
Maker Faire halts operations and lays off all staff - sohkamyung
https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/07/make-magazine-maker-media-layoffs/
======
airbreather
Couple of points.

When I was a lad, making electronics meant you could listen to shortwave radio
or talk to people around the world, when there was little other opportunity.

Plus, things like cars were still hackable with a few transistors and passive
components, you could make a customised indicator timer, or turbo timer or
what ever, and it was probably way cheaper if you knew what you were doing.

Fast forward, very little you can now make is cheaper, or creates a
functionality not otherwise available retail/off the shelf.

Now for me, it was great - my dad was a radio amateur, I grew up with the
those things, he lectured at uni and I had access to PDP-8 and 11 when no one
had a computer at home and most people interacted with punch cards.

I spent literally years of my younger life tinkering and discovered/learned by
direct exploration and experimentation all sorts of things eg the
rectification of copper oxide, Q factor and how to get it and use it, all the
things you can use as earthing and antennas in radio systems (some pretty
strange things in there), I wrote and sold Atari 400 games when I was 13 on,
learning things like how to write a floating point library in a 6502 in
minimal space, create physics engines for games, just to name a few, the list
goes on.

Now I have worked as an electrical engineer designing and building large and
small industrial power and control systems for over 30 years.

Most days I draw down on some former hobby or tinkering experience in some way
in my work.

Not sure the maker movement we have seen recently will create the same
trajectory for too may others, maybe I am wrong, but a lot of what I did was
because there were no equivalent consumer goods and the best info available
was at the local library or maybe the odd magazine if you were lucky.

~~~
WalterBright
When I was a boy I'd stop by the local TV repair shop and they'd give me old
TVs. I had a lot of fun with them, like randomly swapping the tubes around and
seeing what would happen. My mom was sure I was going to electrocute myself.

You're lucky your dad could mentor you with that stuff. I didn't know anybody
who knew anything about electronics, so I just floundered around with it. That
all changed when I got to college, where there was electronics expertise
everywhere and I was finally able to build things that worked.

For example, someone finally showed me how to solder properly. What a
difference a couple minutes of help makes!

~~~
airbreather
Strangely enough I got almost no mentoring, he was like, the stuff is all
there if you want to use it, I got taken to the uni labs on weekends and the
family went to the library once a week religiously.

He was both a lecturer of maths and computing, but also taught teachers how to
teach. His attitude was that if you were really interested you needed to do it
yourself and learn through successes and failures and build up all the
concepts in your own mind - it was the concepts, not the facts that made all
the difference going forwards.

Now this is so much more true than ever, because facts and calculations are
available as a "service" effectively on the internet.

Abstracting the concepts and synthesizing new ones through extension,
application of lightly related techniques/ materials/methods, cross
pollination, etc in your mind is the truly irreplaceable skill that leads to
disruption and innovation.

~~~
WalterBright
I did better with cars, for the simple reason that when I took them apart, I
could see how everything worked. With electronics, you need an oscilloscope to
see the magic. All I had was a VOM.

Ironically, there were lots of kids taking cars apart in high school, so I
could help and get help. But in college, nobody, and I mean nobody, was
interested in cars. It's still hard to find anyone who is, hardly anyone has a
modified car. My (medium modified) dodge wouldn't merit a glance in my high
school daze, but today people go ape when I drive by in it.

~~~
antisemiotic
>With electronics, you need an oscilloscope to see the magic. All I had was a
VOM.

The price of test equipment is one of the reasons I went into software despite
having an EEng degree. Tinkering with a computer is way cheaper, and I sort of
gravitated towards stuff that had software in it, then ended up realizing that
I don't really care about electronics all that much. The degree served well
for getting a job in writing firmware, I guess.

------
reilly3000
I got into Maker Faire and making things, then I ran out of time. I had to
learn Kubernetes. My kids were interested then they weren’t. My son is very
technical and expressed interest in robotics, but he keeps coming back to game
development and blender, and that is fantastic. I have a half dozen micro
boards gathering dust for projects I was going to Make. I guess I haven’t seen
value enough in my daily life from my little creations, and fundamentally
making something novel is remarkably difficult. I’d really like to wire that
gear up with MaxMSP or processing and make some beautiful sonic spaces, but
for now it stays on the shelf. Is this just me or did something fundamental of
that kind of experience undermine the maker movement in general?

~~~
_hardwaregeek
I've noticed that it's hard to get really great returns on maker projects.
Maybe it's my impatience but software provides me something immediate that's
cool and useful. Besides, debugging software is worlds easier for me than
debugging circuitry. Also, why are microcontrollers stuck in the C++ world?
Stuff like CircuitPython is changing that, but it's not that ubiquitous. I'd
love an ergonomic and mature Rust ecosystem on Arduinos, or even a _gasp_
JavaScript runtime. Shouldn't chips be fast enough for this? I'd love to run
some basic web stuff on an Arduino.

Adafruit has been driving a lot of usable, rewarding electronics. They've been
pushing LEDS (mostly WS2812 and APA102) in usable, prepackaged form factors. I
really love their LED strips that are already diffused. They're beautiful and
immediately usable. They're a little expensive, but I use their products to
try out my ideas. But besides them there's not a lot of companies who make
physical hardware appealing and available.

Side-note, why aren't there LED strips with a 3.3v logic level??? Almost all
microcontrollers have a 3.3v logic level but APA102/WS2812 have a 5v logic
level. Very annoying to convert.

