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#1 2007-04-27 18:02:59

colak
Admin
From: Cyprus
Registered: 2004-11-20
Posts: 9,012
Website GitHub Mastodon Twitter

survey

there is a lot of bitching lately… Whereas txp is a community or developer driven product has seldom been the issue here and, in my view, it should not be one. Siince the early days txp was a dev driven application with the community submitting for bugs and/or enhancements.

I seem to remember one of the devs admitting in this forum that txp grows as per specific requests by their clients (paraphrased). I do not think that this is a bad thing. I also think that there has never been a serious survey to see how the community would want txp to grow. I’ve been moderating the “Feature ideas” forum for some time now and apart from the “Facelift” thread which at the moment contains 222 posts, the rest are slowly dying out. To me a facelift, although welcome, has nothing to do with the functionality of the application. It is easy to shout here but where does this lead?

I think that it is easier to complain rather than do. How would the community feel if a proper survey is to be carried out regarding what we would like to see in the next txp version?

If anyone has any specific question(s) which they feel I should include in the survey please feel free to post them here and, if there is enough response, I will organise for an online survey form.

Although I have certain questions myself I would like to point this towards the whole of the community as this should become a community based survey and not a personal one…


Yiannis
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NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
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#2 2007-04-27 18:29:53

ramanan
Plugin Author
From: Toronto
Registered: 2004-03-12
Posts: 323
Website

Re: survey

Having a poll to see if people want to take part in a poll seems overly bureaucratic. Why not just make a survey, and see if people here fill it out?

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#3 2007-04-28 02:39:19

zem
Developer Emeritus
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-04-08
Posts: 2,579

Re: survey

The reason the feature requests forum is full of unanswered requests is simple: someone has to build this stuff. Surveys might tell you about demand, but they don’t change the supply.

If Textpattern is indeed a community-driven project, this won’t be a problem: the community will submit patches for all these new features.


Alex

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#4 2007-04-28 07:12:47

colak
Admin
From: Cyprus
Registered: 2004-11-20
Posts: 9,012
Website GitHub Mastodon Twitter

Re: survey

Ramanan, zem

I believe that the reason that the feature requests forum is not that active is not because of patches or any other reason but because when a person asks for an enhancement, they do so because of their own individual need. This of course causes people to back off if there are not enough responses from the community.

Being a php idiot myself I am always too aware that most of txp usage is by people like me, who like the software for its ease of use and its flexibility which is achieved, not by understanding how server side code works but how the software works. I believe that non php/mysql coders constitute the majority of this community.

The poll although might seem overly bureaucratic is one democratic method to see what the community gears towards.
I also think that the poll might be of help to the developers to create a picture about what features the community would like to have included. Many times I have seen requests here that I would have liked to have them implemented but I did not contribute to the discussion as others have said what i would have said in a more eloquent way. I’m sure that there are other people who do the same… Follow a discussion, listening but not always ‘speaking’.

If the community feels that it will not help, the survey idea does not HAVE to happen:)… That is fine. In my profession (architecture), we sit around a table and brainstorm regarding solutions to problems. Out of 100 ideas we might implement one. I do not feel precious regarding this. It’s just an idea which I think that it might help.

Last edited by colak (2007-04-28 08:00:00)


Yiannis
——————————
NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.

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#5 2007-04-29 00:00:14

zem
Developer Emeritus
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-04-08
Posts: 2,579

Re: survey

That is fine. In my profession (architecture), we sit around a table and brainstorm regarding solutions to problems. Out of 100 ideas we might implement one.

And how many of those buildings were completed without a construction crew?

Never mind, let’s play along for now. So you have a survey, perhaps several rounds, brainstorm ideas, and narrow it down to Feature X.

Feature X is a great idea, there’s no doubt about that. Everyone agrees it’s the best, plenty of people want it.

Now what happens?

Last edited by zem (2007-04-29 01:02:15)


Alex

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#6 2007-04-29 06:11:40

colak
Admin
From: Cyprus
Registered: 2004-11-20
Posts: 9,012
Website GitHub Mastodon Twitter

Re: survey

Alex,

Feature X is a great idea, there’s no doubt about that. Everyone agrees it’s the best, plenty of people want it.

My suspicion would be that the coding for that idea might already be in existence in the form of a plugin, or it might regard the admin interface. That this is of course just a speculation.

I started this thread so as to help. I just posted what i thought was an idea which might have involved the community. It seems that, instead, we are having what seems to be developing into an argument. This was not my intention. The community seems that it does not want this poll. If I had Mary’s rights over this forum I would have closed this topic:)


Yiannis
——————————
NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.

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#7 2007-04-29 13:05:15

zero
Member
From: Lancashire
Registered: 2004-04-19
Posts: 1,470
Website

Re: survey

Developers, when you are ready to start work on Feature X, when you feel TXP is ripe for a significant step forward, why not tell everybody and ask everyone to put their ideas forward in the Features forum, so the right one can be chosen?

But perhaps this time when you are ready will never come?


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#8 2007-04-29 23:19:59

zem
Developer Emeritus
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-04-08
Posts: 2,579

Re: survey

The underlying assumption here is that there are a bunch of developers sitting around twiddling their thumbs and thinking, “I have all this spare time and energy to spend working on someone else’s problem. If only someone would tell me what to do..”

If that were the case, the feature requests forum would be full of completed features.

If there is code lying around that you think ought to be in Textpattern, then please send us a patch. If it belongs, we’ll check it in.

We’re ready to step forward and work on Textpattern. Contact us to discuss rates and time frames.

Last edited by zem (2007-04-29 23:38:13)


Alex

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