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Content

• If you took part in the Meditation for Hackers workshop, please post feedback here.

• Please make sure that next time there are video up/downscalers available for speaker/presenter hookups. I had to skip parts of my talk because the video team only supported a single resolution through HDMI. My laptop could output 50 different resolutions, but not the required specific one. Luckily a volunteer offered her laptop to move the talk to , but all the simulation stuff that was part of the talk could not be reinstalled at a strangers laptop at a moments notice. I routinely present at conferences all over the world and the only place I ever had video hookup issues was at EMF ;) User:Gori

• The slide-capture (or USB camera capture) interface lagged somewhere between 1 and 12 seconds. That screwed up some stuff. However some of the videomixer volunteers offset this with great skill and made it un-noticeable. Thanks. BugBlue (talk) 11:36, 10 August 2016 (BST)

Website

For EMF website issues or bugs, please go to GitHub emfcamp/Website.

Badge

• MicroPython is great. I'm very very happy. MScroggs (talk) 10:49, 9 August 2016 (BST)
• Badges are great BugBlue (talk) 11:35, 10 August 2016 (BST)
• App Store apple-improved guidelines and undeclared censorship where a nice invite to hack the shit out of it. BugBlue (talk) 11:35, 10 August 2016 (BST)
• Would love to be able to play with the badges before the event, there isn't much time to make something for them during. Perhaps an additional cost option to have them posted 1-2 weeks prior next time? df

Food

Volunteer Food

• This was incredible, and a really great incentive to volunteer. MScroggs (talk) 11:19, 9 August 2016 (BST)

  Seconded, it was fantastic. Staff took very good care of volunteers working in the sun with regular water drops. DomCleal (talk) 11:39, 9 August 2016 (BST)

• I've had or heard ZERO complaints. This was really good. Also I love portobello burgers. Moem (talk) 14:49, 10 August 2016 (BST)

Vendors

• Pizza was great. MScroggs (talk) 11:19, 9 August 2016 (BST)
• Queues were not bad. MScroggs (talk) 11:19, 9 August 2016 (BST)
• Pity about the shop, it would have been super-useful. The one at beautiful days is done by http://www.talatonparishcouncil.co.uk/Core/Talaton-TC/Pages/Village_Shop_1.aspx and presumably will have been a good fund-raiser for them, I'm not sure how common this type of operation is around the country, but there might be a similar operation near some sites, might be worth looking into. Sthen (talk) 17:12, 9 August 2016 (BST)
• Next time I would demand that vendors use some onlien and offline ordering/payment system that prevents people from standing in the qeue just to place an order. The pizza guys did great on that.--Gori (talk) 21:56, 9 August 2016 (BST)
• Really enjoyed both the noodle bar and burrito stand. ThePhilStrongProject (talk) 23:44, 9 August 2016 (BST)
• Special praise for the Moonshine stall. The burgers were particularly good value (though I thought some smaller meals could have cost less) but best of all they were open well past midnight. I don't stop being hungry at 10pm !
• I did find it hard to buy small cheap snacks. Pretty much everything was 5+. Not overpriced - just more than needed some of the time. Could have done with bags of crisps etc.
• The burritos were great! Ate there 3 times --SECuRE (talk) 06:52, 10 August 2016 (BST)
• Burgers at Goodness Gracious were meh. Could have used pickles, onions, cheese, tomatos :) --SECuRE (talk) 06:52, 10 August 2016 (BST)
• Sweet potato fries at the noodle bar were not good. Way under-cooked. --SECuRE (talk) 06:52, 10 August 2016 (BST)
• thank god for decent coffee. Liedra (talk) 09:22, 10 August 2016 (BST)

Bar

• I found it confusing that the bar didn’t have an exhaustive list of what was offered. I only found out they had Club Mate after asking other participants. --SECuRE (talk) 06:53, 10 August 2016 (BST)
  • There was an exhaustive list at bar.emfcamp.org but we didn't advertise its existence enough. --Sde (talk)
• Not able to get cashback because of "Not Authorised" response. Seemed to be a known issue for some card providers, such as Halifax and Lloyds. Might have helped if the problem was advertised sooner. --dcarley (talk)
  • We didn't know there was a problem until enough Lloyds cashback transactions had been declined for us to be able to see a pattern. We still don't know why this was happening, and I doubt we ever will. We'll feed the issue back to this year's card machine provider but there's no guarantee they'll be able to do anything about it, and we don't know yet whether we'll be using them again next time. Once we realised there was an issue, where do you think the best place would have been to announce it? --Sde (talk)
• Nice assortment BugBlue (talk) 15:27, 10 August 2016 (BST)
  • Thanks! --Sde (talk)
• It took me about 4 times ignoring the "NO" answer to the friendly questions "1 crate of mate please" and/or "20 mate please" before I could even hand over my money BugBlue (talk) 15:27, 10 August 2016 (BST)
  • It looks like we need to make it explicit in the bar staff manual that we do sell Club-Mate by the crate! --Sde (talk)

