Vote on Features #112

x7z4w commented 2025年09月07日 20:43:01 +02:00

What problem would this feature help solve?

An interesting idea from a Reddit user is the ability for everyone to vote on development work. Because the technologically gifted are the ones making FOSS apps, others usually have no pull in features, interfaces, etc. Is it possible we could implement an official voting system for issues in the future?

Describe the ideal solution

As time goes on there will be more ideas than can be developed. Perhaps when CoMaps (the future organization) hires (a) developer(s), there could be a way for the community to vote on what features are the most important for paid developers to work on? Like a to-do list by the community?

Then volunteer coders can pick off the less popular/personally desired features themselves.

It could look something like this.

Or if there was a way to sort issues by the most thumbs up, that would work even better.

Describe alternatives you have considered

No response

Additional context

See the original idea: https://www.reddit.com/r/CoMaps/comments/1mzl68k/comment/nax5tfg/

Originally posted by @IXVG47QZ in comaps/comaps#1783 (comment)

### What problem would this feature help solve? An interesting idea from a Reddit user is the ability for everyone to vote on development work. Because the technologically gifted are the ones making FOSS apps, others usually have no pull in features, interfaces, etc. Is it possible we could implement an official voting system for issues in the future? ### Describe the ideal solution As time goes on there will be more ideas than can be developed. Perhaps when CoMaps (the future organization) hires (a) developer(s), there could be a way for the community to vote on what features are the most important for paid developers to work on? Like a to-do list by the community? Then volunteer coders can pick off the less popular/personally desired features themselves. It could look something like [this](https://bricksbuilder.io/ideas/). Or if there was a way to sort issues by the most thumbs up, that would work even better. ### Describe alternatives you have considered _No response_ ### Additional context See the original idea: https://www.reddit.com/r/CoMaps/comments/1mzl68k/comment/nax5tfg/ _Originally posted by @IXVG47QZ in https://codeberg.org/comaps/comaps/issues/1783#issue-2320614_

x7z4w commented 2025年09月07日 20:48:05 +02:00

There have been already some discussions about this and I would say in general that is something we want to do in some way once the organization is more formalized.

This is a very difficult topic though. There can be large devides between what people want and what is how easily possible. There just often is a lot of missing general technical or app-specific knowledge, that can be necessary to really make an informed decision. It could create opportunities for certain groups to hijack such votings. How to deal with the work of a hired person in terms of reviewing it etc. And many more such things. I'm sure we can find solutions for all of this, but it is not remotely as simple and straightforward as it maybe seems at first.

Also I would say this is probably more an issue for our Governance repo than this repo.

Originally posted by @yannikbloscheck in comaps/comaps#1783 (comment)

There have been already some discussions about this and I would say in general that is something we want to do in some way once the organization is more formalized. This is a very difficult topic though. There can be large devides between what people want and what is how easily possible. There just often is a lot of missing general technical or app-specific knowledge, that can be necessary to really make an informed decision. It could create opportunities for certain groups to hijack such votings. How to deal with the work of a hired person in terms of reviewing it etc. And many more such things. I'm sure we can find solutions for all of this, but it is not remotely as simple and straightforward as it maybe seems at first. Also I would say this is probably more an issue for our Governance repo than this repo. _Originally posted by @yannikbloscheck in https://codeberg.org/comaps/comaps/issues/1783#issuecomment-6974607_

Aurareus commented 2025年10月02日 13:30:15 +02:00

I think this would be very valuable to have.
Even if user voting for features didn't have any direct formal influence on where development efforts are focused, just having a clear visible picture of real user demand and priorities are would no doubt benefit development.

Another potential benefit is that by making the most widely desired features/changes more visible we would likely decrease the number of duplicate issues opened.

One issue I often see with projects that implement something like this is that they create a bit of a feedback loop for the most popular feature requests, because the most upvoted suggestions become the most visible they are seen more and thus upvoted more than other/newer suggestions which might actually be more widely desirable to users but just aren't being seen as much.
If possible, some way of avoiding or mitigating that issue would be great.

I think one of the core questions here is what would be an effective way to make a wide diversity of users aware that they can vote on feature suggestions to signal their desire for them.

I think this would be very valuable to have. Even if user voting for features didn't have any direct formal influence on where development efforts are focused, just having a clear visible picture of real user demand and priorities are would no doubt benefit development. Another potential benefit is that by making the most widely desired features/changes more visible we would likely decrease the number of duplicate issues opened. One issue I often see with projects that implement something like this is that they create a bit of a feedback loop for the most popular feature requests, because the most upvoted suggestions become the most visible they are seen more and thus upvoted more than other/newer suggestions which might actually be more widely desirable to users but just aren't being seen as much. If possible, some way of avoiding or mitigating that issue would be great. I think one of the core questions here is what would be an effective way to make a wide diversity of users aware that they can vote on feature suggestions to signal their desire for them.