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  • Author Author: dougw
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2020 - a good year for hindsight

dougw

Somewhere in the last 2 years I lost the plot. I thought I would share my experience in case it benefits other members. One of my goals in the past 2 years has been to get nominated for member of the year, but I have not been able to figure out what it takes.

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The first metric I thought was important was participation. I addressed this by reading virtually everything that was published on the forum and commenting whenever I could contribute something useful. It definitely takes a lot of time to wade through all the material generated on the site. I also participated in the badges program and so far I have 115 badges. All this participation resulted in well over 100,000 points per year. 8 of my blogs in the last 2 years have exceeded 10,000 views.

Another metric I thought would count is participation in design challenges, which take a huge amount of time and require lots of blogs. I successfully completed 5 design challenges in the last 2 years, winning 2 of them.

A third metric I figured would count is Project14 participation. In the past couple of years I have participated in about 14 Project14 contests, winning about 3 of them. I don't really try to win all these contests, because I don't think that would look good, but I like to boost the activity in this corner of the forum.

A fourth metric I thought would count is road tests. In the past couple of years I have won about 9 road tests. (which is every one that I applied for) I have been refraining from applying for more, especially high-end instrumentation because I don't want to hog all the great free equipment.

Another metric which I like a lot, although I don't think it carries any weight, is circuit design. In the past 2 years my blogs have featured at least 27 custom PCBs that I designed.

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It is clear that this level of participation is not adequate to get nominated, so either:

  • I am not doing the right things
  • I am not doing enough of the right things
  • I am not doing the right things with sufficient quality
  • What I do is not popular enough
  • I am doing something that is frowned upon

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I have not received any feedback that I am doing something wrong and I cannot spend more time and effort on element14 - there just aren't any more hours available. Basically my current approach is not working, and I cannot do more, so I need to stop expecting better results. Which means I can stop doing what I was doing and how I was doing it.

It has already been quite liberating. I no longer feel obligated to read all content on the forum and I will be spending a lot less time generating videos and blogs, which will leave a lot more time to work on projects, even if they go unpublished. Imagine how much time it took to edit and publish 165 videos in the last 2 years.

I don't want to give the impression I have a complaint with element14 - it is the greatest forum, with a superb staff who do all the right things and I have enjoyed lots of success on the forum in the last 2 years. Really enjoyed it. It is just this one little goal where I screwed up, so if you have any insight into what it takes to get nominated for MotY, articulate them in the comments below.

  • in reply to cstanton

    Thanks for taking the time Christopher. This isn't about element14. The crew at element14 is doing an outstanding job and the forum has been improving continuously under the current stewardship.

    I'm not worried about burnout - I just go hard until I can't go anymore, no regrets.

    It is more about navel-gazing and sorting out what I could/should be doing. I debated whether to talk about it, but hey, why not - it is an opportunity to learn. I like designing things and making them work and participating and blogging and making videos, but these all compete for the same finite time. I get huge satisfaction from designing and building, but the motives for publishing content are much more nebulous - it is all about the image/reputation resulting from publishing content - within the community I have great respect for. The risks are that it comes across as showing off or going after all the prizes, or other negatives, and in that sense there are aspects of the image I am projecting that I don't like. I don't think it is a net negative image or anything that drastic, but the motive to blog faces stiff competition from the motive to build, in terms of time spent on each. I doubt I can alter any image I have, but it seems there is a good case to be made to sit on the blogging sidelines and encourage other members while building more projects with the extra time that is freed up.

  • Hi ,

    Finding the right ways to celebrate contributions by our members is a challenge that the element14 Community team regularly faces, and it's one that has taken different approaches over the years, and I can tell from reading your post here that although it's light hearted there's a pain and frustration behind it, whether that's a lack of transparency on the element14 Community team's part or poor acknowledgement for the hard work you've put into the element14 Community, and for that I am sorry.

     

    has done a good job of explaining part of the process taken for this year's member of the year decision,  I feel there were good points raised in the top members thread discussing 'who were your top members' as well which I read as 'perhaps identifying one individual' wasn't the way to go, and maybe that's the case to avoid people feeling neglected.

     

    When we have so many high performing, amazing members, it's difficult to find the right way to reward them, and we may be missing the mark in the approach here.

     

    I also agree strongly with , look after yourself, be careful of burnout, and engage in ways that suit you and are good for you and your health.

     

    Any members are always welcome to message me to discuss the community, rewards, posting, engaging, problems, etc.

     

    The team and I are always open to new suggestions, to better acknowledge people's input and efforts, and yours are certainly more than appreciated.

  • in reply to dougw

    I chose to join Element 14 after watching the activity here.  Obviously I saw a lot of your posts.  You are something else. Helpful, useful, funny... Please keep going.  You're a role model for all of us. 

  • in reply to jw0752

    John,

     

    Same for me. I started with Christmas Cracker jokes such as 'What do you call 500 penguins in Leicester Square?' and the answer is 'Lost!' It still makes me smile even now. I even used to make my own Christmas cards and put jokes into them. I still make jokes and I still think everyone of them is funny, regretfully my wife, children and friends, not so much.

     

    Dubbie