Absolutely. I’ll be contacting support about this either today or tomorrow evening.
I had a think about this yesterday when I was reading your frustrated posts in the context of trying to analyze my reactions and the tone of my recent YouTube videos. I’m finding my own constant stream of sarcasm and whining rather tedious to listen to and trying to find a different approach. I accepted a machine that comes with a bunch of clear “not everything is working yet” warnings yet I get bent out of shape the instant it does something slightly wrong or confusing. What’s going on there?
I think what it comes down to is that I find myself operating in two modes. One is just playing around, where I can maintain a kind of detachment and awareness that it’s beta, calmly file bugs, and move on. But this can quickly and invisibly shift into project mode, which can look very similar to playing around (I want to put some words on this pencil just because I can) or can be more serious (I need to make a retirement gift for Janice from Accounting before her party tomorrow). Either way, it’s goal-oriented and malfunctions that get in the way of the goal are much more apt to cause ire. This is exacerbated by several factors: the machine is expensive, it was hard to get, it clearly has great capabilities and potential, and when it doesn’t do what I want, it’s still very close. A cheap commodity device, or something that obviously doesn’t work and never will is easier to write off as junk. The Glowforge is not junk, and I’m invested in it, in several senses of the word.
I’m going to try to recognize when that happens in the future, and use it to remind myself to take a step back, attempt to shift my perspective, and assess the situation in the proper context.
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Didn’t see this the first time around because someone flagged it.
I’ll be happy to comply. I wasn’t aware that I was bragging. I’ll have to watch that. 
Apparently I have completely misread what is going on around here. I have been actually trying to answer questions and provide examples, and I’ve been taking time out of other things that are rather pressing to do it. But you don’t actually want solutions/answers to problems. This is another gab fest.
Sorry for crashing the party. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again., and I’m also sure you’ll eventually get it all worked out.
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I didn’t say you were.Just making a suggestion.
I was simply responding to your incorrect “answer” that the Basic software is not in beta. It clearly is.
Yes, it would, and since @dan is the only one who can move these, I’ll flag one of my posts and ask him to shift it.
(I apologize for responding here - it does tend to happen when conversations drift and I’m not paying attention to where I am.)
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I can understand your feelings and your two modes for sure!
The Glowforge is NOT JUNK. Quite the opposite. It’s like having magic! Only it’s REAL!
For me, “bragging” wasn’t used in the negative context. But in the positive kind of “Hey, look at the awesome thing I just made!” And that’s great! Everybody should show off what they can do, IMHO! What’s the point of making art if not to share it! And I don’t care if it’s practical or artistic, it’s all art to me. All brag-worthy!
Agreed.
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I can tell you why I supported the flag (they all go to me for approval/rejection) - it appeared to run afoul of the “be agreeable even when you disagree” guideline with the phrase:
“I suggest you don’t go bragging to @Tom_A about what your machine can do”
Related (but not the reason for supporting the flag), that is terrible advice, because talking about what people’s machines can do - good or bad - is one of the primary reasons for this forum to exist. I couldn’t disagree more strongly with this advice… although again, that’s unrelated to the flag.
That said, text is an imperfect medium, and it’s always possible that one person’s “response to tone” or “ad hominem attack” isn’t another’s. It falls to me to be the final arbiter of those decisions, and I beg your apologies, both in advance and retroactively, when I’m wrong.
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(per request, merged posts from another thread here)
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OK, I deleted the post. The gist of it, without the potentially misunderstood “tone”, is that the software must still be in beta for both the Pro and the Basic. Jules implied that it was only in beta for the Pro, which I questioned by pointing out alignment issues. Her response was that she can align things just fine on her machine. My final response, which could have been stated more delicately, was that her luck with alignment is not the experience that several people are reporting on this forum, and does not justify the Basic software being out of beta. Now we can all go back to getting along, I hope.
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Oooo, is that a challenge???
A challenge would be “will it blend?”
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Ah. I can see how that could be interpreted negatively. I didn’t see it like that.
