Family Historian User Group

This hasn't been marked completed in the wish list itself although the associated topic has been moved to the closed board.

The Wish List request isn't closed; items are moved from New Wish List Requests to Closed Wish List Requests when they have either been created on the Wish List or deemed unnecessary/lacking support/a duplicate.

OK, misunderstood the forum usage, but my point was NAME.TYPE can be added in the All tab and the Main tab could be customised to include it, so the wish list item can be closed.

I agree with John.

I notice this still isn't marked as completed in the wish list - is there some aspect of the request I've missed that is still outstanding?

It is completed now for V7.0.

jelv wrote: ↑

22 May 2023 11:26

I notice this still isn't marked as completed in the wish list - is there some aspect of the request I've missed that is still outstanding?

Yes. The necessary moderator time.

While not wishing for a moment to undermine the excellent work done by Helen and Mike to maintain the Wish List, doesn't that just demonstrate that the current process is not fit for purpose?

Virtually nothing has been progressed to the actual Wish List or marked as closed since last year, despite many of the discussions reaching their natural conclusion.

If the current moderators are unable to maintain the list along with all their other selfless commitments to FH, don't we either need a different process or more delegation...?

Mark, the biggest problem is getting the OP or other interested parties to formulate the requirement in a form that can easily be created as a Wish List entry. Too often the OP posts some informal request and is never heard from again!

Mike, fully recognise that. I proposed some time ago that if neither the OP nor somebody else supporting the proposal is prepared to get it into a form where it can be easily transferred to the list, it is closed automatically.

Your and Helen’s roles should be as editors, not authors.

How about setting a deadline, say two months from now, by when outstanding requests are either tidied up or closed?

Mark1834 wrote: ↑

22 May 2023 17:26

If the current moderators are unable to maintain the list along with all their other selfless commitments to FH, don't we either need a different process or more delegation...?

Difficult to delegate without volunteers to be delegated to
Help wanted for the Wish List (21292)

Mark1834 wrote: ↑

22 May 2023 20:00

How about setting a deadline, say two months from now, by when outstanding requests are either tidied up or closed?

Because a lot of the outstanding requests will take longer than that to tidy up. There's a bunch that overlap -- or at least, ought to be considered together to formulate a number of related requests -- for example, about Diagrams.

This feels like “paralysis by analysis”. A significant number of requests have been languishing for months with little or no discussion.

To move things forward, I’m happy to commit to going through all the outstanding items and place them in one of three buckets:

• Clear proposal, pass back to author to draft Wish List case (or moderator to do if trivial, as per today’s Dark Mode example).
• Unclear and/or lacking support. Move to Closed Items.
• Overlaps with another pending request. Specify who is to refine - case by case review.

Generating that list should be achievable by month-end, then we give authors a further two months to work up the accepted proposals.

Doing that will reduce the Pending list to just a handful of items under active discussion. Once we get to that state, it becomes much easier to keep on top of it.

Thank you. I'm happy with that, with a few caveats.

1. We must recognise that not everybody will have the skill to work up a proposal, and not having that skill doesn't make a wish invalid. How will we deal with that situation?
2. We ought to be clear about what an 'finished' proposal consists of e.g. it should specify what will be possible after the Wish List item is implemented that isn't possible now; and that it shouldn't specify how it should be implemented.

Let’s take it case by case once we see how many items are in each bucket. The aim will be to focus moderator time where it can be best employed - helping work up a credible and well-supported proposal.

Mark1834 wrote: ↑

23 May 2023 11:52

Let’s take it case by case once we see how many items are in each bucket. The aim will be to focus moderator time where it can be best employed - helping work up a credible and well-supported proposal.

But that isn't necessarily a moderator skillset or responsibility; the only part of this process that a moderator has to do is create the Wish List entry once the proposal has been worked up -- preferably by cut-and-past with a modicum of html formatting.

Helen - so what’s your proposal? If we shouldn’t reject items because the original proposer can’t work up the support case, nobody else has chipped in to refine it, and it’s not the moderator’s role either, what do we do with them?

Kicking them into the long grass isn’t a solution...

Mark1834 wrote: ↑

23 May 2023 12:13

Helen - so what’s your proposal? If we shouldn’t reject items because the original proposer can’t work up the support case, nobody else has chipped in to refine it, and it’s not the moderator’s role either, what do we do with them?

Kicking them into the long grass isn’t a solution...

Welcome to the reality of the Wish List, Mark

Seriously, there are items on the Wish List (anything to do with Diagrams/Charts/Sentence Templates/...) that I am in no way qualified to refine -- I don't use those features, so have no idea what would make sense as a request.

Best I can suggest is seek a volunteer for a specific proposal if it is clear that there's some support for it but not the skillset in the proposer to work it up. Simple proposals (like the dark mode one I dealt with today) don't actually need any working up, but there aren't many of those.

Ok, so it still feels like a “three bucket” solution, even if the exact titles and actions might need refining:

• Clear proposal, to go to list.
• Needs refining - call for volunteer to coordinate, close if nobody steps forward.
• Little interest, close.

Let’s see how big each bucket is, then take it from there.

Go for it... maybe ask the OP to refine, and only seek volunteers when it's clear at the end what is left to handle?