[James Falconer]

Attention all developers and Windows Central Dev Program Members!

It has become quite apparent to me that our Developer Program is in need of a revamp. New tools, new discussions, new resources and more to help our developer community produce great stuff, and make some great friends along the way!

That's why I'm starting this theread. I need your feedback! As a developer, what would be most helpful to YOU in our Developer Program? Spotlighting of the best apps and programs in the blogs? Useful tools, resources, tutorials and more for beginner devs?

You tell me! Hit the reply button below because I NEED your feedback. I want to build this program out as robust as possible with a lively membership and amazing discussion and help right here in the Windows Central forums.

Very much looking forward to hearing what you have to say. Sound off!

[WilliamABradley]

Having better coverage of New App Releases or Updates that we submit, posted on Windows Central would be nice, e.g. Top 5 Apps or some sort of Weekly App posts.

Perhaps a better way to submit new Apps, or Updates, in a way that moderators will acknowledge changes, and let the Developers know that their app will be Shared via WC.

So far my previous 2 attempts of getting my Apps shared via Windows Central have been unsuccessful :(

[sinime]

I'm a little confused as to the purpose of the developer corner. Is it more for developers to try and present their apps/updates to the community? Or is it more for developers to discuss dev topics and help each other? I've posted links/info to a couple of my apps and have also asked a few questions in the past.

[James Falconer]

@WilliamABradley - thank you for this feedback. We want to make this as fun and easy as possible to help all devs get help, resources and exposure. You can always contact me direct too (james@mobilenations.com) with updates on your work!

[James Falconer]

@sinime

1. Get devs the help and resources they need
2. Provide a community of support and like minded devs to collaborate and discuss topics woth
3. Provide exposure and shine the light on the best stuff coming out of this forum!!

These are the purposes as I see it. Have any other suggestions that'd be helpful to devs??

[sensboston]

Hi @James Falconer,

will be good (at least) to make your old promises working. For example, that stuff is never worked for me: I've posted a few request about really unique apps to be featured but got 0 feedback/results.

Another thing: could you please check this thread and provide feedback on it (not ignorance like your site mods)?

All these things are mean: first what you need on your site it's a respect to the developers! Unfortunately, looks like now you don't have this "feature"

[Guido Magrin]

Hi @James Falconer,

will be good (at least) to make your old promises working. For example, that stuff is never worked for me: I've posted a few request about really unique apps to be featured but got 0 feedback/results.

Another thing: could you please check this thread and provide feedback on it (not ignorance like your site mods)?

All these things are mean: first what you need on your site it's a respect to the developers! Unfortunately, looks like now you don't have this "feature"

Hi guys!

Definitely this, the spotlight for apps in the homepage would be awesome!

[James Falconer]

@sensboston - totally! I want to get a regular feature going once we have enough contributions and details from our dev team members. I'm working closer than ever with our editorial team, so this is very much possible.


Have nothing but respect for you and all devs (regardless of the platform). Want to provide as much assistance as possible to all devs!

[James Falconer]

@Guido Magrin - totally! We can make this happen!!

[cmakthat]

Hi James,

I have a similar stand point like the other posters about the idea of our app having the potential of being in the "spotlight" to get more exposure. I would think a large majority of developers were hoping for that such as myself. It'd be great to just get some feedback whether or not our app has the potential to be featured on the Windows Central site. I understand there needs to be some sort of quality standard before it can be featured. I'd rather just be told that my app doesn't make the cut for X, Y, Z reasons rather than hearing nothing at all.

Thanks!

[James Falconer]

@cmakthat - totally! We plan to pick out the best of the best and feature them - as a benefit of being part of our community. We want to help devs succeed... and maybe even build a fun little dev community in the process :) Never a bad thing!

[WPenvy]

Erm... How about actually making sure/helping devs get feedback, advice and testers for apps they're trying to develop. I threw out multiple requests last year and received ZERO help.

Wonderful experience. /s

Glad Reddit is a thing.

[James Falconer]

Erm... How about actually making sure/helping devs get feedback, advice and testers for apps they're trying to develop. I threw out multiple requests last year and received ZERO help.

