Re: First impressions.
I think it would be better hosted on the Solidoodle site. Many of the new threads here are asking questions which have already been answered in places other than the Solidoodle site.
Re: First impressions.
I agree that a single point of reference is best. I still have hope the google group goes away and this forum becomes the "official" forum.
But the point of a wiki (to me at least) is to allow a community to self moderate a collection of information or articles on various Solidoodle related subjects. Why hold it back from the full community waiting on "seed" articles? I say slap a disclaimer on it and see how it thrives.
Re: First impressions.
lawsy wrote:
Just tried that and no such luck.
Also tried with a new username:
This private site is limited to 10 members: the site owner should upgrade his account to raise this limit.
Never heard of this wiki software before. I've set up a couple of different types before and they all run from your file host using php and mysql. They were also free. Best one was the same one Wikipedia uses, but it did need a bit of setup to get going.
Wow this is a bit embarrassing. We'll get someone to buy more user slots tomorrow. We picked Wiki Dot because it's actually fairly common, and the syntax is supposedly easier for users. We are no stranger to Media Wiki and use it in the office for our own purposes.
Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.
Re: First impressions.
teejay187 wrote:
I work in a PC company where about 500 computers are shipped yearly and Im responsible for everything at a age of 21.
this will sound patronising, I don't mean it to be, but pretty much sums up how I feel about this.
look proof, even a kid can manage this stuff. why is a company headed by two professional and experienced engineers having quite so much trouble implementing a little QC?!
lawsy wrote:
When people like Ian and myself find time to provide illustrated guides and videos outside of our real jobs, how is it possible that there is not one Solidoodle employee available to do something similar? How can it be that they don't even contact and say: "great guide, do you mind if we use your work on our site and credit you?". In that case it would be a two minute job to copy and paste some html.
Support should really take note, for some of us it's only the good work of these couple of users that are actually keeping us interested!!
solidoodlesupport wrote:
When will the web site include clear and step by step instillation instructions for both PC and Mac?
- As of now this already exists, though I agree the process is less than ideal. We already have a one step installer for the PC and we are working on the same for Mac.
I completely "get" what you're saying here,
at the moment the process is complicated, and needs an extensive guide. so we're focussing energy into making the process so slick and simple that it doesn't require a guide.
cool effort guys, but make the guide first so that the people who have already given you the cash can actually use the product you've sold them, not wait for a new release of software.
Seriously, how long would it take to install the software pressing print screen etc whilst doing it? half a day.
how long have you spent responding to emails asking for help?
stop crapping on your customers, and in this case you might find it's beneficial to yourselves as well since you'll get to stop answering these questions!
solidoodlesupport wrote:
When will you tell us what the shipping plan is and when June, July, and August orders can plan on delivery?
-This could most likely be best answered with it's own post, as it's best considered in the wider situation of reducing the lead time of the printers. As of this post there are about 50 May orders left, meaning that June shipping would start in less than a week. June and July were leaner months, so I imagine that we shall move past them in less than a month each.
The average number of orders per day for June was about 10.
We average about 22 printers out the door per day 5 days a week with parts prep shifts on the weekend.
this being the case, why was I told two weeks ago that you hoped that orders from May and June would be finished by today? (10-15)
seems clear that you still have not started June, and have around 300 printers, (avg 10 per day), and will take at least a further two weeks to build those?
actually I see you've clarified it will be at least the end of this month before you envisage that Junes orders will have shipped.
you've also clarified that you're the only one working in support?
So I guess all I can say right now is a big thanks and cheers for all the lies you've told me both generally to the community and specifically to me in correspondence.
solidoodlesupport wrote:
To make Christmas you would need to trim three weeks from your estimates, and then ship all orders received in October so far in zero time.
That is assuming stable rather than increasing delivery rate. We anticipate significant gains in the future. No Christmas order shall be left behind.
Given that no Christmas order will be left behind...
how will you balance that statement against the statement that all orders are made and shipped in turn?
