Help make Mercer and Nattinger unsad!

[Michael Aivaliotis]

This is a call out to all LAVA members. Please go and vote up (kudo) the following LabVIEW Idea Exchange ideas:

• Create a proper connector pane when doing Edit -> Create subVI
• Edit >> Create SubVI: Tweaks
• Provide a way to define the default connector pane

Go here to read why: Do you wish "Create SubVI From Selection" worked better?

Let's show our strength to help fix a feature in LabVIEW that has been broken since inception. It would be awesome to generate so much community support that it would cause NI to take notice and fix this. Darren and Stephen our asking for our support so let's help them push this through with the power that we have.

Please twitter this. Post it on your Facebook wall, do whatever it takes to get it noticed. If you have a blog, then blog about it.

[Michael Aivaliotis]

We need more votes. I'd like to see this idea reach 300 kudos.

[Michael Aivaliotis]

Well. It hasn't reached 300 but it's in 3rd place. So that's awesome!

It also surprises me that none of the idea exchange ideas ever reach really crazy number of votes. Like i've never seen 1000 votes or something. I wonder what this means?

• There are not that many LV users out there.
• LV users don't like voting.
• They don't visit the idea exchange.
• They are not aware of the idea exchange.
• They don't like any of the ideas. (even then, why the hell wouldn't you vote?)

[ShaunR]

Well. It hasn't reached 300 but it's in 3rd place. So that's awesome!

It also surprises me that none of the idea exchange ideas ever reach really crazy number of votes. Like i've never seen 1000 votes or something. I wonder what this means?

• There are not that many LV users out there.
• LV users don't like voting.
• They don't visit the idea exchange.
• They are not aware of the idea exchange.
• They don't like any of the ideas. (even then, why the hell wouldn't you vote?)

No .1.

Labview is a niche.Mainly due to its proprietary nature, targeted at test and automation and, of course, price.

Edited October 12, 2010 by ShaunR

[jgcode]

It also surprises me that none of the idea exchange ideas ever reach really crazy number of votes. Like i've never seen 1000 votes or something.

I have often wondered this - given that there has been 10k+ LAVA members over the years, probably more NI members, the numbers do seem pretty low.

[Aristos Queue]

The number of users who vote for one idea is pretty high. My personal theory is that few people visit regularly. VERY few people have any interest in reviewing the ideas on a regular basis. I've been thinking that when a new idea is posted, it should not be made public -- we should save up a block of ideas and release them once a quarter, or maybe when we hit some target number (say, 50 new ideas). That way people do one visit, scroll through the latest list, and vote for the ones they like. If it is much more infrequent, I think people are more likely to take a moment to scroll through the list. I base this theory on the burst of votes that the 24 ideas that I summarized in an ni.com post -- people saw that post and they went and reviewed the ideas, and they voted. These were clearly people who hadn't seen those ideas before, but many of them had voted for other ideas on the exchange. Thus, I think the problem is one of visibility, not enthusiasm.

[Antoine Chalons]

I think the problem is one of visibility, not enthusiasm.

I think this is a great idea, I do visit the idea exchange on a regular basis (once or twice a week) and when you go there you automatically arrive on the "hot ideas" and the "new ideas" button is quite small, so even going there regularly I miss some ideas I would have voted for.

Publishing ideas by block every few weeks would make it easier for voters to follow, I think.

[ShaunR]

What about an RSS feed? Then you know when there's a new idea and can go straight to the interesting ones.

[jgcode]

I think this is a great idea, I do visit the idea exchange on a regular basis (once or twice a week) and when you go there you automatically arrive on the "hot ideas" and the "new ideas" button is quite small, so even going there regularly I miss some ideas I would have voted for.

Publishing ideas by block every few weeks would make it easier for voters to follow, I think.

I like this as a voter.

As a poster, if I was going to post a new Idea I would want to know what is 'on hold' so I don't waste time posting a duplicate idea.

NI could always merge like Ideas before release?

[Yair]

I've been thinking that when a new idea is posted, it should not be made public -- we should save up a block of ideas and release them once a quarter, or maybe when we hit some target number (say, 50 new ideas).

I would very much be against this. I try to follow every post on the IE and if there was a bunch of ideas which all appeared together it would simply flood me at that point in time instead of allowing me to go at my own pace.

I would agree that the problem is probably because people don't follow the exchange, but the solution to that might be to make it more accessible.

For example, the IE has an RSS feed for ideas, just like Shaun asked for - http://forums.ni.com...id=labviewideas

The problem is that if you don't look for it, you don't know it's there. The site doesn't seem to make it accessible enough. Ideally, it should provide people with several ways of getting alerts to either ideas or comments.

In any case, I think that people have to make a conscious choice to follow the exchange or they will have to rely as filters such as this thread to point them to specific ideas.

[MartinPeeker]

Why not use the facebook group, naming a selection of ideas now and then and linking to the new ideas page?

[Yair]

Why not use the facebook group, naming a selection of ideas now and then and linking to the new ideas page?

Because someone would still have to do the work of selecting these ideas and you have to rely on that person's judgment and taste, which may be different from your own.

