"Thanks for your suggestion. We'll add it to the list of future considerations."

[Elliott Wave]

Even though I'm a new NinjaTrader user, there is little doubt in my mind that the NT development team and customer service is the best in the industry.

In how many other company forums can you have such responsive support?

While I'd be the last person to complain about having a member of the executive team personally responding to, and acknowledging my feature requests, the standard response of "Thanks for your suggestion. We'll add it to the list of future considerations." leaves something to be desired in my opinion.

As the platform inevitably grows by leaps and bounds, I believe its important to have a transparent and scalable system for feature request submission, tracking and management.

-What list?

-Where is this list?

-How many others have already requested something similar?

-Where on this ethereal "list" does my feature request stand?

- etc.

Does the executive team believe the current system is the most effective way the NinjaTrader user base can help prioritize feature requests for the development team, and the development teams "list" be most in coherence with needs and wishes of the users?

After seeing the Interactive Brokers feature request poll, I don't think I've ever seen a better example of a feature request management system. All from a broker who's customer service is not widely considered to be one of their strong points...

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/poll/poll.php

I'm left wondering, is a more transparent feature request system currently "on the list of future considerations."?

[Elliott Wave]

A bump for increased transparency.

After the 100th time or so, this stock phrase starts to come off as slightly patronizing.

It seems that regardless of whether a suggestion is impractical and of limited use to most users, or easy to implement and valuable for all, its the same answer every time.

Why even respond at all if its going to be the exact same vague answer every time? Thats the job of automated bots, not customer service reps.

Its perfectly understandable the developers may not wish to disclose future features at the risk of disappointing users when the specific timeframe of implementation is unknown and for other competitive concerns, but there has to be a better way than the present system.

Most of the users here share the exact same goal of making NinjaTrader the greatest trading platform possible.

Please, give us the chance...


(a humorous example)

UserX: "Please make the trend slider control the actual stock market."

NinjaTrader_*: "Thanks for your suggestion. We'll add it to the list of future considerations"

UserY: "Please add .RSS feed support to the news window so all users can use it, here is the exact code, a freeware .NET component and an MSDN link."

NinjaTrader_*: "Thanks for your suggestion. We'll add it to the list of future considerations"

[bigtrade5]

I agree with the transparency comments, and using a voting type system similar to IB.

[Elliott Wave]

Case in point.

http://www.ninjatrader-support.com/vb/search.php?searchid=103619

EDIT: It doesn't seem the search result links last very long.

Simply search for "thanks for your suggestion" to get an idea how many times this robo-answer is used.

Where is the list of ideas that have been 'considered' and rejected?

Since yesterdays 'future' is today's 'now', surely at least a few decisions have been made on these suggestions!

If not, it indicates that user suggestions are not seriously 'considered' and valued, if they have, than at least let us know.

Honestly, the standard answer means nothing, but it does seem to quell any discussion on the subject. While the intent may be noble, the result may be counterproductive.

On many developer forums, users post ideas and then a discussion results where others contribute often refining the concept, and the level of participation and dialog can be a good indicator of support or resistance for an idea.

That doesn't seem to happen here though, despite the increased resources devoted to customer support. It seems that when anyone shares an idea, as soon as the autoresponse "thanks for your suggestion..." is posted, all discussion ends.

[cassb]

Coming from a programming background, I am familiar with the software development cycle. I can tell you that there are many, many enhancements suggested that just are not feasible programming-wise or will help or affect a majority of customers. You have to 'spend' your programming resources on the biggest 'bang for the buck,' so to speak.

But that said, it would be nice to be able to see the list of enhancements and suggestions online somehow, and be able to put a 'vote' or tic or something there to lend your support to that item. That way Ray would know which enhancements may affect the most users and devote his resources to them first.

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

Although you perceive that any suggestions are not considered, you are grossly mistaken. All suggestions are managed by me privately for future consideration. We have a large user base with suggestions coming in both publicly and privately on an hourly basis. Both Dierk and I define the features, look and feel and behaviour of the product. This is in addition to all of the other responsibilities a principal has in managing a growing business. As a result, it would be unreasonable to expect either of us to engage every suggestion we get with discussion. We would not get anything else done otherwise.

Our product has evolved based on the input from our users since day 1.

[cassb]

Although you perceive that any suggestions are not considered, you are grossly mistaken. All suggestions are managed by me privately for future consideration. We have a large user base with suggestions coming in both publicly and privately on an hourly basis. Both Dierk and I define the features, look and feel and behaviour of the product. This is in addition to all of the other responsibilities a principal has in managing a growing business. As a result, it would be unreasonable to expect either of us to engage every suggestion we get with discussion. We would not get anything else done otherwise.

Our product has evolved based on the input from our users since day 1.

Good job, Ray and Dierk. I know you put a lot of hours into this product and I sure appreciate it! I've tried my hand at Shareware and I know it's a lot of work for little reward, especially in the beginning.

[J_o_s]

Wouldn't it be great to have a kind of UserVoice forum (demo) in which users can vote for new features? Off course, you guys at NinjaTrader already have enough ideas, but perhaps it could be cool to sometimes implement the features which are the most voted for.

I also think such a voting system for new ideas has the benefit of greatly simplyfing al the ideas floating around on the forum, and prevents double posts because it provides a better overview of what is already suggested and what not.

Just my two cents though, you guys are already doing a great job , so I don't want to give the impression that I "know it better" (which is not the case ).