Sifter & Email

It's definitely one of our higher priority features, but it will be some time (a month or two?) before we get it in there. ( Delete or Edit)

No ETA on the API just yet. We've had a couple of initial design discussions, and we're optimistic that it will be before March, but I can't make any promises at this point.

It's worth noting that Sifter, as it works today, is not a good help desk solution. So, while you could use the API to create bugs, the original submitter wouldn't be tied to the issue anymore because they would have to have a user account within Sifter. As a result, that submitter wouldn't receive updates or be able to provide updates to requests for additional information. Unfortunately, it's just not practical to create a user account for every single customer because Sifter is designed first and foremost to support a client/consultant relationship between companies.

We do hope to eventually improve it so that it could behave as a help desk or support open-source public projects, but that's going to be a good distance out in the future. ( Delete or Edit)

I'm really glad to hear that it's getting greater adoption.

It's unlikely we'll commit to any particular timelines, though simply because we're doing so much. I can assure you that a lot is going on, and while things may seem like they're slowing down, we're hitting on all cylinders.

The API is definitely coming. We've already started designing it and laying the groundwork. The reality is that while it's our highest priority, Sifter is still note quite full-time for me, and I'm still doing some client work to pay the bills. We are however working on several different things that will significantly improve Sifter, and it looks like it will be getting much more attention in the next few months.

Email is going to be much more difficult than we anticipated in order to do it well. Because of the fact that it's a supplementary interface, and it's about convenience rather than creating valuable functionality, we've put it on the back burner. Ultimately, if we can't create an email interface that we feel is high enough quality, we may end up putting it off indefinitely. It's one of those things that sounds great on paper, but from what exploration I've done so far in implementing something, it would be limited or clunky.

It's relatively easy to just enable text updates via email, but it's much more difficult to update the status, assignee, priority, or category. Alternatively, we could create some kind of parsable syntax for updating those, but it would be cryptic and unintuitive. So, if/when email does make it in, it will likely be an extremely limited interface option.

In the meantime, we'll be spending time focusing on the API & API documentation and creating a solution for handling milestones. We're also working on redesigning our blog and site so that we have a better way to keep everybody in the loop, get input on upcoming feature implementations, and have a place to put all of the requisite API documentation.

Right now, it's just one big juggling act, but I can assure you that we're getting really close to having me working on Sifter full-time with another person on it part-time in the near future. Then we'll be making incessant improvements. ( Delete or Edit)

Right now, it's definitely still on the roadmap, but it's delayed indefinitely.

Our initial prototyping of the feature showed that it will take a considerable amount of effort to execute well enough that we'll be satisfied with the results. Honestly, it may end up being the single most technically complex feature that we've added.

Receiving the email isn't really the challenge. Parsing it and making sure that Sifter doesn't get filled with noise, vacation autoresponders, verbose signatures, etc. is the main concern. Also, we'd like to devise a simple but reliable way for people to update priority, status, assignee, etc. via email.

Unfortunately, after prototyping it, we decided that the benefit of the feature isn't proportional to the level of effort, so we've let it slide. That is, it would be really nice to have, but it's not actually impeding anyone from using Sifter. It just makes it a little less convenient without being able to reply.

We're certainly not giving up on it, but we'd be remiss to defer the other things in the queue to this. Sifter is full-time for me now, though, and it's an incessant march to improve it.

I know that's not the answer you would have liked to see, but hopefully it helps give some context to things. By the way, thanks for being "effin' happy". It's a really nice relief when people aren't always "frustrated". ( Delete or Edit)

I'm sorry to hear you're thinking about leaving. That's never good to hear. However, we have dozens of factors and thousands of users to keep in mind with every decision, and it's not something that we take lightly.

While we plan on supporting this at some point, our vision for it will require a significant amount of effort to do well. It will add more moving parts, require a plan for handling spam, and need to be elegant on top of that. We want don't want to just check this feature off of a checklist, we want to do it in a way that people can enjoy using it. That takes time.

As I mentioned in my earlier comments, basic reply via email is something that we're considering putting in place sooner, but given that it's all so closely connected, we're hesitant because we don't want to build something that will need to be torn out shortly thereafter when the larger solution is put in place. ( Delete or Edit)

It will happen at some point. We just can't be sure when. It's entirely possible that we might phase it in in small pieces to speed it up, but it's too early to say for sure. ( Delete or Edit)