This is something that we have tried to fit into the last few releases, but with a small team sometimes we don't have time to get everything in that we'd like to, rest assured that this is very much near the top of our priority lists for a fix - it won't be included with the expansion, as we simply didn't have time to get this in.
The reason it has been unfixed for a long time is because it requires some substantial time investment to fix - that said, we do want to fix it asap.
I have been playing Dungeon Defenders 2 recently and I really like how they have Influence point system. You get 1 point by logging into game or logging into the forum (max 2 per day). Every now and then, the developer will have a poll between 2 features (or more) that they want to develop but only one (or 2 depend on what it is) could be done in said time frame. Players then vote, by using those points (min of 1 and max equal to however many points you have), for the feature they would like to see. This means, the more active the player is, the more he could tilt the vote. @Moles I know this will require some time to make, but do you think we could get a system like this running and each patch or even expansion/mid term the community could vote for one thing that we vote on that will be included in those patch? I know, all of you would say what happens to alt etc. If someone is dedicated enough to tilt the vote by logging into multiple alts everyday just to get what they desire to, let it be, this way at least we could ensure at least ONE feature we desire to have to be include every major patch.
I, too, endorse turning the forums into a Vault-11-style democratic war, complete with voting blocs and strategic assassination.
I brought this up months ago because runescape has something very similar and i actually really like it. It would really help the owls focus their efforts on something we all want, whereas right now sometimes we get bug fixes and we all shake our heads.
Eh. Seems unnecessary. It'll just eventually turn the forums into an even more hostile place where people start attacking each other over votes and positions. It doesn't even matter half the time as what gets fixed probably has to do largely with what DOG has the manpower and infrastructure to do at a given time.