You wake up in the morning, and check Hackaday over breakfast. Then it’s off to work or school, where you’ve already had to explain the Jolly Wrencher to your shoulder-surfing colleagues. And then to a hackspace or back to your home lab, stopping by the skull-and-cross-wrenches while commuting, naturally. You don’t bleed red, but rather #F3BF10. It’s time we talked.
The Hackaday writing crew goes to great lengths to cover all that is interesting to engineers and enthusiasts. We find ourselves stretched a bit thin and it’s time to ask for help. Want to lend a hand while making some extra dough to plow back into your projects? We’re looking for contributors to write a few blog posts per week and keep the Hackaday flame burning.
Contributors are hired as private contractors and paid for each article. You should have the technical expertise to understand the projects you write about, and a passion for the wide range of topics we feature. You’ll have access to the Hackaday Tips Line, and we count on your judgement to help us find the juicy nuggets that you’d want to share with your hacker friends.
If you’re interested, please email our jobs line and include:
- One example post written in the voice of Hackaday. Include a banner image, at least 150 words, the link to the project, and any in-links to related and relevant Hackaday features. We need to know that you can write.
- Details about your background (education, employment, interests) that make you a valuable addition to the team. What do you like, and what do you do?
- Links to your blog/project posts/etc. that have been published on the Internet, if any.
What are you waiting for? Ladies and Gentlemen, start your applications!
Nahh, I’d rather sit in the bleachers…
It is a spectator sport
I go to hackaday to get interesting articles about nerd stuff. I can’t think of other material sources that would give me articles every week. How do writers get their sources? Do you just steal from other websites?
Two ways. One, we keep our eyes open and if we see something cool anywhere around the web, we write it up.
But we’ve also got a tremendous community of tipsters who are responsible for the lion’s share of our leads. Indeed, it’s you all who _are_ Hackaday. Thanks tons, tipsters!
https://hackaday.com/submit-a-tip/
FTFY
B^)
Really? HaD used to have first scoops, just like /. 15 years ago. Nowadays its pretty usual for me to find something interesting on hn/reddit/chain of smaller niche blogs, and then see it on HaD 1-5 days later. If anything I would suspect HaD has too much material to pick from, and not enough staff.
Isn’t “not enough staff” he point here?
Dan was asking about sources.
That day or two delay is the price you/we pay for having actual people (heck, actual hackers!) read through a ton of projects, pick out the interesting ones, and write them up thoughtfully.
What Hackaday does is curate — we read through the bad stuff so that you don’t have to. :) We dig through the details to find the interesting nuggets. And that makes our signal/noise ratio a lot higher than anywhere else, IMO.
Saying they “steal” is a real bold claim. It’s a blog that aggregates other sources, that’s kind of the name of the game. Come for the daily stuff, stay for the original content they do in house.
“Steal” is especially funny b/c about half of our tips (totally made-up statistic!) come from the OPs / hackers in question who want the world to know that they’ve done something cool. And the first link you’ll see in the writeup always goes to the source.
(Is there a confusion between “stealing” and “sharing”?)
And we’re quite proud of our original content stuff, so thanks for noticing!
“WE’RE HIRING: COME JOIN US!”
I’ll be rich! Rich! *maniacal laugh* Standing next to such luminaries as Brian.
“• One example post written in the voice of Hackaday. Include a banner image, at least 150 words, the link to the project, and any in-links to related and relevant Hackaday features. We need to know that you can write.
• Details about your background (education, employment, interests) that make you a valuable addition to the team. What do you like, and what do you do?
• Links to your blog/project posts/etc. that have been published on the Internet, if any.”
In a way it sounds like applying for an open-source position, just with hardware.
“One example post written in the voice of Hackaday.”
Submissions found without typographical errors, or with working relevant links, will be rejected!
B^)
Typographical errors are one thing. Don’t forget to include technical and mathematical errors too. Bonus points if the error is so glaringly obvious it will jump off the page and hit a non-technical visitor who got here by accident in the face.
At least with open source you have transparency. Here they don’t even tell how much they are paying.
They’ll pay you DOUBLE of what you’d get by just normally contributing to open source.
Sounds pretty easy, so many articles are re-post of old news..
Boo on you!
If you are a “Referee Man”, just give him a Yellow Card.
Step 1. Browse reddit/slashdot
Step 2. Copy, the first thing you see.
Step 3. Add 17 errors to give it that hack-a-day feel.
Step 4. Post it.
Step 5. Post a slightly altered version that is much less clear tomorrow.
Step 6. ????
Step 7. Profit.
