AVR Freaks

I know that Cliff didn't want the discussion here, but since the other thread isn't focused entirely on social media I thought I'd comment here.

I'm seriously in the 'what's social media' column. To me the fact that 72% of the public is on social media doesn't mean a lot. What percent of those are engineers or folks who what to learn about AVRs or would purchase Atmel products?

I don't want to oppose social media just because I'm old and set in my ways, I'd really like a good reason to use any of it and all my investigations to date says it is mostly a time sump for folks pretending to be busy. I seriously don't have a lot of extra time. Yeah, I've got enough to waste here on occasion, but I can also learn a lot here so here I am. Forums have made sense to me since back in the pre-Internet days of dial up bulletin boards. You get to communicate directly on a specific topic. The other stuff just seems like a sort of personal billboard for putting up all your 'ain't I great' stuff. I'm probably not understanding it properly.

Facebook makes sense to me for keeping track of a small group of friends or family, but I don't see the business connection. I can see how twitter might make sense for some businesses were folks need to check in several times a day, but for individuals it just seems like a kind of vanity. LinkdIn, yes if I'm in the job market, which I'm not, or want to keep track of former colleagues, which I don't.

Maybe somebody can explain to me why they use any of that in the context of using Atmel products. What am I missing?

But I also think that any social media added on here would likely be harmless. I can't imagine how any of it would be implemented to force anyone to use it. Atmel already has a Facebook page and a twitter feed - neither of which I have any personal use for - so I can ignore it here as well as there. And as long as it has an optional nature to it, I say go for it. It might help those folks who like those kinds of things and I don't see how it could hurt those of us who don't think we need it. Maybe if some of it is implemented here, some of us might even find a use for it and move into the 21st century. Or not.

Smiley

Well, since the Social Media comments seem to be accumulating here, not in the other Thread...

Of course I could cross post on both Threads!

I think Atmel needs to do Facebook, Twitter, etc., for the college students / future engineers and programmers.

It is the "norm" for them.

I doubt many older engineers & programmers will be attracted as new members to the AVR Freaks family because of social media connections.

I don't care if the new forum has social media connections as long as it is not obtrusive for those who don't wish to be bothered with that aspect of the site.

I have a Linked In account, and use it infrequently. For most people I need to touch base with I already have their eMail address through other means.

JC

I have a congenital skin condition that prohibits the facial motion necessary to smile (Basset Hound Droop Syndrome). However, I can think of a couple of people here you can kill for me, and I'll use my fingers to hold my lips in a fairly reasonable simulation of a smile (though I will also drool a bit). I'll post pictures of my smile after you post pictures of the corpses. And you have to figure out who the victims should be. I'll smile when you get it right.

Smiley

+1, (Well +100, really)

Don't wish to lose this with the new forum.

It is intriguing and educational to see how others have tackled embedded projects.

JC

I wasn't offended and was just playing along with the gag. However, the Basset Hound Droop Syndrome is a real medical condition that I suffer from. It is bad enough that I can't smile, but when my wife puts a dog biscuit on my nose and says 'stay...' well it is just plain embarrassing. Some times she walks off and forgets to come back and I spend hours cross eyed and drooling and not getting any work done. That's usually when I log into AVRFreaks, since I can't do anything useful anyway.

And speaking of hijacking a thread. Freaks links to social media - why is this any different than it is on any other website with those links? I can ignore them here just as well as I ignore them there. They only take up a little bit of space usually at the bottom of the page. Folks who don't want to use them don't have too and folks who do want to use them have the opportunity. There are lots of different kinds of folks on the Internet and if some like that sort of thing, why is it a problem for those of who don't since we aren't forced to use it?

So 72% of us won't use it, is that any reason for the links to not be available to those who might? After all, it is the Atmel folks who will have to keep those other sites functioning, not us.

Smiley

This forum is attracting a lot of new people and I feel like many of the regulars are not very noob friendly.

May I suggest adding subforums for newbies, etc?

I guess that I am an old fogey rather than a curmudgeon.

Yes, sometimes I get grumpy too.

We do try to distinguish between the genuine question and the "idle student". I try to point the student in a sensible direction. However, some horses fail to drink!

Regarding Facebook etc. I have no problem with small icons placed out of harm's way. Then it is a personal choice for the reader.

OTOH, I get very irritated by this:
http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/arable/us-harvest-will-be-crucial-to-grain-prices-experts-claim/57979.article?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NLGeneral

If you are using a narrow window, the "BIG ICONS" obscure the article that you are trying to read.

