WTH Is voting the best way to judge requests?

Month of "What the heck?!"
1

While there is no question that topics that get a lot of votes are worth considering for implementation, I am questioning if it statistically valid to assume a low vote count truly means there is little interest in something. It seems to me that there can be a lot of reasons for a low vote count besides the popularity or value of a suggestion. Some of those include:

The original requester does a poor job of describing a great feature so it gets no votes due to the inability of readers to understand the true value.

Dashboard and core system features get confused. The request is dismissed because the requested feature can already be displayed in a dashboard card even if the request had nothing to do with dashboards.

The request is dismissed because there is existing functionality that kind of sounds similiar even though a closer examination would show why the existing feature cannot accomplish what was requested.

The request gets shot down by folks who dislike the idea for whatever reason and the thread devolves into an argument that overshadows the request and prevents it from being voted on or considered (or probably even read by the folks who evaluate the request.)

I’m sure there are many other reasons why a good suggestion might get a low vote count so my WTH is to consider if there might be a better approach to looking at these requests beyond just a vote count. I don’t have an alternative to offer right now but with 2 years until the next WTH there should be time to find a more statistically valid way to do it.

2

I’d say adding down votes is a good metric for if the WTH is good or not.

3

Low vote totals often have very little to do with what gets implemented… as covered in the FAQ, more often it’s based on the complexity of the request, whether it’s currently feasible, or the extent to which it might create breaking changes.

There are a number of low-voted WTHs from this current batch that have been addressed. This one is at 11 votes, this one has 14 votes, this one 15, and this one has 24… but each of them caught the attention of a dev who felt like tackling the request; and they are all in the current beta and will likely be in the January release.

4

It seems to me WTH is mostly used to identify low hanging fruit that was overlooked. Some of the most voted topics like RBAC have returned time and again as popular favorites without being implemented. Because it’s hard.

5

Correct. The big topics take time to research, design, and implement, and they are not easily built during holidays.

6

Keep in mind that many of the WTHs you’re taking part of have little to no direction. Those wth’s will always be overlooked. Speaking from experience, small direct WTHs with a defined solution get looked at and completed first. Ambiguous “why do I have to use to do ?” are typically left open for a long time before getting addressed (If they even get addressed).