Showers

• These were yet again amazing
  • +42 BugBlue (talk) 11:34, 10 August 2016 (BST)
• The showers were capable of hot, high flow operation. I had a superb one on monday morning. But when all were in use (queue at breakfast time) they sometimes fell to a drizzle. Possibly a supply pressure issue rather than the showers themselves.
• I found that both times I used them I had barely a trickle of water to wash with. It was a good temperature but no pressure. Liked the booths. --Pinski1 (talk) 07:33, 10 August 2016 (BST)
• By far the best showers I've ever come across at a festival. Keep it up :) chebe

Toilets

• These were significantly better than chemical portaloos. Urinals were not great though; lots of splashback and leaks; quite a puddle in the entrance of the ones on the NE towards the end. Could have done with better lighting and the grid steps weren't ideal. (The best event toilets I've used were at shambala and done by thunderboxes2go - wooden stalls with leds and flowers and very attentive to cleaning, straw bale urinals, no wheely bin management as they use big sealable tanks instead - they also have accessible compost loos).
  • Seconded regarding the urinal construction, and the lighting at the northern toilets was not great - I had to raise this with staff on Friday as there was none at all Thursday night.

Sthen (talk) 17:12, 9 August 2016 (BST)

• I didn't go to EMF2014 so have no reference point - but I've used far better loos at events in the past. The toilets could be smelled from the food area by Sunday which wasn't pleasant. Can I suggest event loos similar to the shower trailers? They are significantly more civilised! Edit: Something like these: http://www.andyloos.co.uk/product/abberley-premium-trailer/ ThePhilStrongProject (talk) 23:41, 9 August 2016 (BST)
• I did not mind the 'compost loo' aspect as much as some others I've heard from, and I did not think they were smelly, in fact I was surprised they weren't smellier. But I would have felt better with a little more visual privacy: the doors did not close well and were a little too low at the top and too high at the bottom. A privacy screen would have been neat (and could have a double function as a bulletin board / place for posters). Also the material is too rough to clean well. The thing with the dirt/soil worked well but needed clearer instructions (it took me a while to find them). Also better/sturdier scoops. Moem (talk) 08:10, 10 August 2016 (BST)
• More handwash and sturdier scoops - the wash/scoops were depleted/broken at the loos near the gate by Sunday afternoon :( Maybe put the loos near a water point?
• Some improvements I can suggest:
  • For the shitholes: Have glass doors next time, so you know what others are able to see from you
  • For the shitholes: Implement the africa upgrade: "running water"
  • For the shitholes: Have a gravity based systems that puts dirt or even water on the stuff
  • For the shitholes: Put some heating under the containers so we know earlier how they smell when the sun shines
  • For the shitholes: Use brown coloured board so you can see that they are filty
  • For the urinals: use a smaller drain so people will aim better
  • For the urinals: Use bigger spiked boards so the urine gets distributed better for disinfection purposes
  • For the urinals: Build a bridge over the automatic-bucket-emptier solution that got implemented (work title: overflow-bridge)
  • For the urinals: Make the fences like a flag so that people will have a better game experience
  • Please post the results of the long term "does any of the attendees have a norovirus"-test

BugBlue (talk) 11:32, 10 August 2016 (BST)

• Foul please make them better next time. EMF was amazing but this did spoil it a bit I dreaded using them and spent most of the time bursting and uncomfortable. Not enough privacy, the public scooping thing was embarassing and the dark colours gave no indication of whether or not they were clean. I've attended other events where the toilets were similar to the showers at EMF and it made the world of difference.
• Handwash facilities - running water and soap! df
• Toilets will always be a sore point. They were a whole lot better than I've seen at other festivals though, so good job there. But, I really do like running water. I came across this company at another festival, they sell tickets (extra cost, but those of us that want it really don't mind) and are totally worth it (particularly at other festivals without electricity, the hair dryers come in real handy for drying soaked clothing). Not sure if you'd have enough numbers, but perhaps something to consider; http://www.portabletoiletslimited.com/festivals/seat-luxury/ chebe

First Aid

You can email ben@emfcamp.org if you prefer confidentiality.

