Sprucing Up The Wishlist

Cambiz · Post by **Cambiz** » 25 Jul 2012 01:22

I have been looking at the wishlist which Jane has been excellently maintaining for a number of years.

In case you are unaware, the idea of it is to highlight to Calico Pie what we, the users, feel is missing or could be improved in, or added to, Family Historian.

Calico Pie, the makers, of course are under no obligation to take heed, but there are some worthwhile suggestions from some very knowledgeable people in the list, and I for one have learnt some new things from going through the wishes despite having used the software for a number of years (for instance I was unaware that I could remove all PRIVATE flagged people from a diagram using a combination of diagram options until I read a WL item calling for it to be simplified).

A few months ago I put together a shared spreadsheet of the wishes and asked for contributions.

As a result, I've now closed a number of wishes, because they were fulfilled in V5 or Ancestral Sources or a Plugin or if upon examination it turned out they were duplicated or could be sensibly merged with other requests.

I am now asking for help in pruning it further to remove unwanted requests or those of little perceived worth. I'm not trying to denigrate wishes that have a small audience, which is why I've picked column K as the key indicator - user ratings (the example here would be those wanting a MAC version of FH - not something the majority would care about, but those who do, do!).

When voting I have assumed that if the voter thought the item was worthwhile they would give it 4 or a 5, if they thought it was no good would give it a 1 or a 2 and if they were being polite would give it a 3. So under 3 would probably mean unwanted. Ok, this may be warped logic.

I have highlighted a number of wishes that are of sub 3 interest and have indicated this in column L. Can I ask that members have a look see at the list and either agree that the comment in column L of the link below is true (in which case the wish would be dropped and closed) - or argue against it. I want to get a good range of responses, so please be as erratic as possible in going through the list else we'll get loads of comments on low numbered wishes and nothing on others. I apologise if I've ignored comments kindly furnished previously.

There are a number or wishes created after January 2011 which need to be voted for/against, if you haven't already done so please. I do not propose to remove any of these just yet as I don't think they've received enough attention.

It may be that you feel a Wish List item is really worthwhile, but poorly specified - in which case I'm happy to edit it with your improved specification.

The spreadsheet is at
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... pX2c#gid=0

and is fully editable by anyone. Please be considerate though and not remove other's comments.

p.s. finally please note that any wishes that I personally have suggested may have 0 votes and low interest, but are totally immune from closure [grin]

ID:6412

BillH · Post by **BillH** » 25 Jul 2012 02:54

Chris,

I reviewed all of those marked as 'Low Interest - Close?' and from my viewpoint all of these can be closed.

Thanks for all the hard work!

Bill

PeterR · Post by **PeterR** » 25 Jul 2012 11:47

I've started going through the list but am not happy with the decision to close http://www.fhug.org.uk/wishlist/wldispl ... lwlref=178.

I am not aware of any functionality to select by 'Query Type', e.g. Individual Query, Family Query, or Fact Query, etc. In fact the View-menu pop-up lists for Standard or Custom Queries are mere alphabetic lists, and not easy to navigate. Therefore I always use the drop-down list in the Query window, which is scrollable and much easier to navigate. It would be better still if there was at least an indication of Query Type, but better yet a filter on Query Type.

Cambiz · Post by **Cambiz** » 25 Jul 2012 13:22

WL#178 re-opened and respec'd. Please approve or tell me what it should say.

RogerF · Post by **RogerF** » 25 Jul 2012 15:43

The Wish List Requests folder contains a full year's worth of ideas which haven't yet made it into the list proper, and so cannot be voted upon. What is the status of these wishes in the Big Scheme of Things?

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 25 Jul 2012 16:04

Once Chris finishes tidying up the existing list, we will add them in. Sorry I had not realised I had not done them for a year, I don't know where the time goes.

Cambiz · Post by **Cambiz** » 25 Jul 2012 16:05

Which ones? I saw one and added it (hope that was alright, Jane?) and split one into its components (and later found I had created a duplicate!). It's been taking me a few minutes each one (idiot me finishing at 1.30am!)

I thought the we could get rid of the chaff before adding more (wishes, that is, not chaff)

I also think some of the wishes could do with re-scoping - perhaps for the older ones re-writing them for the post-V5 world. Perhaps they will gather more or higher votes.

I'm sure most people have a better style than I and can precis a complex wish including good instructions on where the problem lies (the screen or the menu etc.)

RogerF · Post by **RogerF** » 25 Jul 2012 16:58

Chris said:

Which ones?

Assuming you're replying to me and not Jane, the 32 items in Wish List Request on the Main Menu -- the 'temporary' parking place for requests waiting to be categorised on the Wish List proper.

Cambiz · Post by **Cambiz** » 25 Jul 2012 17:10

Thanks Roger - I was replying to your post, but I didn't realise that Jane's post had come in whilst I was typing it. Apologies.

I think there's a problem with just adding the 32 straight in that some are duplicate current WL requests (I immediately see FH for MAC which I know is an item).
Going through the list to determine which are new ones must be a pain in the neck for Jane. So I thought there might be new wishes that you knew of that which could be added.

RogerF · Post by **RogerF** » 25 Jul 2012 20:35

So hang on a minute. Ideas have been rusting away as Wish List Requests for up to a year, waiting for... whatever, and now suddenly there's a ChrisM shortcut method that gets items onto the list just like that. No disrespect whatsoever for your efforts, Chris, but I'm a bit, er, perplexed.

Cambiz · Post by **Cambiz** » 25 Jul 2012 20:59

Dear Roger,

It's not a short-cut method. I asked Jane if I could be of help with the wishlist and she has granted me access rights just to that part.