Ah, you cut us deep with your withering critique. ;-P
To be honest and fair, mistakes happen to everyone and they don’t detract from this site. What leaves me feeling disgusted is certain editors (Al Williams, Jenny List spring to mind) who get offended and hostile when their mistakes are pointed out rather than politely thanking the person and making corrections. They reflect poorly on this site and ruin the community. They are the ones who make it a hostile place.
I don’t think AI or Jenny have ever been offended by my corrections.
Maybe it is in the way you make them?
Yeah, never seen Al Williams or Jenny List freak out over a mistake. Maybe we’re visiting two different Hackaday blogs?
Addendum step 3 sub a: Derive click bait title based on one or two words in aforementioned errors. Snicker. Love my HAD. National Enquirer-Globe E rag for techs.
So why do you read it?
In the hope that some day I’ll be able to fill in step 6 ;).
I’d say reading all the time is how they find articles. I would love to go this but planning to invest in a laptop first. My HP stopped working hopefully in the future.
Thankfully, my HP is outlasted civilization.
Oh come on. You’ve got an excellent illustrator and you didn’t use him to make a WW2 type propaganda hiring poster? I’d call that fail of the week.
Actually it doesn’t really need to be WW2 type. They had nice illustrated ads back then and hilarious ad texts.
Holy shit, valid criticism!
Personally, I’d go with a WPA-style propaganda posters instead of WWII-style, but yeah, you’re right.
That’s pretty good!
I’ve been reading HAD every day for 4 years now.
I even applied once.
But it doesnt cut it for me since i’m a manufacturer.
Off limits.
What? You have some moral hangup about shamelessly plugging your products, or dissing competitor’s products?
B^)
No. I dont have any morals. Just friends. :)
“…What are you waiting for?…”
…for just a teensy, inconsequential detail–for you to say exactly what you pay. That’s all; nothing more.
What? “Doing it for the love”* isn’t enough?
*sage advice to artists; if it’s good enough for them…
No, it definitely is not.
As Tina Turner so famously, and with profound insight, asks… “What’s love got to do with it?”
The answer? Absolutely nothing. Show me the money.
Wow, and that *since* the large corporate benefactor bought the site. What’d they get back when dickface started the place up, Pokemon cards?
Your guess is deeply appreciated, but he only relevant issue is that Hackaday signs my contract presented to them.
The truth is I adore any hacker coming up with a great ide. It brings ideas and fuel to my own work.
s/ide/IDE
FTFY
B^)
Too bad I applied twice in the last year or so and got rejected in Both Just because I couldn’t supply the two-zillion articles per week they require. I offered 1-3 every 7 days and they said ‘Nah’
Pretty sure this is BS. Even from an outsiders perspective, you can tell there are HAD authors who only do a handful of posts per month. There’s no way they would turn away somebody who “only” could do 1 – 3 a week.
That, or they thought it was a nicer way of rejecting you than saying your writing wasn’t any good…
Maybe there was some miscommunication? We’re stoked with 2-3 posts per week! That’s exactly what we’re looking for.
Let’s take this offline if you want to discuss real details. (editor@hackaday.com)
::jumps ups and down waving arms:: sample article submitted :D
I can provide you printScreens of the e-mail I got from Elliot. He specifically wrote ” We’re really looking for people who can bang out 5-10 posts per week, so it’s a bit more of a commitment than it sounds like you’re set for.”
Okay, that clarifies things.
But I still see posts by “writers at large” on HaD.
Okay, to clarify my comment B^)
If you click on the “About” button in the HaD banner, and scroll down the page, you’ll see “contributors at large” listed.
I for one, would love to see more of Naomi Wu[‘s posts].
B^)
how is 5- 10 posts a week cumbersome? thats just a average day if your posting on various projects.
Just my two pence: I really enjoy reading almost every article, but if the rate of articles increase i won’t be able to keep up and i’ll start missing them and then…whats the point? I might as well just hit the random button every once in a while.
Not sure whether i’m being unusual here, but i’d love quality more than quantity (and the current quality is good!).
personally I sometimes sit and read for a hour at a time, and with that its a bummer when you run out of articles, then you gotta go out on the innerwebs with google holding your hand.
there would be a lot of critics.. but say im happy to open my browser and type hackaday.. everyday.. day seems incomplete if i could not see this dark place hahaha
Yeah, right?!? Maybe a dystopian future piece: The World Without Hackaday!
Nowhere to read about the goofy things people do with 555s. Amigas lying in ruin, un-restored. Not a single oddball clock in sight.
hello all! is this still open? still reviewing prospects? I would love to do a sample article or two
Some one needs to make a robot that makes articles like a little plagerizing web crawling spider bot, hahaha