What Changes Would You Like to See Made to Project14?

Great work tariq.ahmad. Project14 is a great program that enjoys sufficient participation to keep the monthly project pace lively. If you calculate the time between when the new topic poll looks conclusive and the project deadline, there is what - about 14 weeks, which is enough time to complete a decent project.

I had fun with Project14 in 2020 and did submit some projects, but I also had a terrible struggle with supply chain issues and medical problems due to Covid, which combined to make me miss at least 3 Project14 deadlines. Hopefully those projects and others I worked on in 2020 will get published at some point even though 2021 is starting out worse that 2020. Despite the missed deadlines (one project was just missing a single component that came in a few days too late), I would not want the deadlines extended. Project14 was perfectly successful without my projects.

I really like the fact that Project14 does not require one to commit to submitting, as is the case with road tests and design challenges, so the 3 projects I did not submit do not end up as failures to honor a commitment.

In the case of the Recycle & Retrofit project which did involve a kind of proposal, I had to submit a different project from what I was planning because the original parts arrived too late. It was distinctly uncomfortable for me because it wasn't what I proposed or what people were expecting, and this detracted from the experience. The bottom line is I wouldn't want to inject more commitment into Project14.

One area that might be improved is keeping track of topic suggestions. Currently it is difficult to know if a topic has already been suggested. The main posting that solicits suggestions has so many pages, it is tough to even scroll to the end and consequently members are not using it much anymore.

On the topic of increasing participation, The motivation to participate needs to increase without significantly increasing demotivation.  Many incentives cause both effects, because the competition for desirable incentives can discourage members who have not won anything.

One incentive might be to reward simple participation with some swag - for example if a member submits 2 or 3 Prjoject14 entries in a year, they might get some swag or a special badge, even if their projects did not win any prizes.

>>Douglas wrote:

>>The bottom line is I wouldn't want to inject more commitment into Project14.

That's a really good point. I've had so many cases along the lines of "the contractor can only be here this weekend" or "the water line is broken, it must be fixed immediately", that I just don't need the stress of another commitment.

>>One incentive might be to reward simple participation with some swag - for example if a member submits 2 or 3 Prjoject14 entries in a year, they might get some swag or a special badge, even if their projects did not win any prizes.

Ooh! that's really good. I will second that motion!  I would rather see more smaller prizes than a few bigger prizes.

>>One area that might be improved is keeping track of topic suggestions. Currently it is difficult to know if a topic has already been suggested.

That's a good idea - this could be in the form of a bug tracker. I recall a while ago some companies having public bug lists and users could vote to increase priorities. In our case such a list could simplify tracking ideas, submitting new ideas, and voting on the whole ideas list can help identify which project theme is next.

>>Douglas wrote:

>>The bottom line is I wouldn't want to inject more commitment into Project14.

That's a really good point. I've had so many cases along the lines of "the contractor can only be here this weekend" or "the water line is broken, it must be fixed immediately", that I just don't need the stress of another commitment.

>>One incentive might be to reward simple participation with some swag - for example if a member submits 2 or 3 Prjoject14 entries in a year, they might get some swag or a special badge, even if their projects did not win any prizes.

Ooh! that's really good. I will second that motion!  I would rather see more smaller prizes than a few bigger prizes.

>>One area that might be improved is keeping track of topic suggestions. Currently it is difficult to know if a topic has already been suggested.

That's a good idea - this could be in the form of a bug tracker. I recall a while ago some companies having public bug lists and users could vote to increase priorities. In our case such a list could simplify tracking ideas, submitting new ideas, and voting on the whole ideas list can help identify which project theme is next.