[i2dx]

Well. It hasn't reached 300 but it's in 3rd place. So that's awesome!

with my kudo, the counter has now reached 250 ... still 50 to go

VERY few people have any interest in reviewing the ideas on a regular basis. I've been thinking that when a new idea is posted, it should not be made public -- we should save up a block of ideas and release them once a quarter, or maybe when we hit some target number (say, 50 new ideas). That way people do one visit, scroll through the latest list, and vote for the ones they like.

that's exactly how I use the idea exchange: I visit about once per month and kudo all the new ideas I like ...

What about an RSS feed? Then you know when there's a new idea and can go straight to the interesting ones.

I would not use that, because that would be information overflow - for my taste ...

[Cat]

It also surprises me that none of the idea exchange ideas ever reach really crazy number of votes. Like i've never seen 1000 votes or something. I wonder what this means?

Maybe some of us just don't think about it very often?

I know it's not as high-tech as RSS and Facebook and Twitter, but how about just posting a link and reminder on LAVA once a month that the IE is out there?

[shb]

<snip>

For example, the IE has an RSS feed for ideas, just like Shaun asked for - http://forums.ni.com...id=labviewideas

The problem is that if you don't look for it, you don't know it's there. The site doesn't seem to make it accessible enough. Ideally, it should provide people with several ways of getting alerts to either ideas or comments.

<snip>

Thanks for the link to the feed. I did not find it myself. It is hidden in the menu "Idea Exchange Options" (above the first idea). There is also an entry for subscribing (getting an email).

Some other existing things that can be used:

• tagging: follow the tags and tag the ideas yourself
• labels: There are some labels defined. When one is your main interest follow this one. (If you would like more different labels, kudo here.)
• kudos of others: When someone has the same LabVIEW taste as you, follow his kudos ("Messages I Recently Kudoed" on his page)
• ideas of others: When somebody has good ideas, check those he sent ("Recent Posts by x" on page of x)
• ...

Greetings,

shb

[Cat]

Here's another reason I don't visit IE very much: There are 1400+ ideas, and only 1 is "In Development". There are 20+ ideas with over 150 kudos. All marked "New". Most over a year old. So there doesn't seem to be a lot of point in submitting ideas or voting on them.

Yes, I know 10 or so ideas were implimented in LV2010. But that left a whole lot of ideas with a whole lot of user support behind.

In reality, I can't image the LV user base is really being ignored like this. Maybe the "Status" field needs to be updated more often? Or maybe there need to be more options than just "In Development" and "Being Ignored" "New"? Maybe "Under Consideration"? "Not in a Million Years"? Just more feedback, and updated more often, as to whether or not NI is actually paying attention to what gets posted in IE.

[Aristos Queue]

Here's another reason I don't visit IE very much: There are 1400+ ideas, and only 1 is "In Development". There are 20+ ideas with over 150 kudos. All marked "New". Most over a year old. So there doesn't seem to be a lot of point in submitting ideas or voting on them.

Yes, I know 10 or so ideas were implimented in LV2010. But that left a whole lot of ideas with a whole lot of user support behind.

In reality, I can't image the LV user base is really being ignored like this. Maybe the "Status" field needs to be updated more often? Or maybe there need to be more options than just "In Development" and "Being Ignored" "New"? Maybe "Under Consideration"? "Not in a Million Years"? Just more feedback, and updated more often, as to whether or not NI is actually paying attention to what gets posted in IE.

The review from our side happens but once per year as we're planning out the next release. Start with the highest kudos and review for feasibility and available developers (some changes, although small, may require expertise in a particular subsystem, or we may not be allowing changes in a particular subsystem in a given release in order to make changes to another system that depends upon that one). Work our way through and produce the list of the ones we think we can do. Then get far enough into development that we're sure we can complete the idea before the end of the release... only then does an idea flip over to In Development in the public views. You can generally expect that sometime each year in October/November that the next block of ideas will move to In Development.

As to the "being ignored" status, that's part of why I try to post comments in the threads, to let people know that an idea has been seen by someone at NI. The ideas are read by a lot of people, but most developers don't post often.

And an idea that is sitting at 80 kudos is neither under consideration nor in danger of closed "not in a million years". It may bubble to the top as we knock out higher kudos ideas. You never know when an idea with just 79 kudos could, in 48 hours, shoot up to 160+ because someone decided to push for it. Also, in a future version of LV, we might have more developers available to tackle new features, instead of the few that we have this round.

The whole system is less than two years old. It's an experiment in trying to improve the feedback into LV dev cycle. But that cycle moves in years, not weeks. If an idea has been on the Exchange without real movement for five or six years, then I think we would discuss killing them off.

[i2dx]

The review from our side happens but once per year as we're planning out the next release. Start with the highest kudos and review [...] You can generally expect that sometime each year in October/November that the next block of ideas will move to In Development.

if I am allowed to say this: giving official statements once per year to the users reminds me much more of the german bureaucracy then a modern customer feedback system

[GregSands]

I must say I appreciate when AQ comments on ideas, but as he says, "official" (or even semi-official) responses are few and far between. I would definitely prefer negative comments to none at all!

[asbo]

We need feedback on our feedback!