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Rebake
Thoughts regarding drastic revisions, rewrites of submitted ideas. | |
Occasionally, ideas are submitted to the HB and receive fishbones. Sometimes, this is largely due to the presentation of the idea and not the idea itself. I was wondering what the halfbakery's feelings are regarding drastic rewrites and revisions of ideas.
The help file states under the tongue-in-cheek
section that the suggested procedure is to, "get over your frustration, delete the non-starter if you want, and come back when you've got another invention". Although I follow that advice regularly, on at least one occasion I rewrote the idea to garner positive votes the second time around.
My questions / problems are these:
Should I rewrite an idea, or is it a one shot deal?
If I rewrite the idea do I delete the old file with the fishbones and start a fresh one, or keep the fishbones and hope the users reappraise the idea?
If I rewrite my idea and garner buns, can I replace the accepted copy with the original submission whilst chuckling to myself heartily?
Born Again Swimmingly
born_20again_20swimmingly
A late-bloomer. [hidden truths, May 17 2006]
Annotation:
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Personally, I'd scrap and rewrite anew,
but
try and make mention in the copy
(perhaps
as a
footnote) that it's based on an early
false-
starter of an idea (even mention the
idea
name, if you're brave enough). That way
you present it on its own merits, but
you
also don't disorient those who caught it
first time round, thus avoiding feelings
of
devu-ja all over again. |
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Having said that, if you end up doing
this a lot, you're either taking this all
too seriously, or your communication
skills aren't what you imagined they
were. |
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I'd be guided by the amount and nature of annos at least as much as the votes. Leaving the original idea standing and linking it might help too - if it was the original wording at fault then others will see that; if it was idea then you'll see that when your new idea gets slated too. So long as you're open about what you've done and why you ought to get some honest feedback. |
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I've found that if people don't get what you're on about they never will, no matter how you explain it. |
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//Should I rewrite an idea, or is it a one shot deal?//
One of my favourite things about an idea is the surprise you get when they suddenly jump out at you from behind and go boo with some new concept, or warped way of looking at a problem - something that makes you go "Aha!" (and then later, "Now why didn't I think of that?"). When I get that feeling from reading an idea I normally bun it immediately. |
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If I were to read a rewrite of an idea that I'd already read, I'm not so sure I'd get quite the same sensation. |
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Other ideas are bunnable because they are charming - these might be re-bunnable, but often, half the charm of these is their presentation in the first place - and as such, don't benefit from a rewrite. |
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//If I rewrite the idea do I delete the old file with the fishbones and start a fresh one, or keep the fishbones and hope the users reappraise the idea?//
If you're going for the 'aha!-bun', then delete the original, wait until everyone's forgotten it (and some new bakers have turned up) and then launch it again at the *perfect* moment. But don't delete ideas just to rid yourself of shameful bones. I think it's better to have a busily boneful, and well annotated idea than an ignored one. |
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//If I rewrite my idea and garner buns, can I replace the accepted copy with the original submission whilst chuckling to myself heartily?//
Nope. Unless you do it with guile, charm and somehow manage to slip in a bit of creativity in there somewhere. |
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Personally I'd go for adding the re-write as an anno to the original idea. The advantage of this is that it keeps the, presumably, critical annos on the original which prompted the re-write so the whole thing can be viewed in context. |
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I was going to vote against this, but seeing as how [BrauBeaton] has already MFD'd it, then I see no point. Not because this is a bad idea, but because it suggests a bad precedent. Not that a re-draft is a bad thing once in a while, but people who would take to deleting and reposting any idea that was voted down (justifying it as 'poorly presented')would be even more irritating than the ones that delete unfavourable annotations. |
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Like I said, it's an ok thing in small doses. As [half] said, it would be relevant if the concept of your idea is being missed, but to do it for the votes seems slightly superficial (the votes don't really matter anyway). |
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If you want to rewrite, then I would advise that you delete and repost. See [xenzag]'s "born again swimmingly" idea for reference. He posted an "impending idea" type message under the name about 12 hours before he actually posted the idea itself. It attracted close to a dozen fishbones and an (admittedly fake) MFD before there was actually an idea to go with the name. It ended up just about in the postitive, when it may have gone quite a bit further otherwise. (Moral - it may be a good idea after a rewrite, but you could still have trouble climbing out of your hole of fishbones. |
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Say folks. I rewrite people's ideas for a living. I tend to agree with [wagster] that if people don't get it the first time, then they never will. Having said that, and seeing as I derive great joy in presenting ideas well, I offer to rewrite anybody's HB idea if you agree to the two following conditions: a) you agree that your idea is currently in the public domain, or you want to place your idea in the public domain; and b) you mail your 'quarter-baked' idea to 'invented' at one of the big 6 email address domains. (I'm not saying which... only so that I may deter spammers -- OK, OK, it begins with a 'y'). I'll reply in about 1-3 days if you sent it to the correct 'big' email hosting domain. |
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Note that I can write 1) for comedic effect; or 2) serious (but I prefer the former). I'll mail back the result, and you can edit it to your heart's content. |
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"Looking for a ghostwriter for your halfbaked idea? Pathetic." |
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"'Single man tank' idea, .001 cents. 'Make it go away!' idea .002 cents. .... Getting a ghostwriter to write your idea... |
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Let's put you to the test [pathetic]. What can you do with a title looking for an idea: "Double-egged sword"? |
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I think that one is going for comedic effect. |
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I better get some value out of my 0.002 cents |
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Why not change the existing idea? It would save a lot of time and confusion. |
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