My personal Make-A-Wish experience and Linus' point on waste and consumerism.

[japers]

After Linus' very heartfelt message on Youtube it got me thinking if there was anything that could be done to tackle the problems he highlighted around waste. The video itself was very relatable. I think anyone who has ever suffered a burnout or a career crisis can recognise themselves in that video. For me, the part about leukaemia really hit home.

 

When i was 7 years old i had leukaemia and i also had a 'make-a-wish' granted. Id fallen in love with computers during my very long hospital stays where they had a windows 95 machine in the family area. So my make a wish was for a laptop computer which at the time (2001) was a pretty expensive old deal. I think it was a Samsung Q20 or X10 and it ran windows ME and it gave me years of entertainment. Playing the first Harry Potter game on a trackpad in a hospital bed was not easy!On the off chance that Linus is lurking on the forums, just know that make a wish really does make a difference to kids and whatever he did for the child and his family would have made more difference than you could imagine. It breaks the monotony of hospital stays. Kids growing up with cancer have to grow up and mature very very quickly and so respite from that situation which takes over your entire life and the lives of those around you, is absolutely vital. 

20 years on i'm working as a full time CGI Artist and make a wish is directly responsible because i got into playing roller coaster tycoon on my laptop and eventually got into modding and then 3d modelling and now i have my degree in Visual effects and have been working in industry for the last 6 years. 

 

But the point about waste got me thinking about some sort of LMG online marketplace where tech could be resold. Built from the ground up to sell components scrapyard wars style but with more reliable product information and perhaps even pricing recommendations based on component market value. It could help recycle old tech as well as allow for a somewhat more trusted and informative experience than with ebay and other sites. Yeah there could be problems. But i'm sure there were a thousand reasons not to start the floatplane project in the first place too. Its not a perfect solution. But at least it could help tackle some waste problems and it'll make for a good new series of scrapyard wars if it took off. Plus they have 10 million viewers who are 100% the target market. 

 

I mean scrapyard wars is essentially fun to watch because of how difficult it is to find good used tech deals.

So who better to create the solution?

 

Just a thought.

Thanks for the videos!

[IAcKI]

The problem I'd imagine is just the variation in the audience. 10million people isn't that much against all the amount of people there are even in 1 country. And even then the percentages it would appeal to a even smaller (Only 600,000 on the forum). It just comes down to the logistics of it, and there are already much better options in everyone's relevant country.

[japers]

2 hours ago, VegetableStu said:

we technically have a classifieds subforums, although it'll really depend on what needs to be added

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/forum/89-classifieds/

(also it has a 100 post requirement to keep out spam and scambots)

 

as for making another craigslist or ebay, i feel like there's too much choice of platforms out there. general habits have to change first, i guess ._.

Im talking a proper marketplace like ebay or facebook marketplace. Habits don't need to change when you have 10 million people you can direct advertise a new platform to. The platform just needs to be there and be better than what is already out there if it is to address any of the waste issues we all face.

[japers]

1 minute ago, IAcKI said:

The problem I'd imagine is just the variation in the audience. 10million people isn't that much against all the amount of people there are even in 1 country. And even then the percentages it would appeal to a even smaller (Only 600,000 on the forum). It just comes down to the logistics of it, and there are already much better options in everyone's relevant country.

True but not everyone who wants to sell stuff would find it necessary to register on the forum. Theres no platform currently that i can see thats specifically a used tech marketplace.

[IAcKI]

1 minute ago, japers said:

True but not everyone who wants to sell stuff would find it necessary to register on the forum. Theres no platform currently that i can see thats specifically a used tech marketplace.

But I'm using them numbers as a guide to how many would subscribe to this. People are very funny already about buying used tech, especially if it's there parents buying it for them etc.
Then going to an 'unknown' marketplace will just add to the hurdles to overcome. It a nice idea but real world I think it's too niche for the scale it would need to be.

