It is our goal to become 100% client driven for new feature development... so, we need to brainstorm how this will work.

My thought process is the following :

We implement Krazy's idea of a new sub domain >> features.monstercommerce.com.

I was also thinking that we create a features area in the forums that is moderated by MC clients... at first the usual suspects- Ultimate, Robert, Krazy, Birman, Strapworks (if they are willing).

I like the idea of clients moderating this section... it will enable us to shift to 100% client driven development in an organized fashion. Of course, I, along with other members of the MC team will actively participate in the features forum... but clients will have full control over the posts.

We will organize the new features discussion is an organized fashion, constantly summarizing the features and ideas and posting them to the soon to be released features.monstercommerce.com area. From there we can take votes on the priority in which they are developed and implemented.

The above is just ideas I had over the weekend. My goal is to bridge any gaps there are between the MC team and MC clients. And, although it may sound generic for anyone outside of the MC community, it is MC's intention and certainly in the best interest of MC and MC clients that we become partners in the truest sense of the word. I think we get one step closer everyday.

Please provide some feedback and ideas to the above post. Is this a good idea... or one of my worst? Let me know so we can continue to move forward.

Hi,

Sounds great!!! I cant wait....


As far as moderators I would love to be one....I think their should only be a max of two though...so even if it is not me, we should do a mini vote or you guys select two people.

I think more then two would clash everyones organizing....

That makes sense... perhaps two moderators will be better than the whole group of suspects. If you want to be a client moderator let me know... we'll figure something out.

I'd love to be one, but my plates pretty full right now with my store. Just getting ready for the holiday. I want to be prepared this year

Well I am always up for it....seeing that I always have neat ideas etc...

I'd really love to... but right now I know I'd be too busy in Nov/Dec to pay much attention to it. Come January thou I'd probably be good thou. I plan to go thru a fulfillment company next year.

I would love to moderate also, but I am somewhat in the same boat as Ultimate, busy busy busy! Which is always a good sign that business is good.
Maybe till christmas is over a couple of moderators (maybe 4) would be a good idea to cover the load of comments on features and such. Than after the new year we can make a decision to go down to two or keep it at four??
I do very much like the idea of a new section devoted to features that are customer driven and customer moderated, makes all of us feel like we are somewhat in control of what we get.
I like the voting part also, finds out whats important right away and what can be implemented later, or what should be a custom programming request.
Also, this could work or not, we could have weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly chats in a chat area regarding new features or how current features could be made better, I think this would be fun and get some good ideas flowing from members that wouldn't necessarily speak up in the forum.
Just some ideas

Let me add to that a little.
I think 4 moderators (or 5) is a good idea. No two people should be responsible (and probably wouldn't have the time) to constantly moderate. I think it could be kept controlled if the moderators came up with rules/regulations for moderating and than got together weekly or bi-weekly on how things are going, etc. or a Private Forum for just the moderators to talk to each other.
If two people were to moderate on their own that might take time away that should be placed on their business and/or their personal life.
Even Captain hasn't been able to keep up with moderating this whole forum without a couple of his tech people helping out! If Captain can't do it no one can!

I dont think it is the whole forum , I think it is just a section....? If so, more then two is just an overkill.

It is just a section. But, if customers find out that all future Versions are based on their input I think it will get a lot of posts. I also think it would be our job as moderators to bring customers into the features section to give us their feature requests, discuss those features, modify those features, etc.
I see there actually being a lot involved with a feature forum, especially since it will decide how Store Software is designed in the future.
Think about it, we are pretty much deciding how a customers store will work in the future, this could make or break many businesses.
I think it should be taken very seriously and should have the support it deserves.
Also, what two people have the time to check on posts many times every day? I think if you split out those responsibilities over a couple of people than it will be better managed and better communication between everyone (faster response times).
Just an idea

Hi

So strapworks....are you saying that you think people who are moderators will get their ideas implemented first or place more emphasis on getting things they wanted first?

or are you saying, that 2 people could not handle a feature section? Four people is fine.. But it is hard, when you have everyone with different ideas to get 4-5 people to agree on how to organize it...

I think I wrote it a little wrong, sorry reread it.
I don't think our feature requests should be put in front of anyone's (in fact most of mine have not been done and will probably not be done any time soon or ever).
What I meant was that by moderating we may bring up certain features for vote before others, we may put emphasis on certain features, etc. A moderator makes decisions on how things are presented in the forum, so in a way the moderators decide which features are more important (not completely, but in a slight way).
I am not sure if it would work with 2 or 4 (or any other number) moderators. Everyone obviously has their own ideas of how things should be run and how it should be organized, even 2 moderators would have disagreements (look at us, we have some small disagreements). What I was suggesting was a number that I thought would sufficiently keep up with the amount of posts that I think will occur. I could be completely wrong, it could happen that only 1 moderator is needed and the other 3 really do nothing, who knows.
I am a worst case scenario type of person, I look at the worse that could happen and I plan accordingly so that I can handle it. I know people who plan for the best to happen. Everyone is different on how they look at things.
I think this thread shows though how things can be worked out between multiple moderators, we are communicating out the problems and will eventually come to a resolution. I believe that moderators that don't talk will have the most problems (but I don't see that happening with the people Captain mentioned).
Its ultimately Captain's decision.

Another Suggestion
What about splitting out jobs?
Job 1: Moderating Posts
Job 2: Moderating Voting
Job 3: Moderating Feature Submission List (a list of all submitted features so that customers don't resubmit features someone else has already brought up)
Job 4: Moderating Feature Chats (I like the idea of getting Customers together to chat about Features in real time)
Job 5: A backup for any of the previous jobs and any of the other jobs we can come up with.
This spreads the work around and doesn't put too much pressure on any one person.
Just a thought

I like this idea and think it would be great to bouce ideas off one another to come up with the ultimate program. It would work like an online conference.

I am will to assist if you ment Birdman instead of Birman.

Let me know what I can do to help.

Off to filling orders.

As a "newbie" I agree that this could be a very beneficial forum for the users. I have read many of the responses (and been assited by some of them in fact ) posted by Ultimate, Krazy and the Birdman. I believe that they all have a great deal of experience to offer us (as long as they are patient with us newbies ).

Sounds good,


the important thing to remember is to give the community want they want as far as features, so that we can convey to the staff as quickly as possible in order to benefit all of us in getting these features implemented....

Hey Todd, we are patient with everyone, including ourselves...You are beginning to learn the software as well as us and that is what distiguishes a newbie and someone that has been here. Not the number of posts, so I hope we have all helped out...