Analytics for UI design
okhawaja
New
Could we crowdfund plugins? I know this was discussed before, but it was for specific plugins. What if vanilla could provide a platform where we as community provide plugin ideas and each community member adds to a pool until the required funds have been gathered to implement that plugin.
One plugin I'd love, but don't have money to completely fund is a plugin that tracks each user's interaction on the site and lets you as an admin make different UI changes. Using the plugin you would be able to see what UI changes from css standpoint were made and how each test group interacted within that test group. Facebook and many large corporations do this form of A/B testing to find optimal UI, so could we fund this plugin if a developer on here is up for the job? Meaning, is anyone else interested in getting such a plugin built and wants to pool money as a community to make this happen?
Comments
yes you can, I actually funded many plugins for this software adding up to at least $2k . But it does not guarantee your forum will benefit like you might expect. It takes having at least 100 members to define what that community needs or could benefit from extra software.
Has been done, unfortunately unless the plugin proves to be more of an asset to the main code than a detriment or overkill or unnecessary , no amount of money or cool UI can increase traffic to your forum , if the content is boring or a waste of time.
Information is on a need to know basis. If you publish useless information, you might attract some people but it is not enough to last. An internet year equals 10 years in real life. 10 years of useless info is enough to make your forum , useless.
I would have to ask you if you believed in gods… Do you have any clue about how Zuckerberg and his team came up with the code for Facebook ???? It was not the result of a drunken afternoon, it took 10 years to get that site to function and it still has problems ….. Vanilla IS NOT FACEBOOK . It is better than that because it's about community and like minds or kindred spirits whatever you choose.
Forums are not social media… they are more than that and asking to have Facebook like capabilities is rather insulting. If the Vanilla team turned this software into a social media trash dump, I would quit and make my best effort to give it a bad name an run them into the ground.
Forums are about intellectual pursuits and a place where people can find the resolution to their problem. Not necessarily a gossip station although that is fine as long as they take the FREE software as it is. And as the disclaimer states on every single coded page.
Pooling money to get people to make your custom plugin for this software, was what I had in mind and thus I paid out accordingly, even for shit I did not need or used, but for others like you who clamored for paid software … the work some of those people did , either became obsolete or they simply went away and no longer support their work for free, or at all.
I was as naive as you are now about the coding industry. I paid more money than anyone else here for devs to create stuff for needy people , even if I was not benefiting because I am a philanthropist at heart. Then I learned how to do what they did and gave away the knowledge to whom needed or wanted it.
You remind me of Trump, completely ignorant of the facts and the laws and the constitution and wanting to create laws that go against the laws. Ignores the read me …
This community creates such plugins without cash if they want to. Lord knows I have… Those who love to code have bent over backwards to give people what they want, not because they expected money , but because the challenge to do that increased their brain cells and it felt good. money can't buy that….
Vanilla is a Community Forum Software. It's sole purpose to exist , is for a discussion forum where people discuss something they need to discuss with others. Plugins are only efficiency enablers and are not required or necessary if you truly have something to say or something to offer.
Until you have a community with several hundred users and you require something special or custom, reserve your ideas. I only say that because I also promoted this and was shot down as soon as I hit the enter key… four years ago. I had to actually learn to code in order to understand this concept . Took me four years. If you can stick around and love this code, you will understand what I know too.
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@vrijvlinder: Dreaming about Vanilla serving as a platform that does this or that doesn't remind me of Trump. No need to insult someone, I'd say.
Just think for a moment how someone could be called who thinks he/she can tell others what forums and "this community" are all about. But like I said before: no need to be insulting. I think this is a great advice for online behavior:
Crowdfunding involves natural selection: if you ask for crowdfunding a plugin that shows random images of cute kittens all around, it's a valid request, but it is not very likely that you get many support for such a request. Easy as that.
Improving UX by A/B testing on the other hand is common practice. Not on amateur level, but if there was a simple plugin for that, I guess it would be used by some non-ignorant people who strive to improve their forum.
But surely it is okay that you think you know that such a plugin is rubbish. Just remind yourself of Thumpers wisdoms from time to time.
@okhawaja: Though this has nothing to do with A/B testing, you might be interested in something like that if you are interested in analyzing your users behavior: https://plugins.piwik.org/ClickHeat
Fair enough, I was careless about that. That man is evil incarnate and it is the worst thing anyone can compare anything to. Forgive me… Nazis have a bad effect on me and the political debates got the best of me. …
You lost me there. I am an evolution theory savant and natural selection does not involve php or kittens, but nice word salad none the less
Ignorant people also strive to improve, I am an ignorant who strived and strives to improve. Saving someone a few steps should be considered a good thing.
I never said nor implied any plugin was rubbish, because that would mean my plugins were rubbish too, please abstain from adding words I did not use.
I stated that I paid people to create apps and plugins for others even if I did not need or use them. That is a fact. So why would I consider plugins rubbish ?
Wer dreimal lugt dem glaubt man nicht ….. und wenn er auch die Wahrheit spricht …
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Aside from harsh words (Look what Trump has done to dull our sensitivity;-) I see here two independent notions that have surfaced before - a plugin idea and a guess/recognition that its development may cost more than the proponent can afford. IMHO these two are quite separate.
The first (the suggestion of a new idea) deserves a discussion for a new idea is inherently not fully baked. I'd favor a special place for such discussions (category? - not sure that the categories as visible today would be picked by discussion authors).
The latter (funding) is complex and has been discussed many times. How to manage the pool, ensure commitments are made good on, and that development is completed to requirements (yea, the clear specifications of requirements and functionality is another large issue). IMHO managing this entire matter should be centralized. Not sure the Vanilla team has the bandwidth. Short of that matters move rarely and slowly.
Crowdfunding is no new idea and that's why there are many possibilities to do so. I don't think it needs to be a Vanilla hosted software. Why not simply use one of the existing platforms?
As soon as the campaign has been set up, you can come here and ask for people willing to pay and also for developers being able to deliver.
I didn't mean to imply that Vanilla should develop the entire crowd sourcing platform (at least I didn't think I did). What I meant was that once it is set up it should have a representation in here to follow up on that progress. I just don't want it to totally live (and die...) outside of this space. We may be saying the same thing in slightly different ways...