Heh. Intresting.
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These forums are a super wonderful source of information, and that is before any of us even have Glowforges yet! With this kind of community support and feedback system in place I expect we will be making things waaaaaay beyond what our individual creative talents might develop. Beta unit or not, I hope to add our experiences to the fold. And by the way Dan, thanks for the book!
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That’s great for the people that already signed up and are willing to take that chance, but what about everyone else that is still in the market to buy and then might hear something negative. Trust me, one wrong word taken out of context and people will jump ship. And to put that to the test, just ask the international buyers about the CE label
@dan [quote=“dan, post:203, topic:967”]
“Wait, I just read it doesn’t do X in your forum!” emails every day.
[/quote] Or worse, someone posts it to a public media site. Try getting that removed or changed.
all I know is that I cant wait to start playing with that software. dealing with 3d printers and some of the terrible software on the market for them, ill be really glad to be able to use something from a group that I know is willingly taking user feedback into account, and whos initial goal is ease of use and a robust expanding feature set.
Now if theyd start taking pull requests… that would be awesome! haha
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At this point I really don’t mind who GF chooses as testers. I just think it would be nice to hear some of what is going on (ideal materials, settings, passthrough capabilities, improvement, dos and donts etc.) while waiting for the next 4-6 months. Or maybe Beta testers
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Im sure this information will be shared on the forums. I think the only thing they will not be sharing are the bugs they are fixing, as it isnt relevant or necessary to share. It seems like we have a really good pool of people on the forums already, and if these are the people chosen for the beta we will be in good hands because we are already posting a lot, and dont even have a glowforge yet!
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@takitus Agree 1000%
If the NDA allows it. I am sure the testers will be jumping at the chance to share.
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If its not available immediately, Dan is smart enough to know how invaluable that information is, and will probably roll it out to the community as soon as the beta is finished, just in time for everyone to start making good use of it.
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Happy Christmas for everyone…
Dan sorry but when the beta unit are Ready for shipment?
Thank you for the reply.
I would love to be added to the list, I did have a question. For some of us making Videos is easier so will we have the option of posting videos with our experiences as long as they aren’t public and need a link to access them?
No one knows. Probably won’t know unless a person is selected. Info would be provided at that time.
Go back to the top and read all about the beta program. You’ll find your answer there. It is counterproductive to ask here as they noted that if you are chosen you will be notified. If you have to ask then you weren’t chosen. 
Go back to the top and read all about the beta program.
Literally the first line is that they will be shipped in December. This is pretty much the last day that will be possible if you don’t want people waiting til January. I’m not going to try and search through all Dan’s posts again, as this weird terrible forum layout (not paginated but not all comments at once but still slower than pagination!) makes it incredibly tedious, but I would hope they will at least give a general indication as to whether or not the beta selection process is over in this thread, even if they aren’t explicitly notifying each individual who isn’t getting in (which would honestly be kinda be trivial, especially for such a tech oriented startup but I’m not Dan so whatevs!)
He’s said before that the Beta selection process will be ongoing until the units are production ready. Folks will be chosen as machines are available and according to how a person fits a need at that time. The Beta testers won’t be chosen all at once.
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If you read past the first line there’s lots of good info. This is a rolling beta program Dan’s described.
“First” suggests that there will be other beta units after December.
The bolding is mine. But it does point to a multiple rollout of beta units over time not just a single selection and beta unit shipment process.
Again, my bolding, but this says that there will be more than one opportunity to be selected as beta units become available.
[quote='Dan"]The Secret to Being Chosen
Don’t send us private messages or email about the beta program. Put your questions about the program here, in this thread. Read first to make sure it hasn’t been answered already.
How will you choose?
Every time new units become available, we’ll consider the circumstances, see who’s applied, and see who would help us most by getting the unit.[/quote]
Two good points here - read this first and beta units are not all allocated at the same time. There appears to be a build/beta/rework process going on. Just what you’d want in a beta program. While the forum does require a bit of navigation - on my system I have to keep letting it refill some kind of cache or queue as I drag the slider to the top to get to the early messages - it’s definitely not unusable and I’m not sure I’d agree that it’s tedious. If navigating the forum is painful, you probably really don’t want to be testing out a beta unit with all of its expected flaws and inconsistencies 
I know it can be frustrating to be potentially able to get an early hands-on with one but not knowing if you will or when. That’s part of why I got a cheap K40 laser cutter to play with in the interim. I’m bad at the whole patience thing sometimes. When I was growing up I used to find all the Christmas presents my parents hid and unwrapped them so I could see what I was getting (I rewrapped them and re-hid them afterward).
On the other hand, having been subject to the Makerbot “test in production” method of product delivery, I’m a big fan of a formal beta program where all participants go into it with their eyes open.
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This comment is not directed at anyone specific. I find it interesting that many, many folks take the planned Beta and ship dates in the most optimistic way possible. I tend to look at every date as if it was on a project engineering plan. Step one takes so much time, check results, make changes as needed, modify plan if needed, step 2, check results, modify plan… Yes there is certainly slop built into the plan but nothing takes only a day, or a week. December doesn’t mean the units are close to being production ready or that Jan, Feb, or even May will be the end of Beta testing. Might be Jan, Might be Jun. We won’t know so try not to stress yourself by worrying about a day here or a week there. Go enjoy life while waiting.
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Actually I took his comments as trying to be helpful. But that’s just me.
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@zaplocked, I friendly reminder. No one is " insulting your intelligence".
Other members have pointed out that all the info you are asking about has been posted by @dan already.
Dan has made it very clear that the beta program is already underway.
The beta hardware/software is still in it’s early stages and many things do not work as planed yet, thus the testing.
Simple features that should be right on a level one menu are some times found a little deeper within the software and have to be manually set. This requires a lot of digging and logging. (not fun work).
And most importantly:
If you notice the tone of the members here, you will see a pattern. Everyone is being positive and polite. If you try and return this same pattern, you will get better results.
Have a great day
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Yes, I understand you do not like the forum. And that is fine. It is however the forum the GF team picked and it is not what is being tested.
You make statements like:
1- " I’m not going to try and search through all Dan’s posts again"
2- “makes it incredibly tedious"
3- " I would hope they will at least give a general indication as to whether
or not the beta selection process is over in this thread”
1- You don’t have to, just read the first post on this thread by @dan
2- Sorry you don’t like what the GF team has picked to use.
3- Dan did in the first post of this thread, He said “We will roll out beta units as they become available
until final units are ready. The first ones will ship in as little as two weeks.”
The forum is not being tested.
Thanks for understanding
Have a great day
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