cPanel New Feature Requests System

[electric]

Doesn't limiting votes false the results ?

No. The idea (imho) is that by giving you a limited number of votes, it forces you to use your votes only for the top few features you really want to see.

If everyone had unlimited votes, then everyone would simply vote for everything and there would be no simple way to know what the voters wanted as highest priority.

With limited votes, you can vote for the new features you want most.

Then when you get more votes, you can vote for more features.

I think you get more votes when one of the features you voted for is implemented. (ie: Your vote is "released", since that feature was implemented.)

I think you can also remove a vote for something you previously voted for. Then you can use that vote elsewhere...

 

[monarobase]

I hope there is another way then to have to wait for a feature request to be implemented… if this is the case then I will have to wait 6 months before being able to vote again

I'm against limiting the voting, we should be allowed to vote for all the features we like. The most liked features will still have the most votes.

Can someone at cPanel please clarify how many votes we get, how and when to get more votes, if negative votes remove your right to positive votes ?

As I can't vote anymore I'm going to gave to post +1's and go back to using it like the old system seems to remove the whole point of the new system.

As people hit their maximum number of allowed votes, new features are going to be pu aside and not voted for even if they are better than existing features.

 

[MaraBlue]

It was a little unnerving, getting that email, since I didn't request it. Might I suggest the email be reworded, so it doesn't look like someone reset my cPanel forum password?

 

[monarobase]

I think the e-mail was a one time thing... If it was then the rewording wont be possible.

About the vote limiting, I'm not sure I can post new feature requests because of this limitation. I also want to add that if someone votes for all the features then it basicaly counts as a null vote as they will all be in the same order.

The order of importance should not be decided by having a limited number of votes you have to place strategicaly by simply by not voting for features you don't need. With the number of votes being limited some people wont vote for afeature they rearly like or wont vote for it because it's alarge feature and they think there's more chance of getting a smaller feature in more quickly.

 

[electric]

The order of importance should not be decided by having a limited number of votes you have to place strategicaly by simply by not voting for features you don't need.

What do you propose would be a good system to determine the order of importance?

Keep in mind that:

1. The system needs to be very simple so people understand how it works.

2. What is "important" to some people might not be important to cpanel developers, who are more concerned with keeping their average customer happy adding some obscure feature that few people might want.

IMHO, assigning a limited number of votes simply forces people to vote only for the features they feel are important. Then the features with the most votes "rise" to the top, and are the features the cpanel developers will add/fix first.

 

[monarobase]

1. The system needs to be very simple so people understand how it works.

What's more simple then voting for features you want and not voting for features you don't need ?
Limiting the number of votes makes it more complicated for users.

2. What is "important" to some people might not be important to cpanel developers, who are more concerned with keeping their average customer happy adding some obscure feature that few people might want.

The whole idea of numerous people voting is that it cPanel can see how many people are interested in a feature. With limited votes + no way to cancel a vote + no way to see how many votes you have left, you might vote for a feature run out of votes and not be able to vote for a new more important feature. With this system cPanel can't bee sure how many people want a feature with the limited votes system.

The voting system does not show how quickly a feature should be implemented, this is up to cPanel, the voting system should show how many people are interested in a feature. If you limit the number of votes a customer can do then cPanel simply doesn't know how many people wanted a feature but couldn't vote for it.

At least with the old system everyone could vote for everything. If cPanel continues to limit the number of votes people will just give up participating…

I've spent time going through all the feature requests and voting for the ones I want and only the ones I want. Now I don't think I can submit any more feature requests and I can't vote for new features anymore. If necessary I presume I will have to contact cPanel support and ask them to add features for me and add votes for me. It seems a huge waste of ressources… but I'm not giving up my ability to participate in the feature requst system I can wait for a month or two for something like this to be fixed but not wait that long without knowing what is happening.

cPanel support won't be able to tell people to vote for features or create features anymore as they will have to manually create them for their customers who cannot vote anymore.

If it doesn't unblock some time soon and we don't get an answer from cPanel some time soon I will open a support case to try and get this fixed.

I hope cPanel will soon clarify what the situation is. I hope this is a bug and that it will be fixed some time soon

 

[NathanL.]

When will I be able to vote again ?

