Lately... Flandry, Quim, Randy and myself started to talk about what to do with the current Brainstorm situation.

How do we handle threads without response for a longer period of time?

Mark and keep? Close and archive?

Were is the right place to discuss app/enhancement requests?

Were do we start bug attention catchers?

Isn't bug-voting and a Community thread to talk about it enough for getting attention and show how much interest exists?

At the bugtracker we have the option to link dependencies. Would it be useful to have this feature at Brainstorm and Talk:Brainstorm?

Example: Brianstorm1 proposes a mulitusersystem. Brainstorm2 needs a multiusersystem to get their solution working and people start to integrate it within their solutions, what may cross the whole Brainstorm1 where also people are working on solutions.
Should we merge these or link them to prevent working on one topic in different directions?!

Please feel free to share your thoughts, ideas and problems!
Do not discuss server problems here, please.

This thread may split into new Brainstorm threads over time, for now I want to start an open discussion.

We also need to come to a better-defined understanding with the-powers-that-be about a few things in the interest of avoiding duplication of effort and frustration from would-be participants. Many have voiced dissatisfaction with brainstorm as an "opiate of the masses" catch-all graveyard for issues Nokia doesn't want to fix. So:

What criteria separate an item that should be a bug report from a brainstorm?

What is the policy for prioritizing work on bugzilla solutions, brainstorm solutions, and other projects?

...

One thing for frustrated users to keep in mind: this is a developing system and process. Abject complaining won't help improve it much, but solid suggestions will-- but even more so, ownership of solutions. That's where the chain is really breaking, and it has a ripple effect: people see little or no action, quit participating upfront, and start complaining all over the place.

I challenge everyone to go through the actual Brainstorms (not just the Talk subforum) and see if you find something that fits your fancy, and you can act upon. Every little bit helps!

I think brainstorming has improved massively since the talk threads started coming. I think it's up to the people with the brainstorms to keep the discussion going and get votes.

But brainstorms that seem to be going nowhere could be archived imo. Would be nice with a message to the originator first, and see if he or she want's to try to activate the problem somehow.

Hmm I'd like some good process for when a feature is deemed accepted or so.

Currently a feature that has 200 votes for it would be above one with only 15 but how do you classify which one would be good to go and wich one not?

Sorry for the odd response... my brain isn't feeling up to cohession.

One of the problems I have with brainstorm is the different categories: proposal, brainstorm, sandbox, under-development... I get confused as to what is being suggested by ignorant people like me who just have an idea, what is being suggested because it's doable and what is actually being done.

Hence I have never started a thread in there (Who said "Must be the only forum on the board"? ) The place, while less daunting than bugzilla,is still a protocol I don't 'get'. And last time I tried to add a suggestion to a brainstorm, the brainstorm system itself hiccupped twice and keeled over comatose.

Could we do something with the categories/codes so it is a) obvious what each category means and b) instantly visible. Can vBulletin do colour coded titles? - say purple for suggestions, yellow for things under discussion, green for projects under development, and red for ones which seem to have stalled?

And would it be too big a burden on the Brainstorm mods (now there's more of them) to ask them to contact the proposer after a fixed term - say 3 months after the proposal - to check on whether its progressing or dropped? Then it might be possible to search the brainstorm forum according to the status of projects.

And to take up Texrat's challenge - we need a 'monthly auction' of projects which have got lots of votes and appear to be viable but don't have anyone picking them up - or a weekly featured 'unloved suggestion' like the dogs home do to place unloved dogs. With sentimental pictures and a sob story of how this proposal came to be abandoned by its original owners.

Good point Kathy. Brainstorm requires a triage process that isn't really there. That requires a champion. I'd love to take on that role, but at present it's problematic. Any takers?

There were two main motivations in the creation of Brainstorm:

1. Bugzilla seen as a non-friendly tool for non-tech people that otherwise might have great ideas proposing and discussing new features. It's not that black & white but you know what I mean.

2. Separation between bugs and features seen as useful also for Nokia since the acceptance of bugs comes usually from developers while the acceptance of features comes usually from product managers. It's not that black & white but you know what I mean.

The Maemo product managers are eager to see a Brainstorm with great ideas, fruitful discussion and plenty of votes, showing the proposals worth prioritizing and considering first. But they suffer the very same problems reported by users since they are users themselves: slow server, difficulty to follow the activities, process not very polished, categories not very clear...

About the categories, I posted an alternative proposal but I got no feedback: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=33223

I think we should prioritize things that are obvious to the user.

I'm a previous symbian owner and it was very annoying every time an update came out, there was a huge update list out of which nothing was visible, absolutely nothing!
Obviously it was quite disappointing...

I suggest once in a while we should have a sticky voting poll as dunno if it's just me but I think most users are lazy to vote/the brainstorm section really moves(/moved) slow.

What do you think?

I'd like to try and help if it's possible
Out of my favorite brainstorms I'd only promote the app manager improvement and allowing the browser to start videos in the media player (this is already implemented for divx so that should be quick and improve browsing sites youtube and dalymotion).

I think you'd be an excellent person for that, Bec.