What can we do to get more people involved in the general discussion forum? :)

I'd like to see your ideas for getting more people involved in the general discussion. If you're reading this and you're not a robot, what caused you to first get interested in the forum here on Shapeways? What would like to see more of?

For myself, I've been building things my whole life, so when I first heard about Shapeways I immediately started thinking about, "Hey! What can I build using their services!?" I also was just starting to get into sculpting jewelry. Back then though Shapeways resolution was low for silver and they were in Holland and it just wasn't too enticing. But when they started providing better resolution and came to the US, that's when I started looking into creating jewelry and participating in the forum.

I'd like to see more contests and for them to be consistent, not just here and there and being lackadaisical about it. I'd like to see the prize value go up and for Shapeways to invest in advertising them so more people will participate.

I'd like to see more communication about what is selling on Shapeways. It feels like a secret so deep that it can feel like there is a secret club for what sales and if you're not part of it then TOO BAD! HAHA! I now know what sells after hanging out here for years, but it shouldn't be that way. It should be more transparent and in the open. I feel like it causes people to shy away and not want to participate.

Right this instant there are lots of people out there thinking about Shapeways in one way or another. What can we do to get them to post their thoughts here?

What am i doing here?
I am looking at forum as source of information for learning process so when i came here sometimes i learn something, sometimes i teach something.... Also stalking other people work

Contests
If remember correctly there were weekly contests? As i saw it, week is not enough time because:
1. sometimes i found out about it after is too late
2. for people like me it take much longer time to get inspired to make some unique with specific theme...
3. lastly, maybe it was just me, results of these weekly contests were poor/ average mostly. Only few that deserve to win something. Maybe it is reason why it stopped? Or is still ongoing thing?

So maybe increase time from one week to one month could some these problems...

What is selling?
Surely it will be nice to see some statistics what category is best for business but i would not go into too much detail. It could cripple creativity as lots of people will just "copy" other peoples idea instead of creating something new.

No the weekly contests faded away. I think because not enough effort was put into it. Shapeways needs to hire a 17 year old girl who has spunk and energy and is on fire about making and conducting the contests. HAHAHA!

Yeah, perhaps a weekend, a weekly and a monthly contest would be cool. Something for every kind of person!

True, can't have everyone working in one area. Yet, being that it takes so much time to design something it would be nice to know what is worth working on. Even a list published by Shapeways stating what they'd like us to work on each month would be cool.

If they did that, the chance of it ever being a Model Train design contest would be roughly equal to zero.

The contests they had last summer were a good bit of trouble to think of and keep up with, and it was a bit difficult for designers that have their own pipeline to come up with things within just a few days. And, it probably would have worked better to run the contest(s) during the winter months rather than summer when people tend to be on vacation. That is of course, unless you're like me, and occasionally take a few vacation days just to do 3d design work <grin>

Well in that case it will need to be a nerd chick! HAHA!

Hmmm... How about that nerd chick ijustine they got to introduce their Made With Code campaign. She'd be perfect! HAHA!

Actually, she'll probably read this being that celebrities tend to search themselves to see what's up with their careers. In that case, HI IJUSTINE! HAHAHA!! Make us a model train design contest! K! Thanks!

Good topic.


I think the forum is pretty good as is, but it could do with some improvements (imo);
- discussed elsewhere, but the tech is not good. Improved features and searchability. There is more technical information on the forum posts than in SW's own pages, but it is not easily accessible.
- I agree with others that the forums link should be on ALL pages not just Design and Sell. One click access once you get to SW's site.
- More (and more timely) input from SW staff. It's no use us all discussing away on points that only SW can answer. SW get a lot of free user support here, and should invest a bit more time in the forums.
- Some recurring items from the Forums should be incorporated into SW's FAQs.

I think if the forums were more prominent on the site and maybe pushed a little more, you would get more visits.



100% no on a 17 year-old of any persuasion! More older voices are perhaps required to balance out SW staff demographics.

I am strongly in favour of more (any) competition, but I suspect everyone has their own ideal version. For myself, no more frequent than monthly (otherwise the quality and involvement suffers), and the subject should be design something concrete: e.g. toilet signs, something to showcase a material property, an iPhone case on a theme etc. Definitely not some 'write a story about how 3D printing changed your life' kind of ...stuff. Although this kind of guff will appeal to some people, no doubt. And the prizes are not important - vouchers, t-shirts, etc are fine.


I thought this too, at one time, but now I have changed my mind. It's not really appropriate for SW to give us this information. It's only because we have such good access to SW that you would think to ask this - would you ask a more traditional supplier the same? E.g. if you have a local casting workshop would you ask them for statistics and a breakdown of work they are doing for clients?

Interesting responses.

Yeah the feed does give hints, but one would need to watch it habitually for it to be very useful. How about add stats to the feed for the day or week instead of just the real time data.

No, I wouldn't expect that, but we're not 100% clients, we're closer to employees than clients, those that have a shop that is.

Perhaps they should try dealing with us designers in a fashion similar to how an agent works with celebrity talent. Like this, you make an account and in the process of making an account you get an interview about what you're capable of and then Shapeways works with you to assign prospective projects that will benefit both Shapeways and the designer. It doesn't even need to be based on Shapeways sales data now that I think about it. It could be based on general marketing research. Shapeways does do this to an extent for absolutely obvious things like a new iphone model that will be coming out, but what about not so obvious trends that one can only learn about by doing extensive marketing research. I think something like this would cause people to get more involved and also as a byproduct increase forum activity. Forums are a lot more fun when there are lots of participants. Like if we had 5 times the regulars that we have now it would be a lot more interesting and enjoyable.

