From experience I know that user research/validation is one of the most important steps in building a viable project, but also that it is really difficult to do

From experience I know that user research/validation is one of the most important steps in building a viable project, but also that it is really difficult to do because your methods have to be tailored to different groups of people. That's where I think this might need improvement - it simplifies idea selection to "throw your idea out there, and maybe somebody will pay to see it happen." Quite a few ideas on there but I haven't seen anybody pay. In reality, you will have to go through literally hundreds of ideas and talk to many, many people to even get your idea to the start line. Then, you can start charging and see if people are willing to pay. To be honest, I feel like this bring-to-market test, whether that's a Kickstarter or a deployment of a SaaS product is the most efficient way to test your idea out. There are no shortcuts in user research. This website might be better off pivoting to idea aggregator (possibly with gamification/in-game money) to better simulate the market test. People "pay" for a small MVP experiment and contribute in a sort of crowdsourced idea selection and startup formation process.