The Feature Request System provides 10 votes to a user upon registration. Votes are refreshed to their maximum every 60 days. So, if you use all your votes now then you'll have another 10 votes to use when the refresh comes around.

Is there a way I can cancel a vote to place my vote on a feature I think is more important ?

At this time there is not a way to remove a vote that's already been cast. This is a function that we're currently considering and may be something we implement in the future.

Why is there a limit ?

The limit is in place for two reasons. As electric mentioned earlier, it forces people to only vote on the features that they feel are important, and allows those features to "rise" to the top. Second, it helps prevent fraudulent voting, and vote spamming.

Shouldn't I be allowed to vote for all the features I like ?

Yes, and you can vote for all the features that you wish to see in cPanel & WHM. At the moment this will need to be spread over a period of time while your votes refresh.

Doesn't limiting votes false the results ?

No, we don't feel that it provides false results. This is essentially the same answer that I provided for "Why is there a limit?" Limiting the number of votes helps in reducing the amount of "noise" and makes it easy to see which feature requests the community is banding together to support.

Can someone at cPanel please clarify how many votes we get, how and when to get more votes, if negative votes remove your right to positive votes ?

At the moment you are provided 10 votes which refresh on a 60 day cycle. The 10 vote limit applies to both negative and positive votes combined. When you create submit a new Feature Request one of your votes is automatically applied to that request. An example would be if you cast 5 positive votes, 4 negative votes, and create a feature request then you're at your 10 vote limit.

If any changes to the vote limiting system occur in the future I will be sure to post these changes here in this thread so that you all can see them.

 

[monarobase]

Thanks for your detailed answers. I've started posting comments in new features I like and dislike with +1's and my appreciation without being able to vote for them I find this limitation very penalising and think it's blocking the whole feature system.

it forces people to only vote on the features that they feel are important, and allows those features to "rise" to the top. Second, it helps prevent fraudulent voting, and vote spamming.

I've voted for all the feature requests I think are important and now can't vote for any new feature requests that I find important I also am unable to post new feature requests because you have to vote for your own feature requests

I still don't understand what you call fraudulent voting or spamming. Saying you like a feature is not fraudelent nor spamming as you can only vote once for each feature you like and this limitation does not stop people from creating multiple accounts.

I basicaly want to say yes to all the features I like and want anyone who likes my feature requests to vote for them.

As I have already said before, if someone votes for all the features, it won't change their order so will not be of importance.

Limiting the number of votes [...] makes it easy to see which feature requests the community is banding together to support

Preventing people from voting for features they like means you can't tell what features the community rearly wants.

If you rearly want to have a system that allows people to say which features are most important to them, go a step further, allow an unlimited number of "I like's" and allow only 5 "I love's" per month. This way you will get both the number of people who like a feature and the number of people who find a feature rearly important.

Forcing people to come back in two months time means they might forget about the features that liked and WILL force them to participate alot less !

Maybe cPanel has decided they don't want to work so much on integrating new features, if this is the case please let us know instead of trying to push the main feature requests participants away.

 

[monarobase]

As I guess cPanel won't budge on this one, to try and make it more livable could we please have the following :

1) Show us how many votes we have left (and make it obvious so users know they are limited so they don't make the same mistake as me thinking I was voting for features I like instead of features I love)

2) Show the number of days before the vote renewal

3) Allow us to cancel a vote

4) As new features are submitted to moderation, allow the creation of new features even when a user has got no votes left and do not use up a user's votes when he creates a new feature (obviously you would also have to disallow a user to remove his vote from a feature he created)

I sill maintain if you rearly need to continue with the "I love" (limited to only prefered features) system instead of the previous "I like" (can vote for all the features I approve of) it would be nice to have both systems, a "Like" button and a "Love" button. A click on "Love" would also add the vote for "Like" but would allow cPanel to order features by user preference without loosing the capability of seeing how many people like a feature.

 

[NathanL.]

Show us how many votes we have left (and make it obvious so users know they are limited so they don't make the same mistake as me thinking I was voting for features I like instead of features I love)

You can review how many votes you have left by looking at your avatar in the Feature Request System. The votes remaining is displayed in a purple circle located in the lower right corner of your avatar. You can quickly access your avatar by clicking on your name next to the "Settings" link.