Good things: well supplied with the right supplies Were then even in the middle of the night at the last day Bad things: None BugBlue (talk) 11:33, 10 August 2016 (BST)

Network

• IT WORKED
• It even worked with all the badges coming online while some have very bad antenna reception. BugBlue (talk) 11:39, 10 August 2016 (BST)

Other

• I really enjoyed volunteering, EMF staff, CCC staff and other volunteers were friendly and supportive throughout the weekend. DomCleal (talk) 11:39, 9 August 2016 (BST)
  • Thanks for volunteering, glad you enjoyed it! --Lynz
• The blackout tents, projectors and sound rigs were awesome and well worthwhile, just in need of a slightly less noise-sensitive neighbour ;) Sthen (talk) 17:12, 9 August 2016 (BST)
• Film festival was great. Sthen (talk) 17:12, 9 August 2016 (BST)
• Electric vehicle power is becoming an issue, when working at the entrance we didn't really have an option other than escorting them onto the camper van section of site in reach of a dk so they'd have enough power to leave. Sthen (talk) 17:12, 9 August 2016 (BST)
  • didn't the map show an electric vehicle section of the parking field ? I assumed that would have power, though it apparently didn't
  • The guys at the gate kindly allowed me to park by my tent to charge mine on Sunday - my car can charge as low as 6A though, which would place less stress on the power distribution system than something like a Tesla!
• I think everything that was a guest-visible problem at 2014 was addressed. No issue at 2016 seemed anything worse than minor (the worst thing was probably the...err...boundary-pushing music policy at camp holland), and nothing that detracted from it being a great thing overall. 12/10 would EMF again. Sthen (talk) 17:12, 9 August 2016 (BST)
• It's really nice to have high expectations for something and still be pleasantly suprised. ThePhilStrongProject (talk) 23:45, 9 August 2016 (BST)
• I think 3 hours was too long for volunteer shifts. I appreciate that staff were working far longer hours and that some types of volunteering would be awkward if changed too frequently. But others would not, and I think would be more popular if such a large slice wasn't to be taken out of the very busy talk schedule. I was keen to volunteer, and I did - but it was really hard to choose when, especially as the talk schedule was fluid and the villages hadn't yet published.
  • The shift length and timing is an issue that we'd really like to work on for next time. The trouble is finding the balance that means there are sufficient numbers of volunteers to cover positions but also that we're not causing volunteers to compromise on the talks they want to see. Some roles also require training, which takes a not insignificant amount of time. We have some ideas though, so hopefully we can improve on this. --Lynz
• What was the rationale for the gate arrangement ? camping vehicles entering at the top of the site seemed very reasonable, but once the majority of traffic was pedestrian it seemed an annoyance. Could there have been a pedestrian gate optimised for pedestrians ?
• I didn’t know about the “no-noise-after-midnight” policy, and it would have been good to know (such factors influence the decision to camp on site or stay at a hotel, at least for me). Put it on the website in case it applies next time. --SECuRE (talk) 06:56, 10 August 2016 (BST)
• We had some trouble finding music that we enjoyed. Some higher-quality electronica would be much appreciated in the future. --SECuRE (talk) 06:56, 10 August 2016 (BST)

  Seconded - a couple of sets with some rock / similar would've gone down quite nicely!

• The Wifi worked really really well. Never had any issues. Well done! --SECuRE (talk) 06:57, 10 August 2016 (BST)
• Some more "lanes" in camping areas - in some places it was very difficult to navigate between tents. markp (markp) 08:57, 10 August 2016 (BST)
• I enjoyed volunteering and will do it again. One suggestion - for the last shift in a stage, let speaker ops/someone know what to do about kit (or have an end-of-day checklist/info sheet for each stage). We stayed around for over half an hour waiting for someone to tell us we could just leave the kit there - seemed like a lot of expensive gear inc laptops so I didn't want to just leave it & main person to ask was AWOL & vol desk didn't know the answer! :) (and after a long shift we were hungry!! :) Liedra (talk) 09:27, 10 August 2016 (BST)
  • Thanks for volunteering and glad you enjoyed it! Excellent suggestion, I've added it to our list of things for next time. --Lynz
• Really loved the purple scheme. Can you keep it? :p chebe
• There was no scope for any fieldcraft - a camping zone where trees are available to pitch bashas and hammocks, and where (leave no trace) open fires are allowed would have added to the experience. It's a different, but not incompatible, interest set, and could add another facet to the event. -- Raj (talk||contribs) 00:42, 11 August 2016 (BST)