A while back we got an anonymous complaint that Hackaday was “elitist”, and that got me thinking. We do write up the hacks that we find the coolest, and that could lead to a preponderance of gonzo projects, or a feeling that something “isn’t good enough for Hackaday”. But I really want to push back against that notion, because I believe it’s just plain wrong.
One of the most important jobs of a Hackaday writer is to find the best parts of a project and bring that to the fore, and I’d like to show you what I mean by example. Take this post from two weeks ago that was nominally about rescuing a broken beloved keyboard by replacing its brain with a modern microcontroller. On its surface, this should be easy – figure out the matrix pinout and wire it up. Flash in a keyboard firmware and you’re done.
Of course we all love a good hardware-rescue story, and other owners of busted Sculpt keyboards will be happy to see it. But there’s something here for the rest of us too! To figure out the keyboard matrix, it would take a lot of probing at a flat-flex cable, so [TechBeret] made a sweet breakout board that pulled all the signals off of the flat-flex and terminated them in nicely labelled wires. Let this be your reminder that making a test rig / jig can make these kind of complicated problems simpler.
Once the pinout was figured out, and a working prototype made, it was time to order a neat PCB and box it up. The other great trick was the use of 3D-printed mockups of the PCBs to make sure that they fit inside the case, the holes were all in the right places, and that the flat-flex lay flat. With how easily PCB design software will spit out a 3D model these days, you absolutely should take the ten minutes to verify the physical layout of each revision before sending out your Gerbers.
So was this a 1337 hack? Maybe not. But was it worth reading for these two sweet tidbits, regardless of whether you’re doing a keyboard hack? Absolutely! And that’s exactly the kind of opportunity that elitists shut themselves off from, and it’s the negative aspect of elitism what we try to fight against here at Hackaday.
only n00b like me search for 1337 in 5min only to find its just elitist lang
Congratulations, you are now 1337.
please share the source of the comment so we can realize the situation without bias. Thank you so much.
He did. Reading and comprehension are still a thing. The comment was attributed to Anonymous in the very first sentence.
So are kindness and consideration.
Was your second sentence really necessary?
NOT in engineering, go back to school
This isn’t engineering, this a hobbyist site run about journalists about engineering topics. You are part of the problem
Seems to me that “elitist”, under these circumstances, has to do with persons intelligent enough to function in the real world. This is a platform for continued self improvement and advancing other’s understanding of a “hobby” for some, a career for other’s. Maybe another “hobby” would be advised.
“Elite” is a meaningless accusation to make, unless you also define what is meant by “elite”. Humpty Dumpty quotes about “glory” are relevant :)
So, if X is the opposite of elite, is it good to be X?
If elite=intelligent+interesting, I hope hackaday stays away from being “stupid+boring”.
I had to look up elitism just now in order to make sure I knew what the article was talking about.
Just yesterday got through a long argument with someone about “enablers”: people who know something is wrong but don’t speak up about it.
There’s lots and lots of labels that can be applied, usually by people who think they know how to run your life better than you, and they use the labels as a matter of control.
We don’t really fight back against the labels. Most people, when labelled as “elite”, would say “well, maybe I’m being a little arrogant, I could probably be a better person by having some more humility”, and voila the label has worked. Someone got you to toe their particular line.
And you’ll never hear from them again because they’re off pointing and labeling others.
If you want to do this properly, base the label around something that has material value that can be measured. For HAD that measure might be daily visitors, or advertising dollars, or number of comments.
So will being less elitist reduce or increase that value? Will more people look at the site if Elliot implements a policy of less elitism? Would more elitism be better? A month-long A/B test of policies would give you the answer.
Anyone can make up a label and throw it at someone. In my field, that’s called “measuring without a baseline for comparison”. It’s easy to say something is X when comparing it to nothing.
Are we elitist? Compared to what?
And is that bad, or good?
Good comment.
Amen. It is generally the stupid…sorry (did I say that?), lazy, that utters such trash as “you’re elitist” (which is actually a compliment). I’m happy for HaD to stay elitist.
