Sponsored Curated Lists?
zakqwy wrote 04/01/2015 at 13:48 • 6 pointsI was perusing the Lists section and noticed an _explosion_ of very similar lists. Rather than being differentiated based on subject matter ("keyboards", "telepresence technology", etc) they all relate to specific microprocessor platforms ("Atmel (R) AVR (R) Projects", etc). The list descriptions all read suspiciously like marketing copy (lots of trademark symbols and phrases like "industry-leading"); when I clicked through to a few, I noticed that they are curated by the manufacturers rather than individual Hackaday editors.
Hackaday.io staff: what can you tell us about these lists? What's in it for the manufacturers?
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OK, I'm coming in late... I admit I haven't really used Lists that much. For a while there I was checking the New Projects section religiously, but that too has dwindled as I'd gotten more involved in my project, and it seemed there were sometimes days between postings of new projects. That said, I'd intended on catching up on New Projects soon. A bit unrelated, I know.
That said, I do like the concept of Lists, especially as the projects start flooding in ever faster. I also like the concept of "curators" rather than some sort of automated system or "add this project to" dropdown. But I can also understand that it might be difficult to manage for them, and will likely only get more difficult.
Now, since I"m really, kinda, looking at Lists for the first time these past couple days, here're some immediate thoughts as they come to me: Yes, I noticed the multitude of TI lists before even seeing this Stack page... and, honestly, found it a bit frustrating that there seemed to be so many that they drown-out the very similar regular lists. e.g. something like "TI Motion Control" and "Motion Control", "TI Audio" and "Audio"... Again, I like the concept, but maybe companies should hold-off on multitudes like that until there's some way to sort them by company vs. by hackaday staffers? Something like that. Further, to be honest, upon seeing *so many* TI lists, and *not knowing* yet that there were company-sponsored lists, I initially thought "TI" was some sort of new catchphrase I hadn't yet picked-up-on. This from someone who has used TI products *regularly* for decade(s?) and has had an account with them for at least a decade. (IOT? TI? TITTL?). This is not to single TI out, but just an example that I happened to catch immediately from a brief glance before this .Stack was even brought to my attention.
Second, again, just upon initial browsing... It might be nice if the lists' descriptions showed the curator's name (/company?) on the main Lists page. That might help discern those from companies vs those from staffers.
More thoughts to come...
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there is a "curated by" on those lists :)
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Ermmm, I meant that it might be nice if "curated by" was shown in the list *of lists*... (at https://hackaday.io/lists )
Maybe even a sort (the lists) by the curator...?
Dude, man... I can only vouch for a few months, but I think the whole of HaD has noticed you've been strangely quiet lately! Hope you're having a good time in RL :)
<insert some list-related thoughts here>
Nah, the sponsored-curated-lists is an interesting concept. Not opposed. We'll see where it goes :) My only fear is we'll eventually have something along the lines of "NS-Logic" "TI-Logic" "ON-Logic" "Harris-Logic" lists, which could get a bit overwhelming. Then, yahknow, "xxx-Linear" and "xxx-Memory" and "xxx-Connectors" As it stands, my sdramThing project could probably fit under all those lists ;)
Oh, and, yahknow, in light of @zakqwy's comment about "if you aren't a paying customer, you're a product"... yahknow... if, e.g. @Texas Instruments or @Atmel Corporation, etc. feel so inclined, we ("hackers") probably wouldn't mind something like a point-system which could be used for additional free-samples, and/or (probably preferably) cash :)
(@Atmel Corporation, I'm looking at you, having allegedly had Free Samples available for quite some time, but somehow always seeming to prevent me from actually acquiring them, despite having basically dedicated the vast-majority of my electronics-related career toward developing/vouching for your products!)
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I'm sorry - that's my debug/support mode :D we got new customers and had to work a lot of features in - and this is the high time with a lot of work because it's the start of the watersport season... hope it makes sense.
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What do you think of moving this to
http://hackaday.io/project/5067-arbitrary-hackadayio-sponsor-scoreboard
??
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I'll add it to the sidebar!
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Okay, those links Mike gave were helping me to see what you mean. As long as I don't have to feel bad that I sometimes[always] buy cheap arduino clones - why not. I feel a bit jealous that their profile pages look so cool. Looks like a frankensteined profile/list/page thing. Anyway #Arduino AnyTracer is on two lists and I don't see a freescale sensor or an AVR :D I'll keep an eye on that, too.
