The Connect system is the main way that all of us can feed back information on SQL Server to Microsoft . You can use this system to submit a bug or a suggestion, and your submission will go to the SQL Server development team so that they can respond. There is the ability to comment on other people's posts, view workarounds that Microsoft or another user have posted, and vote a suggestion up or down. A great example that's one of the most voted on items is the Create or Replace idea.
Recently a large number of Connect items were closed, including a few that I had submitted. Based on all the Twitter comments, it seems that most of these items were closed and marked as "Won't Fix", which I assume means these will not be fixed for SQL 11.
That's good and bad. Having watched the Connect Feed for SQL Server, I'm surprised by some of the suggestions that I see come through. While I can appreciate someone wanting to know when SQL 11 "Denali" will be released, I'm not sure it's worth a Connect submission. Or this brilliant duplicate indexes note. I feel bad for the people that triage these requests since these not-very-well-thought-out submissions create ill will and waste time. How would you like to get these type of suggestions for your software? My guess is most of these suggestions ought to be closed and this was a good thing.
But it's also discouraging for those of us that submit feedback and don't necessarily get a good response on why our feedback doesn't make sense, especially when you have dozens of people voting for the idea.
For a long time I really liked the SQLWish email address where one could send ideas to Microsoft. That was discontinued in favor of Connect, which I think is a good idea. However I think Connect has a scale problem and doesn’t necessarily work as well for "ideas" as it does for bugs.
I'm not sure how we can fix it, but one thing I'd like to see is a ranking of the top xx items that could be considered for the next version. Feed that back to the community and let us give you opinions on whether or not those items are still important. I know we can't necessarily drive development, but I do think that SQL Server can evolve into a product that we are more likely to upgrade if our feedback is visibly and obviously considered.
Steve Jones
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