If you're signing up as an ingeniite then you may appreciate a few words about all the questions we ask, and all the questions we don't ask. You may also be a bit unsure about how things are meant to work, or how they work in practise. I know that we are

This is a simple website with a simple proposition: Some people have a great idea and carry it round with them for years. They talk about it with their trusted friends, but otherwise they keep it secret - for fear that someone will steal it. Ingeniousity is not for them.

Ingeniousity is for people who have plenty of ideas but lack the resources to do anything with them. There is no point keeping this stuff to yourself if you can't turn your dreams into reality. You may as well give them to the world, and hope that someone else is able to run with them and bring them to fruition. You lose nothing, and are confident that the next idea will come sauntering along very soon. You are not a single-idea person. You're an ingeniite!

Signing up

We've kept the sign-up as painless as possible. Username, email address, and password are all that is required. We send you a confirmation email (why do we do that?), you click on the link, and you're good to go. ** Note: there is a known bug that displays your real name instead of your username on articles you create, so please make them the same. **

Who You Are 

Once you're registered a new button appears on the left of the screen titled "Who you are". This is your profile, member centre, or whatever you want to call it. You can upload a photo, or avatar, and we've added a bunch of tabs next to it that contain whatever additional information you choose to supply.

At first you won't see those tabs because they don't contain any information. But there's a button at the top titled 'edit' which gives you the option to update your profile. Click on it, and you can see all sorts of categories of questions. If you choose to answer then the information will be displayed. If not then that's cool.

Alternatively, if you can think of better questions to ask then let us know and we'll happily add them.

Cogitating 

To make suggestions, or to share your creative brilliance in any other field, simply click on the other button that appears after you login. It's titled 'Cogitate in Public', and takes you to an input box with a simple WYSIWYG editor. Type away, and when you're done then hit the submit button.

BUT BE WARNED THAT IF YOU TAKE MORE THAN 15 MINUTES TO TYPE YOUR MESSAGE THEN THE SERVER MAY LOG YOU OUT AND YOU'LL LOSE YOUR WORK. It annoys us too, but we're not geeks and don't know how to fix it. The best thing to do is to first type up your cogitations in a text editor, mobile phone, or whatever. Then you can just cut and paste at your own leisure - and keep a copy of that precious copyrighted document in your own possession.

New posts are added to the top of the list as they are written and remain visible until they are pushed off the screen by new stuff. Hopefully in that time someone will see your words and respond.

Commenting

Of course, it's not all about showing off what you've dreamed up. Many of our best ideas come after being exposed to other people's suggestions and observations. So it makes a lot of sense to read as many as you can of other people's posts. You may then feel inspired to synthesize ideas, and come up with something new and cool of your own that you'll post using the method described above. Or you may just come up with a refinement or progression of what you see.

In that case, at the end of every original idea you will find an opportunity to build on what you see. The comments box is there for developing ideas, or making useful observations, and the most recent comments are listed on the right of the screen to give you an idea of what people are saying about what people are saying.

The rule here is to always say "yes and...." instead of "yes, but...." - if you can't think of anything useful to add then just move on. We don't really need people shooting us down and pushing us into flame wars that someone has to win at the expense of the other. Build, don't destroy.

This doesn't mean that all ideas are good, and we don't want to encourage stupid people to post garbage here, so we've also included a ratings system so that you can express a negative opinion without getting into a confrontation.

Ratings

Easy! Just press the buttons to say how much you liked an idea.

'Venerating' people 

We'll change the name of this as soon as someone comes up with a better one. Until then....

If you notice someone who repeatedly posts clever and insightful stuff then visit their profile and go to the veneration button. If you click venerate then you activate a variation on the 'connection' facility. We've tweaked it so that the connection is one-way. In other words, you're initiating a contact because you are impressed by what they have to say. (You also have the option to include a short message stating why you're doing it.)

Hopefully, they'll then take a look at your profile and if they like what they see they'll also venerate you. The more people venerating you, the more creative the community considers you to be. (If you venerate everyone in the hope of being venerated back then that cheapens the whole things and it becomes pointless. Be discriminating!) 

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