Web Step-By-Step Review Of The Suggestion System

[xHappyMood]

Hiii!! I'll give a step-by-step review of how the suggestion system works, and give some suggestions to improve it alongside that.

Step 1: Making A Suggestion

There's not really a lot that can improved to this, except for maybe a link to the "Making a Suggestion Thread: Tips & Tricks" thread. It could be put underneath the "Is this already being discussed?" And would look like this (you wouldn't be able to click it away with the cross like the "Is this already being discussed?"):

Step 2: The Community Looks At The Suggestion

After you post a thread, people will look at it (or not if you have bad luck), and possible give feedback/vote on the poll. This works fairly good, except if you post your thread on an unlucky moment and right after it a lot of threads get posted and it gets forgotten. The bumps work alright for that, and there's not much more that can be done to make this better.

Step 3: Possible Escalation

Now this is the worst part of the suggestion system as far as I can tell. Sometimes it acutally doesn't really depend on if the community likes it or not, but more if the staff member likes it. And because of that threads with twice as much 'No' votes than 'Yes' votes on the poll sometimes get escalated, which isn't how it should be working. I came up with a solution for this, which I'll explain in the spoiler.

Spoiler: Solution

This solution will change completely how suggestions are brought up to the staff team and might cause a little bit of confusion if it's first implemented, but if you explain it well, it should get clear.

The 'Escalated' prefix should no longer be given by staff members but automatically be assigned to threads after they reach a certain amount of views and/or replies. It would then actually be what 'Escalated' means, that a lot of people talk about it/in it. It would in this way get more attention and therefore more opinions, which would be beneficial for knowing what the community wants. After a thread has received the escalated prefix there should be made sure that a staff member looks at it. They'll read the replies and look at the poll to determine if it gets mainly positive or mainly negative attention. If the attention is mainly positive, so the community likes it, it should receive a new prefix called 'Liked By Community' or something similar. It would then be brought up to other staff members and there would be discussed if it is possible/worth the effort to implement.

Of course, sometimes a suggestion is just so good/obvious that it should be implemented that it doesn't need to go through this whole process. Staff members could then manually give it a prefix called something similar to 'Liked By Staff'. They'd then also bring it up to other staff members. This, however, should ideally not be done when a lot of people already disagree with the idea, because what the community wants is the most important thing in my opinion.

Step 4: What happens after an Escalation

After a suggestion gets escalated (in the current system) it gets brought up to other staff members, and they'll discuss if it's a good idea. From what I've heard of how this goes it seems like a very messy system, and it has no 'official' ways to bring up suggestions and they just have to do it on a random moment. I'm quite sure it should be improved, but as I don't exactly know how it goes, I can't really give feedback on it

Inside the suggestion however, I think there is a way to improve it. At the moment, you just get a message in there saying the thread has been escalated, and after that you either hear nothing until it gets implemented, or you hear nothing at all. It would be a good idea to give updates in the thread on what's happening with the suggestion at the moment. It doesn't have to be anything long, but just "The suggestion has been brought up to staff." or "The suggestion has been rejected and will thus not be implemented." Would be great already, just so you know a little bit what's happening with your suggestion behind the scenes.

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Let me know if you agree or not, and also if I've forgotten something :)
Ok that was it, bai!

Btw @Quis are you happy now? I made another suggestion :) Oh yes and look at the tags...

 

[99th_DutchNubnub]

hai hai,

This solution will change completely how suggestions are brought up to the staff team and might cause a little bit of confusion if it's first implemented, but if you explain it well, it should get clear.

The 'Escalated' prefix should no longer be given by staff members but automatically be assigned to threads after they reach a certain amount of views and/or replies. It would then actually be what 'Escalated' means, that a lot of people talk about it/in it. It would in this way get more attention and therefore more opinions, which would be beneficial for knowing what the community wants. After a thread has received the escalated prefix there should be made sure that a staff member looks at it. They'll read the replies and look at the poll to determine if it gets mainly positive or mainly negative attention. If the attention is mainly positive, so the community likes it, it should receive a new prefix called 'Liked By Community' or something similar. It would then be brought up to other staff members and there would be discussed if it is possible/worth the effort to implement.

