Will you guys be changing the forum software? Because this one sucks a big one.
[edit]
Ah hey look, there’s an edit button. I didn’t see that before. Well, scratch one gripe I had off the list.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say it “sucks,” though it’s definitely not what I was expecting or hoping for.
Common forum features I was hoping to see:
- Privately message another user
- Add users to a “friends” list
- Publicly-viewable profile pages with user-editable info (and ability to make certain parts private, such as email addresses)
- Ability to default topics in categories to “most recent,” rather than “most popular”
- Editable posts (not just the first post)
- Number of views of a topic
There’s probably more; those are just off the top of my head. Not quite suckage, but it’s a lot more limited and a lot less like forums I’m used to. Maybe these features are coming later. With our printers starting to be delivered, a solid forum is important, so I’m hoping the forum improves.
This style of Forum is good for FAQ/Blog type posts, with follow up comments, but does little to promote dialogue or foster a community. I would love to see a more traditional style forum software used. I can set one up, if there is enough interest… but it would be ‘unofficial’ as I have no affiliation with Formlabs other than being a backer.
You know, at first I was a little against a non-Formlabs forum, considering they mentioned they were gonna cook one up themselves, but if their forum stays the way it is now, a user-made, more “forum-ish” forum might not be a bad idea. 
Maybe a subforum could be added in CNCZone’s 3D Printer section?
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/commercial_opensource_3d_printers/
I think I’m going to have to agree that this forum will strain under the weight of heavy use. It looks very pretty, but as near as I can tell it’s totally lacking any sort of useful ‘search’ functionality. Once users number in the hundreds and thousands (and not just dozens) it will result in a LOT of repeat questions which will just further serve to bury other topics and push the experienced users away after they get tired of answering the same questions over an over…
I agree this forum is not very friendly or inviting. Minimalist form and function are great for some activities but it’s not in this case.
Highlighting new posts and cookies that actually keep users logged in would be nice.
Love grumbler
Not everything can be perfect.
Give the people of formlabs a little time to make it better.
Everything takes time to grow…
There have been a few official posts by Formlabs suggesting that changes to the forum are coming over the next few weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing what changes they make, but it looks like they’ve been listening
Mark, you mentioned that you could start a forum. How difficult would that be? Would it cost you any money? I’d be willing to pitch monies toward a more traditional forum. As long as Formlabs doesn’t interpret it as some kind of affront to their company I say: go for it!
We discussed with Jason some time ago that we could create a Google community. It would be free, but I have a feeling it’s not as convenient as a phpbb for example…
Cheers
OK, I’m in a bad mood. I just had to change my name… AGAIN. So annoying! In light of being pissed off I will just make the rest of this post curt…
Something that actually works would be an improvement.
Sorry Damien, I assumed you were a Formlabs employee. I’m now guessing you aren’t. Normally I would edit the post above to correct my mistake, but you know… that isn’t an available option here.
Are Google Community forums “good”? I’m not sure if I’ve ever used one. I mean, it seems that most forums have the same basic feature set - do Google Community forums have the basic features most experienced people would come to expect?
…
Also, are they easy to setup? Are they free?
No offense taken, I do hate changing my name every day or so…
Yes they are free, but it’s more like a walls of article/anarchy where everyone post links to articles
I guess I’m not getting the social media craze 
but it seems to be more oriented on news feed than a technical community…
This one seems to be the largest one on 3d printing subject:
https://plus.google.com/communities/117814474100552114108
Cheers
who cares… as long as it looks good and cool, how it functions don’t matter *sarcasm*
@Hirudin wrote: “Mark, you mentioned that you could start a forum. How difficult would that be? Would it cost you any money? I’d be willing to pitch monies toward a more traditional forum. As long as Formlabs doesn’t interpret it as some kind of affront to their company I say: go for it!”
The cost would be minimal at this point so no need for donations. I’ll look into getting something set up over the next week or two. [Sorry I have a day job, so it will take at least that long]
Having the same password for a forum as a store is also a bad idea. 'Specially when the forum doesn’t seem to use cookies. I like to keep my “store” passwords secure. Secure passwords are a pain to type in manually. Also, each time a password is typed would conceivably be an opportunity for it to be stolen.
Problems that I see…
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No PMs
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No way to edit posts other than the OP
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No way to quote another post
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No BB code
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It apparently doesn’t use cookies (if I close my browser (the newest Firefox) I have to log in again - this basically means I don’t post as often as I normally would)
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It’s difficult to tell which threads you’ve participated in - most forums have a little icon to denote thread in which you’ve replied
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No search
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Threads are not paginated
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No way to report comments to moderators (I’m glad the spammers haven’t found this place yet)
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No user stats - a quick glance at the post count and join date can be valuable clues to how much stock you should give a post
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Posts aren’t numbered
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No way to “like” posts other than the original post (related to #10)
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(also related to #10) No user info page - it can be helpful to see a user’s prior posts
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No thread view counter
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It can also be helpful to see when users are online and if they’re viewing a particular thread
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The forum uses the same password as the store