I am somewhat familiar with patent law.   One of the details of law that I like is the idea of "prior art"  Basically if you publish an idea, someone else can't come along at a later date and patent it.   You have established "prior art."    This may and may not aid you in patenting the idea yourself, but at least someone else can't patent it and shut you out of the market.   A full blown patent may cost 1000s of $, but publishing is a different matter.

At least that is my understanding.

Does stuff published online (thru instructables, for example) count as "prior art."   ?

Also do you personally retain all rights?  or does the website?  Some of both   ?

Y? N? M?