I like the idea of 'trendcasting' with a social element enought to have invested in the area repeatedly, so I was intrigued by your post. Unfortunately, I was

I like the idea of 'trendcasting' with a social element enought to have invested in the area repeatedly, so I was intrigued by your post. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in your implementation as it is now. I'm sure my criticisms are biased by my experiences (and what I'm actively looking to invest in), but I think you're not delivering on your promise or potential in this area. If you're happy with what you have, please ignore the ramblings of this grumpy old man. I think if you place social suggestions at the heart of the service it just becomes another social news site. You essentially end up with a different face on a Digg-style site, in a way, which opens itself up to gaming of the system and takes the focus away from actual trend identification and forecasting data. Instead of a social news remake, you could become something that actually gleans insight from social data without overt promotion/edoption by individuals. People are looking for insights about trends, but they don't just want a data dump or a shill-fest. The "Soap Box" should be small or nonexistent in such a service. When you're talking about trend identification and forecasting, most customers want some degree of editorial analysis (Springwise, Teentracking focus groups, etc.) and/or some type of meta-analysis based on aggregate data, such as search data (Yahoo Buzz, Google Trends) and/or to have the tools to do an analysis for themselves (more advanced tools with NLP/ML features), possibly within a specific medium (forums, email, blogs, search, SMS, etc.) or verticals (retail investing, public relations, etc.) There is a huge market opportunity in finding sweet spots in these 'trendcasting' areas...and there is enough room for many profitable companies. I'm disappointed that there are relatively few companies that seem to be attacking the gaps, yet there are so many different takes on "me too" companies that draw from the trend and forecasting toolset (social news, reputation management, etc. as standalone services.) Why not go after the value-added services and niches and really make some money? How do you plan to make money? [Advertising?!?] Your design looks professional, but it is very busy and makes it difficult to really get a feel for what it does and how it all works. I think if you want your site to work well in its current 'edopter' implementation, you should focus more on simplifying the interface.