CEL Robox 3D Printer

Now that is a road test I can get into and Ohhhhh so useful around the LAB, this is going to have soooo many entries I guarantee more than 300 for sure and ill be one of the first

Hopefully this one goes to someone like you Peter, who has done a lot to help this community move forward. I think as I'm sure does a lot of the members here that a big road test like this should be going to someone who has spent a good deal of time here helping out and doing the less magnificent road tests and question answering and is not here just to cherry pick the top notch gear.

Just my 2 cents

Kas

Thanks, I appreciate the thought. But in these everyone gets evaluated the same so it’s down to how well I can put together a Proposal / Application

Vendors may well look at past work but there typically looking for someone who can demonstrate / review the product the best and make innovative use of it

I certainly would love to have one to evaluate and would give it some great blogs and videos with I hope fun themes and stretch its capabilities. I have already thought of many things to try with it.

Peter

Thanks, I appreciate the thought. But in these everyone gets evaluated the same so it’s down to how well I can put together a Proposal / Application

Vendors may well look at past work but there typically looking for someone who can demonstrate / review the product the best and make innovative use of it

I certainly would love to have one to evaluate and would give it some great blogs and videos with I hope fun themes and stretch its capabilities. I have already thought of many things to try with it.

Peter

I understand the fair evaluation but I still feel people who put in a lot should get something out, it should not be only based on a good proposal that may not be delivered on or delivered on in a good fashion. Good ideas get you started a good review is what we really want and that is more than ideas, that's communication. Also looking over past road tests those who have a level less than 3 are more likely to take and not review well if at all. Someone who has spent two or three years building a reputation here will be less inclined to take something and disqualify themselves from all future road tests. A level one or two could easily restart without hurting their almost non existent reputation.

I completely agree with you, we spend hours and hours on the community looking for answers and solutions to our problems and solving other's problems. there must be some kind of eligibility criteria for the participants. Most of the new members selected in road tests just keep the goodies and never write any reviews, this happens almost in all big road tests...

We all started als Level 0 at some point. Getting selected on a Roadtest as a level 0 is what got me started here.

It's sad to see people run off with their kit, but we shouldn't generalise ...

Frederick

You are correct fredrick, we all start at level 0, but some of us start helping, asking questions or other things first or at the very least start with smaller simpler road tests. I have done a few now and they have all been small ones. As for "discrimination" by saying level 0 take the kit and run, its not so far of if you look around sO would NOT say its discrimination. The other thing I have seen a bit of is a very lame review "I tried to get kit working nothing happend so I'm done...". Especially in a case like this were a company is trying to PROMOTE their product we would expect the reviewers to put in a GREAT deal of effort. If you look at some of the other big reviews how the testers have put in weeks of work if not more to get a good full review even working with the manufacturer to solve issues. I do believe that big reviews like this should be earned by proving that someone can deliver through smaller reviews and that they can actually write a proper review.

The other issue is duplicate accounts, people opening 5, 10 or who knows how any new accounts to try increase their odds. If you don't allow level 0 this becomes a non issue as someone would need to maintain ALL their duplicate accounts to get them to a respectable level in order for it to be worth anything.

I know you probably wont like what I had to say Fredrick and Danieal but its how I feel and what I have seen looking around the road test review section of this site. If Element14 wants the site to grow and be more useful than the content needs to be that way too, its not just about the number of "members" but about the number of users.

Kas

that makes sense

I am a cnc person so when stuff comes up for road tests I only put in for what I know I can work with or use to make my cnc equipment better or disability equipment that I make.

Kas

We've had a discussion around this very point a while ago (within the TM group).

The conclusion was that there was no easy solution, and that many of the applications have to be taken at face value.

Members can easily jump from zero to 3 or 4 without adding much to the community, so the zero criteria wouldn't help.

While you're right that some produce poor reviews, or none, but its the members who can put peer pressure on them to ask why, or suggest they have not really provided a good review, and I've seen some where this has happened.

Some of the Road Tests have put criteria on what they want in the review, and I would strongly encourage this, but its in the hands of the supplier.

We all know that any advertising is better than no advertising, so good or bad it sometimes doesn't translate into more sales.

All I can suggest is work on the applications, so that yours is better than the others, and you'll find it will translate into results.

Mark

Hello Mark,

I hear what you're saying but I am inclined to disagree about the advertising side, lame or bad advertising can and often does cause people to shy away from products. As to working on a good proposal, you have to remember as someone who has done reviews (I'm sure you feel the same way) you can come up with an awesome sounding proposal but it will either be unrealistic, take longer than two months or is overly technical that few will bother reading it. There are a good deal of articles here which sound good but at 2500+ few people will bother reading. If I look at the number of views blogs I have written have received I can definitely see these trends. I know try keep my posts to 1500 - 2000 words and not to long on the scroll bar either as that is also an issue for people. While this may sound good for a sponsor it does little to further the usefulness of Element14.

Anyways after spending 2-3 weeks writing up a proposal a few times with it going seemingly nowhere I now write short to the point proposals that will hopefully capture the imaginations of the Element14 audience as well as show off the product for the sponsor. I just can't justify spending hours and hours on a proposal that I know full well I can do only to be overlooked for sometimes less interesting or overly long reviews.

Kas

if you wont testers to do good reviews some one should do a white paper on how to do it as not everyone knows how to right in the correct format

Just look at the old road test reviews. That's basically what you're asking for.

This is a tough one. I think Element14 generally does a pretty good job at selecting participants for road tests and challenges, striking a good balance between new members and old. Sure there are some instances where no review is produced or the quality is low, but my experience is that the success rate, while being less than 100%, is still pretty high.

I've noticed some of the more recent road tests have been fairly widely promoted. This means a lot of the applicants are actually new members, and no doubt part of the purpose of the road test is to grow the community.

I'd be in favour of limiting certain road tests to higher levels, although this runs the risk of turning the community into an "old boys' club". The fairness and impartiality of reviews also needs to be maintained.