Topic: Feature Requests / TO DO's w/ DATES & PRIORITIES!!!

Carry -
Spending a $39/yr/person is not going to fly for the small budget of the non-profit I’m {currently} using BC for and asking everyone to sign up for individual pro accounts is not gonna fly either. I like BC’s set up for this. But I have to admit, after looking at CentralDesktop I’m reconsidering even that… I’m not plugging for that product, but I do wish BC had some of the features CentralDesktop has (and which I’ve seen a lot of people on these forums ask for). I understand 37Signals only has so many hours in the day – so the question for me has to be – am I willing to wait for BC to catch up in their iterative development or do I need the added functions now?

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / All people are getting assigned to new projects

ditto here

Topic: Feature Requests / Copy Outlook emails to Basecamp

This is pretty similar to this topic discussion, Posting Messages to Comments by Replying

Topic: Feature Requests / Groups

+111111111111111

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / All people are getting assigned to new projects

@Stephanie J re: “there are management groups that need to have access”

Stephanie – seems like my idea above about assigning permissions to groups (I called it sub-companies) under a company would work for you, no?

Topic: Feature Requests / Posting comments to a message by replying

@mckinneylaw re: “my resistant users”

Topic: Feature Requests / Permissions

I thought everyone would want to know about the recent discussion in Troubleshooting about permissions… Here’s a link to page 2: http://forum.37signals.com/basecamp/forums/5/topics/4386?page=2

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / All people are getting assigned to new projects

First – thank you David for responding so quickly by adding the “All/None” option – that to me is helpful.

Still, I too am concerned about people getting access they shouldn’t have, and since I like to offer ideas and not just complaints, what do you think of this possibility:

When making a new project the person cannot “save” until they have addressed permissions. In this case permissions would be defaulted to “None”, but could [1] select individuals in a company and/or [2], {more usefully} groups of people within a company {ex. marketing team#3, sales team #2, etc)} NOTE:This last part of grouping would require that there would be the ability to set up “sub-companies” under each company. So, the drop down to select permissions might be something like this:

ACME Toys {in this example is my company}

.... Sales Team #1 {included in this team are: Aaron, Baron, and Karen}
.... Sales Team #2 {included in this team are: Darren and Erin}
.... Production Team #1 {included in this team are: yadayada}
.... Production Team #1 {included in this team are: yadayada}
.... {add new team}
.... {select individuals}
Ajax Parts [in this example, a supplier where Bertha and Martha both work}
.... Ajax Tacks team {included in this team are: Bertha, Martha, and Production Team #2}

Topic: Feature Requests / Posting comments to a message by replying

keeping an eye on this post and it occurs to me that NST & Tom Gooden made a valid point

NST is right, many of our clients just ignore “DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL”. We’ve had many clients call asking why we haven’t responded to their emails {since they just replied to the message}

But I wonder if people are just so USED TO replying to large volumes of emails in their Inboxes that they get caught up in just responding to hundreds of other emails and then when they come finally get to a BC notification they get caught up in the topic being discussed and, to get it “done” and out of their Inbox, they hit “Reply” ...

If so, perhaps two things would help when they reply to a “DO NO REPLY” notification {at least until 37S implements the ability to reply to a notification}:
1) when the person replies to a notification, the system automatically sends the person a notice reminding them they have to sign into BC {preferably with a link to the spot where the person has to make the comment} and,
2) the system sends the person who made the original topic saying the other person tried to send a reply, and to contact them directly since it was kicked back
I think that would solve both problems in the interim – but we really do need something like REPLY TO…

Besides, it seems some people are already thinking everyone’s system can handle the replies…

per AndrejC ...

my boss last week: “what do you mean you didn’t get the reply? I sent it to you last week! I thought your system supported replies.”

Topic: Feature Requests / Comment emails on/off

I have this problem constantly, too… I spend so much of my time either coaching people on how to create email filters/rules to prevent the email alerts from clogging up in their inbox or coaching them on using RSS.

It’s really frustrating.

Ditto +1111 – many of my people are still afraid of the mouse!! so getting them to sign up for RSS, or to do any admin type work for themselves just won’t happen – no matter how kindly I say “You can do it”.

But they will understand if when they make a note/comment they have to select individuals (or, people grouped by project)
... AND if this could be made mandatory so that a person HAS to manually select who it should be seen by would be also a great help.

This “noise dampening” is at the TOP of my request list!!!

