Original version: November
2002
Last updated: April 2005(fixed some links)
This list is aimed at someone who has just discovered the halfbakery and is about to post an idea. This is written by one user, and does not represent the opinions of anyone else associated with the halfbakery. It is not official in any way, shape or form.
This list only concerns itself with idea creation. For more insight into other issues (annotations, voting, etc.) I recommend you read the annotations on the ideas "Halfbakery Etiquette Guide" and "The Help File."
I've noticed that many folks (myself included) make similar mistakes when initially posting to the bakery. In many cases these errors could be avoided by simply lurking for a while to see what works and what doesn't. In other cases a few simple suggestions on how to approach the place would have sufficed. This list is my attempt at those suggestions.
Take heart: it is more than possible for a newbie to post a highly rated idea. In fact, it happens all the time. You'll have to trust me on this. (I used to have a custom view in the bakery that proved it, but recently a long-time member of the bakery decided to quite maliciously vandalize it, so I've removed the link).
There is an old adage that rules are made to be broken. This is very true here, particularly for the rules past Rule Number 8. These are just guidelines to help new folks have a better shot at posting a good idea. After you get used to the bakery and how it works (and the other bakers get used to you), you will find that you can get away with posting ideas that run far afoul of this list. If so, congratulations, you have become a full-fledged baker.
The rules are roughly in order of importance, from most important to least.
I cannot emphasize this enough. Do not attempt to post an idea to the halfbakery before you read the entire help page. Go do it! Read the help page now! Done already? Now go read it again!
Pay special attention to the section titled [marked-for-deletion]. If you read the rest of the help page twice, read this section three times. This section is a laundry list of mistakes made in ideas on the bakery. Be sure to consider how each of the subsections within might apply to your idea. Its quite disappointing to spend time concocting an idea and then having someone mark it as [m-f-d] in the very first annotation. See also Rule 11.
Whenever you are about to post an idea, your first impulse should not be to click "new." Instead, it should be to search around to see what similar ideas already exist. Believe me, if you don't do it the other halfbakers will do it for you, seemingly embarrassing you in public.
There are two places you should search: the halfbakery, and Google.
First you should search the halfbakery itself to see if your idea (or something similar) is already posted. There are over 16,000 ideas on the halfbakery, so the probability is quite high that something like your idea is already in there. (I know several that I wanted to post were already there).
When searching the halfbakery, always do more than one search, using varying terms. Remember that the halfbakers live all around the world, and often use slang terms in their ideas that might not match your terms. For example, if you have an idea for a special kind of eyeglasses, try searching for "eyeglasses", "glasses" and "spectacles" (the latter being a term common in the U.K., but not in the U.S.). All three searches will come up with ideas on the bakery relating to different kinds of eyeglass-related inventions.
Be sure to pay attention to the links on the ideas you find. There are two places to look for these. One is directly below the idea. These are links that were added as part of the discussion. Often these will lead to related ideas on the bakery. You should check those out carefully because they might be related to your idea as well.
The other place to look for links is in the upper right corner of the page. Here you will find a list of ideas that have been placed in the same category as the idea. They may not have turned up in your searches, but they might relate as well. Be sure to explore here, it will come in handy later.
Assuming you don't find your idea already posted on the halfbakery, your next impulse should be to search the "real world" for similar ideas. Google seems to be the favored search engine amongst halfbakers. Experienced halfbakers do not like hearing about ideas that have already been done, they will pronounce your invention "baked" and move on to the next new thing. So be sure that if you do find a similar invention, you add some significant and unique twist to your idea to make it new.
As in searching the bakery, and for the very same reasons, be sure to run multiple searches with different terms. The real invention might be named quite differently than what you are thinking.
Even if you don't find something very similar in the real world, you may find some links for your idea. See Rule 9.
The halfbakery is rife with pedants and super pedants, and like it or not they will correct your spelling and grammar in their annotations. This often distracts from useful discussion of your idea, and just gets things off to a bad start.
I strongly recommend composing the text of your idea offline in a word processor that has spell checking capability. Be sure to run the spell check on the text if it doesn't happen automatically, and a grammar check isn't a bad idea either. Then cut and paste your edited text into the form when posting your idea.
