Surfing the site, I can’t help but recall the famous quote by Will Rogers: "We’re all ignorant. We’re just ignorant about different things." The broad range of activities suggests everyone has something to offer and something to learn. It doesn’t take long for someone like myself, who isn’t usually active on bulletin boards, to think that I really need to post a comment or document my own project. They’ve really tapped the feeling of fun, and from it, a great online community has grown.

An offshoot of Squid Lab, a fabrication lab in Emeryville California where tinkerers of all technological stripes get together to bring their engineering ideas to life, Instructables went live in 2004. The site was developed so that the Labs’ denizens could easily document projects for themselves, for each other, and for whoever might have an interest in the results.

Because of its Squid Labs pedigree and its partnership with Make magazine, you would be forgiven for suspecting that Instructables is an all-geek-all-the-time community.

The site certainly contains its fair share of techno-tinkering contributions. For example, to Make a Durable Night Lamp from a cell-phone charger, an LED, a resistor and a diffuser , you do need a basic understanding of electronics.

But today, Instructables has become a great go-to locations for crafters, techies, and geeks looking for how-to projects that lean towards the slightly geeky and quirky. The site also houses more conventional fare, but it’s really the kooky stuff that gets the most mouse-traffic.

You can get the low-down on making your own Hallowe’en Melon (because "carving pumpkins is so 19th century"). In the holiday spirit, you are invited to make your own USB-Powered-Apple, (the fruit, not the computer). The apple, powered for giggles, vibrates whenever someone reaches for it, and ceases when left alone.

The practical finds a home here too. You can learn to Make Your Own Play Dough. Browse long enough and you may be admonished to Fix Your Belt, Don’t Toss It, or even find a recipe for an easy to make tortilla soup or cranberry sauce.

Using a simple-looking photo-and-text layout, combined with some snazzy rollovers to help viewers browse the available activities, the site is now home to almost 2500 of so-called instructables that are made available to the public for free. The content is easy to use, whether you are a learner, a teacher, a commenter, or any combination thereof.

• For each instructable, thumbnails of each step are displayed horizontally across the top. Roll over those small images to read the first 50 words or so for that step. Full activities can be displayed on a single page (great for printing), or, alternatively can be clicked through step by step.
• On each page of the instructable, users can post comments. Most comments are, conveniently, added to the first page of the how-to. Reading other people’s feedback helps users get a sense of whether this is an activity they really want to try.
• Visitors can rate activities. There are 3 possible ratings "+" "-" or "blank". The ratings are leveraged in several ways by instructables.
• If I rate Item A as a positive and Item B as a positive, then both Items A & B will show up on my profile as favorites. No need to use up precious bookmarks, the site does it for me. Instructables also uses my ratings to help users find activities of interest.
• Favorites ratings are used for Collaborative Filtering. if someone accesses Item A, which is one of my favorites, then they will be informed that folks who liked Item A, also liked item B. If someone else has tagged A as a favorite, their favorites will also be listed on the page.

Anyone can access and browse the activities, and try them at home. If users want to add a comment or contribute their own instructable, they’ll need to register.

Navigation is plenty simple and reflects the “layers of involvement” – from browsing activities, to editing your profile page, to joining groups and discussions, and of course, to adding your own how-tos.