As a non-regular user of the developer forum, is it currently impossible for me to make feature requests that I feel could possibly benefit the platform in a large way. Members should have the ability to message a support/approval team to have posts approved and moved into #feature-requests:website-features (think like how @Bug-Support works). This solution would allow for members to voice their suggestions for features in website features whilst also ensuring members cannot spam or break the rules some other way.
Common potential argument 1#: This team would be flooded by messages from members, making it impossible for anyone seeking feature request post approval to be seen.
Counter-argument to argument 1#: Bug-Support does an incredibly similar thing to what I’m suggesting, but for bugs. Since Bug-Support can handle their workload, and process bug reports of any kind daily, I’m certain a feature request team that would have a lesser workload would be fine. Bug Support only has 11 members of their team, but they are capable of doing their jobs near perfectly.
Common potential argument 2#: The team may be able to approve posts at a quick speed and also stop rule-breaking ones from being approved, but the category would be flooded with so many feature requests that other requests would be drowned out.
Counter-argument to argument 2#: Once again, I’m drawing a comparison with something related to bugs. Every report in #bug-reports is fully viewed over by moderators, with them engaging with the post and asking questions to help diagnose the cause of a bug. A moderator could definitely take it out of their time to read each feature request if other moderators/devforum teams are capable of taking time out of their day to view posts and ask questions regarding the posts. It is quite literally what they would be employed to do
DevForum members used to be able to do this, with post-approval. This was where posts would have to be approved by moderators before actually being posted on the forum. Eventually the member would become a regular and would not need to go through the post-approval process.
However post-approval has been shut down for quite a while (at least over a year), since the moderators were volunteers and were not paid.
it’s inevitable that a return to it has to occur, or some other solution I haven’t thought of. It’s getting to the point where in a few years members could outnumber regulars. Even something like a regular referral system would be better than how things currently are(I.E requiring a regular to recommend you in order for you to become a regular)
Yeah it’s currently impossible to be promoted to a regular. I believe that DevForum staff were trying to come up with a solution to the post-approval problem and a replacement to the old approval system.
They’re working on something… I mean apparently, that’s what they say, we know nothing about what happening behind the scenes afaik. Just a “Soon” or two.
I’m not doubting that they’re working on it, but the fact that it’s been almost 2 years(?) makes me think something isn’t exactly going right. But that’s just me being a conspiracy theorist, I suppose.
the only thing we can do is wait until they announce an idea, or suggest our own ideas in the meantime(though, from how things are looking, it’ll probably utilize ID verification and be hated by 50% of the community for that sole reason)
This will NEVER happen. When it was still a thing the mods and volunteers couldn’t keep up with all the posts and they were always stressed (I believe a volunteer said that). And now there would be even more requests and reports making everybody even more stressed than before.
I’ve realized that the solution I’ve purposed in this is basically what was originally in place, and that something like this being re-added is unlikely. The reason for such a specific post/solution is that I’ve seen people counter posts like the one you linked with “well how else will they prevent spam!?! the reason for the limit is so that these areas won’t be flooded with posts from new users!”. You need a purposed solution for a problem where some people are incredibly adamant on their standpoints. Posts regarding issues with regular-only categories are common, hence my attempt at a unique seeming solution
You probably already know this doesn’t scale because @Bug-Support isn’t scaling well either, it can take days or weeks to get a response. So this proposed solution doesn’t really add interesting discussion points. Best to use the existing threads about opening up resources to more devs.
In all honesty it’s becoming quite concerning that there isn’t a proposed succession plan for legacy features on the forum such as regular.
I feel if the forum administration at least provided it’s proposed reimplementation of this feature it would allow for public debate as to how to best handle it, leading to it being expedited quicker.
I am A firm believer that we can’t have a rushed solution to this issue and it should be something that is scalable as well; something in the interest of everybody of the forum.
Potential solutions I could see would be an elective based promotion system where a selective group of vouched members are leveled up, however as we know this won’t work…
Again, seeing the current plan might open up the discussion to everybody on here to allow for a solution we can all agree upon
Thanks for all the feedback on various issues regarding the bug reporting workflow. We’re very aware of these issues and understand that the current situation prevents you from effectively providing us with feedback.
We’re going to be shifting more internal resources towards prioritizing creator feedback workflows (not just adding patches here and there as has been the case since ~Sep 2020). I will try to be as transparent as possible about things we are planning to roll out as we finish planning and things become more clear, and get feedback from the community early on where appropriate.
Many thanks for continuing to push on these issues and we really appreciate your patience!
