GetSatisfaction! for suggestions/bugtracking?

[L[0ne]R]

GetSatisfaction.com Not too long ago this site has become a tool to track user requests, suggestions, questions and bugs for Minecraft. I've been hopping on there as well, and I have to say - it does its job nicely. Check it out: http://getsatisfaction.com/mojang/

Currently on SF suggestions and bugs pile up and eventually all the important posts get lost among new posts about weapon attachments and vehicles. The good thing about GetSatisfaction is that you can "F12" for suggestions you like or the bugs that are the most annoying, and then the moderators can arrange them by popularity and address the most important issues and suggestions.
You can use your Google/Facebook/Twitter/WindowsLive/OpenID account to login, and overall it's more user-friendly than mantis, so there should be a larger flow of people participating in bugfixing.

I know everyone's used to posting all that here on the forums, but IMHO GetSatisfaction would do a better job at that, at least from what I've seen from Minecraft page so far.

[Illuminatus]

Yes, such kind of user feedback page is nice, but I wouldn't choose "Get Satisfaction". Why? That's why.
Yes, there also is one plan where you don't need to pay but it lacks many features. The same with UserVoice and IdeaScale (at least they have a nicer, cleaner look).
I have no idea if the provided features would be enough but why don't just choose an open-source free solution?
- OpenMind
- IdeaTorrent (this would be my favourite)
Another nice one, this time not open-source, but of no costs: Idea Informer

So one of these could become the lite-version of the suggestions-forum.
And a lite-version for the problems-forum could be OSQA (an open-source alternative to an Q&A-page like Stack Overflow for example).

These two platforms ("user-feedback-page" and "Q&A-page") really could help the communication between devs and users. But we have two problems at our community:
1. Not many new players (at least not many who register here). And even less of them really ask questions here or have some problems. The devs have no benefit of the platform. Only new users would use it I think. So would a "Q&A-page" make sense and be worth the effort?
2. Yes, there actually is much feedback and suggestions from our community. But wouldn't a "user-feedback-page" decrease the activity of this forum even more? If the "user-feedback-page" has a comment-feature, people will not only vote but tend to post and discuss the suggestions there. And new Soldat players maybe wouldn't even register on the forums in the first place if they only want to suggest something.

Are these points valid? What you think?

[L[0ne]R]

Yes, such kind of user feedback page is nice, but I wouldn't choose "Get Satisfaction". Why? That's why.
Yes, there also is one plan where you don't need to pay but it lacks many features. The same with UserVoice and IdeaScale (at least they have a nicer, cleaner look).

Crap. It totally didn't occur to me that those services could be paid. D:

I have no idea if the provided features would be enough but why don't just choose an open-source free solution?
- OpenMind
- IdeaTorrent (this would be my favourite)
Another nice one, this time not open-source, but of no costs: Idea Informer

So one of these could become the lite-version of the suggestions-forum.
And a lite-version for the problems-forum could be OSQA (an open-source alternative to an Q&A-page like Stack Overflow for example).

I don't know about other sites that are similar to GetSatisfaction, so I really can't comment on that unfortunately. But I don't think it needs a very advanced functionality - just the ability to separate bugs, questions and suggestions from each other, and the ability to comment and rate them should be enough.

These two platforms ("user-feedback-page" and "Q&A-page") really could help the communication between devs and users. But we have two problems at our community:
1. Not many new players (at least not many who register here). And even less of them really ask questions here or have some problems. The devs have no benefit of the platform. Only new users would use it I think. So would a "Q&A-page" make sense and be worth the effort?

Are you kidding? It's Soldat - lots of people have questions and problems with it, especially new players. :O
It's true that not many of them visit the forums, but they're more likely to visit soldat.pl, so if feedback site is linked from the official site - it'd be more noticeable.

2. Yes, there actually is much feedback and suggestions from our community. But wouldn't a "user-feedback-page" decrease the activity of this forum even more? If the "user-feedback-page" has a comment-feature, people will not only vote but tend to post and discuss the suggestions there. And new Soldat players maybe wouldn't even register on the forums in the first place if they only want to suggest something.

Good point. :/ There would still be mapping, modding and general discussions going on here on the forums, but bugs and suggestions are a big part of the forums too, so splitting them would be a bad impact on the community. :/


Perhaps a simple thread rating and sorting system could be implemented in the forums themselves?
I can only think of these essential features that would need to be added:
- allow users to "F12" for an idea or a fix.
- extra column in list of threads to arrange them by # of "likes".
- checkmark to hide ideas and bugs that were added/fixed.

That wouldn't make it as functional as Mantis, but should at least be enough for the forums where most of the community resides, while Mantis could be left for serious beta-testers.

[demoniac93]

In my opinion it is over-complicating things.
A forum like the one we have now is the best solution, except we'll have to modify it to function just like the previously mentioned sites.

[FliesLikeABrick]

The fact is that our suggestion-tracking process has nothing to do with why features aren't being implemented right now.  When the developers are ready to start implementing features hardcore, then it'll become apparent whether or not this is an area that needs to be fixed.

IMO you guys are searching for solutions before there's actually a problem needing one.

[Horve]

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