IdeaStorm Ideas
Making IdeaStorm Even Better!
IdeaStorm submitted by pmdigangi
May 4 **REVIEWED**
Here are a few ideas that Dell should consider to create a better, more effective IdeaStorm Community!
1.) Define a clear process that defines for users how to identify and describe their ideas!
Provide users with templates and help guides for submitting their ideas to IdeaStorm. The current process creates the potential for people to mis-categorize ideas, or not designate categories for their idea, making it harder for the community to locate and evaluate all ideas. IdeaStorm needs to provide examples of good and bad idea postings in order to help community members submit ideas that Dell can quickly assess and adopt!
2.) Provide users with the tools for developing consensus!
Let community members have the ability to gain some consensus on controversial ideas. Consider implementing some tools that allow community members to poll each other to make decisions on how to improve the idea.
3.) Dedicate personnel to interact as an organizational representative within the community!
IdeaStorm has certainly improved on its communication with its members. The addition of several moderators has made response times quicker, but members still do not hear from the upper management at Dell about what they think of ideas and whether or not they are feasible. Dell needs to get more involved by not only providing administrative support in terms of site management, but also executive support by having a senior manager login and talk with community members.
4.) Ask questions to understand!
Dell shouldn’t just listen to community members’ ideas, but also ask questions so that the community can improve them! IdeaStorm was created to give feedback on the products and services Dell offers. The community is here to help Dell become a better organization, but in order for the community to be effective we need feedback too. Ask members questions about the ideas to make sure that ideas are not disregarded due to a poor description or presentation. If Dell does not understand an Idea – give the community this feedback so the community can help refine the idea for Dell.
5.) If you let members vote, make it count!
Sometimes members’ views on what constitutes a great product are different from Dell’s. IdeaStorm was created to expand Dell’s ability to leverage ideas from outside the formal organizational boundaries. When members vote for an idea, it should count! Even if Dell does not see it as viable at first, the idea deserves exploring. Dell needs to consider that stifling the democracy of the community frustrates and disenfranchises the community.
6.) When Dell is ready to move forward on an idea, present progress clearly and openly!
When an idea does move forward, it is still difficult for the community to track. Make sure the progress updates are clear about what the next steps are, to keep the community informed. The community wants to know the next steps in detail. If we are your volunteer ideaforce, keep us informed so that we can correct misinterpretations and perhaps provide that key piece of information that is preventing Dell from taking advantage of our ideas.
Scroll down to see the comments from Dawn on these suggestions.
240
Let us rate Ideas on a scale of 1-10 instead of just up/down.
IdeaStorm submitted by jmxz
Apr 24
Most of the Ideas on IdeaStorm are good. Few are great. So very often I find myself reading an idea and thinking "yeah, that's kinda good and it'd be nice if Dell did this; but I sure hope it wouldn't distract them from the even better ideas".
Rather than just voting up or down and idea, how about change the voting system so everyone can rate an idea from 1-10.
180
Provide Feedback For Rejected Ideas
Dell, Dell Community, IdeaStorm submitted by aikiwolfie
Apr 5
It would be nice if Dell could tell us why ideas that have been rejected by Dell were rejected. If IdeaStorm members understood the reasons why certain ideas were not being implemented then they may not get so annoyed.
For example one of the most popular ideas is to have Ubuntu on the OS list along side Windows with compatible hardware. Another very popular idea is for Dell to sell bare-bones systems with no OS. Yet another popular idea is to have no pre-installed trial ware.
None of these ideas is fully implemented and at least two of them are not even partially implemented. If Dell could explain why these very popular ideas do not pass muster with Dells decision makers then it might help.
The reasons could be posted in a blog similar to Ideas In Action or they could be posted in the idea thread it's self.
A good example of this sort of feed back is when matt_d comes on to IdeaStorm and gives us an outline of some of the costs involved when Dell chooses to implement a new OS on it's product range.