~~~
madengr
C++, hell, I’d say C. The more abstraction, the less reliability. My group
would never use anything but C in our embedded projects. I think it’s the
“move fast, break stuff” attitude of non-embedded developers that has poisoned
everything.

~~~
aswanson
C++ is a trash language; somebody said it's object orientation is like trying
to make an octopus by stapling four more legs on a puppy. It allows devs to
abstract to the point of absurdity and obfuscates intention. C is much more
hygenic, imo.

------
pontifier
I "run" a makerspace...

I put that in quotes because its barely running, and I've basically quit.

Wealth innequality is extreme. The people who can afford it buy their own 3D
printer or laser, do. The people who can't afford them, can't afford to pay
dues.

Everybody wants to donate their broken junk to the space, but nobody wants to
give us cash to pay the rent.

~~~
applecrazy
I believe the easiest way to alleviate this issue is to pool together capital
to buy machines that can’t be purchased by individuals. This encourages more
affluent makers to join and pay dues.

~~~
corysama
That was the business plan of TechShop. It didn't work out in the long run.

In SF, the TechShop space is sort of reborn as
[https://theshop.build/](https://theshop.build/) Also,
[https://www.noisebridge.net/](https://www.noisebridge.net/) is still cranking
along.

~~~
kqr2
What makes noisebridge more successful? It seems like they have a smaller
space and less machines than Techshop RIP but host a lot more meetups.

~~~
detaro
My impression is it's more a community like most hackerspaces, less "tools as
a service" most commercial makerspaces are seen as, so people are more willing
to volunteer time or resources.

------
bkraz
It's a real loss. It likely could have survived as a bootstrapped business,
but being venture backed meant either large growth or death. Dale hints at
this in the article, and the choices Maker Media has made over time make more
sense knowing the pressures of investment were top priority.

~~~
PopeDotNinja
I didn't know it was venture backed. I am having a hard time imagining that as
a swing-for-fences, 100x-1000x return kind of business. It sounds more like
the kind if thing where a cash strapped business works out a long term deal
with an understanding property owner who has maker kids constantly asking for
a better 3-D printer.

~~~
momokoko
If you knew anything at all about their funding you would know thats not at
all why they got funded. Print is crazy expensive and eventually the muse ran
out.

~~~
skrebbel
Can you elaborate? "Print is expensive" isn't a great reason for an investment
fund to pour millions into a magazine publisher. What was the potential
upside?

~~~
VLM
Consider that the washington post was purchased for $250M. That was about four
months current revenue. Admittedly Make Magazine is great but probably not
pulling in $700M annually.

If they could have convinced a "famous tech billionaire" to purchase Make as a
vanity project / property ...

------
blhack
I’ve had a minor bone with make media over their ownership of the term
“makerfaire”. To me, a makerfaire is a generic term that has absolutely
nothing to do with the magazine.

Our local hackerspace tried to organize a makerfaire, and when we found out
how much we had to pay to make media to use that name (I don’t remember the
specifics, but it was enough to make us all reel back a bit) we ended up just
changing the name to maker “fest” instead.

It’s very sad that the magazine is also dying :(, but I have always been a bit
salty of make media’s attempt to own the term “maker”. Perhaps this saltiness
was more common in the community. It honestly soured me against any of their
products.

I still think that what they did was amazing, but there was just always that
little sourness in the back of my mind when I’d recommend their publication to
anybody. I think there is a lesson in there about branding. To my mind,
allowing thousands of volunteers all over the world to throw “maker faires” is
like a dream come true for a magazine like that. It’s a huge amount of
advertising and brand association for them. If it was me, I would have put
together an open set of graphics and styles for people to use at all of the
maker faires, to make sure that every single one of those events was
associated with my magazine.

~~~
octorian
> I have always been a bit salty of make media’s attempt to own the term
> “maker”

The concept of "people who build stuff as a hobby" is not really new at all.
The coining of the term "maker" is, and honestly feels a little awkward to me.
However, its possible they were part of the coining of that term, so its
probably okay that they tried to capitalize on it.

Maybe if we had a more general/less-branded term to use, it wouldn't feel so
forced.

~~~
TylerE
It seems not only forced but a bit back-handed. Like a certain connotation of
a lack of...rigor.

Like "coder" vs programmer/software developer.

~~~
NikolaeVarius
I mean, as an engineer by BS, makers have a "i'm not a engineer" vibe with it.

