@Manuel_Odendahl
Why are you closing a post that is obviously not un-commented on for 14 days?? I’m not sure what else needs to be said here, but it’s really not up to you to close it like this.
Honestly, why do any of you close any post? It’s absolutely not needed, and it is not common in the world of forums. It kind of feels like, ‘yeah whatever, ignore the man behind the curtain, we’re not doing that, stop bitchin, etc…’ Forums are for users and the community at large. Not for insiders to close their posts whenever they feel like it…
How about taking a vote about posts closing automatically (or even more prematurely)?
I think it was because they don’t intend to change this part, so they don’t want to host any more discussion on it. (Fair enough it is their site).
…but since you added this thread, I did have one last reply.
Although I thank you for your courtesy reply, I never actually suggested removing the physical button, so it doesn’t seem like you considered the solution too closely if you weren’t paying much attention to it. Probably a case of TL;DR.
That’s ok, I will not press the point. I still love FormLabs and all your amazing products.
In any case, I can still implement an alternative remote-print workaround for myself that I had in mind which is easy enough to implement without voiding any warranty,
But the point I’m trying to impart to @Formlabs is to STOP CLOSING THREADS!!
Threads will stop when they stop. On their own. Without your interference. That’s how forums work. Sheesh.
Maybe your forum software just sucks (it does, and long threads have to keep reloading more data…). Why aren’t you simply using mailman, like most sane projects do? There, we can simply use email and not need to be in the browser at a specific site at all unless we want to search archives, etc.
I agree the auto close of topics is not a good thing. In many cases as a new user I would like to add to or comment on a post that was published before I purchased my machine …but can’t. And I do not like the “I’m taking my ball and going home” way the last thread was closed. If you seriously want OUR input as a community of users then you have to put up hearing all the suggestions good and bad… And I personally like the OP’s idea of a physical “ready to print button” with a remote start option
Meh, I personally don’t like email forums. GoogleGroups lets users pick their poison and I have to say email only users somewhat irritate me. They post redundant threads because the search options are weak, never know which direction to reply inline or quote correctly, and aren’t notified when a new response comes in while they are composing their current response. Plus it junks up your inbox even with proper sorting.
As a single data point I like browser forums. I even like this specific forum, it has its acceptable amount of quirks and difficulties but the overall package is just fine. I however DO agree that auto closing threads is not one of those acceptable quirks, it just makes no sense.
Edit: I have nothing against email functionality, I will just never use it personally.
I understad that this post is prmarily about prematurely closing posts, and I agree that most forums never auto close posts, and usually only the OP can close a post. There are many new users to the forums, that look for answers, and sometimes find what they’re looking for in old posts, but they can’t comment or ask for further info because the post is locked down.
Leave the posts alone, as someone else has mentioned, they’ll take care of themselves, and simply fade away.
Now, I actually thought of an alternate solution to the physical button press.
With a little ingenuity, one could imagine a little box mounted near the printer button, with a simple Arduino board, connected to a USB port, driving a simple $5 hobby servo, that can physically press this button. Simply start your print job, and after a few seconds run a little batch/script file that sends a command to your Arduino to move the servo arm…
… Yes ???
FWIW, I’m not an Arduino programmer, but I can see how this could be easily implemented
For me, coming out of the usenet era, I prefer the simplicity of mailman and irc for support. The browser forum is typical of the bloatware prevalent everywhere today. Just because disks are bigger does not mean software has to get fat and slow.
Seriously! I just posted about this a couple weeks ago. As a long-time lover of internet forums I find this incredibly frustrating. Along with Brandon above, I don’t mind this particular forum layout, It has some nice features that others don’t. But the thread-closing thing is just maddening, I don’t see any benefit. I hope the mods are listening, I’d imagine it’s a feature that can be changed with a button click.
I’m not so sure this is an “automatic” feature, or if it is, there appears that exceptions can be made.