This information and feedback helps the community come up with ideas Dell can work with. If we can do that, then Dell and it's consumer base can move forward together and we can help each other Simplify IT.
440
Enforce the age limit on Ideastorm during REGISTRATION
IdeaStorm submitted by phubert
Apr 14
Since there has been a -small- flap over the age limit for IdeaStorm participants,
ADD a "birth year" choice to the registration submission form, and at that point inform those "under 18" of the restriction.
This would end any questions or confusion after-the-fact.
210
Adjust registration to allow minors to sign up --with parent/guardian permission
Dell, IdeaStorm submitted by mkmaster78
Apr 21
Recently there have been several issues with the Terms of Use (TOU) and its requirement of participants to be age 18 or older (as the TOU represents a legal contract). Without changing the TOU, it would be easy to add a little form to the registration page to enable parents/guardians to give their consent by adding and confirming their email. Several sites have employed this, GeoCities coming to mind as it is one I had to that with when I was younger. This is a minor change that could these resourceful minors participate in the responsible and useful manner that they have done so to this date.
Note: Created this as prompted by phubert.
Note: Hopefully, Dell will consider reinstating the accounts of those whose accounts have been revoked because of this issue, once this has been resolved.
90
Merged ideas should redirect to the ideas into which they were merged!
IdeaStorm submitted by winoffice
Mar 23
Currently if I post an idea and it gets merged, I usually have no idea what idea it got merged into. What if someone follows a link to an idea of mine, only to see "Article not found" because it was merged? People should be able to know whether the idea was just deleted or merged instead, and if so into what idea. Also I might want to check if my idea was really a duplicate of the idea into which it got merged, or if not, which might mean that I might repost it.
At the very least revise the "Article not found" for such ideas to "Article was a duplicate of (such and such idea; do not forget to provide the link) and thus was merged into it."
580
Dell: recognize the NATURE of IdeaStorm - don't STIFLE it!
IdeaStorm submitted by phubert
Apr 8
Dell seems to think "suggestions" are static things, hence ONE reason why we are no longer permitted to EDIT our own ideas!
Dell has also identified submissions variously as "ideas", "suggestions", and "articles".
In fact, submissions by IdeaStorm participants have varied widely, from specific, static requests, through protests and informative postings.
SINCE we can COMMENT on submissions, it is only reasonable that the submission, itself, should be able to CHANGE with the DISCUSSION.
Dell SAYS IdeaStorm is INTERACTIVE, but then turns around and stifles the interaction!
**
Oh, also note that THIS box is titled "Editorial summary".
If we have a "summary", where, then, is the DETAIL?
In the COMMENTS?
250
Review the TOU to see if there is a way to INCLUDE younger participants
IdeaStorm submitted by phubert
Apr 16
Are there legal issues?
Can the TOU be rewritten to eliminate/circumvent them?
Where does the conflict lie (between age and participation)?
Clearly, according to 'approved' (aka 'over 18') participants, there have been and are younger participants who, perhaps unknowing of the age restriction in the TOU, have registered and participated constructively.
How does this put the site or Dell at risk?
Again, is there a way to redesign the TOU to open the door to them?
After all, there've been FIVE YEAR OLD geniuses who could have participated equally or better to any of us now here!
Isn't it ours and Dell's loss to exclude them???
If you want fresh ideas, where better to go??
130
More feedback from Dell on popular ideas
IdeaStorm submitted by pjeff
Feb 15
I would like to see more (official) feedback from Dell on popular ideas eg. +1000 ideas.
For example, many people have been requesting an LED backlit screen for the XPS M1530. Look on any forum where this model is being discussed and you will see people saying that they are holding off on purchasing until it becomes available (I'm one of them!) so it would be helpful to know what is happening.
Another example would be illuminated keyboards. Saying it is "partially implemented" doesn't really tell us anything. We know you have done that! If a popular idea is not practical or its implementation is problematic for whatever reason, communicate back so discussion can take place. This is how brainstorming works!
