I am not sure whether it is an honest technical error or something more nefarious (probably not), but I have been unable to submit my idea in American Prosperity/Job Creation regarding the construction of new nuclear power plants. I have tried several times using slightly different wording in case that was the problem but no matter what I do I have been getting the following error: Idea *Inappropriate.
To be fair, I was able to submit a nuclear energy idea on Tuesday. Also, when you search for the tag nuclear you get about ten ideas submitted by people who seem fairly knowledgeable about nuclear energy. Many of these ideas have received a very positive response as indicated by the user voting system. But when you think about the number of submissions (there are a lot at this point) you have to ask, “Only ten people submitted an idea pertaining to nuclear energy? Really?”
So I am left to wonder, “What was inappropriate about my submission?” I have included a screenshot with the full text of my idea so you can see there is no inappropriate language, concepts, or themes. I’m not sure why I was getting this error, but perhaps there is something wrong with the automated logic that separates appropriate from inappropriate ideas that is unfairly preventing full submission of pro-nuclear views?
I don’t know the answer here, which is why I’m writing about it. I seriously doubt there is some America Speaking Out conspiracy to prevent pro-nukes from being heard. However, I am still wondering what characteristics of my multiple submission attempts caused the errors.
Regardless, this website is proving to have some pretty high activity and readership. The audience also appears to respond well to the pro-nuclear message. All the more reason to stop by and vote, comment, or submit an idea to bolster support and encourage further citizen research of nuclear energy and its benefits to the future of our nation.
3 Comments
America speaking out is a terrible design for a web site. I can hardly post a new item. I notice that only 800 people or so are coming to the site and it is a very difficult site to use. Few search tools and the ones that are there only present information in a form that shows their “popularity.” I have tried to post several times and not been able to. Perhaps I am block because I am outside the USA while I am trying to post.
@David, for whatever it’s worth, the site certainly looks pretty good but beyond that it is an awful user experience as you pointed out. It seems the site creators sought out a designer who can put lipstick on a pig; too bad they failed to seek out the help of people with any kind of UX skills.
As far as the issues with posting is concerned, if I were a betting man I’d say it has to do with outages being caused during busy times of the day. Even a prominent social networking site like Twitter experiences these types of failures numerous times a day.
I completely commiserate with your user experience on the website. It’s one of those ideas that looked great on paper, but the execution was lacking in many areas.