Comments on: Hack a Day; into the future

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:12:33 +0000

Caleb; On unofficial hackaday forums I was only aware of one. In that the activity there was nonexistent, and that Hackaday seemed disinterested in creating a forum for beginners, I created one more Yahoo group that may get lost in the crowd of Yahoo groups, than again maybe it won’t. I hadn’t made an effort to promote it because I hadn’t yet really prepared the group for promotion, but today I will be associating the Group URL with my signature more often. Not that I would rather to see the Yahoo group as complementary not competitive with Hackaday or others. In hindsight Hackday should have not created the classic hacks catagory, leaving those ntries on the first pages, and required those looking for the simple projects to do the extra effort to placate those who need placating. Perhaps a first page where visitors can choose what direction they desire to go might satisfy the most people? Fight it fair…

By: Tod

Tod — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:25:57 +0000

A high-caliber Thank You for opening the ability to ask questions for newbies or someone like me, a born-again hack. I used to be quite proficient at several types of mods and hacks. But my hacking education took a way back seat to heavy-duty, formal, post-secondary 6-yr stint in college in a non-techie field. And then that was followed by a teaching job where my hacks were always last-minute necessities and only for providing low-level science equipment when the REAL equipment wasn’t available.

Now I feel totally out of my element in the hacking world and completely in awe of even some of the simpler things I see on Hack-a-Day! I definitely need a RE-primer into the world! I have so many parts and things I’d love to repurpose and use in novel ways… I can’t wait. (I’m friggin’ “giddy.” [Yes, I really said that… sad, huh?)

By: therian

therian — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:28:34 +0000

@tantris
“peer reviewed journals don ask all of their readers, they ask experts. i can’t imagine how this could be done in a forum without being biased in some form or another.”

Registration by university/college email

By: Static

Static — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:06:18 +0000

OK, now I need to go look at the Content Management/Analysis system I had at a previous job.

The system was nice, but not something I was familiar with at the time. Essentially, the system let you (a registered user) “lock-on” to other users that you tended to agree with. If these other users flagged an article highly, then it appeared in a customized site feed. If they low-balled it, the site feed only showed you the headline on the top page.

The site worked because it was incredibly similar to Hackaday, as it is displayed now. The home page was a dynamically generated stream of “articles”, and you could browse it. It also had custom pages generated for specific users (the “Ranked Highly by Peers” page was just one example). The system was a JOY to use, and delivered information relevant to my specialty, while delivering general information that the entire user-group needed to know.

By: tantris

tantris — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:49:22 +0000

there are some possible problems with user rated content: reader != hacker
someone at sl-dot raved about their system and called it peer-reviewed. well, it’s not. readers aren’t necessarily the author’s peers. it’s “majority-likes-it” reviewed. which works for easy accessible content or if your main goal isn’t quality but popularity (which is good for ad revenue). just imagine an ubuntu help forum that bases linux knowledge on reader popularity.. – if you can’t, have a look at yahoo-answers.
peer reviewed journals don ask all of their readers, they ask experts. i can’t imagine how this could be done in a forum without being biased in some form or another.

By: Drone

Drone — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:57:44 +0000

HAD, I’ve been with you from the beginning. Of late you’ve been “dumbing” the site down. Don’t do this, otherwise you’ll end up as just be another in a pool of many. I don’t want to come here and see every other post about iPhone or Arduino. Keep your core followers and you’ll live forever. Do that by staying true to your roots.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:46:15 +0000

Rather than a CMS, a community-moderated forum might be a better option.

By: tehgringe

tehgringe — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:39:59 +0000

So to add more, please don’t implement a CMS though…I started taking a look around instructables.com the other day and its a f*cking mess…HAD has a nice simple layout, I visit every day and can quickly check what has been added and I can use the tags when I partially break some gadget and what some ideas of what I can do with it.

By: tantris

tantris — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:57:55 +0000

looking at all the nasty not-a-hack and this-is-overkill comments (some of them by me) — it is all about the variations in defining a “hack”. so categories would help! and arguments could than be about whether an entry belongs into “beginner”, because it is so basic, “hardcore”, when you have to mine your own lead before soldering, or “prototyping”, because an interesting idea is tried out on a popular prototyping platform although something much simpler also would have worked…
other ideas: “re-discovered” ,”bent”,…

By: kruks

kruks — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:49:53 +0000

Huge love to all at hack-a-day, whatever you do; editors, contributors, trolls – you’ve all been making me chuckle for years and I wish you all the best with the new plans, arduino implemented or otherwise ;-)

By: colecoman1982

colecoman1982 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:35:55 +0000

Is there any way you could wire an arduino to the HAD web server and integrate it’s functionality into the site? Seriously though, thanks for all the work you’ve done so far and I look forward to the new changes.

By: pookeye

pookeye — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:14:17 +0000

For you guys who think that projects should be derated or even banned from Hackaday because they contain an arduino, let me say this:

I agree! I am tired of seeing the same tools used over and over again! So, not only would I ban anything that uses an arduino, for the same reason, I’d ban any project that was built using a hammer, saw, tin ships, or a drill!

Oh, I especially hate those drills! Every lame newbie thinks he is some kind of 3l33t hacker because he uses a drill!

No more plastic! No more metal! I keep seeing solder used… over and over again. Geez! Puh-leez! Can we move on? And screws and nuts… give it up, already. Enough with the screws and nuts! And don’t let me catch you post another so-called “hack” that contains a transistor. Transistors are for art-tards.

Atoms are OK, though. You can still post hacks that involve atoms… but nothing else!

I’d better stop… I’m starting to froth.

By: Akber

Akber — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:51:32 +0000

Well about about HACK A DAY irc channel ? that would be really cool. http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=hackaday

By: EB

EB — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:40:00 +0000

I’d love to see projects that included coding to be broken down into a languages category.

By: gomer pyle

gomer pyle — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:34:25 +0000

I enjoy the site the way it exists now. I’m probably NOT going to spend time looking through categories like “classic hacks.” I check the site very often for new articles and I scan through quickly for what is interesting to me. I don’t miss many articles that way.

I am capable of skipping the ones that don’t interest me. I don’t want others mislabeling articles into categories. It will totally screw it up for me. Sometimes I even find new ideas in the really simple articles. I’m not capable of engineering my own CNC machine yet, but I find elegant solutions to common problems in the complex articles too.

Personally, I love the site and I hope to be a contributor as my skills advance. Until then, I enjoy the site and the hard work of all who contribute. Keep thinking, learning and hacking! I’ve learned a lot from all of you and I want to say THANKS!