I also wonder how many good ideas are overlooked because Dell believe the cost would be too great for the product in question. Be upfront about your concerns regarding costs. For example, you may find that Inspiron/Vostro customers would not be prepared to pay extra for a premium screen and illuminated keyboard but XPS customers are. Post polls so that members can vote on these issues and provide you with accurate data. We are here to help so use us.
1460
How to fix Ideastorm
IdeaStorm submitted by jervis961
Apr 9
Lets face it the site is not going to get fixed anytime soon using the current methods. With almost 9000 ideas comprised of hundreds of duplicates it is too much to ask for Dell to be able to fix while keeping everyone happy.
People complain that they want to clean up the site so that original ideas do not get lost but then complain when it is their own idea that gets merged or deleted. Since it will take a while to go through all the ideas it will just cause problems every time Dell makes a change.
Here is a new plan:
1. Currently there are 2 sites (ideastorm and dellideastorm). Combine all the content into one of them and direct all visitors to that site.
2. Moderate all new ideas to check if they are a duplicate.
3. On the unused site Dell can then start building the new Ideastorm which will take over when it is fully fixed.
Doing things this way allows the site to stay open and Dell to fix things without having to calm people all the time about changes. Since it will be hard to keep up 2 sites and keep the comment and votes together they may have to clear the votes and comments to start the new ideastorm fresh. This will also give all the ideas a level playing field to see what is really popular and what was only popular because of timing. All status tags would be added to the new site and the old site would be kept as an archive of all the comments and previous votes.
This is not a perfect idea and I expect some suggestions in comments on how to improve it. I just think we need to find a way to fix things that is easier on us as well as the moderators in order to improve the overall relationship.
150
Restore all attributes of merged articles
IdeaStorm submitted by ueli
Apr 7
By beginning of the year I posted an idea entitled "Make TrueLife Optional again". The idea seemed to be accepted by a lot of people so it became popular with 3800+ points. It stayed on the front page of the popular ideas section for weeks and more and more promotions happened.
Anyway, as I wanted to see what happened in the last days on my idea, I found that my idea has gone. Looking at my dashboard I found that my idea has been merged. (btw. important lack of ideastorm already described here: http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/10079612/Merged_ideas_should_redirect_t... )
Unfortunately (or happily? I think it depends on the point of view) this idea is not on the front of or not even in the popular section anyway.
I think if you merge ideas, you should also merge attributes that affect appearance of the idea (such as popularity, etc.), well unless of course you want to make ideas disappear from your frontpage :-)
150
Make a calendar with all COMING SOON and IN PROGRESS ideas
Advertising and Marketing, IdeaStorm submitted by krasmussen
09/22/07 **REVIEWED**
One of the biggest annoyances with IdeaStorm is that the horizon for an idea being implemented is very blurry, if at all existing. If you're lucky, you get "third quarter 2009", but mostly, there is no timeframe at all. This leads to the feeling that not much is being done, and exactly that feeling is what IdeaStorm should be eliminating.
Therefore, I propose that you make a list or calender with all the COMING SOON and IN PROGRESS ideas with timeframes for all of them. Just a "december 2008" would be nice, or better yet, "deadline 31st november 2008".
I don't know if this is connected with some goal management inside Dell, if it is, maybe you should work on improving that, too?
Today, the best way to know the progress of an idea is through Ideas in Action, our Weekly Update or Dell comments in the thread.
6720
Let me Log Out of Ideastorm
IdeaStorm submitted by leelefever
02/19/07
I could be missing something, but I don't see where I can log out of the Ideastorm system. Could you please make this more obvious, like nearmy name or at the location where I logged in...
50
approval ratings on ideas
IdeaStorm submitted by jdelidc
Apr 2
kinda like the real voting. you got the total number of people that vote (x10), but you should also have the percent of people that vote up and idea. so you would get someting like a 60% approval rating on something if 6 people voted for an idea and 4 people voted against an idea
230
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