Should we have a WikiTree Improvements/Suggestions category?

Question

I like looking at improvements/suggestions for WikiTree... can we/should we make this a category of its own-- its a separate thing from "WikiTree System Help" because its things that arent in place but someone wants them.

 

Also, can more than one category apply to a question? For example, if we want to add a HSP honor code, it could be categorized as Euro Aristo AND improvements... while it mainly pertains to EuroAristo, the general WikiTree population may be interested and it does impact the whole system.

 

Thoughts?

Comments

I just created this new question: Should we start a WikiTree Enhancements Project?
http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/5122/should-we-start-a-wikitree-enhancements-project

Answer 1

I guess Chris may have a long enough "to-do" list already :)

...but it would separate them for details of existing functionality and avoid clutter.

Answer 2

Let's see. Just thinking out loud ...

What's the purpose of a category? Why have any at all?

What's the cost of having separate categories? Among the costs:

• It takes longer to ask a question.
• It crowds all the categories if you have too many.
• Questions that were put in the wrong category (at least 20-30%) have to be recategorized.
• Someone browsing one category won't see questions in another category.

Among the benefits:

• If you're interested in one category, but not another, you can just see the questions you're interested in.

Are there other benefits?

Do the benefits of subdividing a category like "WikiTree Tech" overcome the costs? For me personally, I'm going to have to look at all the questions in WikiTree Tech, whether they're questions or suggestions, so I'd rather have them together. Plus, I think a question often leads to a suggestion, or vice-versa, so it can be hard to separate them.

Speaking of which, Lindsay, you asked a question inside your suggestion: Can questions be in two categories? No, unfortunately not.

Back to whether questions and suggestions should be separated. Like I said, for me, personally, I'd rather have them together for convenience. Are you saying you'd prefer to have them separated so that you only have to browse suggestions? Or maybe you're thinking of the people who have questions. I don't think people looking for answers to questions generally browse the category first. They'll just ask or search (and the asking auto-searches).

Comments

Soooo... Chris, it sounds as if using this logic that Ancestry forums are redundant and they should just have one big forum with everything in it?  (I'll have my tongue surgically removed from my cheek now)
Seriously though, some categorisation will be needed just to deal with the volume of posts - unless you start hiding or removing questions/answers/suggestions that aren't "current" or need to be archived.

---

Hi Wombat. We do have tagging by surname. That serves the same function as the Ancestry surname forums. And we even get more granular: tagging by individual. That means that every person on the tree can essentially have their own Q&A section.

---

I had overlooked the surname tagging - I guess it depends how many usage style questions we end up...

Answer 3

In software development, I'm used to a somewhat more formal process for bugs/enhancements, in a separate dedicated tool such as JIRA or Trac. There's lots of sites that offer hosting for that for FOSS (free/open source) projects. In JIRA we can categorize the entries by functional area, prioritize them, assign them to developers, comment/vote on them, merge duplicate reports, attach details/pictures, target them for releases, run queries/reports, etc. I'd be happy just to see some sort of todo list, in priority order, just to have a feel for the soon-to-come improvements and what's being worked on. It all seems kind of random right now.

Comments

Hi Bob,

This week I created http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bugs to make tracking little items a bit more transparent. There's not much on there. Many little bugs are still in my random, personal to-do file -- waiting to be moved.

Big features and changes are tracked on our private BugTracker. I'm all for being more open and transparent about things.

It's worth emphasizing, though, that we're not a non-profit and we're not all open source. See http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/WikiTree_FAQ
Still want to get more involved? Let's talk more and get you on http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:WikiTree_Tools

Chris

---

Yes I realize WikiTree is neither non-profit nor open source, I was suggesting you could take advantage of some of the free available resources, to add some transparency to the bug/enhancement process, I'm never really sure what enhancements are soon to come out until after they appear, but in the end your internal process is completely up to you. Typically the line between bugs and enhancement requests is somewhat blurry. As always, all of us deeply appreciate the work you have done to make this wonderful site available.

I could get more involved in the tools site, as time permits, if nothing else just to add what I have already done to the mix in case anybody else wants to use or build upon them, though I do consider it a temporary work around while waiting for some of the previously suggested enhancements. I don't really do PHP or Python development though.