My list of features I would like implemented in Get Satisfaction

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. I'll try to respond, and others here may jump in as well.

First, stats. We are building in some statistics for employees that should be helpful. We're working hard all summer on this, so look for that. I hadn't thought about including times that employees should expect to be busy, but that's something we'll consider. Keep in mind that we do lean away from typical trouble ticket system set-ups, so we may not include details that contribute to creating a system that relies on customer service reps being put into queues of their own. We want to make things more efficient, for sure, but we do want to try and create systems that put an emphasis on increasing interaction, rather than creating a system that rewards the quick dispatch of trouble tickets.

Second, notices. We do have plans with these new company tools we're developing to provide admins and employees with more ways to create and manage their own "from the company" topics, although there is still some squishiness in our plans. We definitely want to give more options for those kinds of "official" messages from the company, but again, we are trying to balance that. In any case, we want to make it easier for employees to deal with duplicate topics, so thanks for this info about how you'd like to see it work.

Third: "About the Company" information. We have an ongoing internal debate about where that information should sit, so thanks for weighing in. It might be better to see it up there above the fold, but it is something that we seem to keep pushing down the page. The point about keeping a link at the top is very welcome. Thanks.

Fourth: We're still very against the idea of having company reps edit topics and replies. While the Wikipedia model works for Wikipedia, for example, we're very bullish on the idea that we should keep everything transparent. I know that there is an impetus from companies to clean up and manage and focus on presentation details, but part of our core belief rests on the idea that the messiness is worth it. It's really about integrity for us. That said, we have entertained ways to make, for example, FAQ-type responses editable in the manner that you suggest.

Finally, we are big fans of Digg, but we also are trying to be very careful about how we introduce weighting and voting features. We absolutely see the value in these details, but we want to go slow on implementing radical voting systems, as they can introduce unintended consequences -- unless you consider and test them beforehand. But, as you may have noticed, we are into the idea of letting the clicks of users build up to create and reinforce consensus about topics on our site. In short: We love the data that can come from this type of system, but we want to make sure the results provide value to everyone beyond just a love/hate dichotomy.

Thanks so much for sharing all these ideas. It's very helpful to us as we develop our site and work on making it better.