The crowd that is too lazy to try and figure out “how” things work, should not be on HaD to begin with. It is way out of their league. If you want to learn (like in, get somewhere in life), than HaD is the place to be.
Elitism is good.
” The crowd that is too lazy to try and figure out “how” things work, should not be on HaD to begin with ” …
I wouldn’t say that. I’m pretty sure that most HaD readers ,visitors and or contributors have some deep understanding of software, hardware ,both or something tech and science related. But I think people in general don’t know all this stuff and they just live they lives using the software/hardware/ tech and science, and they are still welcome. It is Ok not wanting to know things.
Btw I was reading about Jack Ma Yun, co founder of Alibabe Group that created this conglomerate without knowing a thing about programing!
And we have the opposite, I know people that consider themselves as experts in everything!, yeah politics, krypto, specially smart phones, apps, Elon Musk, movies, everything! they are very common these days. I call them “duplicated people” because they act ,talk and behavior exactly the same way!.
So basically I think everyone should be welcome here, what do you thing guys?
Hacks day is the farthest thing from being “elite” as part of the Maker movement.
Elite is a term that describes anti-right-to-repair types…anti-net-neutrality…”be happy-own nothing” anti-physical media suits who want to control everyone…be it Mitt Romney or Gavin Newsom.
In short, the elite are folks who wear Brylcream by the bucket….and/or folks who issue C&Ds and sic Pinkertons on you.
Being consider in the “elite” and being elitist are two different things.
Those that are “elitist” believe they are special, better than, or more deserving than everybody else, and usually actively discourage others in an effort to protect their perception of status. These are the people who post negative remarks about projects, engage in gate keeps (“This is not a hack”, “Boring! Come back when you add XYZ”, “Waste of plastic!”, etc.)
You description of “the Elite” feels about right. Basically Oligarchs.
And here I was hoping this was an article about Elite (my favorite video game):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_(video_game)
“And here I was hoping this was an article about Elite (my favorite video game):”
Bummer!
In spacesim video games X is the opposite of Elite.
It’s inevitable, afterall there’s a fixed amount of content HaD can produce let alone show to visitors. If there were 100s of posts a day most of them would go unseen which isn’t too useful for something like HaD.
That means as the scene gets bigger, or HaD gets better at finding content/more tips are submitted the cream of the crop gets creamier so to speak.
I certainly can say in my lifetime the median sophistication of the HaDs on hack have gotten more and more fancy.
Still there seems to be the odd good ol’ hack so I don’t think there is too much to complain about.
It’s small size is it’s best feature.
The biggest form of elitism I see on HaD are the types who chime in when they dont think a post is HaD worthy. Hacking is colloquially borrowed and thus covers more than just computing these days. Is pizza a sandwich? No, but sandwich fans would likely enjoy pizza content.
If you take a wide enough slice of pizza 🍕 (or for that matter, a whole pizza) and fold it over on itself, that sort of makes it a sandwich!
B^)
Or is it a taco? Either way, it’s definitely a hack.
Damn… is a taco a sandwich?
Nope.
The whole “sandwich” question stems from a misunderstanding of what a sandwich actually is, and how language modifiers work.
A sandwich is one or more inner layers held by two outer layers.
The sandwich argument will often being up various “open-faced” sandwiches, and shows a clear misunderstanding of how a term is built.
This is not a case of adjective noun.
An open-faced sandwich is not a sandwich, the same way a rubber duck is not a duck.
The term is saying:
You know what X is. This thing is like that, but not, for reason Y.
A pizza is not a sandwich. It is a pie.
An upside down pizza on top of another pizza is a sandwich.
A pizza folded in half is a taco.
A pizza folded in half and sealed all the way around is a stuffed bread.
As always, there will be things that are too far outside the definition of a category. If it is close enough, but still clearly NOT that category, we use a modifier, or we just make a new category.
https://cuberule.com/
Funny … elitism has typically been more of an accusation made by the non-left.
