I suddenly ran out of votes when I was going down the vote for features list and voting for items I would like (something I think everyone should do every once in a while).
How do I get more?
Hi @DaleKramer!
Valid question and also our PowerUser @BenLewis asked for that some time ago. Thatâs something that has to be âfixedâ inside the forum settings - let me see what I can do about it! 
Thanks a lot for your feedback again!
Jousef
Thanks, strange though, I did search for the answer before I asked the question and found no answer, I guess I my search skills need to be improvedâŚ
He did not ask in the forum so no worries Dale 
If you have options on the choice of number of votes allowed, is there any reason NOT simply to place a limit of voting only once per topic but you can vote on any topic?
Hi @DaleKramer,
there might be multiple reasons why you would like to limit the number of votes per user:
- our development capacity is limited, so we have to focus on the most important features - a limited number of votes forces the users to also focus on their most important feature requests, this is key for us to judge on the importance of a feature
- usually every feature request is valid and everyone would vote for having an additional feature over not having it - allowing unlimited votes will lead to a more uniform distribution of votes and thus reduce the significance of the whole voting results
Also, once a feature has been released the votes are âreturnedâ to the users.
Maybe the current limit of 10 is a little low, but I think the general idea of having a limit is valid.
Best,
Richard
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It looks to me like there are about 100 suggested features to vote on.
I only have 4 votes available.
I used up my 4 votes by the time I got about 30 down the list.
More than most, I know about limited development time but I would think you would want to know you are working on items that would help the most of your members.
To get that information to generate and help prioritize your âToDoâ list, I believe you need to do with as little burden as possible on your members.
To me, having to realize that I only have 4 votes to cast, over an unknown number of topics, and then to prioritize the use on those votes as each new topics is posted is in the realm of TOO burdensome.
Not only that, now to be fair to all 100 topics, I am expected to re-think how I use my votes and put them on my 4 most needed topics. So you want me to read all 100 posts, and them determine which 4 (or x#) to vote on. I can tell you that this is not going to happen very often and I know I wont be doing it and I think I am a very conscientious user right now.
I donât think that currently you have any usable results from your voting system.
I did not suggest unlimited votes, I suggested 1 per topic. At least that removes the burden of evaluating the results from the user to you. You can keep stats on how many different users voted and read the topics.
A more significant metric would be what % of âreadersâ who vote for it (but wait, maybe they are reading it and donât have any votes left 
). But I think you have better options for a metric because you can actually capture member usage of the feature requestsâ area of use etc and see how many members actually work with your program in the area of suggested feature usage and then only use the votes from those people for your âvotes/have readâ ratio (that idea is still not quite there but you get the idea).
It is endless your possibilities to relieve the burden of actual prioritizing your âToDoâ list away from your members.
Just trying to help
Dale
Hi Dale (@DaleKramer),
you can âunvoteâ a topic to get your vote back, you are then free to use your vote on the feature that is of most value to you.
Hi Ben
Un-voting does not relieve any of the burden on the member that I mention in my post (in fact it increases it).
I strongly believe the burden is much too high with the current system.
Whether you believe it is too much burden or not, is not my point.
The fact that it is a burden and the fact that different members have different âburdenâ limits with respect to helping ensure that the voting system means something, necessarily implies that the results are un-measurably skewed by this âburdenâ variable. So, having results that mean something requires as little burden as possible.
At the current time, simply viewing a feature request skews any metric related to votes/views ratio since there is a VERY HIGH probability that the person viewing it doesnât have any votes left anywayâŚ
Dale
Valid arguments again Dale (@DaleKramer)!
As far as I know by now the number of votes is also limited by the userâs trust level - I will still see if that can be adapted in some specific setting but I could not find anything specific up until now. Keeping you up-to-date!
Best,
Jousef
That does not make the fact that having max number of votes limited, even based on trust level, is a bad system with respect to results validity and minimizing burden on member
Of course not and thatâs why I am having a closer look at it Thanks for your feedback Dale!
P.S.: How many votes do you think are reasonable?
Cheers!
Jousef
Oh, and one more thing (as if I havenât said enough already 
)
Another important thing to consider is that the system needs to keep the members THINKING that their votes mean something.
Right now, I personally do not believe they do.
To regain my voting participation I think you would need to zero out all votes and let the members rebuild the stats with a one vote per topic limit (or something similar )
The same goes for even participating by adding new topic features to vote on
Again, one per feature request⌠
Hey Dale (@DaleKramer)!
I do not agree on the point that the number of votes should be equal to the number of queries in the âVote For Featuresâ section as this might completely âhideâ features users really want to have. I can imagine that some users are just going to use every single vote on every feature which makes it way easier to loose track of things we should care about because queries have like 20+ votes. Hope you get my point.
I am able to increase the number of votes for every trust level but I will think about a number that is reasonable and not exorbitantly high - I am open for a discussion @power_users, whatâs your view on this?
Cheers,
Jousef
Hey @jousefm, @DaleKramer,
my point of view is maybe a bit radical, but hopefully will give you some ideas.
I think one should be able to upvote a feature after (s)he has used her/his âcoinsâ. It should be done a bit more challenging later.
My idea is:
Someone ran out of upvotes and wants to upvote a request badly. So he clicks on the button and (s)he gets a notifications that (s)he will be able to upvote once (s)he presses the button once more in a reasonable time interval. Letâs say 2 days later from 2pm to 8pm. So if (s)he finds it so important than can upvote in that time range.
Just a quick thought. How do you like?
Bests,
Jani
Any system that forces a user to decide where he can use his limited votes inherently adds the factor that some people will not care to have to keep track his vote usage and be forced to decide which features he has to take a vote away from to place a vote on another one, I will not. If there are more people like me, your results will be skewed.
Just to make sure you understand me, those 20 votes you are afraid of will not be coming from only one person, each person would only have 1 vote per feature. I believe it is up to you to determine if as user is voting on too many features, but for the life of me I am not sure this would ever happen and you can filter those out. At least the person will still think their votes counted and be âhappyâ.
I am removing all my votes now so as not to skew your results and will not use any more under the current system. I was just trying to help.
As you can see, I can be a persistent 
er but now I bid this topic goodbyeâŚ
Good idea Jani (@jhorv_th) but needs another plugin because at the moment only the number of votes can be adapted in the settings.
Dale, users can only give one vote per feature anyway so that wonât happen. And absolutely no reason to remove the votes as one person will not skew the results
I think I will just double the number soon but except you and Ben and maybe three other people nobody else seemed to really care about this restriction.
P.S.: Could it also be that you have been in the SimScale forum in the past @DaleKramer? You remind me of somebody I had mail contact with.
Cheers,
Jousef
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Sorry, no I have not.
Also sorry, didnât know current limit is once per feature (never tried it), so in effect my proposal really was unlimited (but not unlimited in my mind because did not know about current once per feature limit)