Other websites place advertising links obtrusively. So that you inadvertently click on them.

IMHO, it is just a question of sensible web-page design. Provide an attractive page that conveys the information and is still pleasant to use.

The advertising will still be effective. For a start, you have not annoyed the prospective customer.

David.

I do use FireFox.

I do agree with Jim. i.e. web-designers should test pages with a wide variety of browsers.

Jim, on FireFox, you see 4 large icons on the left side of the page. They obscure the text on a regular window. They are unobtrusively in the margin if you have a full-screen window.

Yes, of course punters can turn features on or off if they make an effort. However, most will leave everything at their default. (I am a regular punter)

David.

Surely the purpose of these websites is to irritate the user with obtrusive adverts, discover your personal habits, and shower you with SPAM.

If the webpages are well written, they can be of benefit to participants and non-participants.

I suspect that once you open the door, we will all get flooded with personal emails for "becoming my FaceBook friend" or lover in the case of Mr Samperi.

David.

I think that Smiley has explained things perfectly.

I am terrified by the "unknown". And especially of being someone's "friend" when I have never met them.

David.

I would like to use this opportunity to repeat something I said elsewhere - I would really really like a voting system here on AVRFreaks. I trust that the majority of the members will vote up the good stuff and vote down the dreck. This will help users get quickly to the good answers and might help the dreck posters to learn how their posts appear to the overall consensus.

Just because anybody can type in anything doesn't mean that it has the same value as what someone else contributes. And folks, especially novices, really have no way to curate the comments since the reason they are asking the question is that they don't know the answer. All you have to do is use stackexchange a few times to see how incredibly valuable this can be to getting good answers.

Yes, it does cripple the social aspect that some folks like hang out and comment on every thread whether they have anything to say or not, but I think that kicking that to the curb is a good thing. And maybe someone who is always batting less than 0 will get his feelings hurt and not contribute as much since folks are voting his posts down, but that too is a good thing. How else will folks learn to provide good technical help if they don't get feedback on the quality of their contributions?

I take as a given here that the majority of contributors know quality and [redacted] when they see it and will fairly vote their opinions.

So PLEASE push a voting system to the folks designing the new AVRFreaks. IMHO that single addition will do more to improve the quality of answers and shunt aside the [redacted] than anything I can think of.

Smiley

I also think folks are over worrying about this. If I'm understanding Atmel's intent,then we are talking about a few unobtrusive buttons placed on the site. We already have a bunch of buttons that I never use. Look at the top of a thread and you'll see 'member list' 'user group' and 'rss' - I've never used any of those. Look at the base of any post and you'll see 'profile' 'pm' 'www' and 'quote' - I've used 'pm' and 'quote'. Also notice the very bottom of the thread there are another group of buttons, most I've never used. I never even realized we had a print button until I was looking at the long pill at the bottom.

What I'm saying is that we already have a bunch of buttons that most of us probably never use. A bar of social media buttons can equally be ignored by those of us who have no interest. They won't hurt us and they might help the folks teethed on the Internet.

At some point the folks at Atmel should probably expound on the concept 'social media' so we'll know what they are really talking about. I'm hearing stuff here like 'if they start following me around I'm jumping out a window!'

The following around stuff is inherent in many common Internet facilities like Google, and used to place ads on places that want those sorts of ads like Hotmail. But I can't see any reason for AVRFreaks to have them. Why would a company allow ads from other companies on one of its websites?

Also, there won't be any 'following around' because Atmel has no way of knowing where you've been like Google or Bing do. They might pay Google or Bing to place microcontroller ads on sites visited by folks who have previously searched for microcontroller terms - but that has nothing to do with AVRFreaks.

AVRFreaks isn't some site trying to make money off the eyes of visitors by selling them to advertisers. Hackaday and similar web sites with no corporate sponsorship must make money to keep the lights on so they do sell advertising that is likely based on social media behavior, but think it through - what could Atmel possible get by selling the information it gets from us posting on AVRFreaks?

So bottom line IMHO, the problem here among the coffee club is fear of the unknown - we really don't understand social media very well and what we do know, we hate. However, I'll bet that we all are exposed to social media features on other websites and never even notice them and those are the sorts of features AVRFreaks planners are studying: innocuous button links that don't have to be used.

So Atmel should ASAP explain what social media means to the planners lurking in the dark shadows that surround AVRFreaks so we can stop jumping every time a rabbit farts.

Smiley