This is a proposal for discussion. It’s not implemented, and may not be, I just wanted us to have a discussion about this.
Some background.
Over the last 3 years (!) the Snap Advocacy Team have selected applications to appear in the “Featured” section of the Snap Store. We usually do this every couple of weeks, but sometimes leave the featured set alone for longer.
The process for this typically entails human beings looking for new and interesting applications, as well as existing favourites applications. We select 28 applications which are exposed to more eyeballs in 3 places:
GNOME Software / Ubuntu Software / Snap Store
snapcraft.io/store
snap find
Applications which feature in this list will often get a bump in installs as a result. Featuring applications is good for developers, who get more users, and good for users, who discover software they may not have known about.
I’d like for us to more openly select the set of featured applications. Not fully open in a “Boaty McBoatFace” way where the list gets fully crowdsourced. But I’d like for us to get suggestions for applications to include in the featured list. We can then review the suggestions and have final say on what goes in and what may not. For applications which aren’t included, it may be we can provide feedback to the developer / publisher on improving the user experience so it could be featured later.
The proposal
I propose that we start a new thread on alternate Mondays here on the forum. In it, we request suggestions for that Friday’s featured updates. Publishers, developers and enthusiasts are welcome to suggest applications for consideration. Some suggested rules:
- Applications suggested must be available in the stable channel in the Snap Store
- Each person in the thread can suggest up to 3 applications per thread (no flooding)
- Developers & publishers can suggest their own applications
- Enthusiasts / the wider community can suggest applications they like too
- All participants should participate in a respectful way (no bashing other applications you think shouldn’t be featured)
- Not every application suggested will be included
- Applications which weren’t suggested may also be included (developers often reach out to us privately, which I don’t want to discourage)
On the Friday, I’ll close the thread, prepare the final list and submit it to the store. The selections stay in place for 2 weeks until the next thread starts, and we go again. Closing the thread ensures we don’t have people suggesting apps for weeks that have already passed.
How does that sound?
Will it work?
Any ways we can improve it?