Lets Make LMR Great Again!

Community General Discussions
7

Franciscodr we are both in

Franciscodr we are both in the same boat I have many items I want to create posts on that can help others.

I think that if we all work together on this as a group and create a plan we will not fail.

I am always reminded of baby steps, if you take off more than you can chew you will fail but if you take a small bite at a time you will always come out ahead. I look forward to seeing any and all ideas and then I think we as a group need to give our opionions and create a plan.

Belive it our not placing some adds on CraigsList can help from a local level but the word can spread quickly. Maybe even contacting our local Maker shops and letting them know. There are many ways to accomplish bringing in more users.

8

That’s all so true… I do

That’s all so true… 

I do have a mini hexapod to finish, it’s been years since I started. 

9

SB usage

The SB worked best when it was a low tech chit-chat about projects with referrals to forum entries for details. Allowing anyone to view seems ok but I would suggest a 2 week waiting period before giving write privileges. Perhaps you could add a button to the SB menu that a new user could push indicating that they would like to join the conversation and if a vetted member is online they could push to allow temporary access.

I see a lot of projects posted that have just the initial entry. No comments by others or follow ups by the poster.

10

SB usage

"No comments by others" especially this fact hits lot of the new members in my opinion. They’re keen on share their builds or ideas and then nothing happens. Not even well done or keep going. Sometimes a litle attention or a simple question to the post would inspire the poster further more and let his heart beat stronger for LMR.

11

Sandamol great point you

 

Sandamol great point you have made, a little more encouragement goes a long way.

Your comment is appreciated.

12

Don’t fix what isn’t broken.

 

There has been no problems whatsoever with the shoutbox as member only, so why trying to “fix” it.

13

AT-2 what I would like to

AT-2 what I would like to have them do is to add back in the Date/Time Stamp of the message so we are not responding to message that are hours to several hours or maybe even a day old and it would also show who is active on the SB. They have come up with some other things but they will be discussed.

14

If you hover over the text,

 

If you hover over the text, you should see the date stamp. Does this help?

15

** You are correct. I was**

 

You are correct. I was under the impression that it was visible to users that weren’t logged in. What we added was the on off button for the shout box. 

What if the shoutbox would be visible but, with text such as log in to share and other cool text without it being actual member conversation? Just making it more visible to users that are not logged in.

16

Yes this is great Julie

Yes this is great Julie thank you.

17

The Light Bulb Just Lit Up

I came up with and idea for LMR as I would encourage all user to do so we can make this our home.

How about a Private Workspace where you can invite people into to work on a project together.

And how about a whiteboard so that we can visually display something during the chat.

We could have Work Rooms and then invite people into those to work with us on a project and even set up a scheduled time to meet on a certain day(s) to work on a group project.

18

Chris your input is

Chris your input is appreciated.

I am not sure what you are talking about when you say " we didn’t title posts with thinly veiled references to current politics".

Look forward to hearing from you.

 

19

Whew…

"Thinly veiled political"  --Really? You didn’t notice that your post was labled “Make LMR Great Again”?

Ok, I will take it at face value – “Make ‘x’ Great Again” is a slogan used by the current President of the USA. It is a phrase that, well, 51.4% of folks find divisive. Put simply, it is a phrase that is (could be, might be, is) injecting politics into this forum. I mean, it’s just something that we (in the past) we would not have tolerated. Seriously, did you title a post, “make ‘x’ great again” and didn’t notice the reference to current politicics? Really? C’mon, Really?

20

Far fetched!

Are you serious? Quite a few billion people on this planet don’t care about Trump or his politics whatsoever. To claim that the sentence “Make LMR great again” would be a hint to American politics is just insane. I don’t know what you have been smoking, but please for your own sake stop using it!

21

Yes.

The idea that “Make America Great Again” and “Make LMR Great again” could be considered similar could only be noticed by someone using drugs. Sorry --I gotta head out and find more drugs.

22

My expectations and concerns

 

Glory days are gone… I guess the site/community that made me go deep in this hobby will never be the same. 

Important people are gone: it’s like when you lose a body member… you’ll never be the same.

But I continue to visit MRL every day, and, fortunately, are still here many good and talented people.

It won’t be the same… but it does not mean it can not be good … maybe GREAT! For this, we’ll need the cooperation of users and the new owners.

For now, I have just a few things causing itch in my brain:

1. Let’s Make Robots URL Re-Direct (https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/lets-make-robots-url-re-direct) - Someone sometime in the past (when RobotShop acquired LMR) said that LMR could become a simple side blog of RobotShop’s site. Well, I can not remember who said that and the exact words, and that was just speculation at that time. But seeing this URL Re-Direct made me think about it again and I got worried. Well, becoming LMR just a blog, probably I’ll not be here anymore.

