I totally agree that an advance search on HN is definitely needed.. you suggested some good search criterion. I would also add some timeframe related parameters as well. For e.g. this morning I saw an article with list of top 10 bloggers with maximum revenue from their blogs and I just cant find it using google..
Definitely! There is more due deligence that needs to happen before you finally begin the execution but out of tens of ideas one may have which one should you pick to even discuss with the potential customers is what I was getting at.
I think if a conclusion is made about the policy posting them somewhere easily noticible will really help readers like me. I was a passsive reader for this site for a while before I signed up which was also to get feedback on my site. I see the point about spammers and think its fair to ask readers to contribute but just that the policy should be clear to new users