

Show HN: No more “idea websites” – here's a problem solving website - aaronz8
https://www.thinkero.us/app

======
minimaxir
The first comment in your previous submission is accurate:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6077395](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6077395)

Ideas are just ideas. Actually solving problems requires a different skillset
that can't be accomplished with the "magic" of crowdsourcing. Calling this a
"problem solving website" is incredibly misleading.

~~~
chrisjleaf
The entire point of the site is that solving issues comes first. That's why
our algorithms rank ideas based on the importance of the issues they solve.
This way the ideas that solve the most important problems will rise to the top
of the list that is what makes Thinkerous different from other "idea list"
websites: we target problems directly while idea lists don't.

~~~
minimaxir
> _That 's why our algorithms rank ideas based on the importance of the issues
> they solve._

What? Ranking by the number of likes/upvotes (which is the method I see when
looking at the Hot view) is not "ranking ideas based on the importance of the
issues they solve."

I know CMU teaches actual algorithms for this type of ranking, because I went
there. :P

~~~
chrisjleaf
Perhaps you're underestimating the complexity of the algorithm. The linking
between ideas and issues is not superficial, the ranking of an idea is based
directly upon the ranking of the issues it is linked to.

Issues are a bit simpler in that they mostly are based on activity related to
them. However doesn't it make sense that an issue that's popular would reflect
the magnitude of it's importance?

~~~
minimaxir
> _However doesn 't it make sense that an issue that's popular would reflect
> the magnitude of it's importance?_

Not exactly. You're confusing correlation with causation.

On sites with Reddit-like rankings, the number of votes which a submission
receives is one of the primary _causes_ for the subsequent number of
comments/activity of those respective submissions. And "importance" is not
necessarily causal to submission ranking (aggregators are weird).

~~~
onedev
Hey not sure if you're aware, but this isn't TechCrunch...heh.

~~~
minimaxir
Commenting is universal. :)

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UXDork
Where are the "idea websites?"

~~~
fiatjaf
Good question.

------
fiatjaf
Here's something I've always wanted to build, much better than I thought it.

Here are some thoughts:

\- Flagging can be good. Some things just don't fit, so they must be put out.

\- Maybe you could make it easier to give negative feedback. Some buttons
(customizable?) to just click: "I don't see this as a real problem" or "This
is more a dream of yours than a problem". Could also help with flagging.

\- For ideas, there could be an option to quickly point the potential common
problems an idea can suffer of (and also count the "votes" to these), such as:
insufficient market; network effect; solution looking for a problem; this
already exists; this has been tried.

\- Pull requests. Let people at least try to modify others' ideas, add
information etc. Maybe this will help people feel like their feedback is
valuable.

~~~
aaronz8
Thanks! We'll definitely look into 1-click feedback and flagging.

Regarding Pull Requests - we're in the process of adding a "team"
functionality, but maybe an intermediate level of involvement (between joining
the team and just commenting) would be useful. Thanks again!

------
markbnj
At a glance many of the submissions seem to be problem statements, or simply
maxims. Is that the idea? To list and rank problems? Or is the idea to have
some sort of solution in mind as well?

~~~
chrisjleaf
We differentiate issues and ideas with icons (an umbrella and light bulb
respectively). Issues are typically statements of facts regarding problems
that people have seen or experienced themselves. These issues are meant to be
tied to an idea which solves them and are separated on purpose (problems and
solutions don't follow have one-to-one relationships). Ideas play an important
role on the site - to provide a call to action to actually solve a problem.

For this reason if a user submits an issue they have a solution for we
encourage them to submit the problem and solution separately so other people
can contribute other related submissions.

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AndrewKemendo
_sharing ideas that solve impactful issues_

Except ideas don't solve impactful issues, groups of people applying time and
resources to a problem solves impactful issues.

I think it would be more accurate to say that the service is for "sharing
ideas for how to have an impact on complex issues."

I'm still not really sure what it is supposed to do.

~~~
aaronz8
Sorry, that is a bit unclear. Essentially, we want to make it easier for
people to find issues that many people can identify with, and in the process,
show people what some potential solutions are.

By filtering out some of the noise, the ideas that could solve widespread
issues can get more resources put behind them and hopefully a greater chance
of succeeding.

This might make more sense in the enterprise software realm, but we saw some
interest in the startup community as well so we wanted to test it out.

------
hkon
Looks like an idea site to me?

~~~
aaronz8
Maybe
[https://www.thinkero.us/app/?type=issue](https://www.thinkero.us/app/?type=issue)
will change your mind?

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bsbechtel
Is this like Quirky for everything (not just products)?

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aikah
Can you give some instances of what you call "idea websites"?

~~~
aaronz8
Any website where ideas and voting on ideas are the key focus of the platform,
and don't go one step further of finding the underlying problems that these
ideas trying to solve.

Almost all innovation management and feature-request platforms are like this.

For example: [http://www.ideastorm.com/](http://www.ideastorm.com/)
[https://ideas.sap.com/](https://ideas.sap.com/)
[https://success.salesforce.com/ideaSearch](https://success.salesforce.com/ideaSearch)
[http://engagetacoma.mindmixer.com/activity](http://engagetacoma.mindmixer.com/activity)

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perks
Getting a 504 Gateway Time-out over here

~~~
AnkhMorporkian
That's the first problem to be solved.

