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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 ntewinkel

    Hi ,

     

    There was a much longer list that was voted by the entire team and was on it and everyone on the team placed there top 3 picks.  Top pick was worth 3 points, second pick worth 2 points, and 3rd pick was worth 1 point.  received quite a lot of votes but the votes were spread out between a lot of different members.   The 4 with the most votes were selected for the member of the year poll.   Individual programs got to choose any awards if any to give to individual members.   Speaking just for myself,  I tried to keep it as objective as possible and looked at the activity from each of the members as they related specifically to the program.   Other program owners may have their own criteria.

     

    Agree, with everything everyone is saying.   I've been a big fan of about everything since I first started noticing his content.   When you think about it,  we were able to acknowledge and in the Design Challenge Awards, looks like for member of the year this year (not to mention the other nominees),  , , and  in p14 (not to mention the other nominees and members for their projects) ; and , , and in the new roadtester of the year.   That's an extremely diverse selection of members.

     

    Throughout the year end awards we tried to acknowledge as many members as possible whether through an individual award or not.  We tried to be very inclusive and not exclude things to one or two names. I think that shows how healthy the community is. Even when we increase the number of individual awards there's something to be said for a lot of people that inevitably get left off.   I think just making the members of the year lists or being @ mentioned in a year end award is an honor.   Awards are something fun and should be taken lightly.  They are our way of telling you how awesome we think y'all are.  image

  • in reply to genebren

    Thanks

    That particular goal has been flogged and put away, but there will be others and there are lots of other reasons to participate.

  • 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.

  • Doug,

     

    As  many of the other members have said, I see you as a 'Member of the Year' caliber member.  You have created and documented some of the best project on the site as well as being one of the most helpful and encouraging members.  There is not much that I could tell you about being recognized in this fashion, but I can only imagine, and eagerly await, the flood of great posts/projects that you will accomplish as you pursue this goal.

     

    Gene

  • in reply to shabaz

    no I don't feel like the cartoon image Those cartoons were my attempt at humor around one of my (many) miscalculations. I am (obviously) not good at humor. As an engineer, when I set a goal, I tend to logically analyze how to achieve it. Being wrong or failing doesn't particularly perturb me although I do want to learn from it. The goal of this blog was to see what I could learn from other members about my miscalculation. This is not about a miscarriage of justice because I don't see anything wrong with the process. The wonderful sentiments that were expressed in the discussion were a bit embarrassing although much appreciated, and there were some gems of advice in there as well. The members here are truly outstanding people.

    I get a lot out of element14, which motivates lots of participation and this particular goal doesn't invalidate any of that. I have lots of goals and new goals are always popping up.