I’d like to give some props to Jeffr0 for putting his money (well, time) where his mouth (well, typing fingers) is. Over the past couple of weeks he’s been hopping into the Ideas forum and helping to manage older threads by looking up which features have been implemented already (and in which versions) and which features have plugins addressing the requested functionality, which has made it much easier for me to close the outdated threads. There are still about 2300 threads to review, so if anyone wants to jump in and help, that would be fantastic.
If you want to help (this is an easy way to contribute for those who aren’t coders), go to http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/view/considering and start looking at threads. Start from the pages at the back of the list, and on each one you can help resolve:
- Read the thread.
- If you don’t know if something exists as a plugin or has been implemented, use Google.
- Add a comment to the thread indicating the status/outcome. If you found an appropriate plugin, link to it.
- Add the “modlook” tag.
- Bask in the glow of knowing that this small task is part of a big job, and is much appreciated by the community.
The sooner we get the old ideas cleared out of there, the sooner it can become more useful as a discussion tool (and clear up Trac to focus on accepted features and enhancements). So thanks, Jeffr0, and anyone else who steps up to join us in this task!
Andrew Nacin 9:26 pm on February 24, 2010 Permalink
Jeffr0: Great work. Next up, Trac, which has 1500 tickets in a future or unassigned milestone.
Jeffro 10:51 pm on February 24, 2010 Permalink
If I had the knowledge, I most certainly would hammer out the simpler tickets. But, I’ll just be one of the guys that contributes where code not apply. I realize that contributing code is probably the best way to contribute to WordPress and it really sucks that I can’t do that but I hope that by contributing in other ways like the ideas forum cleanup, it will be enough to equal that of code contributions.
Ron 10:20 pm on February 24, 2010 Permalink
Good work Jeffr0
Alphawolf 10:25 pm on February 24, 2010 Permalink
These are the individuals that make the community stand out.
Help Me Cleanup The Ideas Forum 10:57 pm on February 24, 2010 Permalink
[...] was less of a chance of running into people responding to the same ideas but since Jane Wells has made the work more public today, (Highly appreciated by the way) it’s time I make the call for help to clean up that [...]
Andrea_r 12:08 am on February 25, 2010 Permalink
Three cheers & a beer for Jeffro.
Justin 3:03 am on February 25, 2010 Permalink
This is a good idea. Would be a really useful tool without everything in there. I’m starting to do a few and will try to do more in my free time.
Jean-Paul Horn 4:40 am on February 25, 2010 Permalink
Added my help (as djr) and will continue to do so tomorrow and further this week.
Alex Dunae 4:58 am on February 25, 2010 Permalink
I spent a bit of time answering old ideas tonight. I think you could cut things down dramatically by looking at all the zero-star and single-comment posts — there’s a lot of spammy stuff and general confusion (e.g. http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic/mens-breakfast ).
Edward Caissie 2:29 pm on February 25, 2010 Permalink
I will be adding this to my general to-do list. It is a great way to help and contribute to the community.
Dre Armeda 8:56 pm on February 25, 2010 Permalink
Started helping here as well. How often are these being reviewed by the mods?
Jane Wells 9:10 am on February 28, 2010 Permalink
I review and close a bunch every day. Sometimes I close out 200 threads, sometimes only 20, depends on how much repetitive strain my wrists can take, since there’s no good workflow for this. Honestly, I’m super tempted to just archive all the old stuff and start with an empty Ideas forum.
dremeda 4:42 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink
There’s a bunch of crud in there really. It looks like a ton of them have been looked at and tagged lately so that’s good.
Don’t go giving yourself Carpal Tunnel in the Ideas forum.
dremeda 11:29 pm on February 25, 2010 Permalink
Jane, I have started reviewing these as well. Great job Jeffr0!
I was wondering, why did it get this full and why is there items 2 years old? Shouldn’t these be reviewed more often?
If they are being reviewed often, sitting idle for 2+ years with a status of “This idea is under consideration” hardly seems effective.
I think there needs to be better governance over the process.
In the meantime, I will continue to try and help clean it up
Jeffro 9:34 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink
I think the problem was two fold. The first one being that seemingly no dedicated person was keeping an eye on the ideas forum to make sure things were organized properly. The second problem is the tools used on the Ideas forum sort of broke, at least that’s how I remember it being explained. The ideas forum needed to be updated itself along with the plugins being used. The additional categorization options also helps to keep things oriented.