Yes, I was briefly struck by the sensitivity, but the idea of “elite” took some pondering. To me, in the fields that HaD explores it is not at all elite. It lacks the math or optics or physics or chemistry, etc. to be much more than general interest material like Popular Science. But this is why the comment sections can be so good and where the meat of a story is often found.
Depends on how you define “elitist” and every individual article.
Over the years I’ve complained a few times that an article used too many obscure acronyms or specific terms (without linking the words themselves to Wikipedia articles or something). One could argue that I was complaining about HaD being too elitist in those cases.
But HaD is not a teaching platform, it’s not here to teach the basics (of math, physics, chemistry, ….) and if it so happens there’s an article about something completely new to you it would be nice to get a link to sth. akin to an introductory course but it’s not a requirement.
Regarding the used example article.
I only took a cursory glance at it because as soon as I saw what amounts to a 3D printed 2D printout of the board I knew the interesting aspect of the article was stupid.
Just print it out on paper. Testing if something will fit before ordering the real thing is good but in this case it was just someone else seeing every problem as an opportunity to nonsensically waste 3D printing because “when you’ve got a hammer every problem is a nail”…
At least that’s how I see it and it makes this counter elitims argument bad because using a 3D print instead of just printing a piece of paper is kinda elitist.
Okay, maybe they didn’t have any normal paper printer but only a 3D printer so it would kinda make sense but that makes the HaD article about “abusing a 3D printer because someone didn’t have a paper printer” even more wired…
But, the 3D print is (surprise!) 3 dimensional!
How many times have I tried to reassemble a repair only to find out the cover(s) don’t fit anymore.
You might be surprised to discover that paper does in fact have 3 dimensions.
If the 3rd dimension isn’t thick enough, get some cardboard/plastic out of your recycling bin and use that instead. Then when you are done, put the stuff back into recycling. No wasted plastic. No wasted electricity. No wasting time printing.
Here is a handy 3d printing script:
Is it a toy, art, or a prototype?
– No -> stop.
– Yes – continue.
Is it a flat sheet, box, rod, or other “stock” shaped object?
– No – print it!
– Yes – stop.
Let’s try our script on the example…
It is a prototype. Great! Keep going.
Wait. It is a flat sheet. I guess we are done.
This comment is quite relevant to the article. A great example of the few times commentators are elitist on HaD.
There is nothing wrong with printing a circuit board in 3D to determine if it fits. You may use a 2D printer and a stack of different sizes papers, but it is equally valid to just 3D print the shape.
The average PCB is 1.6mm thick, and those SMTs look about that again. So total Z height is 3.2mm.
Printer paper is 0.1mm thick. You’d need 32 pieces of paper to cover the full volume of the PCBA. You would also need to cut them out and stick em together to see if it would fit.
Honestly, I’m with the first guy. A quick 5 minute print IS the better solution and a pretty good hack. I’m definitely going to try it sometime.
I actually think it’s quite a good idea to 3D print the assembly, and wonder why I never thought of that. It allows you to check if the board with all the components will fit inside the housing, if all the connectors line up with the holes, and if there actually is a way to get it in there; if it fits, but there is no way to manoeuvre it into position, the design of the board, the housing, it the order of assembly needs to be changed. This has happened to me.
Maybe Hackaday is a little elitist, in that a very basic understanding of electronics and software might be required to understand all the articles, but it also makes it very easy to join the “elite” by reading and learning stuff.
It sounds to me like someone who didn’t want to put in the slightest effort, and who is very clearly not a part of the target audience, and probably never will be.
Perfect example of why I would never like to ask for explanations in the comment section here, because there’s people calling something stupid. Things have to fit in 3 dimensions, so realising that your 16mm high capacitor might not fit in a certain areas is worth something. You might have realised that on your own for this project, but it might inspire others to check things where it’s not as obvious as it might seems to. Makerspaces and libraries make 3D printers much more accessible these days, so checking it this way before ordering a PCB which is more expensive with shipping.. you can always spin it like that if you want.
In general the hackaday comment section is a weird pile of elitist people on its own sometimes. It’s tough to find your voice and share your ideas here, and if this is not an inviting place, then it’s a slippery slope towards a diversity nightmare.
True, but I’ve made simple repairs to some keyboards myself over the last 15-20 years and there are no big caps or anything like that in there. Granted, that M$ KB looks like there’s less room inside but I still see no need at all for wasting plastic instead of a bit of paper.
Not quite sure what to make of the rest of your reply (my English isn’t the best) but the comment sections everywhere have gotten more toxic over the last 10-20 years (IMO) and I’m not without fault there.
HaD is absolutely a teaching platform. It has provided me countless new approaches to problems over the years that I may not have thought of before.
Provocation of thought can be one of the most valuable forms of teaching, by enabling me to think about something in a new way.
I’d have to be remarkably arrogant to think that someone less experienced can’t teach me something.
Have you even read that whole sentence? Here let me quote it:
HaD ISN’T a teaching platform. That doesn’t mean you cant LEARN anything. It’s just not here to specifically TEACH anyone anything.
Yes, some articles (or article series) can be used/seen as teaching material but I’d argue that’s the exception to the rule.
I prefer my elite status. It means I can read Hackaday articles and understand them. Or a newspaper, or a book, or a bus timetable.
its sad that basic literacy is equated to elitism.
Amen!
Well I didn’t want to brag.
@LordNothing said: “its sad that basic literacy is equated to elitism.”
These days anything I write in cursive is incomprehensible to a young person.
Just about everything I write in cursive is incomprehensible to me!
B^)
its ok, i cant read cursive either, thanks to questionable actions by my second grade teacher. decided to hold me back a grade and then didn’t tell anyone she did it. then none of the others figured out or cared that i couldn’t write cursive. this is why im with pink floyd on the subject of educational systems.
Use of a computer is still incomprehensible to most older generations that weren’t exposed to them growing up. Younger generations haven’t been exposed to cursive because it’s mostly obsolete, I signed my rental lease without meeting my landlord or picking up a pen.
FYI I can read cursive, so long as it isn’t chicken scratch.
I believe it might just be things like the fabrication of a persona for an individual you do not know for the explicit purpose of putting ‘them’ down in order to elevate yourself that is being referenced as elitism.
Anonymous to me means no backbone and/or facts to backup their statement.
An elitist can be someone at his/her best in some skill or perhaps the attitude of some ivy league school graduates. (Notice I said ‘some’.) However, I fail to see how the label ‘elitist ‘ can be applied to Hackaday.
Hackaday.com covers a broad spectrum of topics and not all have the same interest to everyone. The importance of each article will vary depending on the background and education of each reader. I don’t read all that you write (and I suspect that others do the same) but that does not mean that I want you to change your content. If an article triggers an idea on how to hack/modify/improve/understand or invent something, then you have provided an excellent service those that read your articles.
Keep up the excellent work.
Anonymous needs to get a life.
Agree!
(Even though I like to remain anonymous)
Congratulations on fabricating a persona for Anonymous for the purpose of elevating yourself above it, thereby proving their claim.
I made a fork of another project so I can turn ps/2 keyboard to ps/2 on esp32 to use ble. I use the ttgo v1.4 VGA controller. Basically I have now turn a old ps/2 keyboard into bluetooth capability and it works with windows, linux and android. I also gave it some macros for extra functions. It’s not perfect but works pretty fast and smooth. I can link it if anyone would like to check it out
That’s funny. Some time ago I made the opposite – turning BT keyboard into a PS2.
What I really want right now is turning an USB keyboard to a Bluetooth one. Sadly I haven’t got the time to do it. There was a project I found on the net claiming to be able to do it, but I couldn’t make it work.
That shouldn’t be too difficult — in fact, you should be able to do it with many boards that are Arduino-compatible. Most Arduino-compatible boards are able to act as a USB Host or USB OTG, and many also have Bluetooth. There’s an RP2040 board from Adafruit with a USB-A port, plus most STM32s support USB host. In fact, it looks like Adafruit even has a Learning System article about doing exactly what you want! https://blog.adafruit.com/2024/04/30/new-guide-usb-host-to-ble-keyboard-adapter-adafruitlearningsystem-adafruit/
Oops, should have shared this direct link instead: https://learn.adafruit.com/esp32-s3-usb-to-ble-keyboard-adapter
If I need to labeled because I am better educated than 90% of the planet, so be it.
As the Bard wrote:”. I will not choose what many men desire, Because I will not jump with common spirits, And rank me with the barbarous multitudes”
That is so true and so sad. These days, just being able to think for yourself is enough to get labeled and be an outcast
so much this. our society rewards fakery at many orders of magnitude above actual ability. so i refuse to help normies with their technical problems, because they are just going to take credit and berate me for being a nerd.
I’d argue it’s not the/our society but (modern YT/TikTok/Insta/advertising) capitalism at fault.
Buuut capitalism is so deeply ingrained in many societies my point is kinda moot… :-/
The problem is Dunning and Kruger. Even flat earthers and conspiracy theorists think they are critically thinking and are usually the first to cry they are being labeled as outcasts.
And in our techno space, you have the vapid pipe dreams of a billionaire with his tunnels and hyper X’s that go nowhere that the fan boys gush over, solar freaken roadways, solar freaken mirrors, harvest water from the air and make deserts green and other such nonsense that high school physics students could debunk .
Pipe dreams and wishful thinking might get the seed money for the startup, but they deliver nothing more than the empty promises of a snake oil salesman.
Some people, really should be labeled outcasts and all the free thinking about perpetual motion and free energy are never going to change the fundamental laws of physics. Which is why its not the physicists being labeled as outcasts, but rather the nutters with their Dunning Kruger thought bubbles.
Vacuous gibberish detector pegged.
I love what you do, my only note is that I personally would prefer fewer videos; but hey, if an article’s not for me or you, I mostly skip it and move on. Keep up the good work, and a spectrum of skill and techniques on display is a great thing in my book.
there is still value in text articles, everything doesn’t have to be a video. and frankly i like to be able to pull up technical documentation and not have to find my headphones. usually youtube will recommend me videos many days before the hack-a-day writeup and i just skip those because ive probibly already seen it or skipped it out of lack of interest.
Unless you need moving pictures, text is better than video. Key skill nowadays is quickly determining that something is NOT worth your time.
Speech: 60 words per minute (less if you remove ums and ahs). Speedreading text: 2000 chars /400 words in 20s.I
That’s a 20:1 advantage to text.
Classic example of elitist attitude. Suggesting that we should be able to “read”.
i watch youtube at 2x speed most of the time unless its music. i aint got time to watch 4 hours of videos a day so i watch it in 2 hours. i can type pretty fast but i read slow.
I do not understand 99.9% of what curiousMarc and TubeTime and Righto.com are doing. But it doesn’t make enjoy it any less. If anything I’m getting a bit of second-hand education in physics and electronics engineering. And it’s spurred me to educate myself a bit more about all the logic (rtl,dtl,ttl,pmos,nmos,cmos) and how designers have to alter things drastically based on their behaviors. And that’s just the HaD on electronics. There’s still a large number of mechanical engineering, automotive, and a ton of other things that goes on here. So here’s to being outta my depth and people sharing their things with me, using whatever means at their disposal (note some videos are in foreign languages, but that’s never stopped me watching some of the Russian mechanical engineering things). Vive le Hackaday!
i for one am not going to apologize for doing the only thing im good at. the real elitists are the ones who get in your business and tell you how to be even though they have no idea how to do the things you do. im not the one pushing unfixable products you have to replace every 2 years, that spy on you and require a subscription for the privilege, laughing all the way to the bank. because those are the elitists. if anything the hacker-maker community are anti-elitists.
now there are a few personalities in said community that appear to fit the bill, perhaps out of self importance or narcissism, or maybe they are turning a profit and were just jealous, but i wouldn’t even count them among the elitists because they are in our boat and way down on the food chain from the corporate technocrats and their constant power grab.
Y’all posted an article about a project I did a few years back – a Beta Fish aquarium out of a coffee pot. I didn’t submit it and I am definitely a nobody. Furthermore, the project was (in my eyes) as simple as it could get. So if you are “elitist,” then you are a kind of elitist that I could live with.
You are not going to please everybody and if you start trying, you will ruin what is otherwise a good site. As a said nobody, my vote doesn’t count, but don’t kowtow to the lowest common denominator as so many others have down in society today. Those of us who enjoy your site will remain. Those who don’t can find somewhere else or create their own 🤷♂️
https://hackaday.com/2013/03/11/coffee-pot-aquarium-keeps-fish-warm-without-cooking-them-hopefully/
Oh that’s hilarious! Thanks. :)
My biggest peeve with H-a-D is that I submit suggestions to tips@hackaday.com and it’s like a black hole. No indication the emails sent were received, or read, or anything. Even an auto-reply would be a step in the right direction.
Really? You’d rather have an auto-reply? We can look into that.
I’ve emailed one of the authors a story tip before, they replied and thanked me for the tip. They seemed like a nice person. Nothing ever came of it though.
Wouldn’t surprise me if that tip submission form isn’t checked all that often, or they just receive so many that it’s not reasonable for personal responses.
HaD writer here — the tip line is pretty closely read, but we also get an enormous amount of spam from people who think their paid real estate article would be a GREAT fit for our website!
We always respond to people whose tips are chosen and written up. And even if your tip isn’t written up, it does get ready. We have a lot of writers and are always scrolling through the tip line!
As Elliot mentioned above, maybe an auto-reply would be useful, but remember it’s a “tip” line. It doesn’t guarantee your tip will get written, it’s just a place to give suggestions if you find something cool. Also, we very often get tips for things that have already been written up, so that’s another reason why you might not see anything.
People are often elitists when they learned something very hard, they make the thing their personality, so they are prideful of knowing that something.
It is also not accessible for most people as require time, money or brains, so they also want others to suffer to learn the same way they do.
It’s an basic concept of an in group and an out group.
The oposite of it would be people who know a lot and explain so much and simple that everybody would understand.
It’s normal to exist elite level bleeding edge knowledge and tools, the people who hold it and monopolize it can be called elitists, language can be an elite or niche hermetic way of lock the knowledge away.
Everybody can make their own conclusions. Nobody is forced to just adapt to others demands in this aspect, but people often just generally feel inferior when knowing their don’t know something.
This kind of thing is hidden so frequently, and lawyer who do not disclose specific knowledge, business secrets, money making edges, people hide all kinds of advantages to feel make part of the in group, so show knowledge is also to make people feel bad isn’t? It’s somewhat make them aware that they lack in something and are an part of the out group in some way.
“What’s all this talk ‘against Elliotism’?”
-Roseann Roseannadanna
Would it be elitist to point out that I did the same thing in 2019 (but with the pin headers too)?
https://flic.kr/p/2g39qQb
It is a handy trick though regardless…
I very much doubt I am the first one to do it either.
The pinheaders are lovely!
I think that it would be a mistake for us not to have mentioned the technique as used in this project, even if we had seen yours before, because maybe hundreds/thousands of other readers haven’t seen your implementation.
Ten Thousand: https://xkcd.com/1053/
There can only be one “first” person to use any particular technique, and I’m not sure that we’ll ever find out who it was, so it’s kinda moot, IMO. A cool hack, even if you’ve seen it or similar before, is a cool hack.
Absolutely…and again. I very much doubt I am the first to do it. :)
I think that we all, if not standing, at least sit on the shoulders of giants.
I sent in two links from real hardware and software hackers that were ignored, yet we are seeing no shortage of corporate tech here.
I visit your site to see hardware and software hacking, building, modifying by people–not big companies.
An easy way to ensure the content you want to see online is put online would be to post it yourself on your own site. HAD isn’t obligated to post or not post anything it doesn’t want to, just as you aren’t obligated to read or not read any specific article on this site.
Maybe there could be a tag for more accessible articles like #introduction or #initiation, but they are fairly common online…
…so please don’t stop the serious / technical ones, because there are no other media for that!
If (for the sake of the argument) HaD is elitist, I guess that is exactly what has kept me checking in for years now. Anyway, if I wanted actual elitism I would lurk specialist tech forums. Machinists for instance rarely seem to suffer fools gladly. Will point out, though, if ya wanna know something, the real elite are the fastest and most direct route. Anyway, happy(ish) reader here. All thumbs up!
Tempest in a teapot, perhaps?
It’s entirely possible that Anonymous didn’t understand the meaning of the word “elitist”. Some people define it as “something that I don’t understand, or that seems too difficult to learn, or that I can’t be assed to research”. Because the subject or the project is “beyond them” – either in fact, or because they’re afraid to try and fail, or because they’re lazy – they excuse themselves with an ill-defined pejorative”. I think the fact that the complaint was anonymous lends support to my theory.
There are lots of things on Hackaday that I’m either uninterested in, or which I feel would require too much effort, or that I frankly wouldn’t understand without a LOT of study and effort. But I’m entirely clear that those are ALL on me, and have nothing to do with any attitude or airs on the part of Hackaday or its readers / commenters.
I’ve always found Hackaday – and the hacking and making communities in general – to be remarkably inclusive and welcoming. There are a few (dare I say it) elitists, and other assorted a-holes. Let the community which doesn’t have a few of those cast the first stone. What’s that I hear? Crickets?
I think the complaint behind this HaD article is groundless. The fact that Elliott took it as an opportunity for exploration, and that there are quite a few thoughtful comments, are themselves indicators that the complainant was, in the vernacular, “full of it”. Congrats to the editors for facing this head-on.
Elitism is fine. Sometimes it is even good.
-T. this mediocre guy
Elitism / Gatekeeping.
Gatekeeping behaviors are abhorrent to me in a category of intellectual interest. With narrows exceptions there should be no gatekeeping.
Exceptions:
safety risk. Some things require proper engineering, appropriate safety gear, understanding handling requirements etc. articles involving safety / high risk things should have a call-out for the risks involved. I’m not talking about burning oneself with a soldering iron (not irrelevant, but we’ve all been there…) but rather MSDS references, and specific high level notes of handling risks, with links preferred.
RF – licensing requirements, interference risks. Those knowledgeable enough know that appropriate steps can be taken to limit, or eliminate risks of unintended interference; but those without a strong background in RF generally don’t understand the implications of a poorly designed circuit, nor the laws around intentionally producing signals. It’s all fun and games until you saturate the emergency bands or trigger your grandfathers pacemaker.
Weapons – many things could be converted to or used as weapons; and I’m not entirely adverse to hackaday covering weapons and weapon systems. However, articles covering weapons should be within some appropriate context.
I emailed the editors about such a story which was published suggesting that perhaps the story went too far, it was subsequently removed and I understand others complained as well. (It wasn’t just me that had concerns). Much respect for the response I received as well.
The comments on stories can perhaps come across as elitism or gatekeeping when such topics are covered, particularly RF related topics. It’s not gatekeeping to point out that a license is required to legally design / build and transmit signals. That’s just an unfortunate reality that risk of interference is non-zero in services we all rely upon.
It’s not elitism to cover stories about how to hack your BMW just because I can’t afford a BMW. The knowledge and techniques are potentially transferable to my QashQai (as unlikely as that may be…)
Hackaday needs to publish approachable stories, and ones that tickle the intellect, even if we can’t build a nuclear reactor in our own backyard, the topic can still be interesting.
heavy metal is definitely an exception. other genres didn’t gatekeep and now they sound like fake overproduced propaganda. if we didn’t call out the poser bands nobody else would and metal would lose its charm.
“It’s not gatekeeping to point out that a license is required to legally design / build and transmit signals”
That depends on how somebody points out such information… I notice a lot of gatekeepers will use factual artifacts while demeaning people or claiming the hack, article, person, etc. does not belong or is not worthy.
“I emailed the editors about such a story….”
You got the ‘drone dropping spikes’ article removed?