 

[monarobase]

Thanks, it's easy to access when you know it's there but far from obvious if it's your first visit… If it's not made more obvious I won't be the only one to run out of votes and have to wait for two months before being allowed to vote again.

It says I've been subscribed for 3 weeks which leaves me with over 8 weeks before I can post a new feature request or vote for a request I like

I'm sorry to insist but I do feel that I've been kicked out of the system and I guess that I'm not the only person who was active in the feature requests form who can't participate so regularly anymore…

 

[Kent Brockman]

Hello there. I just added a feature request about Multiple PHP Versions in cPanel and after submit, I've noticed it does not appear under my profile activity nor in the search results. Why's that? Do you moderate the request before allow to be published?
Best Regards

 

[Kent Brockman]

Hello there. I just added a feature request about Multiple PHP Versions in cPanel and after submit, I've noticed it does not appear under my profile activity nor in the search results. Why's that? Do you moderate the request before allow to be published?
Best Regards

Confirmed: the requests are moderated and approved. Thank you. Sorry for the anxiety

 

[monarobase]

I've just had to ask cPanel's support to post a feature request for me because of the 10 votes every two months limit.

I'm surprised there aren't more people complaining about this limitation was I the only active member in the feature requests forums who has been impacted by this limit ? Or have all the active members just given up participating ?

Please increase my limit to at least 30 votes per month or don't count new feature requests in the allowed votes…

Two months without being able to vote is a long time !

 

[monarobase]

Would it be possible to have an update from cPanel on this ?

I still fail to see the point of a feature request system on which you can't post new feature requests and can only vote every two months.

The message cPanel used to give when David was here :

Please participate in the feature requests, we want to know what you like, dislike and give us new ideas.

The new message is :

Please don't particiapte too much in the feature requests forum, David is not here anymore and we can't afford to employ someone to work in this section anymore.

----

I'm very sad that cPanel doesn't want people to participate in the feature requests section anymore.

As proof that your new system doesn't work :

One of my small feature requests is still at the top and still getting votes whereas it's a small not that important request. Lots of much more important features are stuck down near the bottom because people run out of votes on the first pages.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE allow us to say "I like" again to any features we actually "like" and untill you have time to implement an "I love" system to complement the "I like" one, let features come to the top of the list sometimes. If people don't like them they will go down soon enough.

Why remove a working system to replace it complety with an only complementry system ?

Why limit the number of feature requests a user can post when they are moderated ?

If you still don't see why the current system is bad, then maybe you could open the feature request section on the forum again ? Or maybe are we supposed to put +1's on features we like and vote for features we love ?

 

[electric]

Perhaps an alternative to the "vote either yes or no" current system, might be to use a "ranking" system instead.

So every person would be allowed to "rank" every feature request once. You can rank the feature request from one (low priority) to 5 (high priority).

This way, cpanel developers can see both who is "voting" for which request and also what is the desired priority for each request.

I think this would be better then the current "yes or no" system with limited votes.

 

[monarobase]

That would solve everything that I don't like about the current system

 

[electric]

Only problem is that nobody from cpanel is going to see it, since it's not in the feature request system.

 

[monarobase]

And I can't post any feature requests for about another 3 weeks so I can't get it there for quite a moment !

 

[srpurdy]

Yeah I don't like this new way at all. I come here to see whats going on. And the feature request system is buried under 500 links somewhere. Why isn't there a giant button somewhere? I have to use the search on the main site? I never use searches on a main site.... In a forum yes, but a site? seriously who uses those? If the navigation is designed properly you shouldn't need one.

Everyone wasted votes on features that are meh. And Apache 2.4 support for example is buried at the back of the list when it had a giant topic here before. At least with the old way if someone made a comment it would bump the thread up and others could see it. Way it is now you have to search through 100's of requests to find the ones you want to support. Frankly I don't have the time to "work" for cPanel for free. So I'm not going to waste my time with it. Maybe this should be why I feel for cPanel having to go through all those feature requests, but as a user a I don't find it at all convenient.

What's Convenient is going into the forums and while I'm looking through security and optimization topics, and take a look at feature requests. Now I have to go into the feature requests system and then well oh. never mind everything new is buried at the bottom and I have to figure out whats new, whats old, and oh do I have votes left. Nope. Maybe you guys have time to do that, but I don't. What used to take 10 minutes now is hour + affair. I'm not interested even in the slightest.