As the creator of the idea, you have the ability to edit any part of it you created, and to delete annotations and links added by others. Use this ability sparingly! However, if someone finds a spelling error in your idea, its perfectly acceptable to fix the spelling error and delete the annotation that points it out (as long as the spelling error is the only thing in that annotation). Alternately you can fix the spelling error and acknowledge that you did in a short annotation.
Make sure your idea is complete. Leaving out some key element that makes your idea work is the surest way to guarantee a negative reaction (typically "WIBNI").
For example, suppose your idea involves cars whose color can change at the press of a button. You think of several uses for this function, which you explain in great detail. (Fashion statements and cooling the car on a hot sunny day leap to mind). But you never bother to explain what mechanism causes the color to change! This is a key detail that is critical to your idea, and without it you don't have an idea at all. I think this is one of the most common reasons for an idea being [marked-for-deletion].
If you have an idea that has this problem, beware of "quick fixes" that solve it. There are several listed in Rule 11.
There is no (stated) limit to the length of the text in an idea. However if you go overboard your ideas will definitely be taken poorly, no matter how clever they are. There is a member of the halfbakery named Vernon who is legendary for posting tremendously long ideas, you will note that most of his ideas were fishboned. Many of the users of the halfbakery are busy professionals, and do not appreciate ideas that ramble on and on, wasting their time. See the idea titled "Short Ideas" for more discussion about this issue.
Bottom line: succinct ideas are better, as a general rule. That does not mean a long idea is doomed.
If you do feel the need to go on at length to properly explain your idea, make sure you break it into paragraphs. It is very difficult to read a long, unbroken hunk of text. Just leave a blank line where you need a paragraph break. The input box does not accept HTML formatting in general, but you can use the tag <br> to create an explicit line break, like in lists of items.
I realize that this rule can sometimes run counter to the previous one. The more details you add, the longer your idea is going to be. This is just one of those times you have to use your own judgment.
(With apologies to Monty Python).
Picking a good name is very important, as it is all you have to induce people to look at your idea. Give it a unique name that somehow relates to what it is. Don't use an overly generic name---if you invent a super duper oven, don't just call your idea "oven". (This has been embarrassingly common lately).
Good ideas often have a catchy name that is a pun or take off on a actual product name, song or pop culture reference. The idea is to spark some recognition in the reader to make them wonder what the idea is. Often folks will get the wrong idea from your name, and comment on this in the annotations, but this is just part of the fun. As with the idea contents, keep it short. See additional comments about this in the idea "the imperfect idea."
Don't get overly clever! If the essence of your idea is the pun in the title, you are bound to be [marked-for-deletion] based on the "pun" rule.
Every idea also has to have a category. There are hundreds of categories set up already, so there is no doubt one appropriate to your idea. As you were diligently searching existing ideas (back in Rule 2), you probably found the category in which your idea belongs, or one close to it. Explore the categories to make sure you find the right one. (And remember you can change the category later if you find a better one).
Two final tips on picking a category. First, you can save a few mouse clicks if you first navigate to an idea that is in your chosen category. Then, when you click new it will pick up the category of the idea you were viewing.
Second, the categories in the list that do not have a colon ":" in their name are rarely ones you want to post in. Those are "catch all" categories for truly odd ideas that do not fit elsewhere. (They show up with a subcategory of "[general]" when posted, though this does not appear in the category picker). Look harder, you probably overlooked the right category.
Once you post your idea, be prepared for it to be criticized in various ways. Do not take it personally! Arguing about ideas is what the halfbakery is all about. A healthy discussion about your idea is a badge of honor, even if many of the folks disagree with it. Go ahead and defend your idea, explain it further. But don't overdo it! For instance posting an individual response to every single annotation on your idea is not taken well. Don't be surprised if the discussion veers off in weird directions, either.
You should be more concerned if you get no annotations at all. That means most folks found your idea boring and not worthy of comment.
A corollary to this is that you shouldn't pay too close attention to the voting. Almost every idea, no matter how well liked, gets one or two negative votes. Some bakers refer to this as the "autoboner". For example, consider the "best" list . These are the top ranked ideas on the bakery. You will note that every last one of them has received negative votes, some more than 30.
That having been said, if your idea immediately gets 20 negative votes, and no positive votes, probably you weren't on the right track. Read the annotations carefully, determine what you did wrong, and consider trying again with a new idea. (I bet that you violated at least one of the rules on this list!).
