You are not taking my mole from me!! Over my dead body. 
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Yep, and I donāt have many photos of myself, so I have to use these official headshots I had taken for work
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Bwahaha!
I deliberated about which way to go.
- āI just discovered that Mike has been holding out on us. He has a secret life in which heās an actor.ā
- āMike, someone is selling photos of you under someone elseās name!ā
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Thatās ok, he still getās the kick back. So thatās what counts 
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Iāve been away a few days and am just getting caught up.
Iām super sorry if Iāve contributed in any way to the user experience not meeting your expectations.
Iāll go ahead and wrap up the few active threads where Iām helping folks with one thing or another, and Iāll finish up any of the non-core stuff Iāve been working on in private.
Thereās no shortage of awesome folks here in the community, so Iāll step back for now and let others work on creating the user experience that best suits the designs here.
Again, my apologies if Iāve led anyone away from that.
The stock designs are amazing and it absolutely is the best bang for the buck machine that a noob can get up and running with.
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I donāt think that is what Ryan wants at all. I donāt want to speak for him so I will let him clarify that himself.
I for one hope you DONT take a step back. I donāt think anything you are helping with is a bad thing at all! My understanding is we just need to make sure that when we are helping beyond a stock build it is for someone who has been running a machine for a little bit and has experience beyond āthis is my first buildā type situation.
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Absolutely not
I swear it is not one person. We have all sort if encouraged out of the normal stuff.
I just want new users to have a fun and easy experience. Some will choose to do something crazy despite our best efforts, at that point ignoring them doesnāt help.
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Would making a āfirst buildā forum section help? Or a modded build section vs stock build?
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I really donāt think any structural change in the forum is necessary.
We spent a good bit of time between the end of last summer and now without very many ānew userā build threads.
With that and the printer, etc, we all kinda went geek mode with all the cool stuff we can do.
I think everyone just taking it as a friendly reminder to be aware, especially now, as the influx of LR4 users come in, to be aware of whatās going on, is all thatās necessary.
Just back to supporting people the best we can, and ensuring success by making sure they are on the right path.
I donāt think there are any drastic changes necessary.
If someone asks a question that can be answered by the docs, great. The answer along with a link to where they can find it in the docs works great.
If they are obviously going down the path of lots of resistance, instead of least resistance, maybe attempt to right the ship.
If they refuse to listen to the reasons why they should, and are still intent on going their own way, then all we can do is support where we can, if we can, and help them have success with V1.
I think thatās all Ryan was asking.
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Thinking out loud, perhaps the docs could be changed to a number of check points, when a user reaches a checkpoint they can post their success or failure in the forums.
A big checkpoint could be the crown and smaller checkpoints would be pretty much everything else.
Say, step/checkpoint 1, post picture of 3d printer calibration test.
Step/checkpoint 2, print parts and post pictures of printed parts.
Step/checkpoint 3, assemble printed parts with hardware kit.
Etc.
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This could lead to a path to success with more users completing their builds?
I think kinda the whole point of Ryanās post, is that we donāt really have issues with people having success and completing their builds when they follow the recommended path, and build it as designed by following the docs.
We have far more issues when people decide to customize/change the design.
Even then, the #1 reason I think I see for people not finishing builds is time/priorities getting in the way.
Thatās not to say that the docs, etc. couldnāt be better. Iām sure thereās no limit to how much better it could be.
But it still feels like we are trying to
I kinda like the way the users have the freedom to ask when they need, or not when they donāt, and do things at their own pace, and decide what their own checkpoints/goals are. To me, that helps foster a sense of accomplishment as someone āfigures things outā.
I know it made me feel more like I was actually ābuildingā something, rather than just āassemblingā something, if that makes sense.
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This is what made me realize what was feeling so off to me about the forums for nearly a year now. We are releasing a new machine and instantly we had more questions about mods and doing things off the beaten path and almost no resistance to those choices. If you truly think we just released a brand new machine that only 5 people have used and everyone decided out of nowhere it is not good enough as is kinda wild to me. Out of the box we are nearly doubling the MRR of the LR3.
āHey I want to home to Zmin, X&Ymax, with a spindle that is a 2 stroke chainsaw motor, I will need to run new drivers, so I can get more powerā
Should feel just like
āHow do I hook up a camera so I can watch my CNC doing itās thing while I am at work?ā
Instead, we all sort of jump in and help the madness happen. If you think you need a chainsaw motor I want to see you stall a makita first, then I will help with the crazy request. Thinking they need a 78kw spindle is not the same as actually needing one.
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Ok I read all of that and agree with everything you said completely. But at the same time all I can think now isā¦
āDang I want to see a LR4 with a chainsaw spindleā.
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Yes, I am stuck on the chainsaw spindle now too.
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Next machineā¦ the V1E Sawmill 
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LR5 has a chainsaw spindle I heard
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I imagine if you were ambitious enough you could rig up one of those nitro RC motors as a spindle. Would be fun if you could control the throttle via gcode.
(I am absolutely not doing this.)
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That thing is laughing god in the faceā¦ 
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