Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'

h a l f b a k e r y

Why not imagine it in a way that works?

idea: add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random

meta: news, help, about, links, report a problem

account: browse anonymously, or get an account and write.

user:

pass:
register,

...
Other category idea mover
other subcategories to their place
Product: Cell Phone: App
public: attacks
Quarter-baked
"Recursive" category
self-explanatory idea names
Two-column categories
WIBNI

halfbakery:category

... non-invention
... search
... unwanted
... wanted

WIBNI

Gather round, all ye that read a lot of sci-fi.

(+3, -4)

[vote for,
against]

How about a special category just for rehashing ideas that have already come up in other media, but that deserve additional promotion because they happen to be good ideas anyway? Just call it the "I Saw This in a Book/Movie/TV Show/Back of a Taxicab, and--" (all together now) "--WOULDN'T IT BE NEAT IF . . . ." category.

Besides, nobody's read EVERYTHING, so really no one should have to be subjected to that kind of criticism; it's bad for the site. No one should refrain from submitting his brilliant idea for fear that some doofus has read a book, published fifty years ago, that features the same idea. All half-baked ideas should be welcome here, regardless of pedigree, and subjected to the same criteria as all the others.

This would save everybody SO much time. No longer would any of us have to fear a visit from SarcasMo, telling us that back in 1885, H.G. Wells thought of it first. Or Nicola Tesla. Or Henry Ford. Or whoever. Major brainstorm, SarcasMo: if it were a REALLY well known idea, it would be common knowlege already. So go read another obscure book and come back tomorrow to tell us it's all been done before, eh?

—	deacon, May 26 2001

What [deacon] appears to be upset about... http://www.halfbake...-Pressure_20Prisons
See [StarChaser]'s annotation (third from the top), and [deacon]'s response. [egnor, May 26 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Please log in.
If you're not logged in, you can see what this page looks like, but you will not be able to add anything.

Short name, e.g., Bob's Coffee

Destination URL. E.g., https://www.coffee.com/

Description (displayed with the short name and URL.)

You are generalizing improperly from a single incident or two. Whether or not _Streetlethal_ actually included a high pressure underground prison, you could civilly point out to StarChaser that you derived the idea independently. It's certainly true that an idea for an underground high pressure prison is not exactly in the same class as "A Light Saber, Only For Real".

True WIBNIs should be marked for deletion. Things which are merely baked in reality or fiction should be marked as such, but policy is to leave them in place as placeholders.

Above all, I can't support banning criticism. This is not the Happy Cuddle Club, it's a place to post and discuss ideas. Discussion of ideas without criticism is hardly very interesting. Ideally, of course, the criticism itself is civil, but by the standards of the Internet, people like StarChaser, PeterSealy and I are lovable puppydogs.

(Just my opinion.)

—	egnor, May 26 2001

Well, no need to go to the extreme. This idea was only partially provoked by StarChaser's original comment. And he wasn't the first to make such a comment, and I wasn't the first to be accused of ripping-off an idea from a book. But the idea for the special category still stands alone as a good idea, I believe.

And a little civil discourse never hurt anyone.

—	deacon, May 26 2001

One problem with exploring ideas from fiction is that the discussion turns to the literature and not toward an exploration of things none of us had thought about before. As egnor noted, that's a perfectly fine purpose, but it's not what this site does. Yeah, criticism can be strong here--some of my ideas were slapped down so hard they had to look up to see the soles of their metaphorical shoes. S'all right, though: if the Halfbakers' annotations were always polite and gentle then the site would be swamped with Slaughtered Cattle Blood Drink and the like.

[deacon: you posted while I was tormenting my keyboard. On the subject of civil discourse--I believe Halfbakers judge not only an ideas but also the annotations of others, and a consistently rude or cruel poster gets flamed.]

—	Dog Ed, May 26 2001

Don't be upset about starchaser... a good way to describe him is "the boy who cried baked". He likes to find things that are in some remote way related to an idea of yours and call it baked. also, look at his website sometime and you won't be as concerned about what he thinks of you.

—	djhotsauce, May 27 2001

[djhotsauce], I daresay you're confusing StarChaser and PeterSealy.

—	egnor, May 27 2001

Or reality and his hallucinations again.

I like this idea anyway...Why not have a place to take something that is <? What do we call an idea from a book? Quarter-baked?> and try and come up with ways to actually DO it?

—	StarChaser, May 27 2001

I read everything.

—	bookworm, May 28 2001

I can't believe this has fishbones! There are a lot of ideas from books and films, and not just sci-fi either, that have no explanation about how they would have come about. This could be a chance for the half-bakers to work together to make millions from the patent for the first <not particularly good e.g but I'm tired>Blade Runner style Spinner vehicle (man, I love those flying cars!)</not particularly good e.g but I'm tired>

—	CoolerKing, May 31 2001

back: main index

business computer culture fashion food halfbakery home other product public science sport vehicle