Good evening you'all,
Sorry guys to step into that topic, but I'm looking at it with the fresh eyes of a new user on ifixit. Maybe it can help a bit, we often say that when we are too much into something we can loose sight of the big picture!
At first my reaction, was why would that question be closed, but after reading Kyle's post I remembered visiting ifixit.org and couldn't agree more with him! Especially that I live in Africa for now over 10 years and spending there 90% of my time there made sense... You can't imaging what we can find there, millions of people are making a leaving out repairing, recycling and selling goods bought from dumps in Japan, Dubai, Europe... whether vehicle spare parts, old laptops, desktops, televisions, DVD... Even myself I do lot of repair at the office, simply because I can't always buy something new or find a new spare to fix it (also because it is horrendously expensive in Africa), from desktop at the office where soldering of a power supply has become common (due to the irregularity of power and fluctuation of electricity), or buying a second hand compressor from a vehicle at a dump in order to customize it and find a way to fit it and replace it in one of my second hand Toyota Hiaces and Noah vehicles so that A/C can work and keep my clients/guests happy during their safaris... In Africa everything can and get reconditioned, sold again and reused, if there is a place on earth where the lifespan of an object live to its maximum it is in Africa! After all it is true, let's repair the world one device at the time!
Ifixit is this is the philosophy with my experience of/and leaving in Africa which made me madly fell in love with ifixit! I'll be in the US for another 3 weeks, but rest assured that on my return, in Tanzania, I will not only spread the word around for ifixit website to friends and acquaintances of mine, making a living out of repairs and selling second hands goods, but I will also try to continue contributing in passing the experience I've gain in Africa with repairs! I am convinced that ifixit should be actively promoted in Africa, it would improve and empower the life of 100'000s of people there, I'm also equally convinced that Africans could contribute !@#$ of a lot on ifixit, some of them have a master in repairing goods which are beyond repair! Don't get me wrong, ifixt it is equally important in our Western World, it has the power to create and raise awareness in the society we live in, where consumption is not for our primary and secondary needs, but simply a rotten way of living!
Let me finish on that topic by telling Kyle, that I would love to meet with him back in Tanzania, to show him around, my head is buzzing of ideas, there is so much he could do there! A thank you is not strong enough to express my gratitude for the awesome sites and more importantly for his vision, it will definitely make the world for some a far better place!
Now, let's get back to the topic of extending the definition of repair! On the other end, at least for me, leaving in Africa and not having necessarily access to proper fundies (specialist technicians /repairmen in Kiswahili), would most likely yield in having a device not used at its full potential, and therefore shorten its live; as I would probably buy another newer and easier model (when becoming available for a decent price), thus since I couldn't get the "know how" on using it. I guess that we could say that to a certain extend, it could still be argued, not using a device at its full potential would increase to risk of getting another device and therefore not extending the lifespan of the said device to its maximum! Consequently, to cut a long story short I would also look forward to have a portion of this website not only dealing with hardware, but also on "know how" questions additionally to repairs ones!
Maybe it could help resolve quite a few issues of about having to move questions to meta.ifixit, or archiving it, or closing it, or getting a guide done for it, additionally issues of reputations would be settled with it! As mayer addressed it in his post, users would spend a lot more time on the site and work a lot harder as well! Last but not least it would also make the issue of opening ifixit to a flood of software questions obsolete!
Well that's about it, I hope that you guys would give it some thoughts, and maybe consider/ reflecting on creating a portion of this site or maybe add another site, as ifixit.org for "know how/software" questions!
Looking forward to read more about it in the coming next few days...
Have a good night all!
Max ;)
1 Comment
I reopened this answer because I believe it is repair-related as possibly useful to someone in the process of completing a repair.
by Ryan Lutz