Jane puts a lot of time and effort into the site and I felt that some bits must be plain boring and a chore and I could help.

I'm rubbish at giving advise on queries, but as my day job is software testing I thought I could utilise that skill. I've found item by item discussion using a spreadsheet is a good tool. I'm using a RAG (red-amber-green) status to gauge the user base perception of worth.

The spreadsheet is mine and I have posted many times both here and on the rootsweb asking for contributions / amendments / clarifications etc. and have let anyone amend it to make it a group effort.

I want FH6 to include many/most/all of the wishlist and feel getting a slimline, precise wishlist will aid Simon in understanding what his users see as weaknesses.

PeterR · Post by **PeterR** » 25 Jul 2012 22:17

Chris,
Many thanks for all your efforts on this. I hope to check more of the spreadsheet soon. Meanwhile I'm happy with #178 as amended.

Cambiz · Post by **Cambiz** » 26 Jul 2012 12:56

I think all the requests have either been transformed to WL items or (set to be) removed from the requests form.

RogerF · Post by **RogerF** » 26 Jul 2012 14:12

Excellent work, Chris -- many many thanks for your efforts on our behalf.

Now for the really hard part. I'm convinced that a wishlist of several hundred items is effectively meaningless, because very few FHUGers will have the time and motivation to even read all of those wishes, let alone vote meaningfully on them. I don't feel there's much mileage in saying that users can sort columns, etc -- that's error-prone, and still more trouble that most people will want to be bothered with.

So here's the proposal. You're probably more familiar with the suggestion list than anybody else round here. Would you be able (abd willing) to select what are, in your opinion, the top 20 wishes, then the next 20, and finally a third set of 20 not-so-hot possibles? That's three screenfulls of data -- not too daunting. All the rest of the several hundred can be filed in a backburner list somewhere. I'd be perfectly prepared to trust your judgement.

With a maximum of 60 ideas to vote on (and only the top 20 would be a good start), then I'm sure we'd have more chance of focussing on the items which were widely popular. And then the list can be refined over time... but never with more than 60 items.

What do you think? What does FHUG think?

PeterR · Post by **PeterR** » 26 Jul 2012 14:24

It may be worth emphasizing that a Wishlist vote of 0 is ignored when the Average Rating is calculated. The only way to reduce the Average Rating of a proposal is to vote 1.

[Edited]

Cambiz · Post by **Cambiz** » 26 Jul 2012 14:30

You're reading my mind!

I was looking at WL#510 and could see two names at the bottom (not sure if that's visible to everyone) but only one vote.

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 26 Jul 2012 14:37

Chris you only see names, because you now have admin powers for the wishlist, I don't show that information to normal users.

Cambiz · Post by **Cambiz** » 26 Jul 2012 16:07

ok, sorry

ireneblackburn · Post by **ireneblackburn** » 26 Jul 2012 20:15

When voting for Wish list items it says vote 0 if it of no interest, so that is what I did. Do I have to increase my vote to 1 to show that I am definitely not interested? It seems a bit backward to me, surely 0 votes should be taken into consideration since it is a valid vote.

I suppose I can go through the 4 pages of wishlist items that got my zero vote and move them up to 1 so you know I am really not interested.

Irene

Cambiz · Post by **Cambiz** » 26 Jul 2012 20:46

Dear Irene,

Voting 0 does not effect the score or any averages.

My interpretation of voting 1 means that you definitely do not want that feature to be introduced as opposed to having no interest.

An example, as a PC user I have no interest in the wish to create a version of FH for an Apple MAC so I would vote 0. I could easily have not voted at all but voting is worthwhile if you want to use the wishlist filters.

However, if I felt that the wish would be detrimental to my way of working (i.e. the PC version would no longer be developed and the Apple version would be the main product) I would vote 1.

And yes, up until this morning I thought 0 meant what 1 actually means!

Chris

ireneblackburn · Post by **ireneblackburn** » 26 Jul 2012 22:00

But when you go to vote it plainly says vote 0 if it is of no interest, if a zero votes is not counted then the wording should be amended

Cambiz · Post by **Cambiz** » 26 Jul 2012 23:26

Sorry Irene,

We'll have to blame whoever invented the English language.

Voting 0 means 'I raise no objection, because I have no interest'

That said, why should I stand in the way of those who do have an interest?

Perhaps the wishlist voting text (which is probably part of the software that Jane bought to create FHUG) could be amended to say
5 - Essential
4 - Worthwhile
3 - Would improve for some
2 - I feel it would be not be good
1 - Stupid idea
0 - Not worried, either way

(you wouldn't believe how many times I wrote this message!)

ireneblackburn · Post by **ireneblackburn** » 27 Jul 2012 08:27

Never mind, all my zeros have been changed to 1 now.

Post by **ColeValleyGirl** » 27 Jul 2012 10:14

I'm finding the current state of the wish list most confusing -- I'm going through looking at what I want to vote on and finding some of them are CLOSED or DUPLICATE when I look at the detail... Is there any way to reflect the status in the title?

Cambiz · Post by **Cambiz** » 27 Jul 2012 11:11

I think that's my fault.

The closed ones should be automatically filtered but the release version (which provides the filter) does not seem to be retained.

Jane has granted me rights to edit the wishlist and I closed a lot of items, but put them as being closed by V5, whereas they should have been set as Duplicates, 5+ Plugins or Dropped.

I think Jane did do something this morning to correct this after I had gave her a long list of ones I'd messed up but I too have noticed that what she did may not have worked.

I apologise to everyone for causing the confusion and I have indeed been adding CLOSED to the title when I've found one.[frown]

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