------
asmithmd1
I was a Make magazine subscriber since the second year and gave several gift
subscriptions. I contributed a couple of small (unpaid) pieces to the
magazine, and was an exhibitor (also unpaid) multiple times at the NYC Maker
Faire. I thoroughly enjoyed the Maker Faire set-up days and thought they made
exhibiting worthwhile. It was like having a back-stage pass to the Oscars of
Makerdom - all the stars were there and happy to talk shop. I knew I was
creating free content for them that they were profiting from but thought I was
getting a fair deal.

My subscription lapsed just about every year for some glitch or another and
they were unable to convert any of the gift subscriptions which should have
been very easy sales.

My opinion about supporting Make Media changed after the RealSexyCyborg
incident in the winter of 2017:

[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kassycho/a-male-ceo-
has...](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kassycho/a-male-ceo-has-
apologized-after-saying-that-this-female)

Bunnie Haung (who I met at a Maker Faire set-up day) vouched for her and Dale
still persisted in slandering her. I let my subscription lapse and quit going
to the NYC Maker Faire. 2017 was the Maker Faire highest attendance and has
been declining since then.

~~~
SexyCyborg
>My opinion about supporting Make Media changed after the RealSexyCyborg
incident in the winter of 2017:

Thanks, the damage was and is pretty bad- and long-lasting. But, "be like
water" and all that. I'm slowly pivoting to hardware development. Studying
welding and CNC operations now also.

But- as far as business dealings with Make my one direct experience, in an
area I'm qualified to talk about is that their China strategy was simply
awful. Just textbook how to fail in China. They chose a Chinese partner that
did not understand Maker culture, was incentivized to not support it (even
curtail it), and let them run the Make brand into the ground during a time
when billions of RMB was going into Maker initiatives:

[https://theasiadialogue.com/2016/05/26/makerspaces-for-
the-p...](https://theasiadialogue.com/2016/05/26/makerspaces-for-the-people-
chinas-approach-to-cultivating-an-entrepreneurial-mindset/)

Not just government grants, but parents willing to pay generously for after-
school hands-on activities that cultivate creativity. Lego absolutely nailed
it, they were and are the model for Make to follow:
[https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2188280/bric...](https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2188280/brick-
brick-store-store-danish-toymaker-lego-builds-its-empire)

I told Make all this last year. Even with all the shit they pulled- I want
Chinese kids to have something better than factory jobs making shanzhai shit.
I will talk to Make or anyone else if it means more creativity here. I am a
true believer- I would make a lot more doing literally anything else if I
wasn't. I offered to get Make legal representation, connect them with the
investors that were asking for an introduction- just at least hear them out.
Nope. Patronizing and dismissive. They were convinced their current Chinese
partner had "lots of guanxi" and had it all figured out. It was a huge, huge
missed opportunity for absolutely no reason at the absolute height of demand.
Now, of course, the Maker market has cooled off:
[http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1003171/made-in-china-the-
boom...](http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1003171/made-in-china-the-boom-and-
bust-of-makerspaces) and things would be much harder.

Make seems to make very bad business decisions, driven by enforcing an in-
house ideology and social hierarchy that really has no relation to the Hacker
ethic at the heart of the Maker movement.

~~~
erk__
There are few companies I look up to as much as LEGO, they had a bad financial
time in the 0's, where they had to sadly sell off the parks. But now they have
really found what makes them special again. Including expanding to new markets
like China. It came as a pretty big surprise for me that they got some Lepin
factories closed down and raided by the Chinese authorities. They are as you
say a good example of a company that knows how to work in China.

~~~
SexyCyborg
>It came as a pretty big surprise for me that they got some Lepin factories
closed down and raided by the Chinese authorities. They are as you say a good
example of a company that knows how to work in China.

This is becoming more and more common. Adafruit is another example, really
good IP protection in China so no one has knocked off their boards. I have a
Chinese IP lawyer I recommend who is great at this, but unfortunately most
foreigners feel American IP protection is sufficient so won't spend the little
bit it takes to protect themselves (better) in China.

~~~
burnsideb
> Adafruit is another example, really good IP protection in China so no one
> has knocked off their boards.

