I just wanted to point out that when users were asked what they think is
the most important thing programmers should be working on, only 4 out of
36, or 11% said formal review and distribution. The results in detail were:
Quality: 17
Screening for vandalism, with better watchlists, more configurable
contributions pages and RC, etc. Features for organised patrol, marking
edits as checked.
Performance: 12
Full text search, regularly updated special pages, response time,
avoiding error messages in peak times, scalability. Working on
performance keeps hardware costs down.
Syntax and rendering: 2
Templates with parameters that actually work, new kinds of data e.g.
chemical structural formulas, chess, music, etc., browser compatibility,
WAP access.
Distribution: 4
Formal review, CDs, DVDs, print, static HTML dumps.
User rights: 1
Partial bans on users, e.g. from namespaces or given sets of articles,
or number of edits per day. Alternative methods for sysopping and
desysopping. Dangerous actions by quorum or consensus. Partial page
protection, using file replacement or similar. Automated sock puppet
checks. Trust metrics.
Note that the results were likely skewed towards quality, since the poll
was advertised in a village pump discussion on quality features.
-- Tim Starling