One of the problems I have with brainstorm is the different categories: proposal, brainstorm, sandbox, under-development... I get confused as to what is being suggested by ignorant people like me who just have an idea, what is being suggested because it's doable and what is actually being done.

Hence I have never started a thread in there (Who said "Must be the only forum on the board"? ) The place, while less daunting than bugzilla,is still a protocol I don't 'get'. And last time I tried to add a suggestion to a brainstorm, the brainstorm system itself hiccupped twice and keeled over comatose.

Could we do something with the categories/codes so it is a) obvious what each category means and b) instantly visible. Can vBulletin do colour coded titles? - say purple for suggestions, yellow for things under discussion, green for projects under development, and red for ones which seem to have stalled?

And would it be too big a burden on the Brainstorm mods (now there's more of them) to ask them to contact the proposer after a fixed term - say 3 months after the proposal - to check on whether its progressing or dropped? Then it might be possible to search the brainstorm forum according to the status of projects.

And to take up Texrat's challenge - we need a 'monthly auction' of projects which have got lots of votes and appear to be viable but don't have anyone picking them up - or a weekly featured 'unloved suggestion' like the dogs home do to place unloved dogs. With sentimental pictures and a sob story of how this proposal came to be abandoned by its original owners.