While I occasionally see some gatekeeping on this forum, it is nowhere near as bad as one of the coding forums (of a very popluar brand of dev board) I am a member of, and at the same time nowhere near as friendly as my favorite electronics forum.
This saying, which was preached over and over as I grew up, is dead.
Remember when you would get punched in the face for being an ■■■?
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Older users have grown up with understanding “user error” but new people have entered to the market with assuming that they don’t need to educate themselves at all on:
-any of the manuals
-watch none of the basic tutorial videos
-read any of the articles
and then in comments people start with
“ah didn’t know that bambu printers are so bad and are over hyped”
etc discussions that could easily be avoided with just taking interest in the basic technical know-how. And older people who had to learn the things in the much much harder way through sinking money and time into debugging and upgrading are fed up with the abysmal interest to first help themselves, before posting about their “unique” problem.
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Actually, the Wiki has been available in the Handy app for a long time in the Me→ Learning section
We are working to make that a bit clearer.
For Studio, we have recently integrated different wiki content + the Bambu Lab Academy under Home → User Manual. The next update will actually expand this integration further.
Besides that, every option in Studio is actually a hyperlink that takes you to the wiki to get more info.
We would really appreciate any suggestions on how to make this better, and easier to access.
Makes me consider. We need a pinned thread or guide like “So you decided 3d printing was a good idea” and just cover all the basics. This is a plate, clean it, this is a purge line, remove it, this is a tree support, don’t eat it, it’s not an actual tree and you’re not a beaver.
I think the Bambu Lab Academy → Beginner section for each printer should cover most of the basic details to know when starting. Intermediate already gives you quite a bit of additional information and context to know more about the printer you own.
We welcome further ideas and suggestions to improve on this.
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unless a forum is specificly labelled for veterans only that’s more or less how it should be, people are leveraging existing knowledge rather than reinventing the wheel. everyone needs to start somewhere, and they often start without even basic knowledge of the terminology to use. ask someone if they’ve tensioner their x axis and they might not even know what an x axis is, but let alone how to properly tension a belt.
can’t search for a solution if you don’t know how to phrase the question.
Especially if you’re not a native English speaker and the support for your language is poor. there isn’t a word for extruder in my language, and the Google translation of hot end gives the same words as the lit end of a cigarette. which is an idium meaning glowing ember.
at the end of the day, no one is forcing anyone to answer a thread, and if you’re default answer is to tell someone to read the manual then your not making a constructive contribution and it may be best to sit that one out.
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Yeah. But they don’t have to ask the forum first. Even generic Google searches invoke their AI on the back end. You don’t need to know the basic terminology. AI will understand “the thingy that the plastic comes out of” if you don’t know the word “extruder” or “nozzle”. A-la:
Week after week, month after month, newbies pop in with the same basic questions, like they’re the first person to ever experience the issue, even though in 99.999% of the cases there are many, many examples of people who had the same issue and figured it out, and it’d be no more effort to find them than to post and ask.
These posts become an annoyance to long term forum members. The same questions and the same answers time after time. It lowers the Signal to Noise ratio of the forum, too. Makes it less useful for everyone. The really hard questions and answers get lost in the sea of unnecessary questions and answers.
I’ve stopped answering most of these basic posts. I know the answer is already in the forum somewhere and my only advice would be “use Search” (and no way to not make that sound snarky, so I “just say no"). The forum even does a search for you when you create a new thread, it finds other existing threads that likely have the answer. But Newbies don’t use that information. They just post. 
Of course, there’s nothing to be done about the problem except whine. You can’t educate newbies in advance. So if I find myself with nothing better to do, I’ll still answer them. But I’m annoyed with myself when I do. 
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On the other hand, providing a link to an appropriate section on Bambu Wiki that answers the user’s question is a great way to help. Sometimes the info on the wiki has step-by-step instructions accompanied by photos or even videos, much better than what one can type in this forum.
Similarly, pointing users to Bambu Lab Academy courses is also a constructive contribution depending on what they ask.
Pointing users to existing resources also has another long-term benefit: The user will then know there are some very good info and instructions in these places and can go there as the first step when they have questions in the future. This is like teaching someone to fish, rather than giving someone a fish.
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I’d probably opt to copy and paste the relevant section of the Wiki into a comment and then explain it in the context of the person’s question.
If someone is just unboxing thier printer or is experiencing the first real problem then they may not yet be ready for the Wiki.
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No offense, but … Bambu Labs is being advertized as a plug and play printer that runs from a phone app. They’re actively targeting new users with zero knowledge or experience.
The days when the printer was the hobby and getting a print out of it was a bonus are long gone. People are getting a black box that you put filament in one end and get a print out of the other.
Like a lot of people, I started out on an Ender, and spent more time getting the first print out of it than I have troubleshooting my Bambu in total. I didn’t need to level the bed, or calibrate the filament, it was plug and play. Even my first print came on the memory card in the box. So users are coming into printing without what you would consider basic knowledge, and that includes knowing that there questions have already been answered a hundred times.
