Integrating a user poll system

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Haavard
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Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by Haavard »

I am for this, as long as no data is sent if you don't click anything. It could give real users an easy way of giving feedback.

It could be for example a question with an image, and some buttons; yes, no, no opinion and "more info", which is a link that take you to the forum post. Also multiple questions could be queued up, so that you could give multiple feedbacks in a row.
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paddle
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Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by paddle »

GeneFC wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:11 pm
chennes wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:51 pm just a line of text at the top of the Start page that is something like "Poll of the week: Blah blah blah blah", that is a link that takes you to a forums topic that has a poll in it.
Who is going to decide what constitutes a valid poll?

Some polls in the forum, which can be started by anyone, are utter nonsense. Pushing something like that onto unsuspecting users will be a disaster.

Gene
It's true that sometimes users can vote for things that might actually be a bad decision. However the polls would be pushed kind of officially for things where both outcomes are rather acceptable.

Please note that this was just a general idea and not specially a way to push this coincident/pointonobject agenda which is not really important. it was just an example to illustrate.
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sliptonic
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Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by sliptonic »

I'm not in favor of this approach. Asking the user which option they prefer can lead in a wrong direction as often as not.

User's will tend to answer a preference question based on which situation is easier for them to imagine. For example, if a user asked if coincident and point on object should be merged, they will answer 'yes' if it's easier to imagine a merged function that is seamless rather than a merged function with a complicated but necessary dialog. They don't have enough information to form an appropriate preference so they substitute a simpler one.

Also, interrupting the users train of thought to ask them for a preference is going to tell you more about how they feel about polls then it is about the task at hand. It will drive them crazy.
paddle wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 11:56 am The best way would be to probe user opinion to see if there's a clear preference for one way or the other.
Sort of, but not like this. The best way would be a formal usability study where someone watches the user perform a task and when the user gets confused or frustrated, the researcher pauses them to understand what they were thinking about. This isn't a simple poll, it's a conversation. Usability studies are expensive and difficult to do well.

Not too far off topic, I highly recommend Thinking Fast and Slow for insight about how querying a person about prefences can go wrong.
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onekk
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Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by onekk »

It will be a good thing, but there are some critical point:
  • how many users want to interact.
  • how many user FreeCAD has.
  • what type of work they are doing with FreeCAD.
  • What is the confidence to give to such a pool.
It is a long dissertation, but this has to cope with some statistical things, like "how much the people that answer to the pool are representative of the real user base".

To answer at this question you have to be in possession of some real data, and sadly it is not even possible to have a real number about "number of users".

Maybe it will be a good way to proceed to create a "panel of user" in statistical meaning, say you choose 60 members, 20 newbie, 20 advanced, 20 skilled users, and peiodically you will submit some question that will guide the evolution of FreeCAD.

If some user did not answer say to 3 consecutive pools it will be deleted and another one is inserted.

You could even make some "ask for helpers" and evaluate candidates.

I think that this way is a "viable way", providing that there are many users that came here only to criticize, and I'm almost sure that such type of user will "pollute" every generalized pool you will make without a "filter".

Sorry for the statistical thinking, it is derived form my graduate courses, but I've never graduate, so take them with care as maybe I'm not a great expert. :lol:

Regards

Carlo D.
GitHub page: https://github.com/onekk/freecad-doc.
- In deep articles on FreeCAD.
- Learning how to model with scripting.
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Blog: https://okkmkblog.wordpress.com/
GeneFC
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Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by GeneFC »

paddle wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:00 pm It's true that sometimes users can vote for things that might actually be a bad decision. However the polls would be pushed kind of officially for things where both outcomes are rather acceptable.
My concern is not bad votes, but rather spam and malware disgused as polls. Someone would need to "officially" authorize each poll that was submitted to the world.

Who is that person or how would that function be controlled? If there is junk on the forum the moderators can (and do) quickly take care of it. If it is sent out to many unsuspecting users there would be a big problem.

I am not against surveys or polls, but security in this case is really important.

Gene
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bambuko
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Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by bambuko »

It's a bad idea as far as I am concerned.
I want "right" solutions not "the most popular" solutions.
and... anyway - I never use "start page" :evil:
I am using Link branch and Assembly3
you can also download ... and try it here
excellent Assembly3 tutorials here
davidosterberg
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Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by davidosterberg »

I don't see the harm in trying this. After 6 month we make can make a poll to ask if the poll function should be removed.

The feature should be configurable so it can be turned off. And it should link to the forum poll so that no user data is sent.
GeneFC wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:54 pm My concern is not bad votes, but rather spam and malware disgused as polls. Someone would need to "officially" authorize each poll that was submitted to the world.
I suggest a special subforum for User feedback polls. It should be heavily moderated by the forum moderators. I think it would be ok if forum mods are the only ones that can create a poll on this subforum. By moving it from the normal forums.
user1234
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Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by user1234 »

Not complete the same, but similar.
[url]https://forum.freecad.org/viewtopic.php?t=32240/url]
Beside this, what FOSS people hate things like this, who are the people the vote?

- How often they us a CAD?
- How often they use FreeCAD?
- How generally skilled they are CAD (trained monkey vs. no trained monkey, technical interests and/or background?

- How will you count them (eg. IP address (aggressive, proxies, ....), userfiles with ID (can be shared, regularly deleted, ..... ), offline workstations (like mine), many more)?
- Security?

Poll statistics are very difficult and have reasons why there are study courses for that, that you can extrapolate the results over all people.
bambuko wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 8:05 pm I never use "start page"
I never compile it!


davidosterberg wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 9:23 pm I suggest a special subforum for User feedback polls. It should be heavily moderated by the forum moderators. I think it would be ok if forum mods are the only ones that can create a poll on this subforum. By moving it from the normal forums.
When really, then everyone who vote, must at least make a statement for this decisions. But i do not really like that idea, but i am not completely against it.

Greetings
user1234
davidosterberg
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Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by davidosterberg »

user1234 wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 10:48 pm - How often they us a CAD?
- How often they use FreeCAD?
- How generally skilled they are CAD (trained monkey vs. no trained monkey, technical interests and/or background?
- How will you count them
- Security
I don't think anybody is suggesting that these polls will be be final decision on the matter. There will still be the forum. And there will be the core dev team. And this is not a matter of life and death. It is ok that the data is flawed. I don't think there is much incentive towards voting fraud, or to vote randomly on things people don't understand.

It is just another way to collect opinions from a perhaps a bit broader population than the forum rats.
It is my belief that better decisions are made if we draw input from many sources of information and opinion.

And sometimes we need to try something new in order to see what happens.
GeneFC
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Re: Integrating a user poll system

Post by GeneFC »

davidosterberg wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 9:23 pm
GeneFC wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:54 pm My concern is not bad votes, but rather spam and malware disgused as polls. Someone would need to "officially" authorize each poll that was submitted to the world.
I suggest a special subforum for User feedback polls. It should be heavily moderated by the forum moderators. I think it would be ok if forum mods are the only ones that can create a poll on this subforum. By moving it from the normal forums.
Just as a bit of follow-up. I have killed at least a half dozen attempted spam posts today. I believe the other moderators can tell similar experiences.

If this idea goes forward it needs to be based on a well-managed distribution.

Gene
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