The forum is a welcoming place for many new users. Posts of people who said they didn’t felt welcome get all the attention. But there are new users who have expressed appreciation for this forum and the help they got.
Were there cases of new users not being treated nicely? Probably. In any place that have more than 100 users there will be interaction problems. But I also think the narrative that there is a fight between new users and old users is false. It is a blanket statement that is not supported by facts.
A person’s behavior has little to do with if that person is new or old here. A new user can behave just as bad, and will continue to do so when they become “old” on this forum. The person may be new, but the behavior can be old, long before they took up 3D printing and came up to this forum.
Is it better to ignore it or to say you are stupid for not searching for the answer?
of course the latter response means you just lost a new forum member
of course the right thing would be to be polite and say, that’s a good question and even answer it
but I do understand that we are not perfect individuals and if you read a forum diligently you might get frustrated about reading the same question and get a little frustrated.
I see it time and time again in forums and like I said, best to say nothing, instead of being rude.
in a healthy forum, there are new people coming in all the time and they won’t be quite so jaded about reading the same questions and let them answer the question
you get more engagement that way
you should not feel the need to answer every question
that way you can engage with the ones you are interested in
I appreciate that some/many aren’t discouraged by the response they’ve gotten. However, If the argument is that there isn’t a problem, I’m struggling to understand why this topic has gotten so much attention.
I don’t see where I implied that there was a fight between new users and old, but my apologies if it came across that way. I draw no distinction between tenure and the tone of the response.
I just believe that kind and civil conversation encourages participation while snippy and agressive responses tend to discourage it.
I do however believe that those who have dedicated time and gained significant credibility have an opportunity to help set the tone both by how they respond to inquiries and by how they respond to problematic behaviors when they see them.
I didn’t say there wasn’t. There will always be. There will always be bad-behaving individuals, and then there will be the time or two that even a saint can fall short of their own expectation.
A forum where everyone behaves perfectly everytime doesn’t exist. I doubt this forum has a bigger problem than other social media sites such as Facebook and Reddit.
Threads having a title like this will always attract many posts. Some recently had an unhappy experience and they would go anywhere to vent regardless of the thread topic. And then there are a small number of people who always have things to vent regardless places and time of the day
I’m an old newbie! Played about with and E3Pro five years or so ago, when it worked it was great, mechanically I made it even better but I was ultimately thwarted by software. I tried again with an E5, I was going to make it CoreXY and a 300x300 build plate but again the software side of it finished that.
My wife was fed up with me swearing at the laptop when I was trying to sort Marlin and then Klipper so suggested I try something else and here I am since the end of December last year.
I was gobsmacked by the P2S and the apparent suppot from BL and yes I asked a couple of daft beginner questions mainly due to the fact the technology was so different! I received help from who I now know were probably seasoned forum supporters, they were polite and to the point, ideal for what I wanted.
On the othehand I asked another question recently and got what I thought was a curt reply from what it seems was another newbie. Being a thick skinned old bugger I just ignored them and moved on.
So, I’m sad to see some think this forum is dying, I certainly hope not, when I know a bit more about my P2S I’ll hopefully be able to help others.
I am going to go back to my original opinion that the forums have been nothing but a welcoming and friendly environment for me….
I wrote a whole bunch about the psychology of the internet and the lack of resilience in young people and getting out and being with people in real life is important then deleted it… I sounded like an old lady…
Obviously some people feel very deeply about this subject and this thread is actually very popular. Some new people feel alone, some new people feel welcomed, some regulars feel jaded, and others think all is fine…. just like in real life.
Just to be clear, and to put a sharper point on it, when I did the OP for this thread and asked “Where did everyone go?” I wasn’t referring to new users. There’s no shortage of new users. A new busload arrives every day. And to be blunt, I feel like I’ve already done my lifetime quota of welcoming and support for new users, times two, if not more than that. Seriously. So, whatever current issues new users are facing, I’m just not interested anymore. That goes on the shoulders of the people I already helped, and the people they helped, and so on, to do their share of give-back. I absolutely will not ever again respond to someone who ends their question with “thanks in advance.”
