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Originally Posted by Greg Jones
Brian, I want to add that I know that feature requests 'bubble up' based on user requests, but I suppose that I am surprised that bug reports follow the same process.
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(Please keep in mind that we're speaking in very broad generalities at this point.)
Bug fixes will tend to get more attention, but something being a bug can't trump every other consideration. One of the realities of software development is that a project of meaningful size will pretty much always have more things you could be working on than you have time to do your work.
If the project matters, you'll probably never be "done", in other words. So, you have to prioritize. You spend the scarce resource of developer time and brainpower making the changes that the largest number of your customers find valuable.
Sometimes those changes are adding features, and sometimes they're fixing bugs. There are many ways to get the balance between the two wrong, of course, and customers often disagree about what's most important, which can also be fun. :-)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg Jones
Does it not seem logical that many users may not report bugs because they have read in the forums that the bugs have been acknowledged by the development team?
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This assumption does seem pretty natural; I handle that by posting many, many reminders about emailing the ninjas when they want something changed. I want every forum visitor to have the best chance of helping us make the right choices as we plan and work on our projects.
Side note: while there are undoubtedly folks that want something changed and don't let us know directly, I haven't seen any evidence that this skews stuff badly. Personally, I'd bet things are skewed slightly in favor of bug fixes. People are motivated more strongly to act on things they don't like. If a forum visitor sees that a something is a popular feature request, I bet they're a little less likely to email us.