Ya I noticed this, I think specifically the “status on lowrider 4” thread is attracting a lot of comments. Maybe it should get a final post pushing people to where to post there qs or trouble shootings and then lock that thread. Maybe the same for some other monsters
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Good idea. I think I am also going to turn on Auto-close as well. If nothing else it will help keep spammers out.
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30 days or so? Great idea. 
Can you set a custom message? Like “This thread is closed, just open a new thread even though your problem seems similar”?
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I think that I try to have people get the basics down before trying out the mods. My own LR4 is pretty much bone stock (though I do not yet have Al XZ plates yet.) My only mod so far is silicone caulking the strut to the tubes, lol. This is probably the least modified I’ve built a V1 machine. And it is basically on a sheet of plywood.
I may have advised printed XZ plates as a bootstrap, counter to the instructions. Still working up the courage to mill more Al. I have one more piece of plate to work with.
The Yellow Brick Road suits my basic philosophy for building. I will take this as a reminder.
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Is that long enough?
What if no one smokes meat this month?
Or nothing Neat happens? 
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Okay, maybe exclude the off-topic and Things you’ve made sections as well as build threads? Maybe only the help sections?
Like Advice, Troubleshooting, Hardware?
Not Your builds?
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Exactly. I love mods, when they are very clearly mods. If your silicone ends up helping, That is something an very easily try themselves. Obviously, you are not going to tell a new user they have to do that on a fresh build. Any ideas on how to make this stuff available but clearly optional. Like maybe a test thread from you and we make a mods section for stuff like this?
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Tricky…
Because certain things like “Things you made” threads I can see the utility of keeping open.
Not sure how much control Discourse has
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I definitely want to add something to my french cleat thread. 
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I resemble this remark. I know most of those start off with a disclaimer that it’s not necessary.
I put up a test thread for exactly that reason. I can make a claim that it does something though I cannot directly claim it helps the machine cut better.
Just like whenever people ask about 31.8mm tubing, I can say I did it, but I make sure to stress that it may not work as well in all cases.
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Tier 1 tech support and Tier 2 participation? Would there be achievements along the way to get from 1 to 2?
but seriously, Is it the mods or the nonstandard parts? I hope I haven’t steered too many astray by trying to embrace their slightly out of the ordinary requests and encourage them to persevere with what they have.
Since the forum is basically your technical support and you have described the yellow brick road. How you you prefer the help be delivered? One person hand hold per inquiry or a tag team?
with respect to nonstandard things, I think there is a lot of latitude to obtain full functionality with hardware that many have that can be repurposed to make a functional machine. Call it junk-yard science. I build stuff out of leftovers and love doing it. “Franken-systems” are made using what is available and a desire to participate.
I’ll acknowledge that I’m deviating in firmware and not shy about sharing that. If not sharing that is preferred: no hard feelings. Send me a PM if you have specific comments. If I’ve provided the example, feel free to use it to help better illustrate what not to do. Just don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.
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I really don’t think “not-sharing” is the intent.
I think he just wants for obvious new users to be led down the path of least resistance/most support first so they have success.
Once they have success and solid grounding in what to expect out of their machine, then of course mods are fun.
But if they don’t have the right starting point, they’ll never know if they’ve gone too far, or if they are missing something completely.
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This sort of stuff I put in the instructions. I consider ±0.2 to be fine. I have seen you try to be delicate with it. I see no issues with it. Feel free to just say it works, I don’t want people to think conduit needs to be perfect. If there any size issues, rotating the tube a little should fix it.
Like I said though, it is not one person, we are all sort of getting off the path. We are advanced users the details are what interest us the most at this point.
Okay so for this sort of thing we have to be careful. Will a ramps board that they already own work, YES, absolutely. The next step is “have you ever compiled and flashed Marlin before?” If it is yes then they can use it. If not, “it is probably more hassle than it is worth”.
Same with can I use this sheet of quantum dot ply epoxy unicornfart material for strut plates? If you have any experience milling go right ahead, if you have never cut anything before go spend $10 on some MDF. Same with people jumping straight to aluminum strut plates…generally that is a foolish move that is sure to cause a lot of stress for everyone.
I am fine with a user doing whatever they want to, promise. Where I am going to start getting spicy is telling a brand-new user that has never made a cut to start editing firmware.
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oooooohhhhh… where can I buy that???
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you have to buy a new tv with the quantum dot backlighting in it… runs about $1000 to get about a square yard of it… based on the TV pricing. you also have to figure out what to do with what’s left of the tv. good luck with that.
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@vicious1 Ryan, this is the most user friendly cnc forum i’ve seen, personally i havent post a single thing in the openbuilds forum (and never will). Users here are great, helpful folks and others.
I have a suggestion: there are some basic questions that can be self answered by reading other posts or the documentation (we all know not everyone reads all)
So you need to make sure there is some basic reading done by the new user, a faq with the most frequently asked things on new builds that way you can keep the forums with a little less clutter.
Sometimes new users go straight to ask something thats already answered in a recent post
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You just have to be careful with this.
I don’t think we want this to turn into a RTFM type of place either…
In general, answering the question with an included link to the docs, or a “for more information, checks the docs here” type of phrase won’t generally scare people off, but might show them that there is documentation that is helpful that they may not have known about.
People generally are anxious about starting forum posts because they don’t want to be accused of not trying to figure it out themselves first.
I think that is what sets this forum apart.
That is generally not the attitude here as it is in many other places.
I think we want to preserve that interaction as much as possible. There are lots of people here willing to help, so if anyone gets sick of answering the same question over and over, just leave it and let the next person that is willing answer.
I would much rather see people have to wait longer for a higher quality answer than to start getting answers that are primarily “Read this first”, etc.
Some people don’t learn well by reading, and some do.
If someone is more comfortable brute forcing it one small question at a time, and there are enough people willing to help, then I think that is perfectly fine as long as all the interactions stay cordial and helpful.
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Users will either read or they won’t. I aim to have all relevant info in the instructions, but that does not need to include why those choices are made (pla, cam software, settings).
My most common email I have been getting the last year or two is, “I want your machine how do I buy everything?” No joke, that is usually the entirety of the email. That person has given no real effort to even tell me what of the 4 machines they want let alone read anything. I swear I got one this morning.
Nope, that is why I am worried about direct linking the FAQ’s. That only makes sense for things that go into extreme detail, like some of the other pages.
Yup. My general answer to all emails is, please ask all the questions you need before spending any money.
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I didn’t mean Anything bad. In fact i love and ive said it: this is by far the best noob/new user friendly cnc forum.
Even asking things in the fluidnc discord has gotten bad (yes yes, i inow they changed the way support works now, but i know fluid since the grbl port )
Lately i have less time to be around here (have a family member hospitalized and full of work) but i take my time to at least read most of the posts to see if i can help with anything quick, but if i see someone already answered what in my understanding is correct i dont say anything else
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I didn’t take it that way.
It was just a good opportunity to make sure no one took it the wrong way and took it too far in the wrong direction.
I think the forums have been great, and we do need a bit of a correction back to the way it was, we just don’t want to over-correct, I think.
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