It’s been posted before but was news to me and is interesting to see now that the forum has had some time to mature:
https://community.glowforge.com/badges
This is also really interesting because you can see all badges that have been given. The sections about popular links and posts are great ways to find the most interesting and useful things that have been posted.
There’s one badge that has only been achieved once by a single person. I’ll leave it to you to guess who it is 
9593 Owners? Wow! I wonder if that would be everyone?
Nah, most likely not. If you just multiple that number by $2500 (price of a basic/air filter at the kick-off) then that is probably roughly the size of the initial 30 day crowd.
$27,907,995 SOLD IN 30 DAYS
THE BIGGEST 30-DAY CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN IN HISTORY
There are many more owners since then I’d imagine (the company doesn’t share that kind of data).
Yep, I was right.
No brainer, really.
John 
Well, of COURSE. 
What are the parameters for becoming “regular?” I’d wondered how people were able to recategorize my posts, and never could find the button. Now I see it’s because I don’t have one!
It’s intentionally not publicized so people won’t game the system.
I would think you are on the edge though.
That would be a first! I think I’m typically considered to be more of an irregular sort. Although norms in this group are definitely a bit skewed in comparison to the general population, so maybe I have a chance! 
Obviously you have found your people!
YES!!!
“The Glowforge Irregulars” has a nice ring to it. 
Except for those here complaining that theirs were “irregular” and wanting to exchange them.
Even when they have specific things about badges it is getting a bit behind in keeping track now that the number of participants is growing.
The badges based on the number of likes get awarded if the threshold is passed in a day or two but if it is weeks as many are as new folk become active and go looking at older stuff the badge may or may not be included.
Honestly that is not the “achievement” that I had in mind and just about the polar opposite recipient I had in mind too. 
Ooh is that too controversial?
Flagging you now!
The requirements are actually pretty stiff - you have to read a certain percentage of all the posts, over a revolving 60 day time period, over 30%, not just the new ones or the ones in certain categories…most people don’t have the Categories set to Watching. It’s the only way to make sure you see everything. You have to receive a certain number of “likes” and give a certain number of them, from over 30 -35 different people, IIRC. You can’t have too many flags. You have to comment a certain amount of times… you basically just have to stay very active.
And the window shifts as time progresses, so you have to keep up the activity or risk losing Regular status.
We don’t know what the requirements are now exactly - Dan just changed them to make them a little easier to achieve because we noticed that new Regulars weren’t happening for several months. The forum used to be a lot more active while we were trying to get Pre-Release issues resolved.
Keep posting. Keep reading. Change the tracking status on the individual categories to Watching.
Keep showing off things you’ve made, and post interesting links to related projects that people click on… because those are the easiest way to snag the “likes” that you need to qualify. The system is designed to recognize the truly regular Regulars.
As soon as you hit the magic number your status changes, and sometimes it doesn’t take much additional to do it. 
I’ve browsed back over some of the old posts while everyone was waiting for their machines…I didn’t join back then because I knew the wait would kill me even more if I was thinking about it every single day. Especially after I had made the decision not to apply for a PRU. I was starting my practice and knew I had to dedicate my time to that, and wouldn’t be able to give GF a fair amount of time. Which was a painfully adult decision for someone who is REALLY not good at delayed gratification.
The best way for me to endure it was to do what I do with any crowdfunded endeavor I sign on for. I had to just try to forget about it until it happened.
When I see how much fun you were having, it makes me wish that I had joined. But I still think it was the right decision for me. I don’t think I could have endured waiting AND seeing daily reminders of what I was waiting for!
This sounds like it might be why there were no new regulars. Rules that scale like that don’t actually work when a forum grows unless they have an “or” clause to prevent runaway limits. In the early days when the forum was smaller, reading 30% was a lot easier. I spend as much time on this forum as any sane person would, visiting several times per day. If that’s not considered regular, then the rules are foolish.
This is somewhat academic to me; from what I can tell regular status just confers recategorization rights, which is a dubious honor. It’s not something I’m particularly interested in, so I’m fine as things are now.
Out of curiosity, does anyone know how to tell if you’ve ever been flagged? I’m curious if anyone ever took exception to my posts and don’t know how to find out.
I have been pretty active as I was expecting to see the Glowforge in my house in November instead if February, but coming up to speed in the software (especially Inkscape that I had not explored) and being ready ( I had hoped) to have designs ready when the Glowforge arrived kept me busy reading and passing along what I knew of Gimp that I had been using for years and many possibilities I have not been able to explore even now ( Like raw Raku Clay that I have not found a local source for a small amount.)
There were also many plans and ideas that took a splat when tried in reality, and many also that I did not think out far enough and are now totally redesigned.
I think that preparation was extremely valuable in the long run and much more the case when at the time the Glowforge arrived I had resigned myself that it would not be here for another month after that.
I read and hit like a lot but I usually respond only when I have something different to say than has already been said…
So you are saying that my sanity is in question? (something north of 295K posts read)