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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.

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  • You could have had my nomination last year if you'd wanted it!

     

    I've got no idea why I was put up for it. I don't generally do most of the things you'd think might qualify you, like the design contests, roadtesting, and projects that you do so well, just a bit of occasional blogging. I certainly didn't want the attention. I thought it quite disrespectful too, nominating someone without their consent like that, but kept quiet and fortunately not too many people voted for me.

  • in reply to jc2048

    Thanks

    Every one of your blogs is phenomenal. I would be happy to vote for any award or recognition you would be willing to accept.

  • in reply to dougw

    Thanks, but I don't need any awards or recognition. I'm just doing what interests me, in my own way, at the kind of level and speed I feel comfortable with. The activity itself is reward enough.

     

    I simply write the blogs I would like to read and just assume there are other people who would like to read them too. I'm realistic about it, though - I know what I do is niche stuff and I'm never going to attract the kind of audiences that the video 'info-tainment' people are capable of.

     

    I would think it helps e14. Broadening the offering and adding to the mix must help the site.

     

    I really need to get on and experiment with more design stuff, though. Part of this was supposed to be me learning to do analogue design, but I've fallen into a bit of a rut with the student stuff [looking at the basic characteristics], simply because it's easy to do [though I've learnt a surprising amount from doing rather than reading - my understanding of transistors (of all sorts) is far better than it was at the start].

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  • in reply to dougw

    Thanks, but I don't need any awards or recognition. I'm just doing what interests me, in my own way, at the kind of level and speed I feel comfortable with. The activity itself is reward enough.

     

    I simply write the blogs I would like to read and just assume there are other people who would like to read them too. I'm realistic about it, though - I know what I do is niche stuff and I'm never going to attract the kind of audiences that the video 'info-tainment' people are capable of.

     

    I would think it helps e14. Broadening the offering and adding to the mix must help the site.

     

    I really need to get on and experiment with more design stuff, though. Part of this was supposed to be me learning to do analogue design, but I've fallen into a bit of a rut with the student stuff [looking at the basic characteristics], simply because it's easy to do [though I've learnt a surprising amount from doing rather than reading - my understanding of transistors (of all sorts) is far better than it was at the start].

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  • in reply to jc2048

    To me the content you generate is some of the best if not the best content on the forum. It is so starkly and plainly obvious to me, that I would find it hard to believe others don't instinctively see it.

    As for being a niche... maybe... but if you extrapolate what you are doing it will eventually encompass all of electronics - pretty big niche.