I wonder, how come the facebook group and the forum feel like completely different universes ?
I go there when I’m out of unread posts here, and it looks to me like a large majority of the posts there are from people that use their Shapeoko for business, making flags and police badges and home address plaques (which I totally respect), while I very rarely see any of those here.
Apart from a few superstars (Will/Vince/Luke etc…) I don’t see many people posting on both sides either. Obviously, there is also considerably more people there, so I guess that’s where the cool kids are. I suppose the Black Friday effect also lead to hordes of new users that more naturally go/stay on the FB group. Anyway, just curious what you think.
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Not a superstar, but agree that a lot of the traffic on the Facebook group is folks who are selling commercially making a promotional post on their own feed and cross-posting it to the group.
Most of the balance seems to be newbies asking questions, and a couple of folks who want to share information.
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I’m a public school teacher…I avoid Facebook.
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To me, FB became creepy, haven’t been there in years.
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I’m also trying to stay away from FB except that some groups only publish their info/notices on FB which irks me. Too many people on FB make their unrelated views/opinions part of the conversation.
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deleted Facebook a long time ago, much happier
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Contractually, in my case. (Really. That is why I also avoid talking about that part of my work life on line, as well. The rules are interesting, and similarly to OSHA rules, each one is there because of a problem in the past, though not generally deaths like lead to the OSHA rules)
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I also notice that people here are interested in asking questions, learning new things, and solving problems (including upgrading the machine). As Will mentioned, the Facebook groups is mostly people selling things or posting about selling things.
I would presume that Facebook is easy to access and the whole concept of Facebook (social media) is to show how your life is going. Forums like this are promarily meant for solving problems and discussion.
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I really don’t like the facebook group, so just don’t go there.
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I don’t like Facebook either but do go there for the Shapeoko Group and a couple of other CNC ones. This is my primary source and usually go to fb if I run out of items here. I hate the way I seem to get bombarded with rubbish. I can probably turn it off but have struggle to do it.
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I wasn’t even aware of the Facebook group. I’m able to visit the forum more frequently because it’s not blocked on my work computer, whereas Facebook definitely is.
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I thumb through a couple of the FB CNC groups. Mostly, to see ideas that may lead to my creating new designs.
I gather quite a bit of info in the Vectric fora, too. VCarve Desktop and Carbide Motion are how I currently feed my XXL.
I also receive the newsletter for this community and read many of the articles, here. Hopefully, I can contribute to these discussions if/when I have something worthwhile. Most of the useful information regarding actual processes comes from here. For that, I’m grateful. Thanks!
Jim
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No FB account, and negative interest in ever creating one. 
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There are some decent project files available in the facebook group share that I haven’t found other places.
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There are two main reasons I am on this forum:
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To learn from others. Whether it’s a problem I am currently having, or a problem I can read about someone else having, so I know what to do if I ever encounter it in the future.
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To help others solve their problems because I went though it and I have experience with it, or I can offer some troubleshooting steps to help the person solve their problem.
I also enjoy looking at other people’s projects and sharing mine, but I really enjoy the learning and troubleshooting aspect more than anything else.
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Hmm, are those hiding in the specific threads where people link them? I haven’t seen any recently
People on FB should be encouraged to post their projects here in the Project area. I find that there seems to be more project sharing or at least more people seem to show their projects in the Inventables Community forum.
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They are in the files section of the group homepage.
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I don’t use face book never will. There’s nothing social about it. I like to interact with people for real. Also not all of us are trying to pay bills with our creations. Or even need to. I just love designing and creating things and I am glad there people out there with the passion and skills to create the machines we use to make these thing possible. Very great full.
I like the carbide forum because these are the people who have vested in the same machine as myself and it’s cool to see some of these guys and gals take this machine to its extreme potential and we get to go along on the ride.
Makers are really cool.
I made some things and designed some things and yes sold some/a lot.
But it’s for the enjoyment and passion in creating something someone uses, needs or just likes to enjoy it hanging on the wall.
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I only use FB for group stuff, never any personal. It is interesting seeing the different dynamic. I try to link to the forum here because of all the good info and smart peoples.
Honestly, its fun disrupting the flag show every once in awhile. You have to weed through lots of not very smart questions that are easily solved in the wiki. But once in awhile it’s right time-right place to help some out.
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