPress is an Open Source Project and everyone is free to contribute if they wish. One thing I should mention about dreaming of changes is that it isn’t going to happen if we depend on the core developers to do it. They have their hands full and it’s not like it can just magically get done. If you want something done, your going to have to do it yourself. Depending how my schedule unfolds, I may submit some code to improve the WordPress Ideas Forum. What are three things you would change about the Ideas Forum?