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Looking for Beta Users!

Hey guys,

Just launched a small site on the side with a small team and we're looking for a group of beta users to play around with the site and give feedback.

The Site:

http://www.thinkingsmartr.com

The Lowdown:

Thinkingsmartr is (hoping to become) the world's largest, collaborative suggestion box. The site allows you to create any topic you want (by default, you become the editor of each topic you create) and encourages you and others to collectively make suggestions that would improve the topic.

Each suggestion is voted on by the community and the best suggestions float naturally to the top while the least important suggestions fall to the bottom. The hope is that with enough passionatte users discussing their ideas to better a topic --- people will take note and the best suggestions will actually take foot.

For instance, say you have a bunch of ideas to make TV.com better. Go ahead and start the TV.com topic and post some suggestions to help make TV.com a better place. Others can then come in and vote on your suggestions (as well as make suggestions of their own) and with any luck your suggestions will actually be implemented on the site (please note -- this is not a garauntee that all or any suggestions will be fulfilled -- but I will personally be keeping an eye on that particular topic ).

What we need:

A passionate group of users to play with the site and give us feedback on features you would like to see as well as bugs you come across as you use it. We also encourage you to spread the word --- as more get people involved, the more interesting and fun the site will be.

 

Thanks guys

Posted by cooncesean, 04/17/2007 11:20pm
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btw - we know it currently sucks in IE - we're trying to nail down the design and layout in Firefox and Safari first and we'll be tackling IE shortly.
Posted 04/17/2007 11:34pm
Is it a Cnet website?
Posted 04/18/2007 10:32am
no no - its just a side thing.
Posted 04/18/2007 11:26am
We already have a beta site...
Posted 04/18/2007 3:12pm
snap
Posted 04/18/2007 5:06pm
Cool!
Posted 04/18/2007 8:54pm
I just tried three topics. Here are a few things I noticed.


a. Long titles fold back on themselves obscuring the words.


b. One can not edit a posted title description for errors (ie typos).


c. There appears to be no place to report "bugs."


d. I was locked out of the PM system.


Good Luck,

jim
Posted 04/18/2007 10:22pm
OldBill - I get what you're saying ..... but instead of complaining about what you don't like on TV.com - why not make some suggestions and help solve the problem too so we can make this site a better place for everybody. You are one of our most active and vocal users and I'm sure you have some great ideas to improve the site. So let us know what they are. Debate them with others. Lets see which suggestions carry the most weight.

What, specifically, would you like to see improved upon on TV.com? Do other users agree with you?

I just started the TV.com topic if you'd like to join the discussion:

Thinkingsmartr.com/tv_com
Posted 04/18/2007 10:34pm
Thanks for the test jrgreenmd! Totally appreciate your feedback.

a. Might be a browser issue.

b. Only editors (or users who start topics are allowed to edit them) -- this is done using the 'Edit Topic' link on the right hand side of the page (its a little obscured so maybe I'll make it a little more noticeable).

c. Locked out of the PM system -- that sucks! It should be open - so I'll take a look and get back to you.

Again, thanks.
Posted 04/18/2007 10:37pm
How did the idea for think smarter come about?
Posted 04/19/2007 9:30am
It was just an idea we were tossing around.... We were actually thinking of ways to best determine user need for priority with bugs --- and we figured, well, what if we just let users score suggestions that they themselves come up with - that would give us a pretty good idea of what was important.... Then, we figured - what if we just opened it up and let people submit suggestions about whatever topic they felt they could improve..... and it just started rolling with it from there.
Posted 04/19/2007 4:49pm
Will this help the staff figure which bugs to fix first on all four Cnet sites?
Posted 04/19/2007 5:38pm
brilliant- i expect to be soon say while reading TIME cover story, " i knew him when.".. (before the billions!)
Posted 04/19/2007 8:27pm
ha - thanks for the heads up stephen.

laura -> the site is intended for anything and everything. you can start a topic on anything you want and invite others to suggest and comment on it. hopefully it sparks enough discussion that decision makers will have to take notice and use your suggestions to make their products better
Posted 04/19/2007 10:30pm
Are you supposed to be able to 'score' your own suggestions?
Posted 04/21/2007 1:35am
And I hear what you're saying, cooncesean. What I would like done with the site is an open secret: I've been posting about it since June 2005.

I don't normally complain, but since you ask... Give us the functionality we lost with the closure of TVTome (sorting cast lists, allocating specials, correcting cast entries at a single pass, searching by alias, free text fields for crew positions). Fix the programming oversights (times missing from show summary drop-down, Writers & Directors page based on TVTome data at May 2005, Recurring Stars on Cast page based on TVTome data at May 2005, a script that assigned all TVTome show summary stars to every episode, another in summer 2005 that reclassified hundreds of Stars as recurring, a recurring script based on 5 actor appearances). Oh, and fix the bugs.

Once that's done, I'll be in a position to give some thought to a wish list. Meanwhile, I'm too busy dealing with the fallout from the conversion scripts to dally with a beta that you are selling as a duplicate of our own Ideas forum.
Posted 04/21/2007 8:31pm
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