On the whole, I usually take the view that if someone comes to a forum it’s because they want a social answer, not a canned one. They want to interact with other users and to have a two way conversation about their problem. They want to do the first few steps and then get feedback, and then to do the next few. They could Google it or use the Wiki, but they’re looking for an interaction not just instructions. Which is what forums do.
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I disagree because the wiki itself covers topics such as unpacking and setting up for the first time using simple language and illustrations. It is designed especially for people who have no prior knowledge and are setting up the printer for the first time.
It is even available as a separate PDF file in case anyone wants to view it offline.
It should also be noted that 3D printer requires a minimum level of intellectual maturity to at least be able to read the “Quick Start Guide”. It is important to distinguish between someone who is interested in the topic and just needs guidance, and someone who cannot even get started because they lack the mental maturity to read the ‘Start Guide’ on the wiki or in PDF format.
Although the printers are essentially plug-and-play, a basic understanding of technology and an enthusiasm for it are still required. Well, yes, I know that even this fails because some people don’t even read the basic warnings and, for example, place their printer on flammable carpet on the floor - even in the children’s room, because in that case the parents lack the mental maturity.
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Hey there! I am one of those new users and let me say thank you for supporting us! I have had a ton of questions, and everyone here has been so great at helping me out.
There are gatekeepers in every community with an attitude akin to ‘Get off my lawn’
Thanks for sticking up for us!
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Most of them does, but some features and options lack explanations and the wiki is not there as well:
For example, embedding the wall into infill. Turning it on or off I can’t really see a difference, and it doesn’t have a wiki link.
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The point is that everyone can do what they think is the best way to help. There is no need to assume that one’s way is the only correct way to help and everyone else who does it differently is not helping.
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I try to ignore them. Just Whiney little kids who’s mom and dad bought them a printer, and they feel they have to prove how GREAT they are by putting down others. Sounds like they have a major chip on their shoulders, and they seem to forget they were there once upon a time as well. And they also seem to forget they have a scroll wheel that lets them bypass messages they don’t like.
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Iv’e only been going for less than 1 year. There is a learning curve as steep or shallow as you want. Its just so easy to download a file and go Print. Its when the tweeking comes in that you learn. Just watch loads of y-tube, and remember what people are doing, then when you want the same thing, the old brain cells click in and you try and learn that one piece. I started with an A1, and was hooked in les sthan 1 hour. I now have the H2C.I still use the A1 and cant see myself throwing it away. You learn by making loads of mistakes, now they are very few. Learn to use FreeCad, its the best thing you can do. There again there is a steep learning curve. Im now designing all my own work, tools, Ducting. This time last year I could do nothing now its quite simple. As i said learn from your mistakes, keep your plates clean with alcohle, and your Filament as dry as you can. Then jump in with both feet, its a wonderful world.
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Yessss, this. Like totally. There’s been people I went to talk to for help before, and they told me to google it. It frustrated me because of this, because I was looking not just for instruction, but personal interaction with my peer too.
Not everyone approaches things the same way, and that includes learning too. I think sometimes we forget that maybe that quiet solo search for information is our style, but not everyone operates that way, not everyone wants to operate that way.
Oh the unquenchable thirst for knowledge, for information. I remember years ago with an electronics project I was working on, learning the right keywords in German I needed to know so I could dig deep into German forums for the information I needed to know. I don’t know how to speak German at all either, so. It wasn’t easy. I don’t think most people are that way though.
I have to imagine too, a lot of the people getting a 3d printer for the first time, they don’t really have anyone else to talk to about it yet. They’re reaching out to the communities not just to answer a basic question, but to take their first steps outside themselves and finding that community they need, want to be a part of, as they start their journey.
Might be romanticizing the idea a little, haha, but I don’t think it’s productive to just take on such ill will towards people. I don’t think it’s productive for yourself, because it just makes you anger, causes frustration, when learning to just move on is so much nicer feeling. I honestly say this as someone that has had to learn to just move it along sometimes.
It does get exhausting answering the same questions all the time. I use to respond to a lot more questions and stuff, but then after awhile, ahh, other people just step into that roll, and I go on to do other things. I think it’s the circle of life. It’s not just 3d printing either. Oh the things I’ve learned on Youtube, and now I see the newer generation of Youtubers covering those same topics, teaching a new generation of people basically the same thing. There’s always going to be someone there with those questions, but you don’t always have to be the one to answer them.
I think linking to the wiki is good, it’s good to start getting attention flowing towards it, but to zombies.aaargh’s point, it is good to include some context and talk alongside the link, not just dumping a link without saying anything (not saying anyone would). I personally wouldn’t copy paste the section, but I would try and give context and talk along it.
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I spent about a week googling and wikiing a coding problem and couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t do it.
I posted it on a forum and in less than 10 minutes someone came back and said that the parameter became read only at runtime.
I’d have never figured it from the documents as it pressumed itd read a completely different part of the wiki first.
it was basic knowledge, if you’d come via a different route.
The wikis like most wikis are there to help you, help yourself, not do it for you .
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Yeah, but like was said, people are looking for social interaction too, and just dumping links misses the point.
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Do you still get the three comments made to , try private chat , its a forum , not a chat room,