IdeaStorm should check to see if your post is similar to existing posts

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IdeaStorm should check to see if your post is similar to existing posts

5640 points posted to IdeaStorm by hjwasson 04/26/07 **PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED**

One of the greatest failings with IdeaStorm's otherwise wonderful concept is that many similar posts are created - and although they all get votes, no one post gets enough votes to rise to Dell's attention.

When you submit a post, I would like to see IdeaStorm search for similar posts, and if it finds any, prompt you:

Your post seems similar to this/these post(s):

1. Yes, it is. Please make my post a comment to the existing post instead (& I will vote on that post).

2. No, they are different - but related. Please associate my post to the existing post.

3. No, my post is not related - continue posting.

#2 is related to my suggestion to be able to be able to associate similar posts:

http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/66450/Provide_a_way_to_associate_simila...

For all of this to work, Dell would have to vastly improve it's search ability within IdeaStorm (perhaps collaborate with Google?)! Use Google's advanced search features, with www.ideastorm.com as the domain to search, if you want to see for yourself the differences in how well the search features function.

Duplicate ideas suggestion feature has been added.

vikneswaran_s 04/26/07	I totally agree with this cause there is thousands of bright ideas and I wonder if the leaders will be able to read them? This will defeat the whole purpose of this site.......when a brilliant idea could just be few lines only. Ideas that could save Dell Millions will be missed. We need to be able to filter out ideas and copies of ideas, coincidental similarities and bad ideas......... Well I can only hope this Ideastorm works and gives us that EDGE!
hjwasson 04/28/07	reg, you're actually claiming you've read every post on this site? I bow to you. Though I like IdeaStorm, I just don't have that kind of time. My hat's off to you. I don't expect others to do my work for me. I expect to suggest ideas to better IdeaStorm, so that Dell can see what IdeaStorm members truly feel are important, and not have them lost in multiple posts with only a few votes each. Thank you for your responses. I value your opinion, even if I happen to disagree with some of them.
hjwasson 04/29/07	Not lame, just...dedicated! I like your idea of a list view - especially if you could sort by different columns (Score, Title, Date of original post, Date of last post to the thread) by clicking on the top of that column.
cullend 04/30/07	Something like that exists, using an algorithm to check if similar items exist, it is patented by Microsoft :)
rotthund 05/01/07	and group similar posts.
rockstonne 05/10/07	I AGREE 100%... I hope they read this one and listen.
mbarnett 05/10/07	Wouldn't that be rather complicated from a development point of view? Say an idea exists suggesting "more up" and another one is posted suggesting "less down", the system would need to be smart enough to link the two even though they do not share any common syntax. How would you develop this?
shooters 05/10/07	If you are interested in helping clear the clutter from IdeaStorm, visit this idea: 67110: An open community solution to categorization.
hjwasson 05/10/07	Yes, please follow shooters suggestion. cosh has posted a very interesting idea in web interface redesign for the IdeaStorm site, and it deserves your thought (& vote). I consider his idea complimentary rather than in competition to this topic, and my related one: http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/66450
goldy 05/25/07	I think this is a fantastic idea. At Yahoo Answers when you are about to ask a question, they check if there are any similar questions before you post. That way, they reduce the number of repeating posts and provides the asker (or in this case the suggester) with the topic and all the posts already posted.
hjwasson 06/01/07	goldy, thanks for that information! I didn't know that Yahoo! was doing that. That sounds exactly like what I would like to see happen with posts to this site!
dell_admin1 07/20/07	Changed status to UNDER REVIEW.
dell_admin1 09/04/07	Changed status to PARTIALLY IMPLEMENTED.
dell_admin1 09/04/07	Today we added a duplicate ideas suggestion feature. It is not exactly the same as what hjwasson described, but it's along the same lines. I'm looking forward to hearing the community's feedback on the feature. Like all software upgrades, we might experience some bumps on the road, but let us know about them and we'll continue to work on improving the site and it's features. Thanks for the idea!!!
jervis961 09/04/07	My latest idea went through the new system which suggested 3 possible duplicates, I did a key word search and found 13 pages of possibilities. Its a start though.
dell_admin1 09/04/07	Thanks - yes, it's only pulling up three ideas, not all the associated ideas, so as not to overwhelm people. So the system isn't perfect yet, but we'll continue to upgrade it. Figured it was better than nothing. :)
jervis961 09/04/07	I just tried an idea with the title of Linux and only got 3 unpopular matches. It gives the option to post the idea anyway but how about adding a choice to add your idea as a comment to one of the matches?
