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[cascius]

Hi guys,

while I've been waiting impatiently for an answer for a new feature request i asked for, I realized a few things:

1. The J River team has obviously other things to concentrate on than new features as it's trying to release version 10 of their software. Their priority at this point is obviously to concentrate on bug fixes and finishing up any touch ups they have in mind. I cannot see any reasons for them to bother with reading new threads regarding new features at this point.

2. Rather than throwing random ideas/suggestions for new features (in a bunch of new threads), we should try to find a way to organize them so that once the J River team has time to look at them, it will be easy for them to do so.

Therefore, what i think would be more usefull is to define categories of feature requests and concentrate each type in their coresponding threads.

i.e.: specific threads regarding:
- new skinning features;
- new database management features;
- new video/tv playback/recording features;
- whatever you can think of

The J River team is always making an incredible job at both listening to their users' requests and trying to implement them. Therefore I think it would only be fair as a payback to be well organized and focused to make their life a little easier.

This is just a thought, but i think that defining and starting those specific threads would help the community quite a bit.

Let me know what you think. If you think this is a valid point, then please feel free to suggest more feature categories and other ideas.


Have a peaceful sunday morning,

-Cascius

[JustinChase]

I can't count the number of times people have requested J River make a sticky thread for this exact purpose.  it would serve everyone's needs/wants quite well, I should think.

J River can have the list of CUSTOMER suggestions in one handy place, they can comment if they wish, or strike out the finished ones, or rebutt the ones they can't/won't implement, or do nothing, but at least everyone can see what's on the plate so to speak.

I realize that J River does not design by committee, but they absolutely do listen to ideas from customers.  I can't think of any good reason NOT to do this, yet it still has not happened.  I don't know why.

J River's team has said on several occasions, "remind me later" about an idea.  Well I've forgotten most of them already, hopefully the requestor has not, but we don't know.  How much easier would it be for J River if our wants were on a list they could look at at any time?  Oh well, what do I know?

[lee269]

My recollection of the old wish list was that it wasnt any easier to follow than the board. There were hundreds of wishes, each slightly different and supported by handfuls of people. In other words, not much better than just reading the board and getting an idea about whats most popular.

Problem is, someone makes a good, popular suggestion - then its followed up with 'great idea - but add (slightly different) option X also!', or 'no not that way, how about this way?'. Soon we end up with a big grey area. Best you can hope for is an idea of what things people are interested in. I dont think a sticky thread would end up as anything other than a mishmash of requests.

I like cascius' idea of categories of request, but I think itd need someone to moderate the categories and distill into a board consensus - if there is such a thing.

Best of all would be JRiver moderation - 'these are the 3 biggest areas to improve according to board consensus in our opinion - please vote on x,y,or z'. Cant see that happening though.

Id like to see a way of clarifying exactly what the communities ideas of priorities for development are, but Im not totally convinced that a wishlist will be the solution.

Of course MC has the most responsive development team Ive come across, so none of this is intended as criticism.

[JustinChase]

lee269,

I agree with you for the most part.  However, I get the distinct feeling that no one at J River is making notes of our suggestions/wishes.  It seems like either they take an idea and run with it immediately, or they don't, in which case it gets forgotten.  Understandable I guess, but it seems like if they had some sort of 'master idea list', more things might get implemented.  I could certainly be wrong, but it sure seems like if an idea does not get repeated, it may never get implemented.

For example, I pondered the reason that lists took so long to scroll a couple months ago.  Seems like several people also wanted to see this improved, yet nothing happened.  Then last week, I commented again, and Matt had it fixed (mostly, still needs to be tweaked, I think) in the next build!  Now don't get me wrong, I couldn't be more happy that it's fixed/better, but I don't think it got done because it was the next item on J River's continually updated internal list of things to do, it got done because at the moment it was suggested, Matt had the time/energy/permission to fix it.  I would bet that if I didn't mention it again, nothing would have happened.  Again, not a complaint, just an observation.

Maybe a sticky thread is not the best way, but it seems like there should be a way to keep all of everyone's good ideas in front of the J River team.  Even though they are always amended by others suggestions, as you point out.  It would still be nice to know what's being considered, planned, etc.

Oh well, it's a beautiful day here, and I'm gonna go enjoy it.  I suggest you all do the same.

[urlwolf]

The thing is that popularity is not the only factor that they use to decide which features to implement, I think the difficulty of implementing them counts too. For that reason, most of us have a feature in mind that has been popular enough, but not implemented for a while. If you follow this forum, you can easily tell what are those preferred request for most users .

There should be a little bit of more transparency. For example, I'd like to know the ROADMAP, that is, which of our feature request are being contemplated and which are just ditched, and if so, why. I'd also like to have a probability of implementation, and a deadline. Example

Feature X: not probable
Feature Y: easy, # 3 on the todo list, estimated time: 1 week
Feature Z: easy, # 40 on the todo list, estimated time: 1 year, or never

That would help a lot. I'm sure such a list exists, not sure why it is not accessible in the forum. I don't think that would be a trade secret, if so just leave out the features that are developed in that '30% development in the dungeons of JRiver's headquarters that nobody should know about until release'.

Thanks,
-urlWolf

[Quisp]

Haven't read the complete text of all the above messages, but it might be a good idea to worry about the list after the release of the product and the "final third". No point in asking for things that may already exist...

[bjsolem]

There should be a little bit of more transparency. For example, I'd like to know the ROADMAP, that is, which of our feature request are being contemplated and which are just ditched, and if so, why. I'd also like to have a probability of implementation, and a deadline. Example

Feature X: not probable
Feature Y: easy, # 3 on the todo list, estimated time: 1 week
Feature Z: easy, # 40 on the todo list, estimated time: 1 year, or never

This is not likely to happen, remember MC is a commercial product and J River has competitors who would love to know this information.

The tough thing that we users have to remember is that even though J River let's us see more of what is going than is typical, with near daily builds, and they are more responsive than any other company I am aware of, they are still a commercial sofware company with all of the associated complications, secrecy, timelines, stability etc.

This is not open-source development.  Though it is so cool to be "let in" on the process of such amazing software, it is still their product and they continue to have their own timelines and development ideas.

We wouldn't all participate to the degree that we do, were it not for the fact that they DO listen and implement great things based on user suggestions.

[TimB]

There should be a little bit of more transparency. For example, I'd like to know the ROADMAP, that is, which of our feature request are being contemplated and which are just ditched, and if so, why. I'd also like to have a probability of implementation, and a deadline. Example

Feature X: not probable
Feature Y: easy, # 3 on the todo list, estimated time: 1 week
Feature Z: easy, # 40 on the todo list, estimated time: 1 year, or never

This is not likely to happen, remember MC is a commercial product and J River has competitors who would love to know this information.

The tough thing that we users have to remember is that even though J River let's us see more of what is going than is typical, with near daily builds, and they are more responsive than any other company I am aware of, they are still a commercial sofware company with all of the associated complications, secrecy, timelines, stability etc.

This is not open-source development.  Though it is so cool to be "let in" on the process of such amazing software, it is still their product and they continue to have their own timelines and development ideas.

We wouldn't all participate to the degree that we do, were it not for the fact that they DO listen and implement great things based on user suggestions.

100% agreed and nicely put too!

-=Tim=-

[lee269]

I find myself agreeing with pretty much everything said in this thread, which takes us back to square 1 I think.

Itd be interesting to know if anyone has an example of another company or situation which tackles this issue in a different or 'better' way. Much as I sometimes wish for more info, my instinct is that JRiver are dealing with this in a way thats pretty much as ideal as possible, for all its perceived faults.