Will my printer be given to someone else because they wanted one for Christmas?
-got some news for you, I wanted mine BEFORE Christmas, I ordered a quarter of a year ago.
frankly, people ordering now and hoping for Christmas get no sympathy from me if they can't be bothered to do their research and find out what lying, unreliable shysters your are!
Honestly, the sums are above, (and I did the same sums two weeks ago and pointed out that you couldn't possibly ship orders for Christmas that were ordered then)
if you order now, hoping to get it under the tree you're a fool.
solidoodlesupport wrote:
Because I am not authorized to do this, nor do I possess the files. If we were to do this, we would want to provide a well formulated policy that could be applied in a consistent manner. I think you are all aware of that mistakes we have made by doing things hastily.
I guess you guys never promised "open hardware" but realistically, it's not difficult to design an electronics case, and probably won't be long before the community has made their own.
Indeed, if it's so vital, I can't believe that there aren't designs up already in the STL sharing section. if/when I finally get my printer I'll happily upload a case design.
solidoodlesupport wrote:
Wow this is a bit embarrassing...
Couldn't have said it better myself!
30 2012-10-15 13:39:06 (edited by ysb 2012-10-15 13:40:35)
- ysb
- Member
- Offline
Re: First impressions.
danny wrote:
...
Indeed, if it's so vital, I can't believe that there aren't designs up already in the STL sharing section. if/when I finally get my printer I'll happily upload a case design...
there is already two (without counting derivative) cover on thingiverse..
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:31325
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:31259
(and a derivative here with 40mm fan hole in the Stl sharing section
http://www.soliforum.com/topic/244/alte … n-opening/ )
Re: First impressions.
solidoodlesupport wrote:
Next week. June starts next week, and will go on for the month. If your order was say, June 28th I would imagine you have 3-4 weeks to go.
So does this mean that my printer will ship this week as well?? I ordered it on May 30, Order ID 1723. Huh Huh Huh???
...sativas are for smoking!
Re: First impressions.
teejay187 wrote:
I work in a PC company where about 500 computers are shipped yearly and Im responsible for everything at a age of 21.
this will sound patronising, I don't mean it to be, but pretty much sums up how I feel about this.
look proof, even a kid can manage this stuff. why is a company headed by two professional and experienced engineers having quite so much trouble implementing a little QC?!
He is simply shipping something that already exists. There is a very small pool of people in this world who have expertise with 3D printers. The process of industrializing the manufacturing is quite new, and thoroughly untested. You can buy specialized shipping packages for computers - you cannot for 3D printers. As we have communicated time and again, we have extensive QC practices, including testing of the functionality of the printers, electronics testing, and components testing.
The process is simply brand new. There will always be factory defects with electronics, and unfortunately some parts take weeks to fail. We have replaced all defective parts in printers, and have done everything in our power to improve the process. Again, while you could buy shelf fulls of books on testing RAM for factory abnormalities, the same cannot be said of 3D printers. Most of users understand the "front line" nature of the product, and have been very patient with the process. We are on your side, and we are improving things every day.
lawsy wrote:
When people like Ian and myself find time to provide illustrated guides and videos outside of our real jobs, how is it possible that there is not one Solidoodle employee available to do something similar? How can it be that they don't even contact and say: "great guide, do you mind if we use your work on our site and credit you?". In that case it would be a two minute job to copy and paste some html.
Support should really take note, for some of us it's only the good work of these couple of users that are actually keeping us interested!!
solidoodlesupport wrote:
When will the web site include clear and step by step instillation instructions for both PC and Mac?
- As of now this already exists, though I agree the process is less than ideal. We already have a one step installer for the PC and we are working on the same for Mac.
I completely "get" what you're saying here,
at the moment the process is complicated, and needs an extensive guide. so we're focussing energy into making the process so slick and simple that it doesn't require a guide.
cool effort guys, but make the guide first so that the people who have already given you the cash can actually use the product you've sold them, not wait for a new release of software.
Seriously, how long would it take to install the software pressing print screen etc whilst doing it? half a day.
how long have you spent responding to emails asking for help?
stop crapping on your customers, and in this case you might find it's beneficial to yourselves as well since you'll get to stop answering these questions!
Again, a step by step guide to installing the software already exists, and we use it in the office every day. There is a section called "How to install software" and dozens of people use with no problems every day. I field very few tech support calls with people who are confused. Technical documentation must skirt the fine line between explaining too little and too much.
90% of our e-mail volume relates to requests for faster shipping. 9% relates broken machines. 1% are people confused with the software. As I have said before, we are improving the documentation, but the problem isn't nearly of the magnitude your anger might suggest. Our documentation is far more comprehensive than the original documentation provided by kliment, or the documentation provided via the reprap community, both of which leave the user to "figure things out."
it seems like the main thing you want is pictures. We will post more pictures. One project that is being worked on is to provide a proper diagram of the machine, with extensive labeling of assemblies and sub assemblies. We are in bad need of standardization of terms.
solidoodlesupport wrote:
When will you tell us what the shipping plan is and when June, July, and August orders can plan on delivery?
-This could most likely be best answered with it's own post, as it's best considered in the wider situation of reducing the lead time of the printers. As of this post there are about 50 May orders left, meaning that June shipping would start in less than a week. June and July were leaner months, so I imagine that we shall move past them in less than a month each.
The average number of orders per day for June was about 10.
We average about 22 printers out the door per day 5 days a week with parts prep shifts on the weekend.
this being the case, why was I told two weeks ago that you hoped that orders from May and June would be finished by today? (10-15)
seems clear that you still have not started June, and have around 300 printers, (avg 10 per day), and will take at least a further two weeks to build those?
actually I see you've clarified it will be at least the end of this month before you envisage that Junes orders will have shipped.
you've also clarified that you're the only one working in support?
So I guess all I can say right now is a big thanks and cheers for all the lies you've told me both generally to the community and specifically to me in correspondence.
solidoodlesupport wrote:
To make Christmas you would need to trim three weeks from your estimates, and then ship all orders received in October so far in zero time.
That is assuming stable rather than increasing delivery rate. We anticipate significant gains in the future. No Christmas order shall be left behind.
Given that no Christmas order will be left behind...
how will you balance that statement against the statement that all orders are made and shipped in turn?
Will my printer be given to someone else because they wanted one for Christmas?
-got some news for you, I wanted mine BEFORE Christmas, I ordered a quarter of a year ago.
frankly, people ordering now and hoping for Christmas get no sympathy from me if they can't be bothered to do their research and find out what lying, unreliable shysters your are!
Honestly, the sums are above, (and I did the same sums two weeks ago and pointed out that you couldn't possibly ship orders for Christmas that were ordered then)
if you order now, hoping to get it under the tree you're a fool.
Given our previous shipping record, you are free to feel this way about it, but things have improved a great deal. Please know that although you may be frustrated with us, we are trying to do something revolutionary with very little precedent. We are on your side, and we are trying to provide the printers as quickly as possible. We have never intended to lie to people, but the shipping realities have been quite unpredictable.
Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.
33 2012-10-15 17:37:47 (edited by teejay187 2012-10-15 17:38:43)
Re: First impressions.
danny wrote:
this will sound patronising, I don't mean it to be, but pretty much sums up how I feel about this.
look proof, even a kid can manage this stuff. why is a company headed by two professional and experienced engineers having quite so much trouble implementing a little QC?!
I think producing solidoodle printers are a much tougher than producing PCs (yes, I build each and every one.), but my point was that having routines for everything makes the job easier. I for myself have routines for EVERYTHING. There are no if`s, there are no but`s. Everything is just planned in front of every delivery. I think much of the problems is the number of orders. Having a back order of several months is never something I have experienced so I guess my comment was a bit hasty, so sorry for that.
The good thing now is that the team is communicating to the masses. Communication is the key along with routines for happy customers.
Re: First impressions.
Perhaps I was a bit harsh here earlier.
perhaps I can illustrate my frustration with what I'll write below:
I'm going to quote some "publicly released" information that you've written here.
then my message to support and their response.
solidoodlesupport wrote:
Next week. June starts next week, and will go on for the month. If your order was say, June 28th I would imagine you have 3-4 weeks to go.
that was what you said on the 13th of this month. (two days ago)
now this is what I've received today -obviously it's cut and paste from email, so read from the bottom of the quote to the top.
From: Support Tech <xxx@xxx>
To: Daniel Rainbow <xxx@xxx>
Sent: Monday, 15 October 2012, 20:02
Subject: Re: Estimated delivery time
Hi Daniel,This order is on the line and waiting to be constructed and shipped this week. We apologize for any delays. Please let us know if you have any other questions.
Regards,
Clifford
Solidoodle Customer SupportOn Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 7:14 AM, Daniel Rainbow <xxx@xxx> wrote:
Hello,
I understand from various user posts that the delivery schedule has slipped "yet again" and that far from having completed orders from May, and hopefully June and ready to start on July around now, it's actually the case that you are still shipping order from the end of May, haven't started Junes orders and are nowhere near ready to start shipping orders from July!
Can I get a realistic estimate of when orders from July may start shipping?
(and please base this estimate on your current output, not where you hope to be, *If* you can get more staff, *if* you can all work faster, *if* you streamline production.)
Many thanks,
Daniel.
From: Support Tech <xxx@xxx>
To: Daniel Rainbow <xxx@xxx>
Sent: Friday, 28 September 2012, 14:39Subject: Re: Estimated delivery time
Daniel,I'm giving you a rough estimate. We will start shipping orders from July by October 15. This is a rough estimate. It could take us less time now that our staff has increased and production line times are increased.
Regards,
Clifford
Solidoodle Technical SupportOn Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Daniel Rainbow <xxx@xxx> wrote:
Hi Clifford,
Many thanks for your email, however that doesn't answer the question.
Roughly how long will it take to start shipping orders from July.
Regards,
Daniel.
From: Support Tech <xxxt@xxx>
To: Daniel Rainbow <xxx@xxx>
Sent: Thursday, 27 September 2012, 14:40
Subject: Re: Estimated delivery time
Hi Daniel,We are currently in the process of shipping out orders from what has turned out to be a huge backlog from May. We will begin shipping orders from June next week. Orders from the months following May will not take as long to ship. We value your patience. Please send any other questions you have.
Regards,
Clifford
Solidoodle Technical SupportOn Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 9:21 AM, Daniel wrote:
Hello,
Can you please provide an update of when you expect order:
Invoice No.: INV-2011-01290
Order ID: #2719
Date Added: 13/07/2012
to be assembled and shipped?
Many thanks,
Daniel.
In two days the situation has gone from taking over a month to clear orders from June to you're already constructing orders from mid-july and ready to ship this week?
Can you see why a person may become frustrated?
35 2012-10-15 23:09:28 (edited by lawsy 2012-10-15 23:26:49)
Re: First impressions.
A couple of days have passed and this still has not been fixed.
Do you guys have a big whiteboard where you write down things that pop up online that need to be done so they are not forgotten?
From the amount of promises made online (which are much more important than this) that are not kepr, it seems as though someone is simply trying to store them in their head which is clearly unreliable.
solidoodlesupport wrote:
Wow this is a bit embarrassing. We'll get someone to buy more user slots tomorrow. We picked Wiki Dot because it's actually fairly common, and the syntax is supposedly easier for users. We are no stranger to Media Wiki and use it in the office for our own purposes.
Re: First impressions.
UPDATE:
An executive decision was made regarding the Wiki. The wiki will be opened up to the general public in two days. Friday, at the end of the working day, it shall be opened.
Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.