Forum update: new suggestion system!

[Rapsey]

As many of you know I've been hard at work on a complete revamp of the website and forums. One of the many improvements is a new suggestion system, which I have decided to backport to the old (read: current) forums. Consider it a taste of things to come.

It's all fairly straightforward. Up/down-voting with a proper ranking:



Each idea has a status so you can easily see where it's at.

Currently the possible statuses are:

• New
• Accepted
• Implemented
• Duplicate (with a reference to the prior topic)
• Denied

In addition you can now see who voted what:



How does it work?
Simple, head over to the ideas overview page (can be found inside the Suggestions subforum). From there you can post new ideas and vote on existing ones. Under the hood these ideas are posted as topics and can be replied to as usual. To vote, click on the green/red arrow icons next to "Rating:" as shown in the image above.

FAQ (Few Anticipated Questions)

1. What about the old suggestions?
   Unfortunately we can't automatically transfer all old suggestions into the new system (yet) so I've manually transferred 5 suggestions to get started with. Because of this the old suggestion forums won't go away immediately. They will serve as a backlog/archive we can use to populate the new system.
2. Why do you call it ideas instead of suggestions?
   Because the old suggestion forums will be around for a while longer, it seemed less confusing that way. Also because the upstream project on which it is based calls it ideas.
3. Is this only for in-game suggestions?
   Not really, I can see this working for any and all suggestions. However until the forums/website revamp is done it is fairly pointless to make website suggestions.
4. Why are the topics posted by PkHonor?
   I'm afraid that's just the way it works. If the topics were posted under the author's user they would be able to do things that would break the ideas system. Any replies to these topics can be made as normal posts from your own user though.
5. But.. but... what about the post count?
   
6. No polls?
   Nope. This is primarily a yes/no system, you can't really say yes or no to a topic if it also has a poll with 10 different options. Or well, you can, but then the yes/no votes become meaningless.

Due to the yes/no nature of the system it is most suitable for specific suggestions, rather than vague ideas with several possible solutions. That doesn't mean you can't have discussions there of course. They're just forum topics after all so you certainly can. However if you want your idea to quickly rise to the top it is highly recommended to make a specific proposal, that way everyone can go straight to the yes/no vote. If you don't have a specific proposal yet, or if your idea still has multiple options, the Polls section might be a good place to narrow it down before putting it to a yes/no vote.

[Tezey]

How do I vote? Don't see a button for it.

[Rapsey]

How do I vote? Don't see a button for it.

Go here.

EDIT: Moved the link to the forum overview page so you can't miss it:

[Tezey]

Nothing happens when I press the green or red arrow?

[Rapsey]

Nothing happens when I press the green or red arrow?

Probably because you have already voted. For these first 5 suggestions I have transferred all the poll votes from the old suggestion topics into the new system. You can check who voted and see if your name is in there (+ you get the option to delete your vote).

[Grizzly mint]

Nothing happens when I press the green or red arrow?

Probably because you have already voted. For these first 5 suggestions I have transferred all the poll votes from the old suggestion topics into the new system. You can check who voted and see if your name is in there (+ you get the option to delete your vote).

My name isn't there and i cant click on either arrow.

[Rapsey]

My name isn't there and i cant click on either arrow.

Which idea? You're not trying to click the arrows on the overview page are you? (you can only vote when viewing a specific idea)

EDIT: Also note that the list of names does not automatically update when you cast a vote, for that you need to refresh the page. The up/down vote counters do update instantly.

[The underdog]

But if I want an old suggestion to get on that list I should copy it to over there as long as it's implementation options are 'narrowed down'?

[Rapsey]

But if I want an old suggestion to get on that list I should copy it to over there as long as it's implementation options are 'narrowed down'?

Sort of. Every suggestion is different but as a rule of thumb I would say, if you can put it to a clear yes/no vote then go right ahead. Not everything needs to be narrowed down to the implementation details. You can also make fairly broad suggestions and leave it to Mike to decide how he's going to make it work.

Basically if your suggestion is something like "Fix comp capes in wild" but the community is divided between two distinct solutions then it's no use putting it to a yes/no vote. I'm sure it will get a lot of upvotes if many people want the main issue to be solved, but we can't do anything with it yet. It still needs further debate/polling,. The new ideas system is primarily a means of bumping things to the top of our todo-list, so it's not much use trying to bump something up if it's not ready to be done yet.

That being said, I realize until now it was usually the case that the suggestion comes first and the discussion follows, so it might be a bit odd to turn it around now. Fortunately no one is forcing you to. If you'd like you can use the new system exactly like the old section and have the discussions there. As long as it doesn't get in the way of us being able to spot the ones that are ready to go I don't see a problem with it.

Also, if you have any established suggestions with yes/no polls you want transferred (lets say with at least 10 votes) you can PM me the links and I will transfer them. That way you get to keep all the poll votes.

[Kenneth]

reddit/pkhonor