No, when I asked “Where did everyone go?” I was referring to the smart people. Not saying there aren’t any left, as there clearly are, but compared to before, it seems like nowhere near as many are posting. Maybe they’ve reached a similar saturation to what I just now described, or maybe it’s for the reasons I posted in my OP. Or maybe Advocado nailed it with his theory.
I dare say that there are a number of different reasons.
When Bambu started locking down in the wake of X Plus, we not only lost hope of ever having the chance to access “hidden” features (raw data for bed levelling, raw calibration data,…), we also lost the chance to tinker meaningfully. Well, we could to some extend, but the printers are not quite cheap enough to void warranty before its done for…
During its growth, Bambu of course also implemented many improvements in its products. So many
while for others we are locked out from addressing them. So unsurprisingly, some of the most talented makers have diversified and tinker with more open printers. Although I am very grateful if and when they do show back in the forum
And of course there’s the H-series. With dual nozzle printing, a lot of the approaches to reduce waste have been addressed by that. Considering that it was intended as an all-in-one, I would have expected new opportunities for deep dives in particular regarding the lasers. But from the little attention the topic sees in the forum, I expect that most people use the H-series primarily for printing. In my own case, I have not yet exhausted all the printing I want to do before installing the laser
Furthermore, Bambu is using more communication routes, making the forum just of many places. If it not Bambu’s first place to make announcements, why should it be the first place people come to? A bit more attention to its own Forum would be helpful. Even on MakerWorld, “Community” does not take anyone to the forum first, but to a wall of non-curated “advertising” posts… Going by that priority, the forum is last on Bambu’s list of priorities…
The recent, excellent posts by Bambu in the “Community Contributions” are a counterpoint to this. While I very much like the articles, I fear that they can be a bit off-putting for community members to post their own contributions. This level of writing does require significant time which few actually have if not employed for that purpose.
However, Bambu does know what wealth it has in this forum. Those few weeks last year when the forum was usable by Gemini and Copilot were really cool. Locked-down now, too…
With the path Bambu has taken, it’s not as entertaining for printer enthusiasts. As noted above, a lot of the features and potential for tinkering has been taken away over time. This does not leave a lot of potential for discussion on the printers outside of existing features and future wants. There’s no real flexibility or freedom to do much with the software or hardware. Don’t get me wrong, these machines are a marvel and they have some neat features, but that’s as far as that goes.
I don’t think any of this is going to change anytime soon and I don’t see Bambu changing course given the success they have with the new to 3D printing crowd. This only leaves one real area for entertainment … printing enthusiasts :). Those who enjoy designing and making things. Those who enjoy getting into the print profiles, settings, and G-Code. Those who love to experiment with various material choices and combinations. Far from a solution, but I think if we start focusing on those aspects of 3D printing, we may find we have a lot of fun topics we can share and discuss. I personally get a kick out of the interesting printing tests that @MeshMaster has done and the wild projects that @Josh-3D has completed and is currently working on. I suck at photography, but I learned a lot on that post on how to get those sweet shots that many of you are great at (My pictures will continue to look like they were taken with a potato).
Probably overly optimistic, but at least it’s some food for thought on ways we can move forward. I should probably share some of the dumb things I’ve made so people can feel good about what they’ve made :). Like the pink foot I once made with my fledgling CAD skills for my folding table after one was lost. No one ever even noticed it over the past few years, which has been a real low point in my life.
I’ve been a part of many forums, and after a time, my interest in the topic or product always, eventually, fades away. Maybe I’ve lost interest in the whole activity, or I’ve learned all I wish to know, or a specific product is so well-established that no one has any new questions to explore, or the product has become obsolete.
My interest in this forum is definitely on the downhill slope. My X1C is a pretty well-known quantity and at EOL, but I have no plans to replace it. I stopped firmware upgrades at 1.08.02, partly to use X1Plus, partly to avoid the authorization nonsense, partly because newer firmware offers no improvements that I need.
If I lack experience with a topic, I try not to offer opinions or suggestions. (I don’t always succeed.) So I can ignore most posts involving newer printers, AMS, multi-color printing, lasers, etc.
