There has been some changes made by @dan , but the above link is how the forum metrics are applied.
I believe @dan has stated there are about 100 that are part of that queue.
Other factors are Basic vs Pro, continental US vs Overseas, order date placement, international regs and compliance and unique issues (shipping companies handling and environments, testing companies, and ???).
A lot of people seem to have trouble understanding the whole Regular thingā¦
A Regular is someone who has contributed enough on the forum for Discourse (the hosting site) to automatically recognize them as someone who is regularly here and contributing.
You do have to read a large amount of all the posts, not just the one or two that most people are interested in, post a certain number of times yourself, get into meaningful discussions that generate interest and likes from your peers, create a number of popular topics, and basically just spend a lot of time on the forum.
And you have to keep doing it, because there is a 100 day rolling window where all of those qualifications have to be met, or you lose Regular status.
The easiest way to become Regular is to post ideas for laserable items, inspirational projects, show off what you are planning to do and share with the group. Itās the reason they are called Regulars, and everyone benefits from the idea sharing.
There isnāt anything undemocratic about being a Regular or not being a Regular. The folks who are Regular just spent the time to become Regular.
Another thing the Regulars have done in hanging around for the last year is get familiar with how lasers operate and learn what to look for. They are the best candidates for the job of testing the first units, since they are more likely to give feedback to Glowforge on a timely basis and let them get any issues fixed before the rest of the customers have to deal with them.
So thatās whatās going on. It has nothing to do with anyoneās value as a person, or how long anyone has waited. It has to do with GF picking the best people to receive the first units to give them the best feedback.
Hope that clears it upā¦I know a lot of people are uncertain on why itās happening.
We arenāt in a beta any longerā¦ so, I donāt really understand the idea of ābest candidatesā in this scenario. Best candidates for what?
Perhaps this was communicated and I missed it, but had I known I could have jumped the line by simply posting and replying to things in regards to cad designs and CNC projects I am working on (that donāt involve the Glowforge), I would have been an active forum contributor. It seemed sort of pointless to spend a bunch of time talking about a tool that I wasnāt entirely certain Iād ever see. I didnāt want to be another negative voice in the crowd because that isnāt productive for them or myself.
I can understand why people would be upset about getting leapfrogged though. They should have kept that detail to themselves. There is no point in sharing it other than to make non regulars upset about potentially waiting even longer.
Thanks, I see what youāre saying. Maybe the handling of this could have been smoother butā¦ Iāve waited the better part of two years. Whatās another month or twoā¦ or twelve? Iāll live.
Thatās true, but I think the company was probably looking at the very start of shipping production units as sort of the last ātrial phaseā of the process. Weāve already seen shipping problems (mainly UPS beating the crap out of some of the units, a few units missing key packing foam pieces, the need for better tape on the bottom of the boxā¦etc.) If Iām guessing, the idea was probably to take those who had been the most vocal in giving feedback and use them to help smooth out the last phase of the process. While you can design and plan and test for shipping, until those units start going out for real you donāt really know what will really happen And instead of those first 1% going out to customers that may or may not give them helpful feedback, they chose to use those forum members that had been the most vocal in involved. And unless Iāve missed something there has been no guarantee that just because someone earns a āregularā title in the forum that they get to jump line or anything like that. The only thing @dan had ever said is, āall things being equal.ā What a lot of people have missed as well is that a lot of those people on here who may get bumped were already right around that point in line anyway. Weāre almost thereā¦almost thereā¦
Just repeating myself from earlier in the thread since itās so long and some may have missed it. Some people who are not Regulars who ordered early have already received their Glowforge deliveries. I am not a regular, but I did place one of the first 15-20 orders (based on the money counter on the site at the time) very early the first day. My Glowforge was delivered last Monday.
I suspect, though I have no evidence, that their earliest orders they were trying to get some more data points with shipping to different parts of the country. Given that weāve heard that the PRUs were shipped by FedEx and the production switched to UPS, they had limited data. Sequencing early shipments to get distribution across the country so you can collect more data on that is good sense.
I also suspect my case was helped by indicating my willingness to work with a less than perfect unit by volunteering to be a beta tester way back when. I have no way to know for sure, but I think thatās part of what Dan meant by helping with the development.
I know thatās small comfort, but weāre in the home stretch.
Totally agree with this and Iām glad you actually do seem to understand what is going onā¦It just doesnāt do anybody any good to rub peopleās noses in it.
Weāre not in official ābetaā for testing the functionality of the machines - we know those work. But there are always hiccups when you start an unfamiliar manufacturing process, there can be screws that jog loose, or improperly secured bits of foam that cause damage to happen to the machine in shipping. Itās little stuffā¦but itās stuff that can still have an impact on the company line, since theyāll have to pay to have them shipped back and a new one sent. And then they have to come up with a new process so that it doesnāt keep happening. Multiplying the problem, or ignoring it, could be disastrous on a large scale.
So actually we are still in a kind of beta. Itās definitely the home stretch though, so everybody hang in there.
I am not nervous about being skipped at all. I will get my GF (Lil Glenn Frey) when the stork drops him off. Iām not in a rush at all. Iām excited. My wife is excited. My friends are excited. My dog is excited. If I had a fishā¦ you get the picture.
I was asking about production cause I was more curious on how many they can make. Hope I didnāt cause any issues.
I just got a betta fish, not my idea, and he is very excited about his new, and significantly larger, tank. And he doesnāt even know about the glowforge. Great name for the forge by the way.
Thanks, I see what youāre saying. Maybe the handling of this could have been smoother butā¦ Iāve waited the better part of two years. Whatās another month or twoā¦ or twelve? Iāll live.
My sentiments exactly. I thought about trying one of the chinese units a few years back. when I saw the Glowforge, its interface and capabilities, I jumped on the bandwagon September 15, 2015. I waitā¦ and waitā¦
And instead of those first 1% going out to customers that may or may not give them helpful feedback, they chose to use those forum members that had been the most vocal in involved. And unless Iāve missed something there has been no guarantee that just because someone earns a āregularā title in the forum that they get to jump line or anything like that. The only thing 