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@Mouser Electronics has an integrated components search. Not bad.
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Everything does seem pretty legit! I think sponsors do add legitimacy and weight, but I don't think we should let them off the hook too easily. Its great Supplyframe has conveyed "how important adding value to the community is," and I would like to see more of that meaningful open source like interaction as content at Hackaday, and not just some links to the sponsors sites (maybe time will tell.) The "TI engineers building quadcopters" story sounds fantastic, but no hint of it here http://hackaday.io/ti, where I hoped to find such content, but found more robot like site links. Can we get impartial updates on sponsor activity, specifically at Hackaday, to show the overall positive impact they are making?
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I'm going to start tagging them when I'm looking for a hand or run into an issue with a product. Maybe we can start scoring them on response time? ;-/
Actually, let's see who's paying attention at 14:18 CST 4/1/2015! @Atmel Corporation, @Freescale Semiconductor, @Microchip Technology, @Mouser Electronics, @Texas Instruments: the first one to reply to this comment gets my next parts order!
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@zakqwy - fantastic!
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Fantastic! (This is the type of thing that should go in the sponsors updates page I was talking about.)
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@zakqwy You are one step ahead!
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bump
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Any really obvious ones? I've seen a lot of ICStation product/projects, but I thought that was somewhat okay, since the posts where still educating basics.
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Yeah, everything seems pretty legit actually. Most of the projects on the sponsored lists are ones that already existed on the site that happen to use those chips, and the projects by the chip manufacturers are definitely educational (kinda like app notes, I suppose). I also like the fact that the subject matter lists show up first, as they're more broad-based and a bit more interesting IMHO (although I think this is because the default Lists sort is by number of followers).
Something to watch, I suppose. I keep a close enough eye on new projects that I don't use Lists very often, but I'm sure less frequent visitors do.
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Hiya, Hackaday Mike here.
As part of the 2015 Hackaday Prize we have five sponsors: Atmel, Microchip, Freescale, Mouser, and Texas Instruments. They have their own sponsor pages and curated lists as part of this partnership (I'll include links at the end of this message in case you're curious).
As @zakqwy and @davedarko have pointed out, these do gather existing projects which share commonalities like using chips/dev boards of the sponsors.
In addition, I've been encouraging the sponsors to get their engineers involved. I'd love to see what those folks are working on (for instance, it was great seeing TI engineers who are building quadcopters around their hardware at MFBA last year). Even more exciting would be to see those engineers sharing their skills in the comments.
If you have projects you would like to see on any of those lists feel free to send them a direct message with the project link.
http://hackaday.io/atmel
http://hackaday.io/freescale
http://hackaday.io/microchip
http://hackaday.io/mouser
http://hackaday.io/ti
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Thanks for the quick reply, @Mike Szczys. I think I speak for a decent portion of the HaD.io community when I say we're always on the lookout for profit motive; the old mantra "if you aren't a paying customer, you're a product" describes so many free Internet services that a lot of folks here are a bit jaded. Having said that, you guys have been fantastically transparent and helpful with regard to heading these concerns off before they ever materialize.
I'm excited by this development for a few reasons. Firstly, the fact that you folks have five big-name sponsors for HDP2k15 adds legitimacy and weight to the competition--that means more competitors and even better projects. Secondly, getting the chip manufacturers on board (and with luck, encouraging their engineers to start posting projects and responses) would truly revolutionize the DIYer's world--we'll have direct access to people that can answer our questions, and the positive publicity they'll receive from providing help to the community will help justify their sponsorships.
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I'm really glad you feel this way.
We're quite fortunate that our parent company, Supplyframe, shares our vision for Hackaday. They were able to convey to the sponsors how important adding value to the community is and the sponsors are totally on board with the concept. I really see this as a situation where the companies are *interacting* with us (us == the engineers and hackers of our community) in a meaningful way rather than just marketing to us. I for one especially appreciate it when I get a chance to hear from their engineers. I have met a lot of FAEs from different companies at trade shows, there are always a lot who are into hackaday which gives me this image in my mind of a meta-community that spans jobs, age, countries, and continents.
Aw, now I've become all sappy!
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brought a tear to my eye... I think this satisfies my "more to come" from above.
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@davedarko, @frankstripod, @esot.eric.wazhung, @Stryker295, @Peter McCloud--what do you guys think?
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oof! A bit overwhelmed!
I'll have something to contribute in the next day or so :)
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