ForumsQuestionsPlacing a bounty on feature requests
Placing a bounty on feature requests
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davidpalady |
What if you guys put a price on certain features and let people pledge toward toward their accomplishment. Say $100 for color coded stars. I'd pay $5 for color coded stars, if 19 other people would do the same, you could fund features based on how many/strongly people wanted a feature.
A site like kickstarter.com will let people pledge toward a feature, if the target is not met, no one pays anything. |
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Jake Toodledo Founder |
Interesting idea. I'll think about it.
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lite1 |
Yes, an interesting idea and am surprised so little activity on this thread. Personally I'd hope that if this were implemented in any way that there would be significant restraints that TD would impose.
While at first glance I find it appealing to be able to vote with my dollars there are also drawbacks to the pay-to-play-influence model. To me the most obvious ways that I'd want to see as limits are: a) A feature (or modification) of a feature to be done would not impinge on other users and what they want to do; and b) that the amount of time monthly that TD would spend on such customer paid for tweaks/changes be limited to < 5% of development time. There are many tweaks (color to stars; more keyboard shortcuts) that most likely would neither add clutter or impinge on others who could easily choose not to use them, but for many other things there is active and worthwhile debate in forum on best ways to bring about a new feature or modify things. One thing that I and many comment about is the responsiveness of TD to listen to and interact with users. Potentially creating a class of users who have more clout due to finances could be risky to the overall community feeling. More importantly I think TD is in the best place to make choices about time/energy investment in developing the tool in an overall and comprehensive manner rather than paid-for tweaks around the edges. |
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PeterW |
Posted by lite1:
Personally I'd hope that if this were implemented in any way that there would be significant restraints that TD would impose. I agree with you lite1. I don't think I'd be entirely comfortable with indidviduals driving enhancements by paying for them. |
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Transisto |
+1
I am simply exasperated but how long it take to fix simple things. I am just waiting for some minimal sign of development to add a few more years of subscription. Part of the UI is so awkward to use, documentation is poor, and updates so scarce. Also there's very little transparency from the company. We are dozens willing to do anything to help, like translating the whole thing in many languages for free, doing greacemonkey script, UI redesign, helping newcomers on the forum Ect. but yet all we seams to get is canned reply from the Admin, Thanks for the suggestion. We can't comment on a time-frame for implementation, but this is on our to-do list. We're investing our time and future learning to work around an half baked product. I think we deserve better, whatever the price. You have a good product but better shake-up as there will be strong competition in the Google marketplace. http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/home This message was edited Mar 25, 2010. |
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PeterW |
Hi Transisto,
I just don't see it the way you do. While there are some enhancements that I'd like to see (e.g. a UI upgrade, ability to rename No Folder to Inbox), for the most part I am a very happy Toodledo-er. It does about 99% of what I want it to and very reliably. And it has a great user community. I've been a user for approx 6 months and in that time there have been frequent updates and enhancements, and I've found the Admin to be quite responsive. The canned answer we get to requests is necessary. I've been a member of another forum (it was WM productivity software) where the developer made promises about the timing of upcoming releases and what features/fixes would be included in them. When these were not met, he was severely mauled by angry forum members and hounded until they felt satisfied. In many cases there were good reasons for missing the date (e.g. bugs needed to be ironed out) but that didn't seem to matter to those who behaved in a very childish and bitter manner. In reality, priorities change and many factors can make it difficult for a smaller developer to accurately schedule releases and updates. Having a canned response like this is necessary to avoid noisy and angry users from feeling they have lost what they feel they are entitled to. My opinion is that you should decide if the current released version of software (in this case in the cloud) does what you need it to and if so, use it and be happy. Sure, ask for enhancements but don't beat up the developer if you don't get what you want. If you find that the feature set is just not working for you over a period of time, and that the enhancements you need are not forthcoming quickly enough, move on to something else that suits you better. You are correct in that competition will force change. As more solutions become available, Toodledo like any other company will need to remain competitive and this may drive certain enhancements. Anyway - my suggestion is "be happy". |
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Transisto |
It's hard to complain on the speed of development when you don't know
1. the number of people involved in house 2. the # of paid user (hiring potential) 3. The size/time-frame of what's currently being worked on. (just be patient) Thanks for the suggestion,,, Your through reply make me happier, ;) |
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Jake Toodledo Founder |
We make regular updates to our product on an ongoing basis, but we have limited resources so we can't do everything that everyone wants as quickly as everyone wants it. However, we are trying to hire three more developers to help us go faster.
http://www.toodledo.com/info/jobs.php |
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Transisto |
Posted by Transisto:
I am simply exasperated but how long it take to fix simple things. Part of the UI is so awkward to use, documentation is poor, and updates so scarce. bump |
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