One more is that you can let members flag comments also…. I think it takes flags from at least 2 different members, or you only accept flags from members with more than 50 posts or some certification process… Most members want to clean up spam type messages…… and would be unlikely to remove comments that just defeat their argument for example…so when you have serious posters this option is rarely abused. Editor of course has final say and I have not seen abuse of spam type messages here (or your already cleaning them up too fast for me to spot them) so this option seems low in the priority list IMHO. yeah there will always be a few crazy posters to any site, but not the same as someone posting malware links or buy my stuff here type of spam messages. The messages left with curse words or racial attacks would also get flagged, but I have not seen that here (CNN has a problem with those type of comments…trolls).

Anyhow.. Love the site and seems like the number of articles per week being posted up is increasing at an increasing rate… I can feel the pull of the singularity approaching…..(smiles).

These will require programming or new WordPress plug-ins: we’ll look into options: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6.

#1 Allow posters to create more info in their profile. Make it easy to add in any Avatar picture. Click on any user to get more info.

#2 Default option ON to email me when reply to any article I made comments to…. so I can easily return to view, or reply (if I put an email inside my profile info of course) Allow some personal info like my email to be hidden from other posters. Allow me to read most of comments from email so if not important I am not required to return to your site to see postings, but can if large posting done. Inside email is line that allows me to remove from future emails any thread with simple 1 click link (no need to return to website to un-follow any thread).

3. Track total posts per avatar, or first post, or location of city/country, I am from next to avatar. Or like Ted.com track Thumps UP. or other ways to encourage LIKE next to posts. Lets me see how active other posters are…etc.

4. I see all posts listed by newest at the top, other than replies are done under other posts (love that this is indented in, so visually easy to see, nice work!). Some posts have 60+ comments, so in that case let us sort by most replied to…or oldest, or Most Liked or Most disliked… You need some fast/intuative way to sort large numbers of posts and also let good ideas float to the top easier. (follow what CNN did)

5. I like you can now edit posts for 5 min. but hate that if you are in the middle of an edit and still making changes and run out of time you lose your last change. Why not let poster edit last post without time limit set? or if active change window in progress you don’t time out. Post should not wait to show up to others… just make edit if edit is added.

6. I love you can easily share links or websites. But, I want to be able to also add IIMG or pictures inside my post. Text is so boring… if a picture is worth 1,000 words then they are better/faster ways to share ideas. If picture too big, then have it autosize down, so if you click on image it can expand. Photobucket and may picture sites allow 4 image types, but IMG seems to be the most used format.

Sample: [IMG]http://i1014.photobucket.com/albums/af261/GatorALLin/Other/GatorManSm.png[/IMG]

Thanks for considering… Chris

Game on! Fire away — Amara

Websites like http://www.petridish.org and http://www.kickstarter.com and indiegogo.com are letting ideas win. Where it used to take a huge company and millions of dollars and patents and lawyers and hundreds of meetings to get good ideas out, now it can be reduced to some person sitting at their computer. Any website that allows for comments to be posted can help create better ideas… CNN.com for example… Yes the articles are interesting, but I often find I am way more interested in what the Perception of that article is vs. the Perception of who write it. I get 10x the perception…or ideas…or impact of what the article means to others from the comments…. (sort by most popular, sort by most active posts, sort by newest…these quick sorting tools for thousands of posts lets the good ideas float to the top automatically). In part this is fueled by the ME generation… the Facebook ideas that what I think is somehow important. I get to comment on CNN about anything… what I think matters…at least that is MY perception and thus my reality.

..anyhow.. I recently did a DNA test at http://www.23andme.com and they are crowd-sourcing the people that each have the disease that you are at higher risk for. Sure scientists want to solve cancer…. but not as much as those that actually have it. it turns out really smart people get cancer too and if you get enough really smart and passionate people to share ideas you can solve problems faster. I have already seen some cases where a group forms very quickly and without any official organization proves to be a massive data mining tool. Think of lowest common denominator rules… Anyone finds useful info…they can share it instantly with the entire group….they don’t even have to understand what the article means…others in the group will help with that part.

I love what http://www.ted.com has done to get smart people together and share ideas. How cool is it that they limit the video length and keep it simple. How cool is it that good ideas get shared better/faster.

If the singularity is going to happen we need a lot more really good ideas…and not just more, we need them at an increasing pace. The old system of waiting for ideas to get out of a hundred meetings…or a big slow moving company….or a broken University system chained down with lack of funding..or bureaucracy and government red tape is just a joke. What if good ideas could win? …. not just rich or powerful people or just big companies… what if all the barriers and other agendas to getting a good idea out were taken away..

Watching http://www.kickstarter.com has been amazing… So it goes way beyond just raising money for a new idea….You can actually not be sure if your idea is good, but put it out there and the world will vote with cash. If a bad idea….no harm, no foul the crowd was billed $0 as you did not reach your funding total goal (tipping point of making it happen). But if the idea is good you get more than a marketing study…you get the funding to make it happen!!. As an inventor you ask a lot of people what they think..but is that advice any good? Well if they vote with cash then that vote is worth a lot more than just some artificial false encouragement feedback you can get from family or friends…. CrowdFunding is only one part of crowd sourcing ideas, but in this economy and any economy it is a major part of getting ideas to market. Or with http://www.petridish.org getting science ideas done.

We have always expected governments, or Universities or Companies to create the ideas, especially the big ideas, but they are often inefficient or have agendas that can differ from the best idea for the people they serve.

It would be interesting to discuss on this site, what things could be added so that it would encourage more posting, or more idea sharing. Ideas are like good viruses …so if you could create a great virus how would you spread it (as an idea)?