I am so in this one!

What happened to all our dashboards???

Found them. hahaaha
What happened to the Edit button Where we post.

What happened to my Gold Status.

EN team please fix this. Thanks

I’m not allowed to enter because I’m Canadian.

So since they’re staying on topic about it celebrating WOMEN inventors of America. Why would men pay to enter new ideas? Isn’t it clear that they are not women inventors??

I’m going to sulk!

All the avatars are gone. what’s going on?

Guys,
We just launched a new version of the site. Many, many, many improvements. Among others, the site will run much faster. Take a look around and you’ll find some new features, too.

Ed, some of the avatars did disappear in the transition. Still working on figuring that one out but the easy fix is to just upload a new one.

Tania, those search requirements were defined by Bed Bath & Beyond. I know it sucks that you can’t participate and I’m sorry. Just thinking out loud here… I wonder if you have any female friends/family in the States.

Toni, I just can’t keep up with you ;-) The edit button is available for about 20 minutes after you make a post. It’s designed that way to prevent somebody from going back and making a thread completely incomprehensible by deleting all of their posts a day or two later. It’s a pretty common feature seen in other forums and we thought it would be a good addition. Please visit our new support section at http://www.edisonnation.com/support and ask our team to add your gold icon back to your profile. I see you’re still a gold member (it says so just below your name) but that the icon isn’t displaying over your (now unfortunately missing) avatar.

I know it wasn’t En Matt. I’m okay with it after the initial shock was over :-)

Are you sure you are Canadian Tania?
You can come and live by my house until the search is over:-)
You can be a Northlaker:-) LOL!!!

Sorry to be all sour grapes about this LPS, but I was really hoping for a new LPS that I could actually enter. I wonder how well it would go over if EN came out with a new LPS that allowed only men. Yeah, coming from that direction it sounds a bit sexist.

I suppose I shouldn’t complain, women inventors are seriously under-represented. And little girls have too few role models to let them know that they can be great inventors, engineers, presidents, etc. OK, so after we get a woman president, can we then all agree to be gender neutral on searches and intellectual competitions?

BTW – good luck ladies!!

yep, I’m sure Sally…I say pie and Mark R says paaa! :-)
Roger makes me want to drink fresh squeezed lemonade and I think Toni’s pack’in something.

I love my American friends but there comes a time I just have to understand I’m not American.I can’t go on survivor or the Amazing race either.

Thanks for the offer to live BY your house Sally, by a lake, in a tent, hungry and cold little Canadian. I think I can get arrested for that.

You guys play and I’ll sit on the park bench, hold my protest sign and mini Canadian flag watching you all have fun…while I cry. heehee

ok drama over :-))

Raf, it doesn’t say men can’t enter, it just doesn’t invite them. Meaning, you won’t win.So it does indirectly say, don’t bother if you’re a man.

Yeah, if it were the other way around, there would be an uprising.

Hi Rafael, I was surprised too. I didn’t think there would be such a gender specific search. But like Matt said it’s not EN it BBB.

Tania, there isn’t even a Lake in Northlake, LOL!!!! I would let you have the spare room. I wouldn’t leave you out in the cold. :-)

Make sure you take pictures of your protest, and please post them :)

Many of you know that my ‘day job’ in managing an intercollegiate athletics consulting company and I have to remind myself daily that this in 2009 and not 1969 when it comes to participation numbers and opportunities for female students and student-athletes at Untited States colleges and universities.

“Too many girls and women still confront
‘No Trespassing’ signs throughout educational
institutions. Women remain
underrepresented in critical areas such as
math and science. Colleges and universities
continue to give short shrift to women’s
athletics, spending the lion’s share of money
on men’s programming. Scoring gaps persist
in standardized testing, limiting women’s
access to educational institutions, financial
aid, and careers. Non-traditional job training
programs leading to high-skill, high-wage
jobs are still hostile places for women, where
they confront the most severe forms of
harassment. Few women, particularly women
of color, have broken the glass ceiling that
keeps the top ranks of positions in colleges
and universities primarily the preserve of
men. . . . We owe it to our daughters to
improve our performance on Title IX by
removing these obstacles.”

—From the introduction to
Report Card on Gender Equity, A Report of the
National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education,
June 1997.

We need to be Pro-active in encouraging women inventors and engineers!!!

ok…i’m going to submit one of my idea to an LPS search…i have never done one of these LPS things, but i have one product which would be great at BB & B, and that i don’t have time to go after…..

Great to hear it Eva! This is a huge opportunity for everybody!

matt, i sent you an email…

Eva, welcome to the LPS club! I just entered 4 previous ideas and may come up with some new ones for BB&B. Very exciting!

Hey where’s my picture….you guy’s didn’t like the way I look or something…lol lol Hey How do I look…mmmm How do I look…Tania move over I’m coming to be with you….I’m so alone know one to care for meeeeee…..lol

P.S. En the site looks great! I must say I think I will enter and join as well.

