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The BigThink site now has momentum with lots of creative ideas pouring in. However, I have started to notice a bit of overlap where posters have not checked to see if their ideas are already out there. This problem will escalate very quickly if there are no checks-and-balances. Is there any way you might encourage readers to research what's already posted and add comments as appropriate? After all, BigThink will be just as dependent on Commentators as Idea-Originators, perhaps even more so. Yes... this assumes the Comment-problem will be resolved very soon.

I've noticed this as well. Overall, the entire interface needs some work. My biggest problem is that I've haven't been able to view the idea and responses as a threaded discussion. Also, when respond to an idea I can't see what I'm responding to. I hope that things can be fixed because I think this site is a good idea and I would hate for it to fall apart before it gets started.

Hi Cosmos and icaretoomuch,

You raise an interesting point. The hope is that the more ideas are uploaded (and voted upon), the more repetitious ideas sink to the bottom of the pile. But a statute of limitations on stale ideas is certainly something to consider. I'll convene with my fellow big thinkers and get back to you.

I think a way to fix this might be to have a listing of the topics that are most commented upon. I'd like to look through the ideas, but I have a hard time deciding where to start. If there was a list of Top Ten Discussed Ideas, then I'd have a good starting place. At the moment, you have the ideas that BigThink thinks I should start at. But, no offense, but I don't care about that. I want to know what other people like me are talking about. And since you segregated out the "experts" as being browseable, I'd also like to be able to browse the non-experts on their own.

Another way to at least decrease the number of similar if not identical ideas, would be to allow ideas already in existence to be made a reply to other ideas. That way, if for example I reply to unrelated topic #1 with related topic #1.2, and unrelated topic #2 comes up, I can hit a button and reply to it with #1.2 also. I'm not sure how easy this would be with the way you currently have the site coded.

I also agree with ICARETOOMUCH, the interface could use just a little bit of work.

Now that the Comment-system is working [insert sound of fingers being crossed], a whole new dynamic comes into play. Take as an example, the "God or Not" threads. Before I came to the BigThink forum, I figured this issue was more or less bedded down. Not so! Seems if you want to be in the action, you need to declare your 'colors' and dive in. Now, I tend to include some reference to God in all my ideas so as to generate maximum interest [grin]. I digress.

What appears to be happening is that contributers are getting so involved in these threads, they tend to forget to rate what they view and respond to. A solution here might be to mandate a "positive","neutral", or "negative" rating with each comment sent - and don't have any default.

The second issue is that navigation has become cumbersome. It's OK for light threads, but when people start mixing comments and responses in a busy thread, it's a nightmare to view all contributions in a sequential manner. The only solution I can see here is to offer an alternative view with the more traditional staggered-list.

Just another suggestion [ if I haven't used up my quota already ] - would it be possible to add a personal comment-space for each user? Could come in handy - I already have people wishing to communicate in a semi-private fashion.

Oh yes... while I think of it, how do we link back to all those comments we leave in other peoples' threads? The 'Activity' covers our own threads, but I can't seem to track the others [ unless I bookmark the URLs in the browser ].