'Cause holy crap, you deserve a raise. Whatever you are getting paid, you deserve more.
I can’t begin to imagine how differently things would be for the company, and all of us customers, if not for this forum, and its awesome contributors.
I’m in full agreement 
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Besides being the front man for the company, Dan is comfortable and competent with public presentations as we have seen. I suspect with his social exposure he understood the value and importance of a community forum.
Just a guess.
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Well could have been Dan’s idea but I seriously doubt that anyone could see where it was going. I’ve never seen anything like this.
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Neither have I, but then again I never belonged to a community that had a $2,000 buy-in!
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Having managed a number of forum based communities I think this is easy to forget but is probably the most important point!
Not that we are aren’t awesome 
, but the built in filter and guaranteed common interest is a very high bar.
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I’m sure that the buy in is an important factor but I’m in another that has a similar buy in and it is DEAD.
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Now that you mention it, the forum for my CNC router took a long time (5 years or more) to ramp up to daily activity. Last time I checked, it wasn’t nearly as awesome as this group.
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It is not just the person who thought to make the forum. They are valuable. But the early members of the community also deserve serious kudos. They set the tone, and maintained the initial activity when things were actually pretty slow.
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I was just thinking this the other day! Totally agree!
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That my friend is a perfect analogy of what has happened in this community.
As an introvert, the anonymity of socially interacting from behind a monitor made it much easier for me to crawl out of my shell and join those of you who were the initial members.
I was so excited about owning a laser, and being submerged in a group of like-minded individuals, that I was inspired to help propagate a friendly, inclusive environment for the forum - to the point of almost being ridiculous with throwing ‘likes’ at almost everything someone offered. In my mind it was an attempt to loosen things up (much to the dismay of more organized individuals) and show that someone was listening.
We all have different comfort thresholds where we drop our guard and join in. We are lot closer to a group of friends than an accumulation of customers. I feel a kinship with the shirtless guy who didn’t care, and threw himself out there.
You guys made it easy for me. It’s not my nature. Company parties where I attended as a spouse… “Where’s Dave?” Wife; “Oh, he does that.” I’ll go outside and look at the stars, or wander the building admiring the architecture.
You probably wouldn’t recognize me in a social setting. 
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hah, I would probably be standing right by you
Back in high school my now wife had instructed me to “go look at the house numbers for a while” when we dropped off her friend + friend’s boyfriend, and I was just hanging around while they were waiting to “say goodbye”
I picked up on why they wanted me to bugger off for a while, and had no better ideas so I went and stared at the house numbers. They had to wait 10 minutes after deciding it was time to go for me to finish. I found something interesting… 
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Never would have guessed that of either of you!
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I have to say that, here at Glowforge, none of us - absolutely none - predicted how amazing, thoughtful, interesting, intelligent, considerate, and helpful the community here would be.
Our unofficial company motto is “we have the best customers”. You hear it around here a lot.
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I don’t know if I would have kept my order without the forum. This definitely has been a game changer for me. Above all I appreciate that there are clear guidelines and enforcement of civility. Brings out the best in us.
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Out of all the other forums I’ve been a part of, this is by far the best/unique/amazing.
I definitely would not have stayed so long without it either. I’ve NEVER liked going onto any of the forums unless I absolutely had to get a question answered…until now. I’d much rather talk in person (small groups), or go outside and stare at stars (big astronomy and space geek).
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I seriously think that the project may not have survived without the forum…the delays could have been the end of it, without the reinforcement / news / etc of this place.
And I know that I’d personally be 1 / 1,000th as knowledgeable about what to do with it without everyone’s help and suggestions and posts!
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While I believe the GF is and will be utterly game changing, wisely leveraging this forum and the astounding array of creative and technological talent here can make this the greatest makerspace on Earth. I can truly envision amazing technologies springing forth from our collaborations, maybe even replicator technology. If enough of us can see something in our minds eye, it will surely happen. Just let our juggernaut churn. Churn, baby, churn…
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Ha, ever see the video “I’M THE JUGGERNAUT, BIIIIII%$%&!!!” ?
Cracks me up, everytime
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No, sadly not. I will have to check it out.
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