Matt, Thank You for reposting my picture and Gold Member
Status. I kinda freeked out this morning, because of all
days I was going out today and missing what was going on.
So I had to tell you all my troubles so it would all be
fixed before I got home. And guess what – it was all fixed.
THANK YOU EDISON NATION – Matt xo

Hey Sis, you know you are loved. It wouldn’t be the same
without you. xoxo

Not sure I follow the logic here…..

BBB = business

Business exists to primarily make money

BBB says to EN “Hey guys, love the crowdsourcing approach…but…we only want to utilize 1/2 of your resources for this search”

say what?

BBB could be leaving $$ on the table they will now never see….odd.

Or, it is a PR ploy….they (BBB) appear to be furthering the cause (equality), so they advertise the search in their stores where they appear to their customers (mostly women, I assume) to be leading the charge with this wonderful program…
They grab some media attention to supplement…..they feel the added buzz will generate enough sales to compensate for their choice – and any missed inventions the evil old males would have had to offer…

not for it…
discrimination works both ways..the answer to recognizing that women need more opportunity (if that is the fundamental argument) is not more discrimination…..

If you are all about equality then you should recognize equal is equal is equal.
No buts..

In this case especially, where one only need a mind and an internet connection to submit an idea, I find it ironic that the only way this contest helps to promote women inventors is by stacking the deck with women only inventions…..Well, I guess that WOULD ensure the ladies get the best chance of getting selected since only ladies are in the mix….

That is like a corporate memo saying :
“In the name of furthering equality, we have decided we want to give more women the chance to move into management..effective immediately..all men are fired.”
Well, that would work…..but seems backwards to me….

Just my two cents….
I am a fairly middle of the road person….Father of 2 girls..l….no agenda….

but this LPS did cause me to scratch my head.

screw it fellas…

put your wife’s name on it… submit it anyway.

Well, my wife is an electrical engineer. Masters degree in software engineering. She got straight A’s. Even in Differential equations, which I busted my back to try to understand and only got a D+ (the second time around!), my wife managed straight A’s! She belonged to WISE, Women In Science and Engineering. Despite the fact that she found too many of the WISE organizers to be a bunch of disgruntled winers, she still feels it serves a good cause. Nobody ever told her she couldn’t do anything. So, here’s the challenge. My wife will be entering 2 LPS’s BBB and Lifetime. If she wins … well I’m not sure what that proves. But it sure means I should stop comparing us!

very clever, all the men should enter it in their wives names :-))

I agree 100% Mike G

Totally agree…….put your wife’s name on it… submit it anyway.

Is anyone else having trouble uploading to BBB contest?

It says I have to have a Gold Membership. Hopefully that will be remedied soon. ;)

I had no problem rolling 4 ideas into the BBB yesterday. I still have my gold statkus, but unfortunately, I now look like a faceless dude….I think I’m having an identity crisis now!

Toni,
We received a bunch of submissions yesterday so I think you should be good to go. If you are having a specific type of problem submitting, please post the issue at http://support.edisonnation.com and we’ll look into it. Please mark the issue as public so others can benefit from your issue and the solution.

Carol,
We lost a few avatars in the transition process of the new site. To post another one to your account, just click on your “faceless dude” icon on this page and then click “Edit My Profile” on your profile page. While you’re at it, check out our new avatar image cropper – it’s much better than the old one.

My wife has an idea for the BBB search, can I submit her idea through my membership?

Is anyone else having a problem finding there dashboards.
Also, all my entries to contests are missing???

Since I’m getting emails from inquiring minds who want to know and believe I have nothing to lose in this search by asking, I agreed to ask for them.

Is Inventors Digest an affiliation in any way with EN?

Yes, you probably know where this is going :-)lol

I can answer this question Tania.
Inventor’s Digest and Edison Nation, Everyday Edison’s and Enventys are “sister” companies.

With that said let me say that Mike Drummond of Inventor’s Digest is a principled journalist and editor, and I know this first hand. When Mike and I first discussed the article I am writing about “Why we are members of Edison Nation” Mike made it perfectly clear that although EN and Inventor’s Digest are sister companies he wanted fair and honest opinions of what people thought on Edison Nation. In fact, he was the one that suggested the ‘theme’ of the article be “The good, the bad and the ugly of Edison Nation” Additionally Matt Spangard told me that he wouldn’t want it any other way. How can EN improve is they are not aware of how people are feeling? I think Matt and the EN Team are confident in the service they are offering but they have the humility to know that they can always improve and people should not be afraid to express their opinions.
If anyone wishes to comment further about EN and what they like and do not like they may feel free to contact me via e-mail and I will be happy to include their opinions in my data collection.
cdutton@charter.net

That freaked me out a bit, cause I had some of those thoughts but didn’t actually POST them…….:) Glad to hear it was just a typo!

hahahaha Mike..I was reading your mind! yep, just a typo…or was I actually reading your mind and wrote that on purpose by accident? :-)

Thanks Cheryl.

