Morning.StarI cant say I've had a lot of luck with social media. I dont find it very social for one thing.
Hackaday is different. Hackaday is a home like the internet used to be nearly a quarter of a century ago. Much has changed of course, I no longer have to phone into a bulletin board on a 2400BPS modem for starters, and the engineers and programmers that dominated the boards are all here by the looks.
Those early days were heady, I remember using ICQ from its early text-only interface, watched as ASCII Art appeared, Smilies grew into Emoticons, and many slaps in the face with a wet trout scrolled up the screen. The chatroom got too crowded and turned into a Lobby for threaded chat with quizzes. Virtual drinks and presents appeared, it was another world altogether.
Speaking of drinks, I remember that being the death knell for me. The internet as I knew it was changing fast as it became popular. Saturday Night chatrooms appeared as people began to go online for entertainment, and the weekends became fraught with drunken football fans, and eventually that was every evening of the week. By the time Bingo Chat had arrived I was out of there and used the internet for research and email until MySpace popped up.
Then Facebook arrived and all hell broke loose. I tried it, and the feeling I got from it was to have my work stolen, my privacy invaded, and a channel opened for abuse from people who didnt want to understand me. It pushed me to the edge of a breakdown, and I deleted it after I realised that locking it down to private mode kind of defeated the object as well. Antisocial Media wasnt what I was after.
I have good days and bad days, I struggle with depression. With the eyes of a mad scientist I look at my hands, one an artist's, one a musician's, and wonder why I was made this way.
But since I joined Hackaday I've noticed no flaming torches that arent for lighting the way, and not a pitchfork in sight... It feels again like it used to and I am inspired.
To all the kind and cool people I've encountered, and those I've yet to meet... Welcome to my world.
Jez
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I'm not a fan of social media either. I had a myspace for a few years during grade school and use Facebook now. I use my Facebook profile as a collection of really dumb humor for my own amusement when the world gets me down. I just delete negative people and follow funny stuff. Most people use it as a platform for bragging.
HaD is different. It's my favorite place online these days. I read my daily articles, then check up on the .io side and go through my projects and try to update them. No judgement here, and I've had tons of good friendly feedback on all sorts of problems. I hope this place never stoops to the level of most websites. Most sites seem to exist purely for the ad revenue. If the majority of a web page is ads, I leave immediately. Even the ads on here are relevant and tasteful. This place is the best social site I know of.
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Hi Jefferson, thanks for your comments.
Hey theres nothing wrong with a little bragging I suppose. We wouldnt have HaD otherwise... But you are right, there is no judgement on that here and its glorious to look at. So many cool people, so many cool ideas I just feel right at home.
You know, I havent even noticed any ads on here they are that unobtrusive. But it is kind of hard to sell to geeks, they have an annoying habit of building a better one themselves using whatever they have to hand. It must really grate the advertiser's cheese when the little guy wins. ;-)
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Agreed! Need a bit of bragging, but it's mostly people who are proud of their various skills. I also love the little guys that float around here. The ones that say, "Nope, I got this", and make it themselves. That's how the world improves.
I spend a lot of my time thinking about the various problems in my life(there are many, rebuilding it now), and I come up with my own solution with no research or outside influence. I'll form the idea as far as I can, then check it against known solutions to see how I did. Part of this is my DIY Truck Camper project. I don't need a luxury home with all the heavy, expensive, amenities ye commercial versions come with. I just need a bed, a TV, and liveable atmosphere. I couldn't find one, so I'm just designing one myself and giving it all away. You follow a project like that on Facebook, assuming its posted, and they want to commercialize it asap and make their millions. I just want a comfy mobile home that everyone can enjoy and improve on. I think that kind of mentality is what makes the most pleasant parts of life so pleasant. :) I'm trying to recruit my geekier friends to HaD.io and have gotten one here so far. He likes it and it seems to motivate him to start hacking more. I think the community has a lot to do with that.
HaD is the place for me.
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Hey Jez, you are not alone here :-)
HaD is my favorite place (after "real life" encounters with the kids I teach to).
I learn so much and I can actually COLLABORATE with smart, creative, fun, and we all GET SOMETHING DONE, wow !
I hope this place will remain that way, but we know, if HaD changes deeply, that we exist and we can make our own private place, an invite-only, show-your-hack-if-you-apply site :-P
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Hi Yann, thanks for the follow... Yeah, I got that impression as soon as I joined; I think one of the points I was trying to make was that the reason social media is devoid of creative and and clever people appears to be that you're all here... Hi guys :-)
I dont hate facebook, or even the people that make it so. Its just that it is real life to the nth degree, a selfie and a cup of tea then snipe at some celebrity... I could go on lol. Not that I'm better than that of course, I'm just not into climbing the pile of writhing bodies to sit conceitedly on top...
Here I can be myself without Hey robot boy, you freak lol. And I wanted to say something about that without anger or gushing about HaD like a fanboy.
Which I am BTW ;-)
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Enjoy and "make" :-)
Currently I'm renovating my workshop so from 2017 on, I'll be able to prototype even more awesome stuff. I'll play with ECL using discrete UHF transistors for example.
What do you have in mind these days ?
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Spot on....Except I had to put up with 300 on my dial-up long ago and acoustic at that ;-) Love the art work :-)
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<perk> one you put your bakelite phone handset on, classic piece of technology!
--------------------> misses the good old days
Heheh... Cheers Mark. :-) Keep your eyes peeled then, that is often what serves me for a sense of humour. Like I said, it didnt go down so well on farcebook...
I'm planning on punctuating my pages with pop art lol.
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Hay Jez - I tried out farcebook a few years ago and want no part of it ever again unless there is a need for a gofundme page ;-) My wife is in a love hate type of deal with it and being disabled, she gets very upset with it but continues to use it. She to has depression and a lower IQ that leads to other issues. I have found my safe space here on HaD for the same reasons as yourself. Have a blessed weekend and will talk later :-) I really enjoyed your video project with Bea in the background :-)
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