jervis961 09/04/07	Yes much better than nothing, I like the improvements lately keep up the good work.
benjesuit 09/04/07	Merged Idea originally posted 07/31/07 Realtime Submission bot that mitigates duplicates. Yeah, a realtime bot that checks for dupes the moment you submit. It would be polite enough to list the ideas/threads already similiar to yours and give you the choice of adding your submission as a comment to one of them. All the while disallowing you from starting a new duplicate thread.
jorge 09/04/07	Merged Comment originally posted 07/31/07 The admins can't do it, what makes you think they can come up with a bot to do it?
jervis961 09/04/07	Merged Comment originally posted 07/31/07 I'm sure Microsoft would make one for them...oh wait they are using one from them already.
jorge 09/04/07	Merged Comment originally posted 07/31/07 You guys can't come up with ways to spot light the the admins technical weaknesses, it makes them look bad. Thanks!
mkmaster78 09/17/07	Merged Idea originally posted 07/27/07 Find dupes easier Simply put, we sometimes have more duplicate ideas than original ones at times. This site is clogged with them and it can get annoying not to mention robbing the original poster of his recognition. Unfortunately, part of the problem is the search system here is buggy and that needs work, but the main point of this idea is to add a feature to the posting system. When you click post, this feature activates and before it posts your idea, gives you links to several similar postings to make sure that your idea hasn't already been posted. I've seen this in place in many other similar sites and I think it would do well here.
mkmaster78 09/17/07	Merged Comment originally posted 09/05/07 Well, it looks like this idea finally got implemented, so maybe we can put implemented on this post.
lorax1284 09/17/07	Merged Idea originally posted 08/23/07 automatically provide idea search results to poster before new idea is posted so they can vote on existing similar ideas rather than posting a duplicate idea I think the subject line says it all: I was going to post a "offer dual-boot linux & windows" idea, but it's been posted dozens of times already... so I just promoted the ones that looked right. The poster would start authoring their post as normal, but when they click the 'Post" button, they would first be presented with a list of search results operating on the Title text. The poster could quickly review them (an AJAX based implementation, so they wouldn't navigate away from their in-progress idea) then, if they didn't see a previous idea that matches theirs, choose to post anyway (it's a new idea!) or participate in existing discussion. Fewer ideas to review, and more-consolidated 'vote' results.
phubert 09/17/07	Merged Comment originally posted 08/23/07 Fits my suggestion for advanced search! Tho THAT one (posted minutes ago) is likely, also, to be a dup!
phubert 09/17/07	Merged Comment originally posted 08/23/07 I STILL suggest, even if a submission IS a dup, if the IDEA is one we need: PROMOTE IT. Let the dell_admins take care of the dups! After all, ONE reason we have them is BECAUSE this site isn't well-designed and has inadequate tools.
lorax1284 09/17/07	Merged Comment originally posted 08/23/07 There is info on the site that Dell moderators will merge ideas / points as needed... which is good... but it's labour-intensive, and if the mods can't keep up, it's entropy... on that same info page they do encourage doing a search before posting, but people are often so excited about their idea they forget to search first: doing the search 'for them' before posting the idea is just helpful: we all want to be 'first' with our ideas, but honestly, many of the ideas are not actual 'breakthroughs' (mine included!). Dell would rather HAVE the ideas / postings than NOT have them... who knows? Any one of them may be worth millions of dollars to Dell... if they get two, that'll pay a lot of moderators' salaries! :-)
phubert 09/17/07	Merged Comment originally posted 08/23/07 Well, this one isn't identical, gmat. Now, if they had FOLDERS for categories of ideas...
phubert 09/17/07	Merged Comment originally posted 08/23/07 Different implementation. www.screenthemes.com does a keyword search on help submissions... & pops-up possible answers. that's MORE along the lines of this suggestion.
lorax1284 09/17/07	Merged Comment originally posted 09/17/07 I noticed when posting my most recent idea that there was a "The following ideas sound like yours" and a list of posts that might have been similar. There was a single button reading "No Thanks. Continue with my post" But I read them all and none were similar, so I posted anyway. I think an extra button "Actually, my idea is different from these", which could serve to inform the search technology so it would be more accurate in both determining if there were similar items, and which specific ones to rank highest.
zanlok Feb 2	looks like they are implementing this.. a new idea I had said it would be submitted for moderation.. so it doesn't show up right away.. not sure if I like this very much.. seems to me like they could let it post and moderate it later.. otherwise it makes me feel like it may not even make it.. how will I even ever know that it was allowed to be posted !

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