Of course, sometimes a suggestion is just so good/obvious that it should be implemented that it doesn't need to go through this whole process. Staff members could then manually give it a prefix called something similar to 'Liked By Staff'. They'd then also bring it up to other staff members. This, however, should ideally not be done when a lot of people already disagree with the idea, because what the community wants is the most important thing in my opinion.

after I read this I have some more comments,
as you said in the spoiler, it's a different kind of "escalation". I agreed on that, but I still don't think it will be the perfect solution for "Escalation". because if you're going to do it through views, I think people will just watch it often and then "escalate" it.

but I also think that if you do it through answers, people are going to tell a nonsense story. or we get a conference in short messages. such as: +1

but I think you are well on your way to finding a solution


my idea,
by means of a voting system that automatically comes under the posted message. and then when it comes to a certain number of upvotes it will change to 'escalated'


I hope my opinion will help you :)
have a nice day :)))))
DutchNubnub

 

[xHappyMood]

after I read this I have some more comments,
as you said in the spoiler, it's a different kind of "escalation". I agreed on that, but I still don't think it will be the perfect solution for "Escalation". because if you're going to do it through views, I think people will just watch it often and then "escalate" it.

but I also think that if you do it through answers, people are going to tell a nonsense story. or we get a conference in short messages. such as: +1

I though of a combination of both, just a random example at least 100 views and 20 responses, and after it's escalated a staff member would still look at it to see if the community actually mostly agrees, before it actually gets brought up to staff.

but I think you are well on your way to finding a solution

Thanks

my idea,
by means of a voting system that automatically comes under the posted message. and then when it comes to a certain number of upvotes it will change to 'escalated'

I thought of that as well, but to require people to add a poll didn't seem right to me... I didn't add a poll in this thread for example because I don't just want to see votes, but I want to hear opinions and arguments, and there are other people that do that as well.

have a nice day :)))))

You too :)

 

[Pineapple]

The 'Escalated' prefix should no longer be given by staff members but automatically be assigned to threads after they reach a certain amount of views and/or replies.

I disagree, the escalated prefix should continue to be given by staff. Views and replies are not always a good thing. Another issue is how we forward escalated threads, I obviously can’t go into much detail, but this would make things very messy due to it being automated.

After a suggestion gets escalated (in the current system) it gets brought up to other staff members, and they'll discuss if it's a good idea. From what I've heard of how this goes it seems like a very messy system, and it has no 'official' ways to bring up suggestions and they just have to do it on a random moment. I'm quite sure it should be improved, but as I don't exactly know how it goes, I can't really give feedback on it

There is definitely an official way to bring it up, the current system isn’t very messy at all imo. No reason for this section to really exist since you have never seen the way it works.

Inside the suggestion however, I think there is a way to improve it. At the moment, you just get a message in there saying the thread has been escalated, and after that you either hear nothing until it gets implemented, or you hear nothing at all. It would be a good idea to give updates in the thread on what's happening with the suggestion at the moment. It doesn't have to be anything long, but just "The suggestion has been brought up to staff." or "The suggestion has been rejected and will thus not be implemented." Would be great already, just so you know a little bit what's happening with your suggestion behind the scenes.

The escalated tag is quite literally saying “The suggestion has been brought up to staff.” Suggestions that get forwarded usually don’t get formally “rejected” the discussion just dies out and nothing comes from it.

This is an incredible suggestion and I can tell it took some time to make. Thank you for suggesting these ideas however I just disagree with this one. :p

 

[xHappyMood]

I disagree, the escalated prefix should continue to be given by staff. Views and replies are not always a good thing. Another issue is how we forward escalated threads, I obviously can’t go into much detail, but this would make things very messy due to it being automated.

Yes that's why I changed that escalated ideas would immediately be forwarded in my idea. A staff member would first look if it were positive reactions before forwarding it to staff.

There is definitely an official way to bring it up, the current system isn’t very messy at all imo. No reason for this section to really exist since you have never seen the way it works.

I believe I recall a staff member saying that though xd

The escalated tag is quite literally saying “The suggestion has been brought up to staff.” Suggestions that get forwarded usually don’t get formally “rejected” the discussion just dies out and nothing comes from it.

Then change that. Actually formally deny it, so you can tell that to us members as well and it's clear to everyone that the suggestion will not be implemented.

This is an incredible suggestion and I can tell it took some time to make.

It did, and I wasn't quite satisfied with how I explained it a lot of times so I rewrote it like 5 times

Thank you for suggesting these ideas however I just disagree with this one. :p

Dw, that's fine :D

 

[xHappyMood]

Bump :o