Forums

Hi. I've added my one idea to the 5,582 other ideas that are listed on this website.

How do I get my idea noticed? How to shop around for a response/advertise, promote my idea just so a few people will comment or respond, and btw, what's the difference between response and comment?

Thanks, c

Right now, we use a combination of an idea's interestingness plus its support and number of total views to determine which ideas make it to the main page and other public areas of the site. By emailing your idea to like-minded friends, and having them vote on it, you can make it more visible on the site. We'll soon be adding the number of people an idea is emailed to as one of the criteria for popularity, which will give you more ability to get the idea prominently placed (assuming you have enough people you can email it to). Keep checking back for updates, as these features will be rolled out soon.

One of the 'sure-fire' methods of attracting a response, is to mention God in the subject-line. Sad but true.

Not sure BigThink's suggestion to rate something on the number of emails sent out, is a good idea. Wouldn't this lead to spamming?

There are several contributors I follow, and I can do that through their main-link. However, I can't track their comments on other topics. This may have been an enhancement-request submitted earlier. Quite essential for the way I use BigThink - and it would lead to diversification.

Another thought is that you might try to automatically rate MEMBERS according to the number and quality of their contributions. You can get some idea of this by drilling down to the individual-level, but it would be nice to have a higher-level summary. This could be then offered as an alternative to Browsing-Experts and -Ideas.

I agree with cosmos - the worthiness of any given idea should not turn into a popularity contest. The "brightness" or "interestingness" of an idea should be based on merit and not on how many friends you have. I understand that the number of clicks can predict somewhat the "interest" of an idea, in that lots of people go-to it naturally because they see that it appeals to them; however, for one person or another to compete by sending out the most e-mails is not a good indicator. I like cosmos idea of rating members. Maybe even rating them on certain characteristics such as "articulation," "expressiveness," "uniqueness," and "brilliance." People will go to those people, and subsequently, those people's ideas, that are rated highly on a merit scale. And yes, this too could still encounter people who send all their friends to rate them highly, but I would imagine less so then a "e-mail to as many friends as possible" system.

Interesting points and something we'll take into consideration. Remember, the emailing part will only be one part of the criteria used to determine how popular an idea is. We also feel that responses to peoples ideas will also be prominently displayed, thus giving full context to every idea. What do you guys think?