Feedback

2025-08-15T13:19:51Z

Fabian:

'''What Hackers Yearn''' for is to '''Improve'''. This page is dedicated to collecting user feedback related to the execution of WHY2025 as a whole. Constructive feedback is invaluable to the continuous improvement of the project and is welcomed from all participants. Please share your observations and suggestions in a '''clear and respectful manner'''. Your input will help guide enhancements for future generations of the event.

== IMPORTANT ==

Do '''NOT''' review '''people'''. Any individual interaction you had with a human does not belong here, but should be taken up with [[Team:Cohesion]].

This page is strictly for addressing improvements for the next event. We encourage contributors to maintain a neutral, factual, and calm tone in their feedback.

* GOOD EXAMPLES: "Excessive mud at showers", "Food vendors often refused to accept WHY-voucher", or "Limited drop-off points for luggage shuttle".

* BAD EXAMPLES: "Person XXX was insulting me", "Helpdesk XOC was too busy to help", "frickin hot", "So the story begins on Saturday night at 23:04 when..."

== Feedback List ==

=== Badge ===

* Badge handouts were announced right before they happened which didn't allow people to plan their angel shifts and disrupted talks / workshops. A virtual queue would have fixed this and required less total manhours to organize / manage

* There was an expectation that the badge was and I quote from what I have overheard "included in the price". This is not the case and has never been the case but its not clearly communicated. To my understanding there was a surplus at SHA2017 and MCH2022 so there never was a shortage of badges before which may have contributed.

* During the event (AFAIK) there were no badge angel shifts outside of queue angel. This is a chance from prior events and didn't allow people who normally would have helped to help in the same way.

* Due to the badges not being self-powered nor being distributed at the entrance they failed to function as badges. The SHA2017 badge was designed with having no power yet still being a nametag in mind. The WHY2025 badge did not seem to function as a nametag which should have been its intended design goal.

* At MCH and SHA you had people using the badges at the event itself to make games / hack / learn / teach. It was something which brought people together. There was very little being done / to do with the badge during the camp, not just because of the late arrival and limited distribution but rather because there is no way to get apps on the badge outside of the SD card... or if there is a way of doing so then its not documented on the wiki page as of writing. There was no app store app, no way to use the LORA hardware, and outside the event its impossible to use the badge without reflashing a new wifi SSID.

* You could not sit at the badge tent and solder on your antenna onto the badge or work on projects. At SHA and MCH you could just approach the badge people / angels and even get help with projects.

* Badge still has way too limited documentation to even work on it after the event.

* Team Badge have overworked themselves to get a badge available. Team over Badge next time. Which is also a Team:Cohesion issue.

* Would have been great to have a separate queue for villages that collected tickets and pick up 15+ badges at the same time. This would also have greatly reduced waiting times for individuals picking up badges and sped-up the whole process.

=== Bar ===

* Menu was much longer and more complex compared to MCH. A lot of items were almost never sold, like nachos and chips.
* Slight differences in the menu between the bars caused customers to ask "Do you have ...?". Also complicates restocking logistics.
* The amount of Rum in the "Tschuck" was '''halved''' without updating the price. They decided it was better to modify the recipe to make it almost non-alcoholic, rather than say "Sorry, we're out."
* Bar is not a Merch Store, "Special/Ceremonial Cup" should be sold in Infodesk. It was also badly advertised, only people who "knew" of its existence could buy it.
* How was the cup not a deposit... I didn't even realize you wouldn't get any money back. Made it extremely bothersome to buy drinks for other people.

=== NUTS ===

* Showers with adjustable heat (showerheads which mix cold and hot water) to avoid burns.
* Wood pallets outside both showers and toilets to reduce mud. (+1, from day zero would have been helpful)
* Even if not in all bathroom points, more drinking water points other than the one in heaven should have been available from the beginning.
* Disable the watertaps at the same time as all the other bathroom facilities. Or communicate when the water is going out. Now villages were only able to fill small containers at the toilets. Or needed to walk all the way to Heaven.
* Slightly more cleaning would have been great. The showers were extremely full of mud even inside at times. Given they only used a hose as far as I saw, should have been possible to also have some angels do this in addition to the cleaning crew.

=== Program ===

* Party Stage was the perfect location for the "History of Hardcore" talk. More 'serious' talks could be held on the music stages at events going forward.

=== Sysadmin ===

* Setup "live.why2025.org" as an alias for people to easier find the livestreams next time. Right now you needed to go to "streaming.media.ccc.de/why2025".
* IRC is less popular in new generations of hackers and at least Mastodon+Matrix integrations would have made Signal angel role useful.

=== Terrain ===

* Noise gradient should be evaluated better: the main party stage was more audible from the family village than from the Belgian cluster, which was way closer.
* Fridge container orientation: the compressor should point away from campers, it was the single most noisy item from Batavus On tour village point of view.
* Infodesk not located at the entrance like at MCH, causing it to be less visible.
* 4000 people but only a single "Hardware Hacking Tent". It was constantly full, and no other places to sit and solder.
* "Hackcenter" only had space for 20 people, tiny tent, zero cooling, and no advertisement. Not even a sign... We thought it was someone's Village until day 4.
* No place to party/music all night. It would be cool to have a distant (from tents) area where we're allowed to have music going all night long.

=== Volunteering ===

* Food tickets given to volunteers expiring, without any communication of them doing so.

=== Waterbottle ===

[[File:Angel Waterbottle Comparison WHY vs MCH.jpg|thumb|Angle Waterbottle Comparison WHY vs MCH]]

* Waterbottle had boring text "'''Thanks For Volunteering'''", instead of WHY wordplay like "'''We Hydrate You'''", "'''Why Hydrate Yourself?'''" or "'''Wet Hackers, Yay!'''".
* Clip/Hook on the waterbootle was 3x smaller, making it unwieldy and difficult to connect. The MCH hook was bigger and easier to quick-connect.
* Drinking part had leak problems, which was not present on the previous bottle.
* The clip caused burn/melt-damage on the waterbottle, as can be seen when zooming in where the clip touches the orange waterbottle.

=== Teardown ===

* "No cars on the gras" policy: Villages that respected the rule of not driving on the grass were effectively disadvantaged. On Wednesday, many cars ignored the rule and drove onto the grass, which meant those villages didn’t have to carry their equipment over long distances. Meanwhile, villages that followed the rule had to transport their gear much farther, which was exhausting given the hot weather. Suggestion: Instead of creating a situation where following the rules feels like a disadvantage, we could reward compliance. For example, check which villages adhere to the rule, and if they do, give them vouchers for a priority ticket queue for the next event.
* Toilets were shut down too early making getting water during the warm teardown harder

User:Fabian

2025-07-30T20:26:10Z

Fabian:

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User:Fabian

2025-06-24T22:25:37Z

Fabian:

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User:Fabian

2025-06-24T22:22:49Z

Fabian: create user page

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WHY2025 wiki - User contributions [en]

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