2. Get the most out of LMR (https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/get-most-out-lmr) - The “quality” of posts declined. People invests weeks and months in their cool projects, but can’t take a half hour to make a good post, that their projects deserves. I would appreciate some kind of content moderator… or, better, a “first-post” approval.

3. News About Product Reviews (https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/news-about-product-reviews) - I can’t see, what was promised, happening. I know it’s difficult to maintain, and I guess the expectation of RobotShop was frustrated… for example, people taking too long to post their reviews (I even took about six months to complete a review). But people taking too long to post or making low quality reviews, may be affected in future calls. But certainly reviews are an excellent marketing investment.

I expect some words from RobotShop. See you guys.

23

Changes are coming

Hello Chris, I am Cameleon,  # 1 here at RobotShop ! We are all here to build this community and bring it further. We want to look forward, not backward.

We do not want to go back into a debate about who did what in the past. The intentions have always been good so that LMR becomes a more reliable source for all, young and old, beginners or experts. I am convinced that you can continue to contribute to this community. I think it is just a question to be open-minded and have respectful discussions.

We have the ambition to build the largest online community in the field of robotics. You will get more details soon and this will start with the appointment of a full-time community manager. A lot of discussions will be done about what we want to build together. Many ideas are already on the table and we want to be sure to listen to everybody and not forget anything. We will do surveys and ask for the opinion of all members.

It is a great moment to stay close and observe what will happen. It is even more exciting time for those embracing changes who want to help build something positive, something with more influence and more impact in the world.  Stay close, be active and share your opinions.

24

Thank you for your comments

 

Thank you for your comments Dickel. Here are answers to your questions:

1. Let’s Make Robots URL Re-Direct (https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/lets-make-robots-url-re-direct) - No worries, we have no intention in making LMR a simple side blog. Our vision is to make LMR the largests robotics community where members can meet, share and learn about robotics. LMR was brought under RobotShop so it can benefit from the traffic RobotShop receives and in order to improve the ranking of the LMR website. This is so everyone wins. We want to continue building the LMR community and making this place an area where robotic enthusiasts can meet and share. We will be opening up a full-time position for a community manager very soon. He/she will be in contact with LMR and make sure your ideas are heard for us to make LMR a better place for all. We will put the resources we need in place in order for LMR to grow and we hope you members will be here along the way to help out.

2. Get the most out of LMR (https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/get-most-out-lmr) - This is certainly an idea that can be discussed with our community manager. We do already verify the first post to make sure that it is not spam. We can therefore work together to teach new members and improve their posting skills to showcase their projects.

3. News About Product Reviews (https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/news-about-product-reviews) - We do still feel that call for reviewers are a great way for members to learn new products while at the same time bringing more content to the community and marketing for products. Unfortunately, the community did not engage in this initiative and as you mentioned, reviews were posted many months after receiving the product if posted at all. We are shipping shortly a few products from our last call for reviewers: https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/call-reviewers-megapi-motion-controller

We do hope that the community will be able to receive great reviews from the lucky reviewers including you. :slight_smile: If this picks up again, we are very open to making one every month.

We do hope this helps. 
25

Make it great again?

Whats wrong with it now? People are posting stuff, lots of members, shoutbox being used for live interaction. People move on, new people come in, new stuff gets made.

I was dismayed to see some references to a “proper” post. My thinking is “it’s better to see a little information and content than to not see any content at all”. Maybe everyone doesn’t want to make a full post, just a quick reveal or a breif introduction to a project. Perhaps they will stimulate a conversation, or put some new ideas out for others to build on. There should not be criticism over how much info must be revealed about someones own work, if thats what they choose to reveal.

I was here during the “Glory” days…Near the end before the new ownership, and things were not all that glorious at times.The talent pool at the time was immense, some of the finest on the planet. Sometimes when you get that many talented people together in one place, egos clash, there are scuffles but it was mostly pretty civil…mostly.

Things change, people change, ideas change. It is what you make it.No need to remake it.

26

New user
I’m new user and was hoping to learn and get some questions answered it unfortunately it said my post was under review because it was my first post or it could be spam. As a new user I recommend you do away with that and do what all the other sites are doing that I hate with a passion and prove your not a robot. If it’s just a one time thing I’m fine with. I’m really not planning on posting my stuff again if it doesn’t show up. If it doesn’t show up I feel I wasted my time joining this site sorry to say but this is not norm for me as I’ve joined severa forums before and never had this type situation. Hopefully my question will be posted otherwise I’ll be looking elsewhere. This looks like kind of place I’d like to join depending on what happens.