I understand that. But think more of glowforge than being in the business of class economics. Some of us are working with a job outlook that’s slow after the shut down, prices are going up, and wages/raises are frozen this year.
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I think a full price of $15 with a legacy discount to $5 would have been a more appropriate sales point for this. I am not seeing the value at $50 for sure and even for $15 a month I am curious how often I would actually use it.
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Which is in fact a crappy way to treat the customers that got you to where you are. “We’ll give you a discount if you commit to a recurring charge today… and maaaaybe we’ll make that service worth something to you later!”
None of the features in Premium today interest me. Add fiducials (yes, Snapmarks), and I might sign up.
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I know that folks throw words casually but “almost criminal” is so over the top. You might say “excessive” but let’s be civil. If you don’t pay you’re not losing out in current capabilities or gaining. I can’t and wouldn’t pay $50 but not sure how not buying premium services affects my use of the machine.
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What’s criminal is what they told us on the kickstarter in 2015 and what we have had up until now…
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Good, then sign up when the Snapmarks are added. Simple choice for you.
I rather like the fact that they are offering their early customers a discount, and I plan to take advantage of it. (Even though I don’t need the Premium features and can design very well without them.)
The alternative to this method of growth is for the company to come out with new models, charge for them, and obsolete the old faithful customers.
I think this way is better, and a lot more fair to existing customers. If you want the extras, buy them, and if not, don’t. Very equitable.
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With Google Cloud (the cloud service that runs Glowforge Print and Premium) we are able to do that. We can also spin down the servers when not in use.
Then I have great news! We did that too a few weeks ago, except it’s 100% faster. Glowforge Premium multiplies those already boosted speeds.
(Note that we had a server slowdown issue last week that we resolved Friday).
Er - yes. Unfortunately the first draft was made in September and, as the entire staff at Glowforge knows, I’m not so good at getting dates right. It’s kind of a running joke how often I mistake the day of the week around here.
They’re different payment processing systems, so it’s not possible right now.
True, and we in fact do use GPU enhancements for some of our more challenging computational work.
Yes. Our existing catalog designs say “no commercial use” (you cannot sell the prints). These designs do not have that limitation.
You can absolutely do whatever you want with designs you create; you own them. You can print them, sell the prints, sell the designs, anything you want, they’re yours. The only reason it calls out this non-limit is because some catalog designs do have a noncommercial requirement.
We had a software problem that caused slowdowns last week. You should be back to full speed, which is up to twice as fast as a month ago. Fast Lane will go even faster than that!
Welcome! Yes, you are, and you should see it show up shortly.
There are a few things in the “coming soon” section - we’ll share more information on those when they’re available.
Note that we do plan to have other discounts available on Premium, but we started with the biggest and best first. We don’t expect other discounts to be this steep.
It applies to one account. We’re working on a plan for how you can share with others who use your Glowforge.
True - part of the reason we’re offering such a steep discount now is that the product will be even better in the future, and we want to provide a lasting benefit to our early supporters who are becoming Premium members at the beginning.
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I suppose this really is out fault for purchasing a laser with ZERO offline abilities, you are forced in to what fast or slow lane GF decides to put you in unless you pay to be in the fast lane (or whatever they want to call it.)
I am not sure if I am more disappointed about this,
my machine being down for two weeks after owning it for 6 weeks,
or the fact that you have to email support, wait up to 24 hours for a reply then wait a couple weeks for parts to fix your own machine after it goes down.
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Honestly not having “Fast Lane” doesn’t really worry me all that much. As I understand it, the fast lane just provides faster processing at the beginning (before you push the blue button) of course the project won’t be any faster and I’ve never been bothered by the processing times in the past anyway.
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Where are the details of the design submission process and royalties? I don’t see information offered for the Premium cost as far as compensation, exclusivity, or any other reasons why I’d submit designs. Just that the option will be available in the future. (And if it’s part of the cost of upgrading, why is it a future offering?)
I’d have also like to have seen this offered to crowdfunding owners as a free perk, since our Founder discount on materials was removed with the switch to Shopify. Any thoughts on that?
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Your choice. You don’t have to pay any extra to operate your machine with the same functions as when you bought it. It has the same value as it did in February when you joined the forum. Many people, however, like the premium tools and are happy to pay for them.
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Dan, Will you please set up PayPal so I can purchase Premium?
The Founder Discount was for a limited time…I believe it was for a year after they went into production for the earliest purchasers. They actually gave us more than a year with the discount.
Yep…my guess is they haven’t finished working it out yet. (What he said in the announcement is exactly how much we know, and he’s not going to have those details until later.)
I think it’s one of the “More Good things to Come” in Premium.
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How much do I have to pay for my camera to be accurate? Snap marks were supposed to fix the camera issue, yet it never rolled out to my account…now I hear it may be included with a $600 a year subscription? Terrible. Without an accurate camera how is the glowforge better than any other laser? Proofgrade? PG has been out of stock for most of the year. The ability to run the laser when the internet is down? lol. The ability to use the laser when the company continues to make poor decisions and folds? Lol.
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Did you ever run the Recalibration program?
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The spec for the camera alignment is 1/4". If yours is worse than that after running the documented calibration procedure, GF will repair the machine.
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Yes, we haven’t announced it yet.
The founders’ discount was a one-year discount, and has expired since.
I’ll pass along the request to the team!
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You should open a new thread if you want help with that. This is not expected behavior, although there are some mistakes you can make when exporting files that cause inadvertent scaling.
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Thank you, I will try that. I’m hoping for much better than 1/4”. I come from a non camera laser background and was much more accurate with it. I thought the camera would allow me to do easy detailed work, and maybe others think 1/4” is detailed, but I don’t. I’ll report back later, I appreciate the suggestion,
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It revolutionized the camera alignment, so definitely give it a run. After you have run the Calibration program, you will use the Set Focus tool right over your design and THEN place the design for accuracy. (It works to correct the camera view in a particular spot. You should get excellent results.)
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