PAID projects?

[clevinski]

I have read what has been said.

What about this:

New Forum: Member Projects
Post 10+ projects- get your own sub forum with banner ad to it
Post 20+ projects get your own main forum on the main site page

Smaller contributors can open a group or blog, and I will post it to the submenu (provided I can figure out how).

Sound fair as an incentive?

Nelson,

Great idea!

 

[dave2176]

I have read what has been said.

What about this:

New Forum: Member Projects
Post 10+ projects- get your own sub forum with banner ad to it
Post 20+ projects get your own main forum on the main site page

Smaller contributors can open a group or blog, and I will post it to the submenu (provided I can figure out how).

Sound fair as an incentive?

I think this is a great idea.
Dave

 

[bcall2043]

I just today found this thread as I have not been able to spend much time here for the last few weeks. I have been doing some volunteer work as a mentor with a local school that had entered Best Robotics competition here in middle Tennessee (http://www.bestinc.org/). Sadly the team got eliminated in the local competition semifinals last Saturday so now there is time for other things.

I have avoided making too many comments about what direction this forum takes as I like the “keeping it friendly” approach management has managed to maintain. However I feel I should weigh in on this idea. I agree with what a lot of the others have said. Paying for project posts is not in best interest of the forum; my vote is a NO for that idea. Keeping it simple is a plus. As has already been mentioned above the different categories are already "too many".

I enjoy following projects that show how the different task are actually accomplished. Most of us don’t have unlimited machines and tooling and have to make do with what we have or can borrow. Posts that show how others accomplish their projects are what I am after. A method that acknowledges those that show this would be good. But I agree with the other posters that a cash reward is not a good incentive. Most of us are not here to earn but are here to learn. The idea of giving recognition for the continuing contributions of projects that provide the ideas behind the projects and their methods of execution is the way to go. I have always had an issue with sites that tally the number of post but not the quality of post content. Some members are motivated just to say "stuff" to run their total post number up. A tally of the “Likes” on a project would be a better indicator of desirable posts.

Benny
The Orphanage Never Closes

 

[JimSchroeder]

As one who has posted a large number of projects on several sites let me add my two cents. I have been paid for some of these projects but most were done gratis. The money is trivial compared to the amount of work involved and in my opinion is not a motivating factor. Either you want to share and are willing to expend the effort to do so or not. What I see missing in the responses to this post is a discussion on the amount of work that is required to properly document a project, even a relatively simple project. Good photos and accurate drawings take time and some serious equipment. The single biggest impediment to me is the mickey mouse s/w used on these sights. Specifically the difficulty in incorporating photos and drawings. The software is far from intuitive and since my primary interest is in all things machine I do not want to spend a large amount of time learning or relearning the quirks of the software.

Currently I am working on a project that I have invested about 80 hours in and it will probably take another 40 or 50 to complete it. For every hour at the machine I spend an hour working on planning, drawings, documentation and photos. On several occasions I have pain painstakingly inputted the data only to find out that the finished product is not acceptable due to problems related to inserting photos and drawings. On several occasions the frustration level reached the point where I abandoned the effort and logged out. I have no doubt that these problems were a direct result of my ineptness at using the software, but then I am a simple hobbyist not a software engineer.

Responding to a post in most cases is pretty simple and straight forward because it just text. Adding the detail and editing is what takes time and the software at this site is about the same as other sites, arcane and not user friendly. I for one would be more amenable to posting more projects if the s/w were easier to use.

Just my two cents,
Jim

 

[schor]

When creating a post you can paste from a word document. If you do everything in a word doc you can then paste it into these forums. That may be one way to present your project.

As one who has posted a large number of projects on several sites let me add my two cents. I have been paid for some of these projects but most were done gratis. The money is trivial compared to the amount of work involved and in my opinion is not a motivating factor. Either you want to share and are willing to expend the effort to do so or not. What I see missing in the responses to this post is a discussion on the amount of work that is required to properly document a project, even a relatively simple project. Good photos and accurate drawings take time and some serious equipment. The single biggest impediment to me is the mickey mouse s/w used on these sights. Specifically the difficulty in incorporating photos and drawings. The software is far from intuitive and since my primary interest is in all things machine I do not want to spend a large amount of time learning or relearning the quirks of the software.

Currently I am working on a project that I have invested about 80 hours in and it will probably take another 40 or 50 to complete it. For every hour at the machine I spend an hour working on planning, drawings, documentation and photos. On several occasions I have pain painstakingly inputted the data only to find out that the finished product is not acceptable due to problems related to inserting photos and drawings. On several occasions the frustration level reached the point where I abandoned the effort and logged out. I have no doubt that these problems were a direct result of my ineptness at using the software, but then I am a simple hobbyist not a software engineer.

Responding to a post in most cases is pretty simple and straight forward because it just text. Adding the detail and editing is what takes time and the software at this site is about the same as other sites, arcane and not user friendly. I for one would be more amenable to posting more projects if the s/w were easier to use.

Just my two cents,
Jim

 

[RandyM]

When creating a post you can paste from a word document. If you do everything in a word doc you can then paste it into these forums. That may be one way to present your project.

Or, just post the word, excel, or PDF doc and done. PDF is preferred though. There really is no need to edit, cut, or past anything.

And yes Jim, proper project documenting does take time.

 

[Farmer Dodds]

I voted No. I joined this site for information about machining. I do some equipment repair and try to do some machining for myself. It will take me 20 years to get 10 projects to put on this site. How to separate projects is a good question. To put each project as a separate thread will mean a lot of searching. I love the POTD and read it whenever there is a new post, some great stuff.

Just keep up the good work and the information flowing. I learn something every day and when I get a chance, try it out.

Stan

 

[markknx]

I said no because I post the things I make in my shop to help others not for a profit. Just my way of paying forward the help I have been givin(and still recieve) from the people here.

 

[schor]

I think we need a poll on "what would it take for people to post projects". there's not much activity in the topic. I am working on getting a new project posted (its an old project but I have vids and pics). I am going to try to find a good presentation vehicle to do it.

These projects take time to get put together, so what incentive do we need to give the people that do them? Obviously not monetary.

- - - Updated - - -

And thinking of incentive. Many posts mentioned that an author of a project merely needs some encouragement via likes and/or thanks for their projects. So maybe the viewers need the incentive?

 

[JimSchroeder]

I will redouble my efforts to see if I can overcome my inability to use this s/w. Randy and Steve make it sound simple enough. I use Word to document the photos and text but the drawings usually have to be either PDF or JPEG which would have to be inserted in-line. I tried yesterday to generate a test post and the application died, that may be an anomaly. My usual method to deal with photos and drawings is to upload them using the photo icon. The idea being to build a catalog of document attachments that you can then select at the appropriate time to insert into the post. Thanks for the feedback.

Jim