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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

  • Although I am an engineer I have no background in electronics and took it up after retiring in order to learn something new and interesting.  I was slow to participate because of my lack of experience (and maybe to avoid showing my ignorance).  I like to figure things out for myself and accordingly did not ask many questions on forums.  Eventually I saw I could contribute and try to do so.  My professional area of technical expertise is not one that a hobbyist could readily participate in and I wouldn't be interested in forums in that area now anyway.

     

    Regarding why people don't participate here, I know someone who is extremely knowledgeable about microcontrollers, programming, and electronics in general who does not participate.  I get the feeling he doesn't have much time for people who don't make the effort to try and figure things out for themselves and at least formulate the problem in a way that doesn't waste his time.  I am a bit that way myself.  It is tiring to see the same question over and over about something that has already has been answered on the forum or is readily available with an internet search.  But Element14 is different - I have never seen a technical community as welcoming as this one.  And I remember how difficult it was to put some of the pieces together when I started out.  It must be even more difficult for someone with no technical background.  Kudos to those who give their time and knowledge so freely regardless of the level of the question.

Comment

  • Although I am an engineer I have no background in electronics and took it up after retiring in order to learn something new and interesting.  I was slow to participate because of my lack of experience (and maybe to avoid showing my ignorance).  I like to figure things out for myself and accordingly did not ask many questions on forums.  Eventually I saw I could contribute and try to do so.  My professional area of technical expertise is not one that a hobbyist could readily participate in and I wouldn't be interested in forums in that area now anyway.

     

    Regarding why people don't participate here, I know someone who is extremely knowledgeable about microcontrollers, programming, and electronics in general who does not participate.  I get the feeling he doesn't have much time for people who don't make the effort to try and figure things out for themselves and at least formulate the problem in a way that doesn't waste his time.  I am a bit that way myself.  It is tiring to see the same question over and over about something that has already has been answered on the forum or is readily available with an internet search.  But Element14 is different - I have never seen a technical community as welcoming as this one.  And I remember how difficult it was to put some of the pieces together when I started out.  It must be even more difficult for someone with no technical background.  Kudos to those who give their time and knowledge so freely regardless of the level of the question.

Children