TALES FROM MAKE: ONLINE
BY GARETH BRANWYN
Make a Connection and
Share Your Story Online
This year at Make: Online we’re focusing on connecting the amazing people who make up the
growing community of MAKE readers and visitors to our websites. We’re revamping community-related
services on the sites, adding more participatory features, and generally making a more inviting place to
not only read about making, but also share your own projects, connect with fellow makers, and feel good
about “learning out loud.”
Here’s a little checklist of things you can do to get more involved with the maker community online.
; Register on the site. To encourage thoughtful,
open sharing of ideas and questions, and create a
more welcoming environment for exploration and
learning, we’ve written new Community Guidelines
and instituted a “be nice” commenting policy, on
both Make: Online and CRAFT. View our guidelines
and register for your user account at makezine.
com/comments and
craftzine.com/comments.
; Join the MAKE Forums. Our new community
manager, Matt Mets, is moderating our MAKE
Forums area. The forums are a great place to discuss
projects you’re working on, ask technical questions,
share your expertise, and discuss any and all aspects
of making. Join in at
forums.makezine.com. CRAFT
has active forums, too, at
forums.craftzine.com.
; Post to the Maker Events Calendar.
We’re spending more time marking up our events
calendars with awesome DIY happenings around
the country and the world. We do weekly calendar
roundups on both the MAKE and CRAF T sites. If you
know of any events, post them to
makezine.com/
events and
craftzine.com/events.
; Subscribe to the Make: Newsletter.
We publish monthly newsletters of all-original info
and insider news about Maker Media and what
trouble we’re currently trying to get ourselves
into. You can subscribe, for free, at
makezine.com/
newsletter and
craftzine.com/newsletter.
; Submit your projects. We’re always on the
lookout for great content, to post to the websites
and to run in the magazine. If you have a project we
should take a look at, just use our Suggest a Site
forms at
makezine.com/go/suggestmake and
craftzine.com/go/suggestcraft.
; Get your group in our Community Directory.
Want to connect with makers near you? We’re building an astonishing directory of Make: City groups,
hackerspaces, Dorkbots, TechShops, and other
making/DIY groups — makers really are everywhere!
Check it out at
makezine.com/groups, and to submit
your group, email
mattm@makezine.com.
; Run a Mini Maker Faire or start a Make: City
group. Imagine how cool it would be to run a Mini
Maker Faire in your town. To learn how, check out diy.
makerfaire.com. And if you’re interested in starting a
local MAKE group, email
mattm@makezine.com for
more details.
; Join the conversation on your favorite
social media:
» Twitter:
twitter.com/make and twitter.com/craft
» Flickr:
flickr.com/groups/make and
flickr.com/groups/craft
» Facebook:
facebook.com/makemagazine
and
facebook.com/craftzine
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