The web is built upon links, and the halfbakery is on the web. You can include links on your own idea after you submit it, by selecting [link] directly below the body of your idea. Be sure to include the full URL, including the "http://" in front. Do not include URLs directly in the text of your idea (or an annotation) as you will be scolded to use the link function.
Links can be particularly helpful if you are using some technology or terminology in your idea that is not widely known. Remember back in Rule 2 when you were searching Google? You probably ran across some links that might be useful for folks understanding your idea. Include a few of the best ones if you feel they help explain.
Remember that bakers live all over the world. If you refer to a celebrity or television show or trademarked product name, or use a slang term in your idea, consider explaining it in a link. The other bakers may not know what you are talking about otherwise. For example, the idea "George Formby Bacon Fax Machine" refers to a British entertainer who died over 40 years ago. Hes probably not well known to folks outside the U.K. You will note the author of the idea was well aware of this, and included a link to a very informative web site.
Links are also helpful if your idea builds upon or is related to an existing halfbakery idea. They give you a chance to underscore how your idea is different. They also subtly send a message to the other bakers that yes, you have done your homework.
Some ideas that involve mechanical contraptions are difficult to describe adequately in words. This can result in confusion as to how your idea works. If your idea is of this type, and you have any artistic ability (or even if you don't) consider creating a simple drawing. Since there is no graphic posting ability on the halfbakery itself, you will have to post it in your own web space and then link to it from your idea.
Other users have created pictures of inventions on the halfbakery and posted them. However, don't ask for someone else to draw your invention for you. Its your idea, you've got to do the work.
Sometimes a very rudimentary picture does the trick, for example see the first link on the idea titled "Wrapping hat".
There are a number of taboos in halfbakery ideas. Many of these are referred to in general terms in the [marked for deletion] section of the help page. Here is a more specific list of topics that rarely go over well in ideas:
It is just best to avoid these things. They act as "hot buttons" with some of the bakers, who will fishbone your idea no matter how much sense it seems to make to you.
There is a whole section on the help page titled Tongue in Cheek, that explores the posting of funny or satirical ideas. Be sure to read it carefully.
Humor is a big part of what the halfbakery is about (see Rule 6). Many of the most successful ideas (such as "Custard-Filled Speed Bumps," "Flocking Road Cones" and "Hullaballoon") have an element of whimsy to them that is crucial to their success. But it is important to note that all of these ideas are actually inventions that just might work. I encourage you to include humor where appropriate, but first and foremost your idea must be workable. The humor/whimsy element should just be flavoring, not the entire content.
On the other hand, there are some ideas on the bakery that are entirely humorous or satirical, and really don't make much sense as inventions. These can be much fun, and are sometimes are very highly ranked. Some examples of these include "Sorta Claus" (indeed all of the superheroes), "Serious Putty" and "Lazy River Office." I strongly discourage you, as a new user, from trying to post ideas of this type. I have seen several new users attempt to focus on ideas of this type almost exclusively, and rarely are they met with success.
My perception of this is that the regulars on the bakery are much less tolerant of these types of ideas when they come from new people. You may argue that this isn't fair, but it just seems to be the way it is.
The bottom line is: humorous elements of workable inventions are good, entire ideas whose purpose is to be funny (but aren't practical at all) are bad.
You may not have noticed at first (because they are filtered out of the default view) but there are many categories for ideas relating to the halfbakery itself. Some are practical ideas for changing or improving the halfbakery, others are just silly things like poems or songs. I strongly discourage you from posting ideas in any of these categories.
The halfbakers are very protective of the bakery, and any suggestion to change the way it works is usually met with disdain. Truth be told, the site has existed for quite some time now (over 4 years) and works quite well. It is unlikely that a brand new user will come up with something that hasn't been proposed before, or isn't already on the "todo" list of the site author.
The whimsical halfbakery categories are more of a cultural thing, and until you are a member of the culture (and I'm not claiming to be!) you can't really appreciate what will work well here. Besides, on more than one occasion, jutta (the creator of the halfbakery) has expressed a low tolerance for this sort of stuff (see her annotations at the top of the idea "Most ___ on Halfbakery" and near the bottom of the idea "Halfbaked Prophecies").
All in all, I recommend you steer clear of all of the halfbakery categories, at least until you have been around for a long time.
Happy baking!