#10 Being able to designate which leaves a design was based off.

[Ryan Schultz]

In those instances where someone's derivative work is composed of two or more leaves, is there a way for that person to choose the pertainent leaves before submitting the deisgn? For instance, when submitting a design, it would be nice if the 'wiki-tree' asked the contributor to pick the leaves they based their design off of.

Perhaps after hitting the 'submit' button, a dialog box could pop up with the following...
1. submission derived from 'active leaf'.
2. Submission derived from multiple leaves.
3. Submiting a new design (a non-derivative design),

if 1. - design is submitted to 'active leaf'
if 2. - "Please touch that leaf that had the most impact on your design" (two button options here. a) done b) add another leaf
if a) done
if b) "Please touch that leaf that had the second to the most impact on your design"... etc. for 3rd, 4th, 5th...etc.
if 3. - creates a new leaf off of the 'root' leaf.

[Ryan Schultz]

An alternative to what is above: Instead of only crediting an entire leaf, I think it might also be effective to allow contributors to credits individuals for their input/inspiration. I'm suggesting a field in each leaf cell on the website, where the leaf contributor can give weighted credit to whomever's ideas he/she feels contributed to the concept. This way, they could credit someone who may have left a helpful comment on a previous design, or they worked together with to create it. I think this method would be enable much more granular and effective ranking of inspiration. Perhaps each leaf-cell contains a simplified contribution table - such that the leaf author can divie up credit for their inspiration. In some cases, they might credit an entire leaf - or two different leaves and 3 individuals, whatever they choose. They might also choose to credit those who suggested great ideas in the Forum that went on to influence the design. I think, in the end, this would make for a more accurate and rolling contribution assessment mechanism. If you submit an outstanding idea, and people improve upon it over time, credit for your original contribution continues to roll forward as the design evolves, embedded in each new iteration submitted.