[japers]

29 minutes ago, IAcKI said:

But I'm using them numbers as a guide to how many would subscribe to this. People are very funny already about buying used tech, especially if it's there parents buying it for them etc.
Then going to an 'unknown' marketplace will just add to the hurdles to overcome. It a nice idea but real world I think it's too niche for the scale it would need to be.

A forum membership count doesn't really relate in any way to the number of people that might need a used tech marketplace because its so much broader in terms of market appeal. People being funny about buying used tech on ebay and craigslist doesn't equate to people being funny about buying used tech from a global community of tech savvy people through a site made by a company with one of the biggest tech followings online.

 

The niche of having a specific used tech marketplace from a reputable and well known tech youtuber adds heaps of value especially with the level of professionalism and knowledge that the LMG team have when it comes to hardware. If People buy from craigslist they aren't that worried about where they buy their used tech.  Like i say its just an idea to tackle waste and i cant see any route towards less waste other than reusing, "running them into the ground" and recycling.

[Z3R0B4NG]

One of the waste issues that bugs me to no end is the current trend of putting battery packs in EVERYTHING (that you charge via USB cable) instead of plain old rechargeable AA batteries.  

 

Batteries are special waste, not electronic waste, they get collected separately... yet in my wireless gaming Headset, in my wireless gaming Mouse, in most of my Gamepads, and of course Smartphone and Tablets anyway... the integrated batteries are EVERYWHERE by now and you can't tell me that there is some army of little dwarfs taking all the tech products apart to sort out the battery packs, most of that stuff ends up in a landfill in some 3rd world country somewhere.  

Also a good percentage of the products will just be thrown in the trash because the battery finally died, or would you bother replacing the battery pack in a Corsair VOID headset?  

 

And i hate it much more when i need to connect my Wireless Mouse to a USB cable for hours instead of just grabbing an AA from the box, clack, clack and its full again.  

 

That trend is getting worse.  

 

I would love if some Reviewers like LTT would start to shit on this trend in the tech industry.  

 

For me it is probably worse, because i got a BUNCH (more than 10) of these Retro style gamepads from 8bitdo and Retro-bit and they all do this as well .  

 

sorry for going full off topic here but... this bugs me and it bugs me even more that no one seems to give a crap.  

Or is this problem only in my head and they got it all figured out already and nobody told me? 

[RonnieOP]

28 minutes ago, Z3R0B4NG said:

One of the waste issues that bugs me to no end is the current trend of putting battery packs in EVERYTHING (that you charge via USB cable) instead of plain old rechargeable AA batteries.  

 

Batteries are special waste, not electronic waste, they get collected separately... yet in my wireless gaming Headset, in my wireless gaming Mouse, in most of my Gamepads, and of course Smartphone and Tablets anyway... the integrated batteries are EVERYWHERE by now and you can't tell me that there is some army of little dwarfs taking all the tech products apart to sort out the battery packs, most of that stuff ends up in a landfill in some 3rd world country somewhere.  

Also a good percentage of the products will just be thrown in the trash because the battery finally died, or would you bother replacing the battery pack in a Corsair VOID headset?  

 

And i hate it much more when i need to connect my Wireless Mouse to a USB cable for hours instead of just grabbing an AA from the box, clack, clack and its full again.  

 

That trend is getting worse.  

 

I would love if some Reviewers like LTT would start to shit on this trend in the tech industry.  

 

For me it is probably worse, because i got a BUNCH (more than 10) of these Retro style gamepads from 8bitdo and Retro-bit and they all do this as well .  

 

sorry for going full off topic here but... this bugs me and it bugs me even more that no one seems to give a crap.  

Or is this problem only in my head and they got it all figured out already and nobody told me? 

Why would you want more AAs thrown in the trash though?

 

A rechargable battery (even the crappiest ones) are going to outlast AAs.

 

So we would just have more waste. Even if its "special waste" instead of e waste....its still more waste