The main thing I was wondering is how much credit is given to someone who only posts a problem and no solution, or no attempts at the solution at all. And if I were to come up with the solution and Quirky decides to put it on the market, where is the credit and $ going to go............................................... I just changed my initial after thought on this after listening to other members. Please look at a very fair solution I came up with under the "Process" tab. It is entitled "Everybody Wins".

That would just make too much sense! We cannot have a World in which people who deserve it would get most of the money and credit because then the other useless, brainless idiots would all go hungry. And once all the smart and creative people are rich, they will stop creating and would just retire to some warm locale to enjoy their life. Once all the creative people who think up things retire, the World wide economy and the society will collapse. You don't want that, right? That is why worthless but conniving moochers always figure out how to exploit the inventive, creative people. It is just the nature of things. Now go and invent something because you can't help yourself but to invent.

The answer:
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The problem poster gets 35%
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The problem solver gets UP TO 5%

@hazzard: good way to put it, but I'd re-phrase slightly:
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The problem POSER gets 35%+
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The problem solver gets UP TO 5% (i.e. the real innovator)

This is no different than someone submitting an idea for a product. "The problem" is the idea that's being submitted.

I like the label "Poser", it is really cute. LOL

@PILATVS I like the way you put it. I hate to say it, but this is a kind of a test to see if it is worth my time to even think of solutions to what people put up here. 5% out of the % that is split up all over, unless it is the next Pivot Power or sliced bread, I don't know how it could really be worth it. If 5% is all the true innovator gets, and they truly believe they have the most practical, economical and profitable solution, then what would keep them from taking the chance of not hopping on that band wagon and wrangling up their own horses, other than integrity?

Like I said I am still new here and I am trying to find out how it really works. I think I now have. I really hope it changes soon, because I love to think and create and I was having so much fun coming up with a solution to the problem(s) as they were either thought of by me or another.

If you go back to the link, or for users who are new to this thread, check out the link below, you will see that I believe I came up with a new way to mix two "ingredients" that need to be mixed only at the point just prior to the desired outcome (the "corkscrew") and I asked after the long post, "If that part of my solution is used in other applications, will I get credit for that particular part of the design as a whole". I believe that would apply here at Quirky, not anywhere else or in part of or as a patent, I usually do an extensive search for prior art before I make a claim like that, but I was willing to "give" that one away to see how things go and at this point I really didn't care about those ramifications, small potatoes, you know.

The link below is what prompted me to this.
http://www.quirky.com/ideations/168801?return_page=6

I still love the concept behind Quirky and will still be an active participator. With all things new, I like to find out as much as I can, through the FAQ's, hypotheticals, other members and getting involved in situations (sometimes in ways that I would not normally).

On a separate thought, what if:
I had an invention I had all steps completed, except one, I would then pose a problem (worded in a way no one would figure out what my original idea was) here and wait for someone to solve that one problem and whala, I can then take that solution, complete my invention, get a patent and no credit would go to the person who, unknowingly, helped.

Has anyone thought that that may be what someone who posts just a problem here is doing? I am in no way saying that is right or ethical, just a possibility.

There are a few cases where the submitter has also been the innovator (problem-solver). For example, the ideator of Solo presented both a problem AND a solution (look back at his original submission).
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http://www.quirky.com/ideations/60709
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So Quirky skipped Concept Stage and went right to CMF.
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Unfortunately Quirky then modified the ideator's design to the point of ruining it and ignored the community's CMF choice in favor of a color, material and finish they came up with on their own for reasons they never shared with us.
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Nor wonder Solo, which could have been a top-seller in my opinion, has not lived up to its potential.

That was a GREAT idea and solution. I hope I do not see that in the stores without giving the inventor his proper dues, or someone else has patented it, because I can not tell you how many times I have grabbed a shirt directly from the hanger and stretched the collar. Too bad, I would have replaced all my hangars with this and I am a clothes hog, seriously I shop like a female.

In the real World (not Quirky artificial Allison's Wonderland) the problem poser (poster) actually pays the problem solver. When a company gets a request from a customer to do something, solve something, who owns all the credit? It is the company that solved the problem, not the whiny customer who wanted the problem solved. Who owns all the IP for the problem solution? It is the solver, the company that owns it. The problem poser (the whiner) gets to pay in order to use the solution. Often the poser also pays not just for the final product but for the development too.

Quirky's way is ass-backwards.

@Pensive. Not so much. In "the real world" the large majority of people do "work for hire", a legal term that pretty much means that "I own every single bit of intellectual property you produce" some companies go as far as owning any piece of IP you produce in your free time in your garage!!!
 
You would have to be named in patents and such, but it is very likely that you would not a single cent (besides salaries, fees, and such) from patent royalties.

Perhaps there is a misunderstanding. I am not talking about contract work which is defined as "work for hire." I am talking about a customer of IBM saying to IBM "Hey, IBM I am really sick and tired of the fact that my business process is so inefficient." To which IBM says "OK, we will work on it but we need you to compensate us for the risk we are willing to take to develop this product." So the customer agrees in advance to buy so much of that product. I had this kind of agreement with IBM, except they wanted me to do "work for hire" and I said no. They identified the problem, I solved it, I got paid for the solution and kept all the IP rights. Don't worry about the poor IBM though, they managed to rip me off on another thing.

@PennsiveIntrovert Thank you for putting that on here, it sounds like you handled the situation at IBM correctly and that correctness should be applied to Quirky. Sorry to hear they got you another way.

I put up a new thread on the "Process" tab called "Everybody Wins", anyone interested in my fair way that would address this issue please go there. I also put up a blurb about me and my Navy days while stationed at a P-3 Orion Squadron on Kaneohe Marine Corps Base on Oauhu Hawaiia as my Squadron's Librarian, I was Aviation Maintenance Administrationman (Air Warfare) Second Class (E-5 = half way up the food chain on the enlisted side of the house), at the time. I really think it is fair, which is all I and everyone should want and get.