Proposals for new features on the Stack Exchange network, or requests for a change to an existing feature. On posts tagged feature-request, voting may indicate agreement or disagreement with the proposed change, in addition to the quality or usefulness of the post itself. Feature requests are not brought to the company's attention until and unless a [status-review] tag is added by a moderator or employee.
You have an idea for a new feature to be added, or you'd like to suggest a change in existing functionality? That's great! Here are some guides to getting that idea across to us.
Dig a Little
The first step is to do a thorough search for that feature and to make sure that it has not already been proposed. If it has been proposed before, don't be discouraged; read on. (If you do propose it anyway, it may be closed as a duplicate - to prevent that from happening, read the tips below.)
Change Minds
If your feature request has previously been filed but has no response from Stack Exchange, have a look at some tips on how to get attention for the previous filing.
If your feature request has been requested previously and has been declined, consider changing our minds in a new request. Do you believe there are reasons for change that weren't addressed? If you do, be sure to clearly address both the original reasons for declining it as well as presenting your subsequent new case for implementing it that hasn't already been addressed. A link to this is also below.
Write Your Question (Well)
Next, if no existing proposal exists, then make sure yours is in the form of a question. It should focus on the problem or function driving you, and avoid focusing on your ideas about the solution. Give as much detail and context as possible about why you're making this feature request. Make sure it's formulated to justify why the feature is needed and how it can improve the community. Prove to us why we should develop it. We have more advice on that here.
Finally, know that voting on feature requests is based on whether people agree or disagree with your proposal, so if your request gets downvoted, it doesn't necessarily mean that your question is of bad quality; it may just mean that people disagree with your feature suggestion.
Bringing issues to the attention of the company
Just posting a question with the feature-request tag doesn't result in the issue being brought to the attention of company employees. Once a feature-request is reasonably hashed out and has reasonable positive support from other users (yes, what that means is nebulous), you can raise an "in need of moderator intervention" flag to request that a moderator add a status-review tag to the question. Adding a status-review tag will create a ticket in the company's internal tracking system. At some point after that, the issue will be triaged and routed to the appropriate internal group.
Useful Links
- How do I get attention for old, unfixed bug reports and feature requests without official responses here on Meta?
- Can we re-request features that were declined a sufficient while ago?
- Can I answer my own questions, even if I knew the answer before asking?
- Tips on how to prove your feature should be implemented
The Four Mandatory Tags Of Meta
feature-request is one of the four possible mandatory tags; the other mandatory tag options are discussion, support, and bug.