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There is nothing inherently WRONG with Anger. The problem comes when we get attached to it.
Without Anger we cannot see what needs to be changed - become attached to Anger and one stifles all chance for change.
Without Desire we cannot see the Path to walk - become attached to desire and one stops moving and stagnates.
Without Ignorance we have no space to grow - become attached to Ignorance and one lies to themselves on a daily basis, all chance of progression is lost.
There is nothing wrong with strong emotions, only with the attachment to them to the point where they become self-fulfilling.
I hope you keep questioning your machine through the frustration, and i hope Glowforge learn from it.
Most of all i hope some resolution comes for @Tom_A because i think there is a limit to the personal responsibility he can take for what seems to be a major issue.
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^This pretty much describes how I’m feeling.
I respect so much what this company has already achieved. But at the same time I’m watching several people who all have similar problems and it’s starting to feel like accepting delivery is a crapshoot. Maybe I’ll be lucky and get a machine that works! But I really want to feel confident that I’m going to get a machine that works, without random alignment problems, without a janky lid, without an out of focus cameras. People who encounter problems comprise a disproportionate amount of any forum’s traffic, but these are people who’ve been around a long time.
To me, it’s entirely reasonable for those who didn’t sign up to beta test a PRU to be frustrated and to express that frustration. And no one should be shutting down the people bringing in complaints, AKA reporting issues! They are almost always the biggest fans.
I’m increasingly convinced I’ll be getting my machine soon, but after seeing initial reports (even box after box destroyed), I am also getting increasingly concerned about what’s going to be delivered to me. And I’m getting worried if I do have trouble and report it here I’m going to be told I’m too sensitive, it’s user error, or I’m just too picky. 
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I honestly don’t think you have anything to worry about. I’ve only had mine a couple of days and I’m starting to accumulate a pile of things I’ve made with it. The only things that didn’t come out perfect the first time were a warped piece of plywood I deliberately didn’t flatten to see what would happen, and a pencil that got blown around by the air assist. By a reasonable standard, it’s easy to use and produces consistently great results. Compared to the experience I had with the $6000 laser cutter we had in the office (until it broke), I would buy a Glowforge Pro at full price and I’d be much happier.
I’m posting a lot about my problems on the forum because it seems like this is the place to be and to get support from the community as well as officially. I think others feel the same way. So there’s quite a bit of noise, but when you distill it, most of it is feature requests, wanting stuff that’s not finished yet, or nits that still don’t stop you from making all kinds of cool stuff. When I look at the things I’ve personally posted about, it’s solvable odor leakage, a cheap-feeling lid, an unimportant glitch in the UI, a broken file in the store (already fixed)… there’s a significant volume of complaints but the chances you’ll receive a machine you can’t immediately get a lot of value out of, and get even more as the software improves, are fairly low. Beyond that, if it’s actually a dud out of the box, I’d bet anything that Glowforge will make it right for you.
I’m not discounting the two people I can think of who are legitimately peeved at the moment and may indeed have unusable machines, but we haven’t yet seen how that plays out and I’m saying statistically I think you’re unlikely to end up in that bucket.
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I sent @Tom_A a pm, I had similar issue bottom right on my pru, which is mechanical (hand run the head slowly to the far right and it suddenly jumps on the rail. I have a video of it up on Vimeo but discourse doesn’t seem to like Vimeo any more…
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Thanks @Scott.Burns.
Just so everyone’s absolutely clear… we love reports on problems that are filed where we can help (in problems & support, or via email). We don’t mind and understand folks talking about frustrations in other places like Everything Else, although sometimes it frustrates us because our guideline (which I follow poorly but most others do well) is not to help you unless you ask, and we hate to see you frustrated. 
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I am curious to know more about this, could you elaborate?
He’s saying if you have an issue, report it through the proper channels so they can help. Then feel free to gripe about it elsewhere on the forum. He’s also saying, they won’t offer help unless you go through the proper channels, but they’re pretty bad about sticking to that and will probably help you anyways.
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Proper channels meaning problems & support or via email.
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