Workshop exchange

@twobits

At the moment waiting on the addition to the forum of personal messages.  Then I don't have to share my email address with the entire universe.

@codecage

Why not set up a temporary email account on Gmail. I have a few dummy email accounts for registration purposes.

Posted by: @pugwash

Why not set up a temporary email account on Gmail. I have a few dummy email accounts for registration purposes.

It's a solution, but a bit inconvenient.

As you're aware I CAN add a PM feature, I just need to purchase the module. I was waiting to see if the forum was a success before I invested any more money in it. However I have no idea what I mean by "a success" - we now have 500 members and over 1500 posts and we've been online for about a month. Is that a success?

At any rate, I'll probably put in a PM feature, I'd like it myself. After I pay this months credit card bill!

I'm considering setting up a "Marketplace" forum, I've seen that on other forums. A place where people buy and sell stuff. My concern is that it might get abused by people joining just to sell things.  One thought here is to set up a Marketplace forum but only allow approved members to post items. Everyone would be allowed to respond to the posts.

Of course, selling things (like PCB's) involves transacting cash (probably PayPal) and shipping stuff. And of course, the individual seller would need to be responsible for all of those things.

Any ideas for making this work?  All suggestions welcome.

?

Bill

Posted by: @dronebot-workshop

I have no idea what I mean by "a success" - we now have 500 members and over 1500 posts and we've been online for about a month. Is that a success?

Since you are free to define what "success" means I would suggest the following definition:

The forum is successful when it can pay for itself. ?

Don't be afraid to ask forum members to donate.  After all, we want the forum to succeed as much as you do.  Let us pay for the PM module.   Why should you pay for things that we'll be using?

We are as happy about being able to share ideas with each other as anyone.   So get that donation button up!

We'll pay for the forum upgrades.   I'm sure I'm not alone.  Steve, @codecage, has already offered as well.   And others appear to be quite interested in this forum too.  I'm not rich, but I think I can manage putting off buying a new Raspberry Pi long enough to make a forum donation. ?

Posted by: @dronebot-workshop

(probably PayPal)

Maybe you can use PayPal to set up a forum donation button?

Yes, success is tough to measure. It doesn't help that we are in the middle of summer in the northern hemisphere when youtube viewership tends to decline.

Another observation is that your 'general' videos seem to get the highest view counts while your 'Real Robot' series seems to have a very loyal following.

My gut reaction is that the 'marketplace' should be run by someone with a few boards and mailing envelops on the corner of his kitchen table as a favor to the community. As you say, if it becomes too formal. It can be a headache. Buyers can expect post-purchase technical and software support rather than best-effort support from some hacker working out of his kitchen.

The model I had in mind was one I saw when I was restoring the old tractor. You can often still get the parts from dealers... 70 years after they were initially sold. But, the markup is insane. So, somebody with patience, skill, and a few specialize tools would produce something like gaskets for old tractors which they would make available to their local club.

David

Ah haha -- it is Grammarly that is messing with my font sizes.

BTW thanks to whoever mentioned Grammarly. I use it all the time now. Too bad, the only editor which has a full-fledged plugin is MS Word:(

@dronebot-workshop

500 members and 1500 posts in just over a month, is that a success?

Well, that is how you look at it.

New membership seems to flattening off a bit, and 95% of the 1500 posts have been contributed by a hardcore membership of about 20 members. On most internet forums there are far more members than contributors, there are many lurkers, unfortunately. It is the members who inject life into this previously lifeless microcosmos.

I don't want to stifle your enthusiasm, as the DroneBot website, youtube channel and forum appear to be your personal "labour of love". I don't think a Marketplace would get enough attention, but if you do decide on Personal Messaging, you might want to consider getting some sort of financial support.

Judging by the equipment you have in the workshop, all the electronics you buy for robots and demos, you have already spent more than a few thousand CAN$s.

Whatever you decide, you can rely on my wholehearted support.

bill i can tell you from experiance this is going to be a lot of work.

i used to run the shipping department for an online company. i understand you wouldnt have the merch. your self but the link items sold to whom bought them will end up taking alot of your time.(find out how bought what and then link all info to seller) for something like this i might suggest like a wix.com online store. having multi. sellers on 1 site would be a huge pain in the arse. have a online store from wix or where ever would allow you to make pages for trust user to have there own pages that they can control and be "responsible" for 

@twobits

I use Grammarly, but I hate it because it is always telling me that my spelling is wrong, but I, as an educated Brit know that it is right! ? ? ? 

Posted by: @twobits

@codecage

Have you or anyone else thought of a means for exchanging boards?

My thoughts were we exchange the design files (Gerbers) that one would send to the board producer and then each can order for themselves.  Depending on the complexity board of course, I understand that whilst a minimum order quantity may be required its still only a few dollars to get them ordered and delivered.  This would save a lot of organisation and postage issues.   But fair warning, I'm only just starting out on this path and I've yet to order my first boards from anyone so I may be talking nonsense.

@byron

Good idea! I was thinking along those lines earlier today.

Gerber exchange section possibly a dedicated Github site.

Posted by: @dronebot-workshop

we now have 500 members and over 1500 posts and we've been online for about a month. Is that a success?

Hi Bill, the forum is a success but before putting money into a PM module I suggest you give it some more time to see how it goes as I agree with Pugwash that there may not be enough contributing members at this point to warrant PM's   It is early days and new forums can fall away a bit after their first flush.  Right now how many PM's will be generated.  Probably only a small handful at the moment.  I've no idea how much a PM module would cost, but I would be thinking of how many PM's would be generated against the cost.   I think the forum is a great addition to the DroneBot Workshop articles and especially useful for the robot project, but I would not like you to spend your own money until you were sure.   As already suggested you could allow some sort of general forum donation to be made and out of any proceeds make a decision if a PM module is to be funded.

Well, since there's no donate button to click on I'm going to spend this week's allowance on a pizza! 

I'd send everyone a slice but since there's no PM function owl have to pass on that and eat it all myself. ?

@dronebot-workshop

My suggestion is to stick with your core competencies and stay focused.  Your core competency is the sharing of ideas.  This forum is a logical expansion of that and it's already a great technical platform for doing that.  Don't be tempted to add a bunch of bells and whistles that are going to eat up a lot of your time.  I worked for several Internet startups during my career and was on a constant treadmill of adding new features that nobody ended up using.  In fact, a couple of those startups on longer exist.  You would be far better off making your fantastic videos and driving people to the forum through them.

Keep sharing ideas and leave the sale of products to Amazon!

Posted by: @mjwhite

Don't be tempted to add a bunch of bells and whistles that are going to eat up a lot of your time.

I suggested before that he should get someone else to deal with the forum for him.   He could probably even get a forum member to volunteer to do that.

Posted by: @mjwhite

You would be far better off making your fantastic videos and driving people to the forum through them.

I agree 10,000%  Yep, that strongly!  Bill's detailed videos are what make his channel super great.  I would hate to see him start watering-down the videos due to spending time dealing with forum issues.  I mean the forum is great.  I'm personally thrilled that he started it so that I can now pick the brains of all his viewers. ?

So I'm really glad he started the forum.  But his videos are the GOLD.  Keep those golden videos coming Bill.  Don't let this forum water them down time-wise.