The 'thumbs up/thumbs down' vote is helpful, as are the comment fields.
However, some ideas don't really fall under the umbrella of "open goverment" -- some relate to the private sector, some speak to non-relevant legislation, some are vague suggestions, and others are simply rants. These clutter the forum and deter user participation.
Rather than censor/remove these, or allow them to distort the statistics that reveal support, create a third option -- a "? - Not really an open govt idea" option below the 'thumbs down.'
An idea with more than ten votes, of which a certain percentage are "?" selections, can be bumped off of the main 'ideas listing' and placed into a separate category, or simply moved to the end of the listing. As is, its impossible to know whether negative votes demonstrate a lack of support, or the belief that the "idea" just doesn't fall under the umbrella of open government.
Comments (6)
Agree with the spirit of your observation. Believe that tags need to be used to create new categories, e.g. Open Spectrum, Open Carry, Open Skies, Open Source Software, etcetera.
OPEN really means restoring the Constitution Of By and For We the People who may bear arms anywhere anytime.
I wasn't referring to the tags. I meant the actual voting options -- "yes", "no" and some type of "N/A" makes more sense. There is a bunch of well meaning but useless clutter in here -- vague rants, etc.
More tags aren't a bad idea though -- Tools & Technology is pretty broad. Guess that's where the open field comes in handy.. but some secondary tags for tools & tech would make it easier to sift through
There should also be a way to connect similar/redundant ideas.
New ideas,please!
This forum is NOT only for suggestions on 'open government.' Notice on the side list of options, people can suggest on a variety of things like future budgeting strategies and hiring and recruitment and so on. Your posting of this irrelevant comment is cluttering the system. We do not need a full detailed solution. It is simply a suggestion. The white house and officials can come up with a detailed solution. By the way, I said education and health care should never suffer (capital wise) because they had nothing to do with the schemes and corporations. Therefore, my suggestion falls under strategic budgeting.
Perhaps it is here, please let us know...
it would be useful to be able to click on a user name and the system sends a message to that person that we would like to take the conversation further via email. Then that reached person can agree to reciprocate or not.
Even now, all votes are a compliment because people take the time, but to know more about then nays (and indeed the ayes) and what is meant by them would really be a helpful dialogue and potentially quite mutually informing and helpful. (Does Ebay perhaps work like that? Do prominent social networks?). Sending best wishes.