Wonderful experience. /s

Glad Reddit is a thing.

@WPenvy - of course. We totally dropped the ball there. We plan on definitely leveraging the power of our dev group to provide feedback, support and advise where required. We also want to shine the spotlight on some of the best devs and applications we see in the forums.

It's early days, but as you correctly noted a revamp and refocus is definitely needed.. but we can't do it without your help!

[Bastiaandegoede]

Hey thanks for asking. :)

- I would like to see a option that i can delete all background apps with one button. Instead to swipe all background apps.
- More app's are always wecome.
- A option that you can see something like task manager on Mobile for CPU and Ram use with every app.
- Option to see if you link more user profiles (contacts) to One That When You change the information on That profile to sinc to all the bunndeled profiles. Now i need to schange it to all the linked profiles indenpendely. : / And the overview is very bad When You wanna Change that information.

greet,

[James Falconer]

@Bastiaandegoede - are you a dev yourself? Are you looking at developing some new stuff - especially on the points you've noted above?

[Bastiaandegoede]

@Bastiaandegoede - are you a dev yourself? Are you looking at developing some new stuff - especially on the points you've noted above?

Hey James,

Hmm no i'm not a Dev myself. I would like to try to make some apps in te feature. But never done that before.

[James Falconer]

Gotcha. Well - the new program will be for newbie devs too. Would like to provide helpful resources for all!

[Bastiaandegoede]

That sounds great :)

[F8R]

Having better coverage of New App Releases or Updates that we submit, posted on Windows Central would be nice, e.g. Top 5 Apps or some sort of Weekly App posts.

Perhaps a better way to submit new Apps, or Updates, in a way that moderators will acknowledge changes, and let the Developers know that their app will be Shared via WC.

So far my previous 2 attempts of getting my Apps shared via Windows Central have been unsuccessful :(

Agree!

We need a forum/media to promote our apps to user.
Judging from my experience in App Spotlight Forum, most of user in App Spotlight Forum is developer.

I haven't seen any forum post in App Spotlight promoted to front page like other Windows Central Forum, even generic posting like "I'm done with Windows Phone!" make it to Windows Central front page.

[James Falconer]

@F8R - you make some great suggestions. What I'm thinking is we could do a weekly roundup, or weekly feature of the best stuff that we find. But that will require we rally dev support here in the Developer Forums. I know we can do it, but we're going to need help from fine folks like you to do this!!

[mrgameoz]

Hey der, thanks for taking this initiative , it will help developer in many ways, mostly boost their morale, to be frank making games for windows phones , we don't even get much help microsoft themselves, it will be great if you make weekly 5-6 featured apps, it will be great boost and help for developers, ofcourse app getting featured should also meet the quality.

[James Falconer]

@mrgameoz - thanks for replying! Yes, I agree a feature seems to be a common request, and something we can do. But like you say, we'd only want to put the features on really great stuff! Hopefully we can encourage and help devs produce really amazing software!!

[London Jr]

I would love to see the developer community revamped as a new developer to allow some great feedback from all angles. I love seeing what people are capable of and my main goal is to learn more and find ways to reach people. I understand that our community is smaller than most and I would love to see what would happen if we were able to showcase more and get a ton of feedback from users on this site. No bog site has a bigger windows phone community that this one, so this would be the best avenue for developers to be involved with these specific user.

[ErazerHead]

I'd like to see the program live up to its original promise of giving developers exposure and putting apps in the front page: the only indie apps I've seen on the front page so far have been because of the AdDuplex scheme.

The Windows App store is broken when it comes to discoverability (even more so than Android and iOS's ones), which makes having alternative ways of getting exposure even more necessary.

I personally have gotten more engagement by posting about my apps on Reddit than here.

[James Falconer]

@London Jr @ErazerHead - totally agree. Front page exposure is one of the big things I want to draw into that. I also want to make folks realize that hey - things have changed. No need to go to Reddit anymore (well, still go there I don't discriminate!), but I want the WC program to be worth joining and participating in for any dev. Period.