Could you please (briefly) elaborate on these protections or point me in the
right direction to look, ie articles and/or search terms? I mean absolutely no
disrespect but as a westerner without any real knowledge of China I only know
the stereotype of China being like the wild west where everything gets ripped
off. I'm happy to do some research to learn more about it if you could advice
me where to look!

~~~
SexyCyborg
>I mean absolutely no disrespect but as a westerner without any real knowledge
of China I only know the stereotype of China being like the wild west where
everything gets ripped off. I'm happy to do some research to learn more about
it if you could advice me where to look!

No offense taken! It seems crazy but things change fast- and yes we still
steal loads of stuff and tend not to respect IP not registered in China. I
have not found a really good write up in English, I've been meaning to get
together with some local friends and do something. But yeah- totally ok to be
skeptical, we don't have a stellar track record

------
mcshicks
I was surprised to find out that they were backed by venture capital. When he
says that "I’m committed to keeping the print magazine going and the Maker
Faire licensing program.” I'm assuming that is for the various other maker and
mini maker faires that are organized outside Maker media? I think it would be
great if they could reorganize as a non profit and continue with a scaled back
operation. I also wonder if by doing the interview with the media they are not
trying to strengthen their negotiating position with their creditors. I've
attended a couple of the Bay Area maker faires, and several ones in San Diego
and while there definitely has been a dropoff is attendance and exhibitors
(both quantity and to some extent quality) I still think it's a good event and
has a lot to offer. I think it would be good if they also had some exhibits
focused also on repair and reuse. The last San Diego County Fair I went to I
think the neatest thing I saw was some guy from a local phone repair shop
fixing phones.

------
mankyd
Not indicated in the current headline is that it appears that Make Magazine is
halting as well. From the first paragraph:

> [...] Maker Media, the company behind crafting publication MAKE: magazine as
> well as [...] Maker Faire, [has laid] off its entire staff of 22 and pause
> all operations.

~~~
rrauenza
I wonder if they'll be able to fulfill the N-magazine subscription I paid for
when I bought my ticket this year?

~~~
0xcde4c3db
Traditionally when a magazine goes under, the publisher sends you the
remaining number of issues of some other loosely-related magazine. But since
Maker Media isn't a traditional magazine publisher I'm not sure what they can
do in a similar vein.

------
blablabla123
Maker Faire was a really cool event, I also exhibited there once. The barrier
to show something used to be actually quite low and it was easy to get in
touch with people dealing with similar topics.

On the other hand I never understood why that had so much focus on kids stuff.
Of course it's easy to get attention from kids as long as things move, blink
etc. But this stuff isn't really sophisticated, neither are the associated
workshops - of which there are plenty.

If you think about it, it makes no sense because kids don't have money and
complex projects require actually a lot of planning and deep understanding of
the topics involved.

I think they should have focussed on more advanced projects. In fact a lot of
projects both at Maker Faire but also in the Maker scene in general are quite
unfinished. This can be nice when it comes to art but technical projects are
most interesting when they reach MVP / release status.

~~~
camillomiller
This is an issue I always found was diluting the Makers' movement: everything
was mostly focused on beginners.

------
upbeatlinux
There's been some of talk of trying to own the "maker" space rather than
fostering "maker" spaces. I suppose that's part of the problem.

I subscribed to Make for a few years in the late aughts but let my
subscription lapse because I stopped having time to tinker. It was a great
medium to learn until it wasn't.

I suppose many events coalesced over the years leading to its shuttering

\- proliferation of YouTube DIY

\- shuttering of print media and electronics stores

\- cost decrease of prefab devices

\- cost decrease in means of production

\- bundled kits

\- "democratization" of means of production (3d printing, etc)

\- Make attitude shift from "hacking" to selling you shit / custom brands

This sucks for the maker community and Make folks but is a serious win for
anyone still soldering on or trying to foster the hacker / maker mentality.

------
mrlambchop
A totally naive point of view, but it would be awesome if some players in the
maker space that are profitable (Adafruit, R-Pi, Arduino etc..) could band
together and form a non-profit to keep this effort going. The maker community
is generally so very non-corporate that I'd hope a partisan organization would
be easy to form and run with out individual agendas or products getting
involved in any overwhelming way.

------
airbreather
With a bit of further reflection, I have a 15 year old that lives for
computers esp games, taught himself multiple computer languages from Youtube
and Khan etc. He actually writes OK code and thinks about it the right way.

He won bits and pieces like Minecraft Mod of the Month, the school EMITS
(STEM) prize, at a school that specialises in it etc etc

I thought he was going to program games, but he has decided he wants to be an
electrical engineer (which I am) still not sure of the exact motivation, I
have a pretty good life with lots of interesting work, maybe he hopes for
that.

But, if he wasn't so highly motivated towards computers, I think I would tell
him to spend the equivalent time he would spend getting a 4 year or 6 year EE
degree and learn to make fine hand crafted shoes. Send him to Florence. Some
big money in custom shoes if you build a name and quite rewarding if you like
that sort of thing.

An Arduino isn't going to keep my feet warm, dry and stylish, for $800 (or
even $5000 in extreme cases) a pair.

And that need isn't going away because Arduinos exist.

~~~
codingdave
Funny you should mention shoes - my wife was demoing making socks at our local
mini Maker Faire last year. There is a small, but devoted community of people
who use their machine shops to build modern versions of the antique hand-
cranked knitting machines used to makes socks. She has a room full of them,
and it is a great blend of modern tech, antique machines, and hand crafted
goods that was perfect for a Maker Faire.

We're interested to see what fallout this has on such local gatherings,
whether they will continue or not.

~~~
kilpikaarna
> There is a small, but devoted community of people who use their machine
> shops to build modern versions of the antique hand-cranked knitting machines
> used to makes socks.

