So with so many ideas being passed around it's not possible to keep record of it all, so we'll look into a voting system. People have given us many already but so far we can only tell them to hang on to them and wait for a system. So now's the time - question is how to implement it? We're very open to ideas. So some initial thoughts about a suggestion box with voting:
This site seems to use Drupal, and there are some stable voting systems in place which we can try: https://www.drupal.org/node/990382 Granted, they may be a bit limited in terms of functionality, but it would be implemented into the site itself which is nice.They seem stable enough.
An alternative might be to create a post and link to an external (possibly better?) voting system or site which is better, but that can have its own issues (how to guarantee it's an LMR member who's voting, and only voted once per idea?
We could do the mass e-mail thing to get people's opinions on topics, but we don't want to spam - the idea is to have people share ideas in one place and vote them up or down.
If comments are added beneath ideas, it would make the page really long, so maybe a comments section for each idea? Even if someone suggests an idea which we can't put in place any time soon, it's still good to have it in the list.
Not all of the ideas might need back-end development - might be a simple change which can be done in seconds, while others can be complete re-works.
RobotShop's ideas would simply be part of the list and voted on like any other.
If there are comments about whatever system we put in place, maybe use this thread rather than the voting system?
.. ideas?!
So again, this thread is specifically about a method to put in place where members can submit ideas, changes, suggestions and ideally vote on them. Might make edits to this first post as needed.
Edit 1: An idea suggestion and voting system the way we want it does not seem to exist as "out of the box", so we'll test a stable plugin which is directly compatible with the platform for voting on ideas and should only allow members to vote.
I like the system that spotify has where folks can make suggestions and there’s a voting system in place. once something has enough positive feedback they look into implementing the change. Not sure if that’s really compatible with the membership levels, so total (active) membership would need to be taken into account. I assume membership levels may swell a bit with RS community members joining soon, so it would be interesting if long-time members of LMR’s votes could be somehow weighted differently (say 2 years or more)? Opening a can of worms I’m sure with that…
My suggestion is to not change anything for a while. The fur seems to be flying fast and furious amongst many who have been here a while so let things quiet down and eventually emotions will calm. Taking away the shoutbox as you have done will do little to calm the roiling seas…
But when you finally do get to changes, I don’t want email. I get far too much already and many important communications are missed in the deluge I get. Have a series of pages where new ideas are explained and each user can vote up or down. That is my “vote” anyways.
E-mail seems out of the question (good). For the moment, this thread is still to look at the technology for the voting system as opposed to even adding ideas yet. If a really good idea for a voting tech appears here and will take time to implement, better to know sooner rather than wait. It seems everyone’s on the same page as to what we want to have the page look like, but still value your input to the right tech / system.
A quick, like stupid quick only scanned the first few hits and polldaddy was the top pick. $200/year (I didn’t read everything. It might cost a $1000/year. I would understand looking elsehwere at that price) to make private polls with username and logins. I suppose though that as the shoutbox had code that required a user to be logged in to see it, it shouldn’t be too difficult to hide a poll behind a user login.
With respect to the polls that are being posted. Will the voting counts be accepted no matter how few votes are received? This site having (a hundred or so?) active members being shoehorned due to a low poll number count will in my opinion not be a good thing.
The idea is to not make any changes without the community’s consent / wishes. Once a person votes (at least with the current system), they can see how many votes went towards each choice. If a decision is made which counters the general vote, it would really need considerable justification. Although the idea is still to put something in place to allow members to submit ideas directly and then vote them up and down (still looking for the right tech), the current system was one of two stable choices for Drupal which we were able to put in place on very short notice.
Note that the comments section has been retained beneath the poll, and results are made public to the user once they have cast their vote. Keep in mind this thread is about the technology used for the polls and does not relate to the questions or answers or ideas themselves. Feedback?
