Question: Are we seeing too many vendors on the pages, making challenges and pretending to be friends and stuff?
Write ***Y in comments below to vote Yes to the above question
Write ***N in comments below to vote No to the above question
We ARE planning to see lots of vendors products in a new components section that we are working on. But I am sure that will just be nice for all of us; Cool products nice to browse, and a nice place to showcase what you sell (unlike now where it is a not so nice list)
However, this vote is to get a feeling for your opinion, folks; Do we feel overtaken, are vendors closing in, poluting the feeling of "friends on LMR"? Because if so, we will kill them! (Or at least make systems where vendors can only have members post challenges for them, so we only have cool dudes to post stuff)
As LMR grows it will lose some of the "small family" feel. It seems natural to blame the less personal vendor-users for that, but kicking them out wont bring back the old days.
The components lists in the unread posts section bother me a bit, but not too much yet. I think the challenges, like the X-mos challenge, are great for this community.
So: as long as the vendors do not hinder the usefulness of the website. I vote to let them stay.
I can still see the LMR I love through all the vendor generated content. And I know how to filter out anything I am not interested in.
Also, some of the vendor contributed challenges generated a fair amount of interesting reading. Even if only two or three members actually end up submitting entries, these pages make for a lively debate on all kinds of subjects.
Let me give you an example. The XMOS and FingerTech challenge pages were quickly run over with true LMR discussions. They are, for lack of a better word (who me?), good conversation pieces. And they deserve a place at the center of our dinner table. Wouldn’t want to eat them though. There should still be plenty of room for my own plate. With the proper food on it!
ones with good customer relations should be more included then ones without good ones. mr. Xmos, DAGU, FTR, and a few others are fine, but all polulu does is dump parts into the catalog. i call that spamming. we should tell them that if we’re gonna play host to their entire catalog, theyve got to be a part of the family…instead of using us as free advertizing.
Components should be from us… as in “here be is a cool thing I found and here is the link…” So that would a ***N in terms of vendors.
On the other hand, could this be as simple as just setting up a isolated section on the site designated for profit-people? Not to mention, you could… I dunno… CHARGE TO POST TO THIS SECTION??? C’mon folks… I’m a Democratic Socialist, living in America and I am the one to remind you of capitalism???
I think for the most part vendors have contributed to this site, heck some are giving away merch to promote theire wares and hey, one even hired one of the guys here!!!
I think we’ve got it pretty good with the traffic that this site generates as well as the interest by the fact taht companies want us to use/employ our members!!
If anything I think that if we see something that we don’t like then we should make it known that it will not be tollerated.
Anyway, I’ll refer to my guidlines post that maybe we should revist and maybe lookin into a adding some guidelines for vendors posting.
I think some vendors have gone out of their way (DAGU) to make this a special community, while some of the vendor posts have provided nothing that I can’t already find by browsing their own sites-- Solarbotics, Pololu.
I don’t want to alienate the vendors that are out there to further the community, so I have to respond ***N to the question, but I think Chris may be on to something with his idea as well.
But that’s only if they can behave themself. I like the companies that are willing to help with robotic questions… their own products… and even other products! We’ve had some contribute to helping people with code, schematics and such, but then again… we’ve had some that only spam our components selection…
Maybe a limit to how many components you can have up at one time will help, but I’m sure that’s not the only problem.
I have to say though, CtC ideas about charging for well, advertising space, isn’t a bad idea, though we don’t want to take away some of the stuff that makes this site cool… the ability to make your own components and share it with out uber LMR community!
I say we put them on probation! Any more mis-haps and we need to make sure our Pimp-hand is strong, just in case we need to extend it! (don’t forget your baby powder!)
The behind-the-scenes movements are getting stronger and stronger. One of the many improvements that are in the works do exactly what is being proposed by Chris and others. I am not the programmer or the designer for it, but I think I can summarize what we want it to be eventually:
better organization of the component section the ability to treat different vendors with different policies some kind of appreciation system (digg voting, slashdot karma or whatever)
Please be patient while we tear up our lives to make all of this possible. And pay tribute to the real heroes of LMR.
I was warned of the advertising before joining this site. I do like seeing new things but know enough about google and Ebay when I go shopping. I think the members should have more control or make the vendors use the advertising section. I somehow have to make my hobby pay for itself but not too successful so far. Everybody has a smiling face when they want to sell something and alot of it is junk. Just my opinion. Let members sell or trade. Make some rules like how many robot made to qualify like at least one? I have noticed alot more advertising lately for sure. Like 50% guess. So I would vote to say yes to control the vending companys or isloate them to their own section. I have more respect for the home made robot then the one from the kit, but realise you have to start somewhere. I am new to this room dosen’t mean I am new to electronics.
but its so inconvenient to have to muck through truckloads of pololu and solarbotics stuff to find the one thing i need. IF we could divide the components into vendors and users, and then get pololu to narrow it down (who needs 6 pages of pre-crimped wires in every color of the rainbow, when it could be expressed as a single post)if we were smart in this, as CTC said, we could also make a buck or two. vendors with contests are cool…
*****NVendors havent broken**<br><p>***N</p><p>Vendors havent broken the rules because there arent any to break. AFAIK nobody has set down any guidelines on whats OK and whats not so we dont have the right to point fingers yet. If there already were rules, and they were broken, then we could kick up a stink.
But honestly what kind of rules can we make that wouldnt turn every company away? I think a tab on the top bar which seperates member content from supporting vendors content is more important than laying down rules. If you arent shopping, then don`t look, and even if the product pages are just a copy/paste from the website what loss is that? A huge catalog of products from all sorts of vendors means people search LMR first rather than checking 5 different companies websites.