There are a few topics that are still open, even though their last post was older than 14 days. So I wonder if this is truly an automatic feature or if someone actually goes about and closes the topics manually. Or it may well be automatic, but the moderators have the option to keep any topic open at their discretion
Thanks for all of the suggestions. It is about time we update how the forums work. 14 days is too soon to be closing threads and we’re thinking of extending it to 60. It is best not to keep abandoned threads open passed 60 days. Keeping them open can cause some organizational issues and might keep users from accessing more up-to-date and relevant information. In this case, it’s probably best that a new post be made. Happy to hear any feedback you guys might have.
Do you want to have an engaged user community? One where what users suggest and want actually matters? One where you actually listen to users and take their suggestions to heart?
If yes to above then:
That is not what everyone was saying or think is right. It’s not clear what part of do not close threads was confusing.
Like what, specifically? I cannot think of any ‘organizational’ issues that could possibly arise from never closing a thread. What does that even mean?
No it won’t. Access is still possible to all relevant data, and users can actually read the date next to the post to decide if it’s irrelevant - or not - for themselves.
Cool, and if it is, we’ll make it.
These forums are for users. Users buy your products. The money they spend on your products pays your salaries. Happy users means good business. Good business means you still have a job. Everybody’s happy.
The best thing @Formlabs employees (all of them) can do is very actively read and interact here, dispensing knowledge and helping user’s better understand how to use your products. They can also catalog suggestions by users somewhere and maybe let users prioritize those suggestions. Then you’d actually be building what your users want, which in turn will help your business. It’s kind of a no brainer really.
I entirely recognize that most of the users in this thread think it best that auto locking threads be removed. Our biggest concern is that a user looking for a solution to a problem bumps an old thread with a similar sounding issue that may no longer be relevant. This is the primary motivation behind automatic thread locking though I agree that the current system of a 14-day lock was entirely too short either way.
We’re going to remove the auto-locking feature and will at most be conservative with locking specific threads on a case by case basis.
The forums are one of our best resources for collecting user feedback and using it to iterate and improve the product. We absolutely appreciate most all of the suggestions here and are excited to keep the forums an awesome place for fostering creativity, collaboration, and community feedback. Thanks for all of the suggestions and if you have any further ideas for improving the forums, we’d love the hear them.
What, you’re not locking this thread now? Amazing!
It’s sad, but it’s pretty clear that you just don’t get it. Frew, you’re a relatively new hire, aren’t you? I think you have a little catching up to do…
Let’s examine your post, shall we?
You’ll remove auto-locking, but will still lock threads. Just now it’s whenever you want to.
Gee, thanks?
Really?
Please re-iterate these then, and wow us with how many things in these lists are complete:
I took MY time to help YOU by consolidating a bunch of feature requests well received and seriously desired by many, many users and Made lists for you LAST YEAR because you KEPT IGNORING THESE REPEATED REQUESTS!! Some of these original requests are almost 3 years old!
!gack! sorry, I just threw up a little in my mouth…
Then actively listen and act accordingly. We keep telling you and you keep ignoring or dismissing us.
Please remove the auto-close, I hate it as well. I would like to add to the topic on “Open-mode” and for some reason its closed. It makes no sense and essentially hinders discussion and collaboration. I’ve never seen a forum with such a strict policy on closed posts. It especially hindering in such a small community where topics on a single thing might be rare and old. Please change this and then we can have a healthy discussion on the issue of “Open-mode” and the heater and wiper…
It should be company policy that ALL employees of Form Labs look at the forum once per day and at least leave a comment on something once a week even if it is just a emoji.
There is very very little interaction on here by Form Labs employees with your CORE of dedicated users on this forum. And if your now pumping out 1000s of these things, this forum is just going to get bigger as new buyers discover it. Form Labs needs to become more involved with the forum or the users will run it and it could become a very negative place quickly. This whole negative thread we are chatting on could have been avoided if someone from Form Labs was reading the Community Forum daily putting out fires.
This is YOUR official forum for people who own machines your company makes its not just some random 3d machine group, So act like it and get active and participate with your users.
