The Halfbakery can be read by anyone but only logged in people can contribute to the site itself.
Users who have an account, for which you only need to supply a unique name and a password, are able to submit news ideas (the inventions) and add links and annotations to ideas.
Logged in users can also declare themselves to be for or against particular idea by voting. The results of the voting is summarised by a numberical score and icons of croissants (for ideas people have liked) or fish bones (for ideas people dislike) shown against each idea.
Users are able to edit and delete their ideas, links, annotations, votes, and even their whole account, if they like.
It is run as a dictatorship by the "bakesperson" and a small group of volunteer moderators who can contribute ideas themselves and have rights to delete ideas, annotations and links provided by other users. Moderators, however, must adhere to guidelines and are generally forbidden from deleting the links or annotations of other users. Moderators are unable to see who cast votes or alter votes other than their own.
Specialised terms on the Half-Bakery: