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  • Author Author: dougw
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Speculation in Absentia

No, not the TV series. This poll is speculation about why most technical people do not participate on element14. The absentia part is because by definition those people are not hanging out here to provide feedback. My motive for exploring this topic is I think the forum would be even more interesting and beneficial to everyone if there was more participation, and I definitely don't understand the main motivations and value systems at play here.

I'm sure their reasons are as varied or even more varied than the reasons why people do participate here. It could be anything from not wanting to endure the possibility of criticism to having more interesting things to do to simply not knowing about the forum. I know many more technical people who do not participate than the number I know who do. But I do not get a clear picture of why any of them do not participate. I will pose some poll options, but expect the comments will highlight many more motives than I can postulate.

First I want to explain something I noticed when I first visited England as a young boy. As a hint about how long ago that was, one leg of the trip was flown in a Vickers Viscount and one was a Stratocruiser. You can imagine how long that trip took - from Jamaica to London, but you would probably underestimate. Another hint about the era of the flight - the BOAC pilot let me sit on his knee for part of the flight. One final contrast with those times is something my Dad just related to me. He carried his handgun on the aircraft and asked the crew if he could clean it during the flight - and they let him. One of the crew came and chatted with him while he was doing it, but that was the extent of security. He wasn't a law enforcement official - he was an articulate engineer from a colony. But obviously a very trustworthy individual.

As  a youngster, many things about England impressed me (we were there for 3 months I think), but just to mention 5 of them:

  1. ice cream sandwiches - I had never had one before - now they are still a favorite of mine
  2. castles - we visited a bunch - I still like castles a lot
  3. penny arcades - they just blew mind - I'm obviously still interested in clever technology
  4. the blue whale at the Natural History Museum - I went back to see it a couple of years ago - it is still there, but surrounded by a bunch of other animals
  5. everybody in England seemed to have a hobby - miniature boats, miniature towns, miniature everything, models of everything, gardens everywhere, whatever, they all seemed to have interesting hobbies. Every park had people playing with hobby items. I didn't see this in any other country.

My question out of that long story is what motivated so many people to take up hobbies at that time? Is it similar to why members here do hobby electronics? Does it provide any insight about what type of people or what value systems or what circumstances to target for more members?

Poll question:

Which reason below do you think is the most prevalent reason why technical people do not participate in this forum?

Parents

  • Hi Doug,

     

    It is not easy to pick just one reason, so I have chosen "Other" in the pool. I second all the comments above. Personally, I would like to be more active, but unfortunately, as trivial as it sounds, it boils down to not having enough time! My studies covered both electronics and computer science, and I'm fortunate enough to love them and hold a job which conjugates them both. Beside that, I have a family which is quite demanding (especially at weekends, when I could have some spare time!!) and, on top of that, the chores of the "normal life". So it really boils down to not having enough hours in a day!

     

    What initially attracted me to the E14 forum, was the Roadtest program. Not so much for the "freebie" side of it, as any professional engineer working on a contract could easily make the money some of the gears would cost you by spending the time working rather than preparing the review, but rather for the chance to test either interesting gears or something new that would push the boundaries of my knowledge (and sometimes inspire ideas for projects I can apply to my job), while also gauge the community for comments and suggestions. I have to admit, it is a bit intimidating at the beginning, but then I had chance to interact with some great people on the forum, which made me feel at ease and very welcomed.

     

    As I was saying, I try to participate in the discussions and interact as much as I can, but I definitely would like to be more active. There have been great Roadtests in the last year, which I had to miss because I knew I wouldn't have had enough time to produce a review that I felt would have done justice to the gear under test. Same applies for the very interesting Design Challenges and monthly Project14 competitions.

     

    I join the feeling of great admiration for all those members that consistently produce great content, even more so for those doing it while holding a full-time job. And, since Christmas is around the corner, I already know what my new year resolution will be...

     

    Fabio

Comment

  • Hi Doug,

     

    It is not easy to pick just one reason, so I have chosen "Other" in the pool. I second all the comments above. Personally, I would like to be more active, but unfortunately, as trivial as it sounds, it boils down to not having enough time! My studies covered both electronics and computer science, and I'm fortunate enough to love them and hold a job which conjugates them both. Beside that, I have a family which is quite demanding (especially at weekends, when I could have some spare time!!) and, on top of that, the chores of the "normal life". So it really boils down to not having enough hours in a day!

     

    What initially attracted me to the E14 forum, was the Roadtest program. Not so much for the "freebie" side of it, as any professional engineer working on a contract could easily make the money some of the gears would cost you by spending the time working rather than preparing the review, but rather for the chance to test either interesting gears or something new that would push the boundaries of my knowledge (and sometimes inspire ideas for projects I can apply to my job), while also gauge the community for comments and suggestions. I have to admit, it is a bit intimidating at the beginning, but then I had chance to interact with some great people on the forum, which made me feel at ease and very welcomed.

     

    As I was saying, I try to participate in the discussions and interact as much as I can, but I definitely would like to be more active. There have been great Roadtests in the last year, which I had to miss because I knew I wouldn't have had enough time to produce a review that I felt would have done justice to the gear under test. Same applies for the very interesting Design Challenges and monthly Project14 competitions.

     

    I join the feeling of great admiration for all those members that consistently produce great content, even more so for those doing it while holding a full-time job. And, since Christmas is around the corner, I already know what my new year resolution will be...

     

    Fabio

Children
  • in reply to gecoz

    I think your point about first participation being intimidating is a crucial point. Many of the other reasons are intractable, but if the feeling of intimidation is the the thing that prevents initial participation, it would seem there must be ways to minimize the hump. element14 already does a lot in this area - I think more than most forums, but you might have put your finger on an area where more effort can make a difference.

    Many of us can relate to intimidation as a factor.