There is also a fatigue factor involved. There is a definite limit to how many times I am willing to say “read, don’t post to increase trust”, “dry your filament”, “calibrate your filament”, “clean your plate”. I also have little patience for those too lazy to do a simple search.
I do still find myself checking in frequently, and occasionally I do learn something new, but I think this forum will lose its place on my Bookmarks bar before much longer.
Well fine… than don’t. Nobody is forcing you to. Just pass it by.
I also don’t see where you have any grounds to be displeased with someone who didn’t search to your satisfaction or jump through ample hoops to meet your criteria to ask a question. Once again, just pass on by.
This is something typical to many forums in general but it seems oddly prevalent here. It’s nothing but “gatekeeping” pure and simple. You are basically saying “you have to use this forum in a way that I find acceptable”. What gives you that right?
This will likely get me hated, but I don’t care. I’ve followed this discussion, both here and in similar topics in other threads, and have decided I’d rather walk barefoot on burning broken glass rather than to ask a question here in the future. So, I guess you win.
this thread is quite meta my two cents, there are still interesting conversations sometimes, there’s also a lot of flaming as well, then there is anti bambu people calling anyone satisfied with their machines fan boys, then there are actual fan boys that never tried a printer from another brand that pretend to be experts, and then there are the very basic questions that probably have already been answered a bunch of times, but someone new to the forums won’t really be used to it and create those questions, I think it’s perfectly normal, and as people start becoming more engaged in the form then they actually start using the search function instead of immediately opening a new thread
the forum is a mirror of the difference of opinions that also exist in “real life “ the only thing is some people talk in a way they would never do to someone’s face, these are the good old fashion keyboard warriors, but this is the internet so there will always be people like this, but yeah the ignore feature of the forum is great, I highly recommend it
I think he has plenty of grounds to express his frustration. @lkraus spends a lot of time helping people on this forum. His solution count is in the top handful of users. His frustration doesn’t manifest as screaming at new users “SEARCH NEWB!”. No, he either answers the question or quietly passes on by but that frustration is still there internally and he has a right to express it. It is frustrating. This frustration isn’t always at the user either, it can be at the system too as it isn’t perfect. The answers to most question are there but they aren’t always easily available to all users who aren’t familiar with the system.
That is exactly what I do. I ignore topics I have no interest in (which is most), and probably respond to less than 1% of the remainder.
This topic is “Where did everyone go?” So I explained why I am posting less and less. Why are you upset that I answered the question? You could have just passed it by.
I’m not “displeased” by someone’s failure to search. But I have no obligation to help someone who apparently did not attempt to answer their own question or failed to provide basic details. I come here to learn and to help, but not to spoon-feed answers to people who don’t help themselves.
I am not “gatekeeping”. I don’t have the power or desire to keep anyone out of the forum (I turned that down). Ask any question you want. Unless it is spam, off-topic, or violates community guidelines, no one will stop you. Participation here is entirely voluntary, so you are not guaranteed answers. Bambu might have some obligation to answer your questions. I wish you good luck with that.
Ikraus is one of the jewels of the forum and is representative of the type of person I had in mind when I wrote “Where did everyone go?” He writes very well and he conveys key technical insights. He’d be on my “Follow” list if this forum had a follow list.
Agree with much of what has been said already here.
One thing I wish is adding some of the visibility of things like the forum which are visible to makersworld website to the actual slicer. At least links to them like with the Maker’s Supply would make these much more accessible to people not logging into the website regularly.
I took screenshots, but apparently can’t upload them as I get an error ‘media items cannot be embedded in your post’ even though I see other comments with pictures and videos
But, things in the sidebar on the website for example:
Contests
Crowdfunding
Cyberbrick
Community
Forum
These could easily be listed and linked right below Maker’s Supply in the BambuSlicer. Also, incorporating some of the website features like the ability to view comments from the slicer on models. It’s frustrating the open an ‘online model’ in the slicer and not be able to view comments that are helpful to know when printing. It’s basically the opposite of encouraging community.
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