That’s… wow. Do you have fun while doing this much work without pay?
Yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it.
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Volunteering in the form of creating 3D airports/scenery editing and providing ATC services for the Expert Server is in no way, by international standards, a full-time job.
In, say, the US, a full-time job is defined by a contract requiring the employee who signed it to work more than 30 hours per workweek. The figures are 35, 37.5 to 40, 40 to 44, 38 and 38 for France, Canada, Brazil, Belgium and Australia respectively.
This would mean contributing for at least 5 hours per day to the volunteer roles you mentioned above, which I believe is more time than what we spend controlling/editing on an average day (me included.) Therefore, it is fairly unreasonable for you to consider these voluntary community positions as full-time jobs by disregarding the evidence and figures that say so otherwise; also I’m pretty sure that not a single one of us even intended for IFATC/IFAET to be our sole “job” when applying.
These two phrases put together in the same sentence are just about as contradictory as they can get.
Volunteers are not meant to be paid. Someone working a full-time job is expected to earn a salary from what they’re doing. Like you already said, it is our choice to contribute to the community, and therefore it has to be something that we enjoy if we continue to do so.
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This topic looks fun. Somehow missed this. Time to see what shenanigans can be stirred up. 😈
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Ok. My reply will be really lame but there’s truth behind it. Ready?
“It’s Fun”
Modding, airport editing, helping out with aircraft testing, beta, popping in real world tidbits here and there and seeing some things applied in IF is what drives me to stick around. It’s fun.
In my off time, I really enjoy chatting with the younger aspiring pilots who have questions. Lets me know that I can do my part in inspiring the next-gen of pilots in whatever way I can.
Sure we’re volunteers. But let’s use the 175 for example. It’s no secret that I’ve helped Infinite Flight with the aircraft that it’s become today. It wasn’t a solo mission but it involves quite a bit of work with devs to get it the best that it could be. My reward? The access to test the aircraft for testing, the ability to offer direct feedback and see the changes occur right away. That for me is the satisfaction that hits the sweet spot. Seeing feedback that’s directly be implemented related to development is what’s cool.
Some might argue that we should be paid for the things that we do. That’s not the discussion I think that should be held here. But I like to look at it from the broad perspective. If one looks at the whole package, the things we get access to, the things we can do, the closer interactions we have with staff and devs over various subjects and the influence we may have over some things, to me this carries more weight than worrying about a monetary value.
That’s just me. But I’m happy where I’m at if you are. 😅
Is it a full time job? Idk. It could certainly could be at times. I could see that being true. Depends on what roles one holds as the workload could be demanding sometimes. But I think with the amount volunteers we have, it softens the appearance that it could be a full time ordeal.
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Yes, I know it’s not.
I’m not talking about IFATC and IFAET members. I can see how that is volunteering
I am talking about ATC trainers, Airport Reviewers, Mods etc. People who are ranked at these big organizations.
Yes, I’ve been told it’s not full time, but check out this timetable:
That’s definitely AT LEAST a part time job, probably worth about £3000 a year.
“When is 22.7 coming out?” 💀
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I don’t hold any leadership positions in IF such as IFATC supervisor/trainer, or airport reviewer, but I would still like to speak from my perspective.
I honestly just like to make the community happy. I don’t really have any friends/family IRL that has a passion of aviation, so I like to come here a lot. I think it’s not a good idea to pay us volunteers, and that’s the last reason I would do it. I wouldn’t even want to be paid. I just enjoy making people happy, and I enjoy making airports important to me 3D.
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I mean, I ain’t turning down a couple of grand a year 😂
Same goes for me. I have one good IRL friend that has a passion for aviation as well, but they mostly prefer the military side while I prefer the civilian side of things and ATC. My mom doesn’t understand why I put so much effort into a flight simulator. I’ve tried to explain it to her, but she doesn’t show any interest and tells me that the money I spend on a subscribtion is a waste.
I’ve met great people in this community, joining IFATC was one of the best things I have ever done. I recently got accepted into IFAET and that motivated me to work harder and contribute even more to this awesome community!
IF has helped me escape from the hell named reality. But, it cannot be my forever home. I enjoy every second I spend on it and I will stay here for a long time :)
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Yeah. I’ll leave those with a fake date such as September 31 that doesn’t exist or leave ‘em on read. Lol
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I don’t get why people think they’re just going to be told when the updates coming just because they’ve messaged.
Not sure what it accomplishes knowing the date either.
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Throughout my life I have always been a volunteer. Whether it was at an organization, or helping friends with house projects. I work full time. Normally around 50 hours per week. I have a family. Life in general gets busy.
For me, Infinite flight has always been something I’ve enjoyed since my first flight. And then finding out about other organizations within Infinite Flight. I always want/wanted to keep going further. I do this because I genuinely care. I never really looked at my positions as “jobs” but rather that I am having a great time being able to do the things I do. I never went in to it expecting a paycheck or to be quite honest, never really thought about it that way. That’s why I have my full time job.
After some time of being around the community, and holding various roles, I have met some great people and most I interact with on a daily basis. Interesting isn’t it that a sim can have such a huge impact on your life. I like that people feel comfortable coming to me and that I can perhaps be a positive influence on someone’s life or even inspire them to just try. And that is one big area that does it for me. Being able to help people and contribute to our great community. And overall, I just enjoy what I do here. So at the end of the day, it isn’t really “work” for me.
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He already mentioned he’s doing it without pay, so not a part-time “job” per se.
My wife doesn’t understand it either. But she tells me “if that’s what you like to do, then who am I to tell you not to.”
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I’m not high rank but I have put many hours into creating resources for this community (mostly some very in-depth guides).
I put together these guides because it’s information that I would’ve liked to have when I started playing this game (and Infinite Flight only provides vague information on the matter).
Take my recent fuel burn guide for example. This was a huge project and I chose to undertake it solo so I could include what information I thought was important. Obviously, this ended up being a monstrous amount of work. Gathering the numbers took roughly 30 minutes to an hour per each of the 41 aircraft, and then the implementation of the calculator was 30 minutes each. Additionally, the development of the methodology (mainly pertaining to the calculator) took a couple more hours of planning to make it as accurate as possible without making it overbearingly difficult to implement. On top of that, writing up the post was another couple hours.
No one paid me to do this (or asked me to do this, to be honest), but I chose to do it as one last gesture to help the incoming pilots while I move away from Infinite Flight and towards college. Additionally, I learned more information about various fuel burns that I could ever need, so I’m better prepared to help people on the forum even though I haven’t actively played in over a year.
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Same thing here. But like almost everyone else here, I’m not gonna give up IFAET or anything else over a couple dollars.
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I mean, he is working enough that if he was paid he would get over £3000 a year
Well yea, but as he said if at any moment he starts not to get satisfied for doing “something like a job” he will stop, as probably everyone else would.
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