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DIY Projects, Communities and Cultures
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University share the results of a year-long survey studying DIY projects, communities, and cultures. The first ever large-scale survey of six DIY communities (Instructables, Etsy, Dorkbot, Ravelry, Adafruit and Craftster) explores the motivations and practices of 2600+ respondents. In addition to an academic paper, results are appropriately posted on Instructables — one of the studied DIY sites. Findings highlight creativity, learning and open sharing as key values embedded in modern DIY culture."
Fittingly, 2600 can be viewed as a do-it-yourself community that predates all six of those community by a wide margin. :)
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
Oh so now i know what xkcd's circut diagram is for. (xkcd.com/730/) It was used for collecting the data for this!
I found the results odd w/ respect to instructables and comments. I like instructables articles, but I actively avoid reading the comments because they are stuffed with morons.
Generally a couple kids asking for homework help, a bunch of negative trollers whining about safety or how the author is ignorant (worship me for I am fire marshal bill and someone with a room temperature IQ could be hurt, and also you are completely wrong in all your conclusions because I say so! Look at me! Look at me!), or utterly illiterate "mee 2 I agre w u" text talk that is still meaningless when converted to English.
Another thing I've noticed about instructables is I've gotten all kinds of ideas from making what amounts to homemade water park sprayers for the kids out of PVC pipe to a tasty sandwich made out of apples, cheddar, bacon, and sourdough bread. But real hard core stuff, things that takes more than a day and real work and skill, is never discussed. The guys whom make their own legal limit ham radio linear amps. Theres like two articles on electric car/bike conversions, but there should be more. It tends to be a site of talkers rather than doers.
Surprisingly community interaction did better than I'd have expected and no one mentioned the comment trolling team at instructables being a good reason not to upload and share.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Which part of Do it Yourself don't you understand~
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"View All Steps" is misleading. It's just the option to display all the steps on a single page. You can still click through each individual step. This may be because I joined way back when, but I was always able, as just a regular registered user, to "View All Steps" and download PDFs.
Instructables also rewards anyone who has their Instructable Featured with a 3 month Pro membership. If you want to, you can even transfer this to someone else as a gift.