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I am working on an open source project, and we are looking to make changes to the way we do version control.

I want to propose several systems, and have the developers vote.

What would be a good platform for doing this, where the developers would not need to create an account to vote on something...

EDIT: Does anyone know of a system that either implements with GitHub or Google login, or allows me to block repeat IP ranges, refreshes, etc.?

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  • Sorry, I could have phrased it better.
    – Alex Waters
    Sep 19, 2011 at 17:32
  • Regardless of the approach used for such decisions, I'd strongly suggest to ensure there's a clear (i.e. documented) view on the options, pros and cons. This is very useful to avoid the same discussion two years after the change. :)
    – Tiago Cardoso ♦
    Sep 26, 2018 at 6:38

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I suggest that, rather than voting, you work with your developers (or just senior developers if the team is too large) to get a consensus on how to amend the way you do version control. The reasons for this are (in no particular order):

  1. The rest of the team may have good suggestions that you haven't come up with.
  2. Voting tends to be a win-lose situation, and if you have more than one alternative likely more than half of the team isn't going to be in favor of the solution chosen.
  3. Voting isn't necessarily going to reflect serious thought on the part of the voter.

Remember that your developers are key stakeholders, just like your customers. In fact, if you look at changing the version control system as a project in and of itself, they are the customers. Engaging them in a discussion and achieving a consensus on why changing the version control system is beneficial, precisely what should be changed, how it should look at the end etc is IMHO better than presenting them with a short-list of alternatives.

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  • Thank you Doug for this insight, any thoughts on a non-binding private vote? Or putting a "This vote is purely to obtain popular opinion" in red letters?
    – Alex Waters
    Sep 19, 2011 at 17:31
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    I think that asking for feedback on the different options is better than asking for them to "vote". You would still get an idea of where everyone stands, identify pros and cons for different options that you might not have considered etc etc.
    – Doug B
    Sep 19, 2011 at 18:30
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If you are all on the same Exchange server, just use the Outlook voting options. Otherwise, something like Google Forms would be a great idea.

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  • Most of the developers would scoff at using outlook / Microsoft products =P. Some of them are linux kernal devs iirc... I will check out Google forms though, thanks!
    – Alex Waters
    Sep 19, 2011 at 14:42
  • This link may provide you some additional detail: demogeek.com/2009/04/01/…
    – Aaron Corcoran
    Sep 19, 2011 at 19:07
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I would:

  1. Do a Brainstorming & Painstorming meeting to gather the requirements and problems
  2. Do a research and find possible solutions
  3. Make a presentation to share a research results with the others
  4. Do a survey / voting

And for activity #4 I would suggest SurveyMonkey. I use it in similiar situations and it also has a "Other/please specify" option (in case you really do not want to stick to researched solutions only).

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If you consider something long term as well, I would propose two options, both open source:

Another thing you can consider is checking with CMS/wiki software. Perhaps you have something already. I'm sure about Joomla (easy survey module), and I'd be astonished, if Drupal didn't have an add-on for that too.

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You never get the best answer by voting. Because not all your developers are experts in version control systems. It is better to get a group of the most competent developers and let them achieve a consensus. No software is required for that.

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Here are two voting solutions that I like:

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Another long-term solution is http://www.osqa.net It satisfies all your requirements.

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I am one of the developers of PollUnit.

With our tool you can quickly prioritize tasks or find decisions with the least rejection (or highest acceptance).

Users can vote without account or can login with their google account.

Here are two examples (Dot Voting and Systemic Consensus):

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