The issue is that Eva is an editor for Inventors Digest. Now, like most men will put their entries in women’s names, Eva can do the same. I am entering, just not under my name, or nationality…obviously :-) but that was the question.

Maybe people will protest the Canadian is sneaking in too? I think this can become an ugly ugly search, but I hope not.

Does the BB&B search only allow new submissions and not a re-submission from a previous search? Looks like there is no “Submit an Existing Idea” button.

Hi Jansen,
I had the same thing happen on my page, I let the EN Team know about it. They are currently working on it. I was able to submit existing ideas yesterday but today the button is gone.

I agree Tania, this is going to be a very controversial LPS.

ooh ichy trigger finger LOL and I still cannot edit :-)

Anytime people are excluded from something there will always be controversy.
Whether it is gender, nationality, or who you are affiliated with, being excluded is not fun.

It will only be controversial if we continue to make a big deal out of it. I guess I look at it that the sponsoring company made their choices, are conducting a huge marketing campaign, and selected Edison Nation to facilitate the promotional search.

I guess if it really irks us that BB&B is exhibiting such inequality we could boycott the search?? OR, we could get busy and find a way to make it work or get ready for the next search. (But, wait! Maybe the next search will be a youth search. Oh, the treachery of it all!!!!)

(Tongue in cheek)
Becky :)

yeah, I wouldn’t boycott, just work around the rules.

It’s good it came up in forum. This way, I learned I could get an American to enter for me and the guys all know they can enter theirs under women’s names.

I don’t think BBB will really care as long as we play by the rules…on paper. It’s to their benefit to get as many submissions as possible.

Yes the reason why everyone is here is because they are creative. LOL!!!

I have no problem with folks entering in creative ways :-)

I do have some concerns though when EN employees or I should say affilates are aloud to enter LPS’s. It really makes it so there is a feeling of an uneven playing field.

Tania, you don’t have to be an American Citizen. It only says that you are a legal resident of the US. (By that clause, even if you are a US citizen residing outside the US, you can not participate)

Becky, ‘youth’ is a contitutional distinction.

Minors can not vote or get married. They can not smoke, get tatooes, drink, etc. To drive they need to be 16 in most states. What chance does a 10 year old have competing with an 18 year old in almost anything? It is not the same. This seems to be accepted worldwide, or almost worldwide. (There are some unfortunate exceptions, that have no bearing on the subject at hand)

Yeah, I’m not a resident either Joaco. I’m up north here in Canada.

Luckily the American friend I have also lives there :-)

Very interesting though. and I agree, the age thing is very much accepted and should be.

Just to throw my opinion into this discussion… in 2007 I entered an invention contest limited not just to women, but to mothers. It was the Good Morning America Mothers of Invention Contest. My product idea was not only chosen as one of three finalists, but I did win the contest. The ONLY reason I even had the nerve to enter this contest was because it was for mom’s only, I figured that would really put me in a class of my peers and give me a chance. If it had been an open contest, I never would have had the nerve to enter. The fact that the contest had elegibility requirements is what helped me to take that leap of faith. This has given me such a boost in my confidence levels….since then I have found EN, entered about 10 ideas into LPS’s, 6 of them have gone to G7 (followed by R8). SO I have learned that I DO have potential in this area, but if it wasn’t for that first limited contest, I would still be a stay-at-home mom wondering what my purpose was (other than raising my kids).

BBB has sponsored this search to honor the first patent ever granted to a woman and this is a HUGE thing to celebrate! I can’t believe that this is being so controversial. Would everyone be this irritated if BBB announced a Junior invention contest….would some of you be thinking of ways to sneak an idea in under your child’s name???

Another thing to consider: who is to say that EN is not also planning a men’s only contest – say for example for an auto or tool contest??? Please keep in mind that BBB has a reason for this eligibility requirement and they can be a potentially huge sponsor for future searches, but they may decide to have nothing more to do with EN if this search does get petty or ugly.

I’m not trying to upset anyone with my comments. I usually will go out of my way to avoid controversy, but I feel very strongly about this. This may be just the opportunity that some other woman NEEDS because it may just be the ONE time they decide to take a chance! That being said, I do wish that this search was for all women, and not just Americans. This really should be seen for what it is….a chance to encourage women to step out of their comfort zone and believe in their ideas for a better future!

Great post Carol :-)

Thanks Sally. I really thought about this alot before I said anything because I really don’t want to sound petty, but I see this from a unique point of view and I had to say something.

Since I am half French and half Italian, I decided that
Tania would fit very nicely into my family; so I will adopt
her and her family and they will all be moving in with us
in about 4 weeks. :)

with that combination this means you use your hands alot while you yell? heehee :-)

see you in 4 weeks Toni…oh, and can you send the airfare $ too? thanks! :-))

NO PROBLEM! hahahahha ;)xo