My day job has nothing to do with hardware hacking in general, it does however very deeply examines ways to make STEM a more inclusive space for everyone. I would not class HAD-at-large as non-inclusive or exclusionary at all, that’s more by the fact that the subject matter at hand requires some level of pre-learning that largely a lot of people lack the motivation to achieve, instead opting to indulge in tiktok-esque sound bites.
HAD is absolutely fine as is.
If I send an anonymous comment in favor of elitism, will you write a sympathetic article for that? What about two anonymous comments?
Sounds like someone just wanted to complain. Don’t feed the trolls.
No, they were probably genuinely aggrieved by the elitist content here. If they could read they’d probably be even more angered by these comments.
Given the breadth of projects featured here, and the wide range of stuff from basic to extremely advanced, almost any article will be “elitist” and incomprehensible to half the readers, and basic and stupid to the other half.
So I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
The comments on the other hand – we’re sometimes a bit quick to point out something is basic. But every day someone new is learning this stuff, and each article will be a “TIL” for someone.
Whereas those for whom an article is over their heads probably don’t comment. So there’ll be an “elitist” bias in comments.
Maybe some tags for basic/intermediate/advanced might be helpful, so people can filter out what they’re not interested in?
Explain all the -look I put a rasberry pie in something I gutted- posts with primitive code base, then.. HAD has plenty of casual filler posts by random people.. It’s not elite enough..
Meh… this post is definitely NOT a hack….
Nuf said….
I don’t find this site elitist since I mainly come over to see what others are doing and usually impressed with people that will put their personal time and energy into some of these projects. It’s like woodworking and programming; I like the idea of it, but would rather live vicariously through others who do since I’m not willing to put a lot of time into those things, but find them interesting.
I’m usually disappointed though with the ‘scientism’ types who show up here and will believe in almost any ignorant thing the authorities tell them. I’m referring to things like Covid and AGW and other such topics. You are automatically branded ‘anti-science’ or some other such nonsense. Oh, the articles was ‘peer reviewed,’ so we just know it is flawless. Now that’s elitism.
VS.
Uhh so you rather “live vicariously through others” and are “not willing to put a lot of time” into things you are interested in but you got your own degrees in meteorology, physics, biology, medicine, virology, etc. and did your own research on everything global warming and Covid related?
“Elite” like many other other constructions of the mind, is so subjective, someone can simply say : hey we elite have no time to read HaD, as we have better things to do with our time. Low class people waste their lives soldering wires and sitting in front of the screen to code stuff and commenting silly topics about elitism. Cyber-proletariat. Actually I won’t finish this comment cos I have better things to …
Sometimes technological elitism is no more than communicating through your expertise rather than through your inclusiveness, which in turn acts as a de facto audience filter – “you must be this L337 to understand this hack or participate in the conversation”, but without actually and honestly saying it out loud.
For a substantial portion of the world population, including in e.g., Europe or the U.S., a phrase like “…made a sweet breakout board that pulled all the signals off of the flat-flex and terminated them in nicely labelled wires…” or “…the other great trick was the use of 3D-printed mockups of the PCBs to make sure that they fit inside the case, the holes were all in the right places, and that the flat-flex lay flat…” is roughly equivalent to “…just fire up your 60-ton forge, stamp out a few test copies of your warship/nuclear reactor/SR-71 prototype, and Bob’s yer Uncle – you’re in business”.
Maybe tagging posts with an approachability/skill-level/complexity/jargon warning at the top would help.
… but what would those warnings be good for? Keeping people from reading the article, who may get unexpected new ideas? For example, one could get the idea of printing a paper pcb and then adding cardboard and wood chips for 3D fitting tests, but only if one is not kept out by a “3D printing required” tag.
Elitism is the opposite of script kiddies,
it’s putting in the work,
thinking like an engineer,
getting a degree to call yourself an engineer,
it’s exclusivity at it’s best!
That would be “It’s exclusivity at its best!”
Username check’s out.
I usually assume anyone using the word elitist is a brain-cracked populist.
I take it as a sign of who to avoid.