What about a page where the Wikidot team would be able to post requests for help from the community, on topics of their current work?

I see little evidence that the Wikidot team really notice, care about or value the contributions from the community or are actively seeking our help.

It is true that even now Wikidot developers can ask the community this or that via the forums

They can but they don't. None of the developers appear on the community forum and official blog posts have been very few over the last few months.

It is really frustrating to post a request and see that years may pass before the team could get to even consider it.

Indeed.

I would also be happy to see a simpler and more straightforward approach - listing wishes from Wikidot back to the community.

Sorry to be negative, and I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see that happening with the current team. Community engagement is close to zero.

users could influence in some way the speed of implementation of requested features by helping Wikidot move forward sooner

Even with the pledge system at http://roadmap.wikidot.com, hoping that we could influence the speed of development was an unrealistic aspiration. Pledging a lot of money did not speed anything up. With no pledges in place it seems to me that the speed of development is purely down to whatever Michal thinks is important and we have no idea what that is other than a vague hint about the API.

Maki, I think you might have been away for a while. Since Pieter left the situation we feared would happen has actually happened and we see little in the way of engagement by the developers with the community, no progress reports on wishes they have accepted and no indication of what is going on that we might look forward to. They will consider me to be unnecessarily negative but I do think the momentum of development has been seriously lost over the last year.

They will consider me to be unnecessarily negative but I do think the momentum of development has been seriously lost over the last year.

You make a fair point, Rob. And I don't think you're overly negative. I can't think of any other major project that doesn't publish a list of features that are planned along with an estimate of release dates. The lack of participation and involvement by the development team in the community discussions is very frustrating. I'm to the point that I hesitate to make feature requests because it seems like it's just heaping stuff onto an already large, unorganized pile of things to do. Plus, it's unlikely to get a response from anyone in a position to make a decision on whether it will be considered or not.

-Ed

That's true, but Wikidot feels more like a "project" to me, especially when you consider the open source version that's available. The handful of us (including you) that do our best to help other users in the community are often at a loss when it comes to finding real solutions because that solution might rely on posting a wish that, even if flagged as accepted, may not see the light of day for a long time. Some kind or priority list would go a long way to help keep us informed. Committing to a time frame is less important than committing to a priority list.

Rob and I and others have asked for things similar to your wish and have also been largely ignored.

Much to my sadness, Wikidot seems to have taken he bad road of many other projects which have started with a terrific idea and beautiful execution, but ended up in mediocrity or stagnation, if not complete shutdown. I can number quite a few but I do not want to go in other topics now. I'd only add that some of those projects are actually quite successful to this day, but have, by far, not realized the full potential they possess.

I would like to address Michal and everyone else from the Wikidot team.

I know that our posts sound accusatory, I see that you are active on the forums (I got personal replies from Michal and Squark on wishes I posted just a few days ago), I see that work on Wikidot is being done (bugs get fixed every week or so). I believe that you do an awful lot of good work, with great intentions, far beyond making making money. I am confident that you want Wikidot to be great and that you care about the community.

I am trying to guess what it is to run such a big project: you have to be all at the same time a CEO, a financial supervisor, a leader, a visionary, a project manager, a crisis manager, a marketing expert, a business development expert, a human resource manager, a business negotiator, a programmer and a community feedback manager. And you have life outside Wikidot, by the way.

So, please understand, we are not ranting for the sake of it. We are ranting and accusing because we may just have a good reason to do so. Wikidot is not something you pay and get, not at least for the some of us. It means a serious investment of time in learning, participating, helping each other, contributing, sharing the passion of your, our cause. We want to help, help ourselves and help you have Wikidot successful and paying.

At the same time, because of this emotional involvement, as well as the expectation that Wikidot has been the right choice to direct one's time and energy to, we take it deep inside when we see progress lagging far behind the requirements of the day.

I guess that with all responsibilities, pressure and diverse voices, each dragging attention to its own interests, you may experience burnout and perceive the community as a burden rather than inspiration. I guess you may be thinking "but if I am to be here correspond with you all day, then how do you expect even the inadequate progress of Wikidot to happen?"

Well, we are trying to communicate a good news to you. The community is a resource. It can overwhelm you and drain you. It can also save you a hell lot of time and nerves, do that for free and on top of that, it may help you get return on investment. Depends on how you use it.

Let me say it once more: the community is a resource. Just like full-time employees, investment capital, income cash or business networking. (Btw some people already noted that they were ready to contribute pure cash.)

We want and ask to be used, if a provocative formulation like this would convey the message better. We want to help you to breathe easier, to go to sleep happy at the end of the work day and to be in a good mood when the bills arrive.

Just think of the raw potential of this community - there are or, there is a very high chance, for people skilled in programming, gifted in visual design, competent in marketing, business models or social dynamics of online communities. Just think what it could have been if you requested help from the community, to think of an efficient way to fund free wikis. What if you have said then "Guys, it was wrong to promise free wikis with no ads. I will have to break that promise. It promised something against reality. Wikis require work to maintain and I have to do it, and I my lunch and rent do not come for free, for sure. But then, please, suggest some prudent ideas how to keep wikis accessible to everyone. What I've come up with, is to display Google ads on them. If you come with a better idea, be it so. If no better idea emerges, I shall put ads until someone suggests a more elegant solution."

A simple message like that could have saved a lot of hassle on the site and time respectively. It would have left no one disappointed or indignant. It might have really brought some good ideas. And, I bet, it would have increased trust and admiration for your service.

So, please, don't get stuck and burnt-out in the hardship of running such a big project. Ask us fo help. Think how you could possibly organize a structured and efficient dialogue with the community. Or ask us to think how to achieve that. After all that is the wiki principle - mutual help, isn't it?

Do publish a roadmap, please. Evil competition stalking on your future plans - ridiculous. How many companies do you know which failed or ended up in standstill because the competition implemented a great feature earlier? And how many companies do you know which failed or ended up in standstill because they ceased constructive interaction with their customers?

Please, please, take time and think how you could better utilise the community. Don't stay stuck in a vicious circle.

Thanks for the awesome advice. And yes — I agree with you in 100%. If we want to move forward with Wikidot, we need to work closer with community.

I must say that during the last few months we were able to move forward in other areas of the project behind the scene (e.g. financial stability, not really visible to users, but damn important for us working at Wikidot full-time). It was some difficult work, but gives us green light to move forward.

I do not want to promise anything, because we have promised stuff like "free wikis without ads" in the past and we had to break this promise because "reality-is-not-as-we-expected". But it is IMHO still better to be agile and change goals and plans, than bring the whole project down while following unrealistic roadmap. What we learned it is much better to underpromise and overdeliver.

As I said, I simply must agree with you. We'll be in touch.