IdeaStorm Website Fixes

September 17, 2012

Posted By:  Win7Dev

2 Votes

Status: Archived

Promote

 - Allow the voting arrow to be clicked without having to click to view the post first
 - Make the site load faster and use zero javascript/ajax on the main idea viewing pages (the blog style pages, not referring to the individual posts)
 - Ajax commenting would be helpful (when viewing an individual post)
 - Stop putting acknowledged and ignoring our ideas, we know you are just saying "not implemented/not going to happen" if you put acknowledged
 - *Accept or Deny all ideas* within three months

2 Votes | 5 Comments | Report Abuse

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  • Sep 20, 2012     Comment Link

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    Posted By: IdeaStorm Moderator Cy_J

    Thanks for your comments BeLan.  I have been told that the log in time out on the platform we use and is considered a security feature.  I am also aware of the email notification issue and trying to get it fixed.
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  • Sep 19, 2012     Comment Link

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    Posted By: BeLan

    I voted this up mainly because of the page speed point, IdeaStorm (or all dell sites generally) load really slow for me.

    Ajax commenting would be nice, but I can live without it.

    For the rest of the points I agree with Cy_J's arguments

    But I would also add 3 points to the list:
    - Make the logged in time longer, as I have to re-login several times a day and sometimes even get logged out while writing a post
    - Make a option to subscribe to an idea, so you get notified per mail when someone comments on it
    - Fix the "Notify me of updates to my ideas" option, as until now I didn't get a single notification
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  • Sep 19, 2012     Comment Link

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    Posted By: IdeaStorm Moderator Cy_J

    No, that is not what I am saying.  Ideas are archived after 6 months for a couple of reasons.  Archiving clears clutter from the site and makes the search function perform quicker.  Archiving also opens the door for ideas to be posted again either by the first author or another user.  When an Idea is reposted it goes through the same process but due to several factors (new wording, changing conditions in the market as examples) may gather enough popularity to get formally reviewed.  

    I should also point out again that even if an idea is archived from view on the site, I still have access to it from the back end interface.  Several times a year I pull reports for different teams within Dell using all the ideas posted to the site.  Sometimes the teams are looking for ideas based on a particular product, service or option, while other times they are simply looking for trends in the marketplace.  There have been times that a team will take notice of an archived Idea which allows me bring it back out of the archives for a formal review.    
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  • Sep 18, 2012     Comment Link

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    Posted By: Win7Dev

    So basically you are saying that ideas are just ignored after 6 months by being archived? Auto mark them as not implemented or not planned after this point.
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  • Sep 18, 2012     Comment Link

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    Posted By: IdeaStorm Moderator Cy_J

    Thanks for the feedback Win7Dev.  I want to address three of the issues that I may help you understand the thinking behind.  As always, I'm open to debate on future enhancements.  :)

    We used to have the ability to vote without having to enter the idea before the upgrade but it was changed for a few reasons.  The old site's homepage was the list of popular ideas and showed the entire post for each one so users could read the idea, vote and move down the list.  As a result the home page was quite lengthy and it was found that many visiters were only voting on those ideas rather than exploring the site further.  The thought behind the change was to have a mix of new and trending ideas on the home page, limit the need to scroll and encourage further exploration of the site by taking away the ability to vote on the ideas until you click into it.  

    Allow me to explain the process all ideas go through so you can see that we are not ignoring them.  When a new Idea is posted it starts off with "New" as a status until it is read by a Dell employee (usually me) which is when we change the status to "Acknowledged" so you know it has been read.  Then we wait to see how the community reacts to the idea with their votes and comments.  Ideas that reach a certain level of popularity via votes, quality comments or a combination of both are then passed along to the Idea Partners for review.  The Idea Partners bring the ideas to the appropriate group in Dell to discuss and decide if the idea should be reviewed further or will not be considered at that time.  Once they inform me of their decision, they post a comment on the idea and I change the status to "Under Review" or "Not Planned".  Sometimes ideas will get bumped up in the process due to an Idea Partner or someone else in Dell taking an interest in it but that is not the norm. If an idea does not move past the "acknowledged" status within 6 months it is archived away from view on IdeaStorm but still available to Dell via the back end of the site.  Once an idea is archived, site users still have the ability to post a new idea on the same topic and have it go through the process again.  

    While I understand that idea posters would like to have each idea reviewed we simply do not have the ability to do so with the hundreds of ideas that are posted each month.  IdeaStorm is set up so site members act as a filter for the ideas so that we can concetrate on the ones our cutomers will care about.  

    I hope I have been able to help you understand the process.