Also, the people who oversee my efforts would not be helped by RSS since the constant activity gets distracting to them – they just want to see the basics (like “X project has reached the 80% completed mark today” or “Z project is 3 days overdue”)

Topic: Feature Requests / basic calendar - separate from milestone

You know folks – I’ve been keeping tabs on this particular post b/c I;m very interested in some decent calendar ability within BC. But it occurs to me that maybe, just maybe, the small 37S team is working on something bigger than (but still as simple as) the Backpack calendar, something more in keeping with project mgmt.

Don’t get me wrong – having a calendar for BASIC stuff like appts etc would be great. But also having a basic “project calendar” where we can say I need this project completely done by X-date, and then add in backdates where the sub-projects/tasks have to be finished, (maybe even including some ability to say one task can’t start until another is finished). Sort of like what awilliam says in his post above about a timeline.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that 37s was already (quietly) hard at work on this…

So, let’s be patient and ask everyone who uses our BC’s to chime in here :-)

Topic: Feature Requests / To-Do lists vs Highrise Tasks...

Andrew, one thing that I like about BC (and so far, Highrise) is that I can mold it as I need it. That is one of the main features of those products. So, on the one hand I understand the desire for people to use Milestones” in a broader way (I’m using Highrise’s Companies in a broader way than most might).

But your point is well made about needing to make many entries. Perhaps, (and this is only a suggestion), perhaps using To-Do’s for things that have no specific due date and Milestones for those which do, would be beneficial. After all, if the important things don’t get done by a specific date, it won’t matter what you call it – it will still be late ;-)

Nevertheless, I think Judi is right – we should not try to make a To-Do list work like a task list…

A task manager must have the ability to assign priorities and deadlines. Simple. So rather than yell at 37signals to make what they’re calling “To-Do” into a task manager, we simple use what they call “To-Do” as a list

Topic: Feature Requests / Daily To-Do Emails...

+1 Highrise can do this – it would be great if the project mgmt tool could too ;-)

Topic: Feature Requests / Edit permissions by person, not project

gotta admit having this ability would be very helpful

Topic: Feature Requests / To-Do lists vs Highrise Tasks...

I’m no project manager so correct me if I’m wrong, but “Milestones” are gauges to see if we are on target, not due dates per se. Seems to me that including all tasks together under one Milestone date implies that all those tasks have to be completed by that date, when in fact some of the tasks are dependent on others being accomplished well BEFORE that date…

Topic: Feature Requests / Comment emails on/off

+1 +1 +1
This “noise dampening” is at the TOP of my request list!!!

Topic: Feature Requests / basic calendar - separate from milestone

as far as using iCal goes – I have people complaining about needing to switch between too many different tools – Highrise, Basecamp, Backpack, Google Docs – adding iCal would definitely get me hung!!!

Topic: Feature Requests / Smart defaults for user notification

BIIIIGGGGG +1 on #1 at least !!!

Topic: Feature Requests / Add email notify options on todo lists

+1 – on selecting by group – and it would also be helpful if could select which people of the group NOT to send certain notifications to (after all, few bosses want tons of detailed emails in his Inbox when all they want is a comfort level that things are moving forward in the project)

Topic: Feature Requests / Projects by User, User by Projects - Reporting

When a new user gets added to a project, they get an email notification automatically – but I see you’re point if I;m already in the project team and want to see who else is included… that would be real helpful

Topic: Feature Requests / Associate tasks with messages similar to Highrise

you and I can do all that extra bouncing between screens and URL’s but not neophyte users with limited time – this would be a great addition – anyone else believe the same?

Topic: Feature Requests / To do's: priority, due-by date

ditto

Topic: Feature Requests / ToDo Task Reminder

one big thing people I want to use Basecamp complain about is that there is no reminders for To-Do’s – Yet, I know Highrise has a rather comprehensive yet simple way of reminders for tasks – something like that would be helpful – and having ability in Basecamp to give the reminder to “teams” would be incalculably helpful!!!

Topic: Feature Requests / Posting comments to a message by replying

DEFINATELY +1 !!!

Topic: Tips & Tricks / Project Status - Basecamp Wide

I’ve reviewed alot of what the developers have said about Basecamp and have to say I’m glad they have put together such a simple tool. I mean how many “regular” (non-business) people, or even business people for that matter, use or even understand Gannt charts, Pert, etc.? Most of the people I collaborate with are such as these. So, I like the idea that this is only a project collaboration tool instead of those heavier project management tools.

Still, when a client or boss logs on once a month or less to see where things are, it would be REALLY nice for them to have something like a Project Status seen in the Overview page. And it it could somehow be automated (say, report % of completed tasks or something) that would be be all the better. I can only imagine there are others out there who also want, nay, need something like this. If so – please vote now :-D