New forums voting system + optional tags questions

[powernemo]

Hello,
I am not sure in what category this post falls trough (and since i did not find a dedicated one I post it in the sub-forum i am most familiar with please feel free to move it).

I have 2 questions about the new forum.

1 - how does the voting system work? I started voting for some issues but at some point it turns out i do not have any more vote available. Is it time based or there is an absolute number of votes per person? It seems to be a very useful feature to prioritize requests if users would be aware of it and ofc entitled to express themselves MORE trough voting (also I find it a bit unfair to UN-VOTE something I care about to VOTE something else I care equally at the end the issues with more votes should win anyway…).

2- I find the optional tags very useful (although a bit restrictive) to find the issues. It is restrictive because you cannot add new ones but at the same time I noticed there are 2 entries issue and issues what is the difference?

Thank you!

[Dr.Strangelove]

(moved to the lounge )

The forum is fairly new - and things are still settling down.

I believe you have 10 votes in total - but can’t find anything in the FAQs to back this up …how many votes have you used (you can see in your user preferences) ?

The tags are another work in progress - yes there are a few quirks and oddities, they will straighten out in time. Re: isssue/issues …one has 12,000 uses and the other seems to have none - so pick the popular one

[powernemo]

Hehe oki, thanks for moving my post I read all the sections ans saw the lounge but was not sure it was the correct place.

I understand the forum is pretty new so that’s fine.
Regarding the votes (it seems) I used just 4 and it tells me that I reached the limit.

Thank you!

[ggmanestraki]

Topic Voting

Voting for feature requests seems like “a bad idea” after all (although I’ve done it for requests that I deem priorities), because if you follow the link and read about votes, they are returned when a topic closes. So we’ll see how that pans out, because I’ve yet to see a feature request “closed”.

2. #issues has 0 topics. #issue over 12.000. I think that’s the one we’re supposed to be using.

Edit: In case somebody wonders why I copy pasted Dr.Strangelove’s response, I didn’t. Creepy coincidence.

[Dr.Strangelove]

@ggmanestraki

Voting for feature requests seems like “a bad idea” after all (although I’ve done it for requests that I deem priorities),

I’m not at all convinced that the voting system is to be take too seriously. I think it very unlikely that Steinberg will use them for prioritising fixes or feature requests. I would treat it more casually than you are suggesting. I see it as a ‘like’ with more emphasis…

You have to remember that, technically, this is a user forum - even though SB staff do post from time to time.

[powernemo]

I see thank you and I understand how the voting system may seems not appropriate in this context.
The fact is that this forums includes help posts and a mix of issues, feature requests.
In other communities for examples Autodesk they have an “Idea Board” where users post just about features and issues, with meaningful titles and description. Voting in that case becomes relevant and offers to the developers a clear direction to go into prioritizing the issues.

For example lot of people are annoyed at the small scrollbar width but no one votes on that.
In some cases the post title is “weird” (see Skinny Scrollbars Stinks how can you even expect that a developer takes you seriously?) in some other cases have a post but no one votes on them, so it slips away and maybe developers will invest money on making a new colored grid rather than fixing a very small (literally) irritant such as the tiny scrollbars.

This is just one example (I am a tool developer myself so I am on both sides of the field as user and as a programmer) I understand how tricky is to make everyone happy and especially with a huge (and i suppose very old) code-base such as Cubase but still know in what direction to go is always beneficial for everyone.

[powernemo]

Ok so I am posting here because I love Cubase and there is no other DAW for me.
I would like to help to make the user experience better, what should I do?

[ggmanestraki]

I think the vote is just a visibility boost in our current situation. I don’t see how else it helps our semi-permanent discussions. The vote is perfect if we made a thread “Beer tonight.” Everyone who wants beer votes, we go, topic closed, vote’s returned.

[Dr.Strangelove]

@powernemo - great that you want to help out

Just stick around and help in anyway you can - answer or ask whatever questions you think relevant. There is a huge range of experience and skill levels here. It’s important everyone has a voice.

I’m finding the more I (try to!) help the more I actually learn

As long as everything is civil then I don’t think you need to worry about ‘doing the wrong thing’…just post away.

[Nico5]

@Dr.Strangelove

not at all convinced that the voting system is to be take too seriously

@Ben_at_Steinberg Would it be possible and/or make sense to disable the discourse voting system for the Steinberg forums, if it doesn’t serve a meaningful purpose?

