Having started using the forum more recently I am noticing that it is quite simplistic with very little management and/or searching/filtering tools.
Are there any plans to improve the forum functionality in these areas? here are some example scenarios which I will expect to see frequently but currently have no simple way to manage, and in some cases no way at all to manage.
Scenario: User searching for everything above N votes which is not implemented
As a forum user and forum moderator
I want a way to filter the forum results based on varying criteria
So that I can find the most relevant topics
Given there are 100 topics
And 5 of those topics have votes of 25 and are not implemented
And 10 of those topics have votes of 25 and are implemented
When I go to browse the feature forum
Then I should see an option to filter on not implemented
And I should be able to sort by votes asc or desc
This scenario would then allow me and users to see what are the outstanding features which have been requested and are upvoted by users.
Scenario: Admin wanting to merge topics
As a forum moderator
I want a way to merge 2 topics together which are discussing same topic
So that there are not 2 identical ideas being discussed
Given there are 2 topics with the same topic
And I am logged in as an admin/agent
When I go to browse the first topic
Then I should see an option to merge topic
This scenario would then allow duplicate topic posts to be merged, be it either allowing the comments to be carried over and the original ticket content either manually updated by the moderator when merging or just keeping the destination merge topic content and just carrying over comments. Either way you then have 1 single feature with all user comments and votes tracked rather than multiple spread out ones.
Scenario: Admin wanting to split a topic
As a forum moderator
I want a way to split a single topic into 2 separate topics
So that each feature is discussed within its own topic
Given there is a single topic
And I am logged in as an admin/agent
When I go to browse the topic
Then I should see an option to split topic
And should be able to select what text to move into the new topic
And should be able to select what comments to move into the new topic
This scenario would address instances such as this, where rather than make 3 separate tickets for each of my proposed requirements I have just thrown them all into one big topic. So when a user votes you are not sure which of the 3 topics they are voting on and the comments and focus of the topic gets blurred. So being able to split a topic's content into new topics which are more concise would allow the moderator to not only automate the moving of the content of the topic but also the comments which pertain to the new topic.
Scenario: User/Admin wanting to link to another topic
As a user
I want a way to link to an existing topic
So that the link automatically has context on the ticket being linked
Given there is a topic
When I make a new topic
And I add a link to an existing topic within the forum
Then the system should realise that this is an internal link
And display the tickets name
And on mouse over a small summary of the ticket contents and vote count
And on click should take the user to the ticket as per normal links
This scenario is helpful for when you are wanting to do a system announcement notifying users that you have implemented features they have requested, or have fixed bugs that have been reported. As currently you put a link in and manually name it, which means you ideally need to copy and paste the topics name. It would be good if you could just have a new option as well as adding url link to add topic link directly where you can search on title or on topic id if you were to display that somewhere, then just embed it.
The end result for this feature would ideally look like how stackoverflow links other questions so its easier for people to link to the related posts and easier for the poster to create the link. Makes it feel more like an eco-system rather than a group of tickets.
This is enough for now, I have lots more which I would like to see as to be honest the forum's functionality is pretty lacking currently, it does the bare minimum and not much else. Granted I am sure most peoples focus is on the ticketing aspect and agent management however as my projects are focused around being community driven most of my work is done in the forums and not the management interface.
Let me know if you want to hear more or clarify on any of the points raised, I wont even charge you a Business Analyst fee :)