I still say we need a Shapeways contest cheerleader though.

DO NOT THINK LIKE THAT , celebrity agents take 90% money of the artist.

That it is not the way a designer will accent to work and do things.

An artist can be just a simple artist : photoshoots and or simple singer that does not do : lyrics and just sing what they give to him/her and etc. Taking only like 20% of full work.

An designer it is making an 100% product and can`t expect to give more than 1 % or 10% on a thing to be promoted.

I would love more contests. And as already said by AmLachDesigns, with clear formulation of the subject. And for the price, it should be featured on the homepage. Therefore, it should be printed, maybe by Shapeways? Just in cheap materials. In that way, participating in a contest would really be change to promote your work and ideas. A weekend would be too short for such contests, so monthly would be great. And the subject of the contest could be based on what the marketing team would want as theme for the frontpage featured designs in two months.

I come to the forum to get inspired and enthusiastic for new design projects. The weekend contest really did that. Last months/weeks the forums lost my interest a bit. Might as well be that I'm just busy.

True Numarul7, it wouldn't work very good that way.

Daphne! Good to see you back!

Yes, it would be great if they could get back at it and do it better. How much profit is Shapeways making every month? A LOTTTTTTTT!! HAHAHA! They can afford to offer up a nice contest every month. That alone would liven things up around here. I loved trying to beat you on the contests! You're pretty darn good at them! So it was fun for me.

Yeah, I've been getting board on here, not busy, just board. *sigh*

And it's great to be back. My concussion isn't over yet, but I don't sleep 12 hours a day anymore

A good challenge needs some good competition. Maybe they stopped because it were always the same people participating. Not that it bothered me

When I saw your reply I knew you were doing well and that was a good feeling, cuz I think it's nice to see your contributions to the forum.

I just realized that the main reason there was very little participation in the weekend contests is because they were too short. It takes too long to create a 3D printable 3D model in a weekend. It's doable, but it takes the whole weekend! Numerous people complained about the contests being too short. If a month long contest were tried I think there would be enough people participating that it wouldn't be the same people so much. A monthly contest with a $100 to $500 prize would be pretty attractive I think.

As an artist, I am immensely interested in 3D printing. It is my new favorite medium (which is saying something after 10 years of digital painting). I came here because I wanted to connect with a community, stay abreast of new developments, solicit advice, hear people's opinions, and offer my own 2 cents on occasion.

I liked the idea of contests from the start. The problem is that they were not well organized or well advertized. Here are my suggestions to get more people to participate in contests:

1.) "Contests" should have its own forum section in a visible place (perhaps right under general discussions?). It would be a lot easier to stay apprised of what is going on and a lot easier to keep track of things.
2.) Have small, weekly contests but also consider having larger, month-long challenges with better prizes. *cough* design the Shapeways Gremlin contest *cough*
3.) Opt in/out email notification of new contests.

Personally, the reason I have not participated in the contests is because there's not much there to remind me they were even going on. Also, they did not seem very well organized. Those are my suggestions.

In my experience, people are the most likely to comment when there is:

1.) Controversy. This pretty much always gets people's attention and tends to garner a lot of comments. I'm not saying that's a good thing but it is a fact.
2.) Debates. Offer a provocative opinion and you can bet your butt, there will be people swooping in from all directions to agree and disagree. A lot of the time, these discussions tend to be very educative and enlightening. Maybe Shapeways needs a weekly debate or discussion topic? I know I'd participate. I love running my mouth.
3.) Room for improvement. People LOVE offering suggestions. There are probably a lot of people out there with really good ideas.
4.) Approachability. Shapeways forums can sometimes come across as unapproachable. You'll get someone who needs help or who is offering an opinion/suggestion and a lot of the time, they receive not much more than a yawn in reply.


That's my 2 cents for the day.

Excellent points!

Not sure I would agree with you on this - I'm pretty impressed in general with level of help people get here, even when they are asking stuff that has been asked a lot before, or asking in a way that there is not much to go on. Personally I have learnt a lot here, and received help when I asked for it.

Do I think SW could/should get more involved in these discussions? Yes. Often the posts mount up in a thread when some simple input from someone who KNOWS would answer the issue once and for all.

I always get answers.

Maybe I know how to ask ?

.

In and of itself, considering the medium and the nature of the way things are, Shapeways forums are decently approachable. However, I perhaps made the mistake of comparing Shapeways forums to, say, Blender forums or Deviant Art forums. I think it's a matter of volume. There are less people here than Blender or DA so less people replying. Unless there are just a metrick !@#$%^&*ton of lurkers lurking around out there in Shapewaysland.

I know I feel bad because the main reason I find myself in the Forum usually is to report a bug or see if one has already been reported.

The only reason I don't usually come and get involved in the discussions - time. If I am not designing something, I'm uploading it and modifying the details of it in Shapeways.

Having said that, Shapeways basically manages a composite of my designs for free so that the world can see them - I shouldn't need something to attract me to the forum, it should be here more often as a kind of 'civic duty' to help improve Shapeways if I can.