Whoa, what? Okay, super interested in this. Especially after seeing so many
local schools and universities auction off or scrap what probably amounts to
tons of old-iron textile processing machinery.

Please let me know if you have any relevant links! Would appreciate muchly.

~~~
codingdave
My wife is the expert on it, but I know this is the main company she works
with for her new machines:
[http://stores.erlbachergearhart.com/](http://stores.erlbachergearhart.com/)

(She also has a collection of antiques she has picked up over the years.)

But really, you can find most of the links you would want if you search for:
"circular sock knitting machine"

------
deng
In Germany we have a German edition of Make:, which is done by Heise Verlag
(of c't fame), and they seem to be doing fine (and there is no VC involved).
It seems they have licensed the trademark (it was called "c't hardware hacks"
before) but operations are done through the Maker Media GmbH. They also
organize Maker Faires all over Germany, so I guess it is possible to do this
and make a profit, at least in Germany.

[https://www.heise.de/make/](https://www.heise.de/make/)

~~~
fyfy18
It sounds like the wrong type of business for receiving VC investment.
Expos/conferences can make good money, but I expect it's a few magnitudes less
than what an investor would want as a return. I wonder what the pitch deck
looked like when they raised the investment.

------
AstroJetson
I've been a "maker" since I was a kid. Same Ham radio, dad tinkered with
stuff, best friends family ran a lawn mower repair business that others have
chronicled.

Now most of the things I make are electronics with mostly a CPU, and some way
to talk to the remote device but 90% is code. Woodworking is via either my own
tools, or a friend's shop.

I'm on the board of a Maker group and our two big things is rental
(pontifier's comment) and our insurance. It's sad to see people pay $400 for
an Apple Watch and then whine about a $10 a month shop fee.

Interesting thing is Public Libraries are becoming Maker Spaces (not a TM)
with printers, laser cutters, sewing machines, etc. Our county built a new
library with an "innovation center" in it with all this stuff.

A local museum runs a "Fair for Makers" (again not a TM) that this year had 22
exhibitors in their main building and about 40 outside. Also had craft brew
and food trucks, all for $5 a person. No fee to present so it was a nice day
for everyone.

Sorry to see them go out of business, I think they started something very
cool.

------
binarysolo
Huge bummer, I loved it as a participant. Didn't realize it was a venture-
backed business... for some reason I thought it was a nonprofit.

~~~
beenBoutIT
It had the feel of a non-profit. It's too bad they can't rework Make magazine
into something PBS would be into.

~~~
anticensor
The fairs can be reworked into something non-profit, though.

------
ummonk
Between this and the tech shop bankruptcy, is there a broader issue with
financial viability in the maker industry?

~~~
beambot
Tech shop as a public resource could probably be better as a municipal,
library-like entity. Any attempts at this model working?

~~~
URSpider94
Look around at your local public library. Most of them are barely hanging on,
except for the ones that haven’t made it.

I don’t see cities investing the hundreds of thousands of dollars it would
take to build out a maker space, not to mention the money to staff it, run the
training courses, maintain the equipment and pay for the insurance.

~~~
applecrazy
I know of a local library who's actually going through with this. They have a
grant and tons of dedicated volunteers to design curriculum and plan out the
space. I hope to see that project succeed.

------
dekhn
I went to the maker faire for the first time some 6 years ago when my wife
asked me to, it wasn't something I really thought I'd find interesting. When I
got there I Realized I was dropped into a community of like minded hackers and
builders and art makers. It lead to a real epiphany and I ended up joining a
team at Google that ran their Maker Faire presence. Over the subsequent years
I built and demo'd some really cool things including a scanning microscope
made from a shapeoko, a fully interactive Google Doodle, a demonstration of
the North American solar eclipse. I learned a ton of electronics and how to 3d
print and laser cut. I went back this year and while Google had a booth, it
was scaled down a lot, but still filled with cool projects done by googlers in
their spare time.

I was always unimpressed with Intel's high budget spectacle (run by an
external marketing firm) and I have to conclude that the indie portions of the
maker faire, which aren't particularly cost-effective, are ultimately the most
interesting parts. I saw a guy who built a self-solving rubik's cube- servos
inside ([https://hackaday.com/2018/09/24/self-solving-rubiks-
cube/](https://hackaday.com/2018/09/24/self-solving-rubiks-cube/)) and met
with people who grind their own telescope lenses, etc, etc, and have tons of
admiration for their passion and abilities.

With all that said, Make was never particularly well-run and we kind of saw
this coming over the years.

~~~
pixelrevision
The art minded part of it is what is really important to me. Hopefully someone
can figure out some way to make that profitable (or at least sustainable) in
the future. There is no shortage of tech conferences but I do not see a lot of
gatherings where people share and talk about their exploratory projects that
are done just because they feel like they would be interesting.

