# Natron Feature Request Guidelines

It can be tempting to ask for a magical feature to be added to Natron! After all, Natron is free and open-source, and there are always contributors willing to add new features - including ones you suggest - to Natron. However, to keep Natron's issue tracker from becoming a mucky and messy place, we strongly urge you to follow some conventions when it comes to feature requests.

## What you can request

You are free to request any features that would both positively benefit Natron *and* its community. This is a very broad category - we are open to feature ideas and we accept most of them!

## What you cannot request

You are encouraged to *not* request anything that you do not have **a sufficient understanding** of. For instance, requesting to integrate a terminal in Natron without ever having used a terminal would not be a sensible choice.

Additionally, you should not request a feature that would require a major undertaking without **a sufficient and proportional benefit** from the feature. Remember that at the end of the day, Natron's developers are people, and asking them to add an almost-impossible feature with marginal benefit is a huge disregard of their hard work and effort.

Lastly, you must not **request features in an abusive or unprofessional manner** - this includes requesting a feature to be added before a deadline, complain that a feature hasn't been implemented, or rant if your feature of choice is rejected. Doing so is irresponsible and damaging to the Natron community as well as disrespectful to Natron's developers.

Below are some examples of features that have been requested for in the past in violation of these rules:

- [Integration](https://discuss.pixls.us/t/natron-and-blender/13612) of Natron and Blender (a user request for the combining of Blender, a 3D creation program, with Natron, into a single new program)
- First, this feature was requested by someone who did not understand the *complex process of integrating any 2 software suites*, was not a developer, and treated the issue without proper regard with the difficulty it posed
- Second, even if the feature was approved, it would not have benefitted Natron greatly; to the contrary, it would have added burden to both Blender's developers and Natron's developers
- Third, the feature request was accompanied by a disrespectful response once Natron's developers submitted a reply explaining in great detail why the feature would be impossible to implement
- Rewriting Natron to use [another GUI framework](https://github.com/NatronGitHub/Natron/issues/437) (a complaint by a user who believed that Natron would be "faster" if its user interface used the OpenGL framework rather than the Qt framework)
- First, this feature was requested by a user with nearly no idea of the immense difficulties of rewriting the UI in another framework
- Second, the premise of the author's argument was flawed in that the OpenGL framework is not necessarily faster than the Qt framework, and so would not have been a beneficial change
- Third, the user's tone was not especially professional, and the user requested even more substantial changes without attempting to make

## Unacceptable behavior

When requesting a feature, please do not bash, insult, or impolitely criticize Natron's developers, contributors, or community. Repeated attempts to attack another person in your feature request, after the person has made it clear that such attacks are unwelcome, will not be tolerated. Please use language that is consistent with the principles of [constructive criticism](https://github.community/t/being-toxic-is-not-constructive-criticism/10225).

If you choose to violate any of the above terms, you will be warned and asked to apologize for your behavior. It doesn't matter if you are a experienced contributor or a new Natron user -- you will be subject to the same policy. If you must do so, voice your concerns (via direct message) to Natron community moderators, and withdraw from any of Natron's community sites.

Refusal to apologize will result in punishment in accordance with the code of conduct, including, and not limited to, temporary and permanent bans. We really don't want to see things like this happen, so please be sensible and make feature requests sensibly!

Thank you very much.