[Ben_at_Steinberg]

Each product owner had the choice whether to enable the voting feature for their categories. In the new year, I’ll follow up with them about how they plan to use the feature. In the meantime it should easy enough to ignore.

[cubic13]

… Fine, Ben. So, what to think about this, published 3 weeks after your post ? Things don’t seem to evolve a bit, despite all the complaints about it. Meanwhile, I just stumbled (again…) on this one :

It’s been a good while since “I have 0 votes left”. So, sorry, but I “bump” what is considered by the forum posting system as an “old thread”, as my inquiry is exactly on topic. Doing this, I hope to get at least a definite word, more than 6 months after, on the subject : how are we supposed to support in a reliable way a suggestion that could be considered as an useful Cubase improvement ?

[Matthias_Quellmann]

I guess this questions should be rather directed at me, since the voting feature is only available in the Cubase section. The best way to support a feature-request is to add a comment and tell a bit about your perspective why this would support your workflow. The voting system is still an experiment.

Do you think that unlimited votes for everyone would work better for you?

[cubic13]

Thanks for answering, Matthias…

The problem is that the voting is an “experiment” since several months without any change about it. If I remember well, I think I have reach the 0 vote(s) stage nearly three months ago. Since, I have seen a lot of useful suggestions, such as the one displayed in my previous screenshot. And sometimes, we don’t have the time or feel the need to make an extensive disgression about how and when the exposed suggestion could be useful. As an example, the usefulness of the suggestion displayed in my previous post is rather obvious : no need for an extensive development about it - it’s a rather strange quirk that has been here since the SX/SL days and has never been improved. Beside this, I’m not sure that the Steinberg crew members have the time to read extensively the countless “feature request” related threads and make their mind about what is the most important for all the forumers. It’s where a rightly featured vote system could help…

So, and to answer you, unlimited votes for everyone might not be the solution, indeed, as everyone would click without thinking twice about what could truely be useful. I still think that this feature could be useful, though : let’s say that everyone has a capital of 5 votes which would be augmented to something like 1 vote each week or 10 days, with still the 5 votes maximum as a “vote capital”. This, I think, would prevent any vote click fest, as each of us would have to consider what is the more important, otherwise getting more or less quickly a “vote failure”. This, as a first improvement : maybe it could be modulated in a way or another i.e., relatively to the participation or the status of a given forumer (and even, I’m not really sure that this is truely fair…).

Overall, I think that this would even help Steinberg crew to get a rather truthful overview about what counts to the forum users. Presently, I think that the vote system isn’t able to do so, due to the present votes drastic limitation.

So, I don’t know if this is technically doable, but as the vote system already exists, maybe there is a way. If not possible, the whole vote system is useless as it is, IMO : it should be simply dropped, replaced maybe by something that you have already used something like two years ago : a poll with the most demanded features.

[digitallysane]

@Matthias_Quellmann

I guess this questions should be rather directed at me, since the voting feature is only available in the Cubase section. The best way to support a feature-request is to add a comment and tell a bit about your perspective why this would support your workflow. The voting system is still an experiment.

I don’t think the vote system works in this context.

Cubase is just too broad and covers too many fields so one can easily have 3-4 strong needs / opinions for mixing/post, then for the GUI, then for MIDI, then for music features, then for music features for a particular niche (electro, orchestral etc).

Not sure what the voting system in the forum software is made for, maybe polls etc.

If you do want a system to get ideas from users and vote on them, I suggest taking a look at your colleagues from Yamaha Synths, who started an IdeaScale website exactly for that: YamahaSynth - by IdeaScale | Popular

[beerbong]

@Matthias_Quellmann

Do you think that unlimited votes for everyone would work better for you?

I like how there are a limited number of votes so you have to choose carefully, but it seems the curren limit seems quite low. I would suggest increasing the amount, perhaps double the allowed votes.

And perhaps not only consider your forum activity but the time since you have been a forum member, and if you have submitted quality bug reports. Eg. I have been around here since ~2007, fairly active (imo), submitted some bug reports with repro instructions, but I only have 3 votes permitted.

In addition there are many closed threads or inappropriate threads (such as the update posts) which have votes. Those should be refunded automatically.