Having now received my 16, I logged back onto the forums looking for the latest on expansion bays. For me, I need to add a 2nd 2280 ssd, and am looking forward to the release of something to support that ~passthrough.
@Framework team really needs to provide a way to shine some light on these. IMHO, the following would be a good start:
- For any developer with some sort of quasi verified status (past boards shipped successfully, or some meaningful engagement with the framework team & necessary background), the ability to post a new board they “have commited to bring to market”
** eg after doing interest/market research and any engineering feasibility, but before having any hardware available outside of custom prototypes
- for any boards that have at least been sent out for initial production runs
- and of course any&all boards that have been shipped to normal users
onus is on the user to do verification (what level of ~kickstarter risk are they willing to entertain), but once products here have demonstrated a move out of “prototype” phase, the community should have an easy way to (A) discover (B) watch and (C) express interest in via some manner that cuts out the noise of purely hypothetical offerings.
Am I missing something? How do you wish to see this handled?
Here is the list of all 3rd party expansion bays that fulfill your criteria:
Seriously though, I’d like them to end up in the marketplace - that is after all what a marketplace is for
Thank you for sharing your ideas/feedback on this.
Here is the list of all 3rd party expansion bays that fulfill your criteria: [crickets]
As best I can tell, this isn’t true? Recall my first bullet 
Or maybe even the 2nd. There is an dual m.2 expansion bay that has supposedly been sent to production. (I’m not linking as I don’t want this thread to be an odds-on-my-personal-want; the need & interest here is broadly applicable). Over the months I also recall seeing some pretty complete dual-usb, modem, and solder-in-your-logitech-dongle solutions.
And even if you’re right - clearly the intent is that 3rd party boards come to fruition. So a framework should IMHO communicate a strategy for how users should expect to discover boards that claim to have made it out of feasability/prototype into ~alpha hardware. Searching forums is fine/necessary to find all the WIP / discussion of possible products, but it’s such a horrible way to navigate anything even slightly beyond that.
Seriously though, I’d like them to end up in the marketplace - that is after all what a marketplace is for
yes, marketplace is a good final destination. But that requires bullet #3 plus quite a bit more on the supply-chain side, I would think.
If some guy on the forum saying he did something is enough validation for you, sure. As far as I know he has yet to ship anything to anybody.
Edit: Just to be clear, I’ve riding 55$ on that too 
I have done as much validation as I can without using the Expansion Bay interface, as I’m still awaiting documentation from Framework.
I think some kind of way to have a list of “Framework took a look and didn’t seen anything inherently wrong or bad” verified links/products is a good start. I think having some kind of basic functionality tests software that developers & users as we get more that actually interact with the EC (I’m thinking batteries, maybe Oculink, etc). Maybe with a stub of “insert your own tests here”.
After that, I think having a program for Marketplace where fulfillment is done by the person selling, even if everything else goes through the Marketplace (note this is optional for the seller). Perhaps there’s some kind of enhanced Framework verification/check on this, and maybe some kind of ethical assembled by Foxconn/not/etc type of notation?
And last, a next step in the Marketplace that is fulfilled by Framework. So creators have their stuff made and sent to Framework’s warehouses or what not, and FW can include those as part of laptop/parts orders, or even just those parts, like they do with the Coolermaster cases.
I feel community made stuff likely can be #1 & #2 fairly easily, with #3 being possible or a larger company coming straight to FW and looking to make something or partner with FW for a thing like with the Coolermaster cases.
Perhaps an added 3D printed parts section somewhere. Telling people to go look at Printables or Thingiverse is all well and good for those of us who design and print our own stuff, but it’d be handy to have some kind of community curated list somewhere of a list of things, along with “I’ve printed it and it fits” type of “it works” verification from other community members.