------
Kagerjay
That's sad to hear. I went to my first makerfaire last year, and I got to
experience some of the most amazing things ever

\- Making my own T-shirt through a heat press

\- Watching battlebots fight live in person. I got to see how battlebots were
maintenanced and designed. And take a look firsthand on how the Kraken (one of
the battlebots) was built from prototype to what it is today _(it uses a air
compressor which is kind of weird)_

\- Seeing all sorts of cool cosplay

\- really interesting side projects - micro-3d photography and photo stiching
of insects, 3D gif makers from 30 cameras in a single room using python,
arcattack music from tesla coils, zoetropes, etc

\- K-12 local community projects - kids were teaching adults how to solder,
make DIY type of stuff, etc.

There's lots more to be said but makerfaire is one of a kind

~~~
jjoonathan
> it uses a air compressor which is kind of weird

If you want lots of mechanical power in short bursts, compressed air is a
winner, because compressing air is a very good way to store lots of energy
that you can release quickly, and it can be coupled into mechanical action
without bulky coils.

Industrial tooling (you've heard air tools in your local auto shop, probably)
and heavy robotics love the stuff.

The big downside is noise, which explains why you might not encounter
compressed air in your day-to-day life, even though it is every bit as
fundamental as, say, high voltage power transmission.

~~~
Kagerjay
Air compressor was weird to me because most battle bots AFAIK use a hydraulic
systems, Kraken is one of the few to use compressed air. Actually, to be
precise they use SCUBA tanks used in ocean diving.

Also they got a cool logo and have their own font-face

------
dopeboy
I went to the one in San Mateo a couple weeks ago. It is the only time in life
I have seen hobbyists, tinkerers, professional engineers, entrepreneurs,
hippies, cosplay fans, university students, and kids under one roof.

------
URSpider94
It poured rain at this year’s Bay Area Maker Faire in late May, which is
absolutely unheard-of. I had a really bad feeling when that happened that it
might be the end of the venture. The cash outlay to run an event like that
must run into the hundreds of thousands, and if attendance was cut in half,
then they lost their shirts on it.

~~~
bsimpson
> Dougherty said that despite rain, Maker Faire’s big Bay Area event last week
> met its ticket sales target.

------
inflatableDodo
> _" 1.45 million people attended its events in 2016. MAKE: magazine had
> 125,000 paid subscribers and the company had racked up over one million
> YouTube subscribers."_

This should be able to pay for 22 staff.

~~~
paxys
Not if you also have to get your VCs the return they are expecting.

~~~
bubblewrap
I don't completely understand the logic. After all, if they shut down, the VCs
won't get anything, either. So why not keep it running and reap at least
little rewards.

~~~
paxys
Once you take the funding, you have to spend it all on expanding operations,
new staff, marketing, promotions etc. If you then can't generate a profit,
unless you raise more rounds the increased expenses are going to kill your
business. So in this case the VCs cut their losses instead of giving them more
money.

------
equalunique
The reality is that this isn't the kind of venture that brings in money, and
that's not as much an indictment against Maker Media so much as it is against
the adverse conditions of which any venture is up against. I.e., we live in a
(flawed) society. At least the ethos behind the Maker movement lives on.

------
kyeb
I was gifted a subscription to their publication for years as a kid, but never
got as into it as I wanted to. I loved reading about what others had made but
felt like I never had the experience or expertise or money to make things
myself. In hindsight, I probably could have done lots of cool thints.

When the subscription expired I didn't renew. This makes me so sad to see now
- I feel like there's a world where I would have been extremely into this
culture, and I feel like not having this publication around will prevent
others from becoming that.

~~~
beenBoutIT
Make and the reprints will forever be one of those things that's inspiring to
read. In reality, outside of Chinese factories there aren't communities of
mechanically inclined tech savvy people interested in spending their time
putting together other people's EE projects. Anyone capable of completing a
Make project is unlikely to want to follow along and retrace someone else's
project unless there's a real incentive to do so, such as saving money or
building something that's impossible to buy.

------
mathattack
The first Maker Faire I brought the kids to was awesome. Over time they got
more expensive, crowded and less fun. The kids complained so much at the last
one I decided to stop taking them.

------
PopeDotNinja
Bummer. I hate seeing cool & quirky things go down the drain.

On a recent visit to SoCal, I saw a billboard for the Renaissance Pleasure
Faire. I haven't been in years, I'm no longer a local, but I was happy to see
it still going more than 30 years after I first heard of it. Hopefully it's
still as much fun for people experiencing it now as it was for me back in
highschool!

------
propter_hoc
Does anyone here have context on the pitch that got them $10 million in
venture funding? Hard for me to envision how that could have worked, but their
VCs must have had a pretty articulated investment thesis.

------
kosei
> "Dougherty said that despite rain, Maker Faire’s big Bay Area event last
> week met its ticket sales target."

Why would you set a target so low that meeting it still results in bankruptcy?

------
danans
Maybe we should go back to shop class in public schools. For me at least, this
was my earliest exposure to making things, at it set off a lifetime continuing
curiosity.

------
xtat
Nothing of creative or artistic value will survive in the Bay Area - I'm done
trying to fix this wasteland.

------
rpmcmurphy
This seems like a predictable outcome in a consumerist society driven by
planned obsolescence and the need for infinite growth.

------
souterrain
_They’ve been paid their owed wages and PTO, but did not receive any severance
or two-week notice._

Are there any VC out there that have ethics standards around winding down a
failed venture, especially towards termination of employees?

