Help us learn how Feature Requests R gathered

My name is Paula Laurent. I am a Computer Science PhD student at DePaul University conducting research on soliciting and prioritizing requirements. The goal of this research is to find out about the current requirements processes used in Open Source projects.

We are requesting 20 minutes of your time to complete an online survey which can be accessed at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ad4AWnLViEkf6KLBmnbI0w_3d_3d

Thank you.

Fixed it for ya!

Pep (You would probably get more interesting responses if you really *were* investigating the economics of escorting.)

The request brought to mind something that happened to me on the way to this forum . . .

I walked into a crowded bar, grabbed a beer and looked around for somewhere to sit. The only spare chair appeared to be at a table where a girl was sipping an orange juice.

"Is anybody using this chair?" I quietly and politely asked her.

She jumped up our of her chair and started shouting at the top of her voice, "NO! I AM NOT GOING TO GO TO BED WITH YOU! I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU! WHAT SORT OF A GIRL DO YOU THINK I AM?"

I blushed profusely, and practically ran out of the bar into the beer garden with everyone's eyes on me and leaving behind an excited murmuring as the clientele discussed what had happened.

Ten minutes later, having swallowed my beer faster than I normally would have, I tentatively went back inside to order a refill. The girl was nowhere to be seen.

I ordered another beer from the bartender and was waiting when the girl came out of the ladies room and walked over to me.

"Sorry about that", she whispered in my ear, "I am a psychology student and I am conducting studies in public embarrassment - and you looked like a perfect subject for my experiment".

"WHAT? CHANGED YOUR MIND HAVE YOU? TEN DOLLARS FOR A QUICK ONE IN THE JOHN OR TWENTY BUCKS FOR AN HOUR BACK AT YOUR PLACE? YOU REALLY ARE A CHEAP WHORE, AREN'T YOU!" I said at the top of my voice, ensuring that everyone in the bar could hear me.

And I walked back out to the garden with a smile on my face, leaving the girl red faced and beginning to cry behind me.

Pep (I am sure you are not like that at all Paula)

Oh dear. The questions assume that the forum is a route for feature requests. Since this is wrong, it is impossible to give sensible answers. Perhaps 20 of your minutes spent investigating before this post would have been a good idea. You might have discovered the Jira.

By the way, it only took one minute!

And here I thought we would go a whole week without being asked to do someones homework for them.

Was that a feature request?

I actually had fun with this survey:

4. Which of the following methods do you think SecondLife uses to prioritize feature requests?
-- Other (please explain)
------dart game, random selection

5. Who do you think decides which new feature requests to implement in a given release?
-- Other (please explain)
---- The TAO of LL

Not filling out your survey. Please note that only part of LL's product offering, the viewer, is Open Source.

There is nothing unusual about LL's requirements handling, except that they DO offer a simple way for individuals customers to request features, as well as participate in bug reporting/prioritization:

https://jira.secondlife.com/

Other than that, they have a product management group which doubtless attempts to prioritize product requirements in line with corporate goals. Duh.

For the viewer itself, new features are often discussed on a developer mailing list.

If you are really interested in the process, you may wish to contact Rob Linden. Last I heard he was in charge of the Open Source projects at LL.

You might wish to take a smartness pill before doing so, though. Soliciting this info through the forums is not the brightest approach.
.