~~~
foobiekr
That’s on the founders and management, not the VC. You can choose to plan
ahead and make sure you treat employees _and customers_ fairly based on
tracking your expenditures and reserves or you can run into the wall at full
speed.

We did this. It wasn’t that hard but it required a lot of honesty. Having been
through it I’m always shocked when startups fail with no warning.

------
crystaln
This seems like the sort of social good organization that should be revived as
a non-profit with government support. This is such an important organization
for the future of education and economic innovation.

------
ineedasername
I kind of wish they'd tried to restructure and reboot with some sort of crowd-
funded initiative. Though perhaps they considered and discarded the idea for
good reason.

------
stuart78
I took my kid to the most recent one in the Bay Area, which was fun. And
crowded. And a bit expensive. Too bad it wasn’t working out, but glad we got a
chance to go once.

------
TaylorAlexander
Maker Faire did so much good. No matter what happens, I know thousands of
people saw a Maker in themselves because of MAKE and Maker Faire. I know it
inspired me.

------
CalChris
Things don't last forever but it was impressive that Maker Faire got started
in 2006 and survived the Great Recession which hit the Bay Area particularly
hard. I went to _the_ Maker Faire twice, the first time being especially
magical. But I never went to any of the sub Faires. I think like Tech Shop,
expansion was never going to be sustainable.

Again, things don't last forever but I'm grateful for what it was, when it
was.

------
redbonsai
Worked there for a couple of years and really loved it. The people were
wonderful, and the Faires were an incredible experience. It will be missed.

------
shanev
Radio Shack should buy Maker Faire.

~~~
dymk
Only if both get acquired by a Yahoo/Barnes and Noble merger

------
deevolution
Makerfaire as an experience was great. Food, wonky projects, competitions, and
overall a fun event to hang out with friends, connect with others and learn. I
would say kill the magazine and focus on improving the event experience and
focus on community building and find a way to reduce or eliminate the
dependence on corporate sponsors.

Maybe the community has changed or moved on or matured and makerfair has
served its purpose. Maybe this marks the end of an era and it's time to move
onto something new. I went 4 years in a row while in undergrad but stopped
attending after graduation I think because it was getting a bit stale. Seemed
like lots of projects year after year were simple iterations or very similar
to previous ones. Also it felt like at some point there was a transition from
wow look at this funky science/tech/art project to hey do you want to buy my
product?

------
mattnewton
I could not understand this news the first time I heard whispers of it. I’d
been to makers faire many times and they showed every sign of slow growth and
tons of enthusiasm. It took me this paragraph to understand what happened:

> “It started as a venture-backed company but we realized it wasn’t a venture-
> backed opportunity” Dougherty admits, as his company had raised $10 million
> from Obvious Ventures, Raine Ventures, and Floodgate.

> “The company wasn’t that interesting to its investors anymore. It was
> failing as a business but not as a mission. Should it be a non-profit or
> something like that? Some of our best successes for instance are in
> education.”

------
lloydde
Coincidentally, I found myself on Obvious Ventures earlier today and was
impressed to see they backed Make:. [https://obvious.com/portfolio/maker-
media](https://obvious.com/portfolio/maker-media)

That brought back fond memories of early Make Magazine collaborator, I think
editor, Phillip Torrone presenting at one of the first WordPress WordCamps.

------
nemild
I thought this was remarkably self-reflective:

> "It works for people but it doesn’t necessarily work as a business today, at
> least under my oversight"

------
briandear
Their faire in San Mateo was crazy expensive. Kids tickets (for even 4 year
olds,) were $30 and adult tickets were $50. Parking was ridiculous at $35 per
day, despite this being San Mateo and the events center having plenty of
parking. Parking for the Oakland A’s and Warriors is cheaper than that. The
proximity to the Caltrain was advertised as a “10-15 minute walk” despite the
distance being almost a mile. With several small kids and it being rainy that
weekend, the thought of walking a mile in the rain wasn’t very attractive only
to pay $220 for two adults and four kids under age 7. Helpfully there were
bicycle instructions from San Francisco in case someone thought that might be
a good idea. For being billed as a “family friendly event,” It was anything
but, just on the logistics front alone. It’s like the organizers are detached
from reality and live in some kind of dream world where $245 is a fair price
for a family of 4 with parking. That’s about double what I pay to go to Major
League Baseball games with the family. I get it, they don’t like cars, because
climate and all that. But some of us live in reality. To get to the Caltrain
from my house in Mountain View, it’s a two mile walk. So with kids we’d have
to load the car to drive to the station, so we might as well just drive to San
Mateo.

My point is simple: tickets and parking were insanely priced and it’s no
wonder that the overall business failed because clearly the management had
some trouble reconciling reality with their perception of their own value.

~~~
flomo
Yes, the location was really not ideal in terms of access, but tbh I don't
know where else in the bay area you could hold that kind of event.

I think the bigger issue was that every year it felt like 98% of the same
exhibits in the same places. So it was the kind of thing you did once. Twice
was a mistake. In 2016(?) I volunteered at a friend's booth, and didn't even
really want to walk around because I'd already seen it all. And ppl gobbed the
booth because it something different.

~~~
dheera
To be honest I think most of the really awesome makers don't usually show up
at Maker Faire. 95% of the exhibits are of the "Look ma I put a servo inside a
puppet" variety. Very few of, say, the Hackaday-front-page caliber. There are
some, but not enough to make it feel mindblowingly awesome.

~~~
marcinzm
I'd say there's no point really for individuals unless you're selling
something with a decent profit margin. Publicity and talking with people is
easier to get online.

------
anonymous5133
Education products is always a tough market due to people viewing education as
basically discretionary instead of an investment.

------
di3goleite
Some folks from the community created that initiative! Let's support!!!
[https://twitter.com/MATRIX_Creator/status/113722465869100236...](https://twitter.com/MATRIX_Creator/status/1137224658691002368)

------
algaeontoast
This is really sad. I still remember being excited to pick up a new issue of
Make: every month or so when I was in middle school. Also fondly remember
watching “Weekend Projects” with Bre Petis (well before his MakerBot Years).

Lots of great folks - Sad to see this movement die.

~~~
detaro
IMHO, the movement is just fine. Make as a company, and partially as a brand,
failed, but that doesn't mean _that_ much.

------
avian
I've never been to any of the events in US, but I really liked going to Mini
Makerfaires in Europe. I understand these were all licensed under the
Makerfaire brand. I hope they will continue in the future, even if under a
different name.

------
projektir
I have somehow never heard of this and now I feel as if I've missed out.

~~~
jypepin
+1. Never heard of this. Would have probably been a customer. I bought a few
raspPi to tinker with stuff but have no idea how those things work and always
end up not doing much and getting stuck.

Something like MAKE would have helped a lot!

------
dogline
I've been a subscriber since the first issue, and still have every copy of the
magazine they mailed, although most were just kept and unread. Is there any
market for a full set of magazines?

------
p_b_r
Print is dead. Worst industry on the planet to focus on. Had maker picked one
thing and done it right, it could still be here. It tried to be too many
things at the same time.

~~~
sixothree
Print may be dead but I read every Make magazine and am always happy to find
it in the mailbox.

edit: Not meant to add anecdotal data but instead to validate target audience
of article.

------
donatj
Damn that makes me so sad. I LOVED Make in my late teens and early 20s. I
always intended to subscribe when I could, but life happened and I don’t make
things nearly as much...

------
RIMR
Shouldn't they have updated their websites by now?

You can still buy a new subscription to the magazine...

------
soapdog
omg, I went to the Maker Faire in the Bay Area for the first time this year.
It has always been a dream of me to go but I was never in the US at the right
time. I remember thinking that I wanted to go again, I was not expecting it to
be the last one.

------
stefek99
Make cool shit (great) profitable again.

------
m0llusk
Walk softly on the Earth.

------
Iv
Techcrunch's privacy policy is just an insulting joke. It proposes to opt out
of their tracking through their hundred of partners, by clicking through each,
one at the time.

I wanted to share that article, I think I just wont...

~~~
anonymous5133
Install ublock origin, problem solved.

~~~
HenryBemis
I have 3 layers: Privacy Badger (with some custom made work), NoScript,
AdBlockPlus. I have 'maxed out' all Firefox privacy settings (battery
monitoring, geolocation, 3rd party cookies, etc.). I also got some strong
hosts file
([https://someonewhocares.org/hosts/](https://someonewhocares.org/hosts/))

I feel pretty private :)

Also when I go to a website that it doesn't ring a bell, I spend a few seconds
'working on it' (PrivacyBadger, NoScript, ABP) so I won't have to bother again
with their crap.

~~~
richjdsmith
You may want to consider switching from ABP to uBlock Origin. There's lots of
articles explaining it in detail, but essentially uBO is open source and ABP
is a $50mm/yr business that allows some ads through and I think (but am not
positive) have a history of data sharing.

~~~
zokula
ABP is just as open source as uBO is.

------
codesushi42
This is terrible news. The first MakerFaire I attended was in 2013 in San
Mateo. Going gave me a ton of inspiration to get into electronics and 3d
printing, and that's what I have been doing in my spare time since then.

There was nothing like it, the Faire was like a Disneyland for nerds.

Admittedly the past few Maker Faires had become a bit lackluster as the focus
of the faire shifted from attracting adults in the industry to children
instead. Still a shame.

