If downloads and prints actually matter then the winners of the mother’s day contest are mind boggling. 6 downloads for 1st and 11 for 3rd? Makes me wonder if it’s just totally random.
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That’s where “raw” data may play a part. The downloads (the point earning ones) are all we are seeing. My theory is lots of uncounted downloads are dismissed because the people are downloading more than 5 per day and hence not getting counted (and not leaving points).
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Its the new system! Its fabulous! (laughs in sarcasm…) lol
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Possibly, but I personally had multiple models that had far more user interaction than 2 of the top 3. I did receive a “participation ribbon” so thats something!
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Are you saying my anti-Mother’s Day, Mother’s Day entry didn’t win?
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The filament purge contest winner had zero successful prints when they announced the winners, which is surprising considering the rules say that the winning entries need to be popular. I mean, it is nice knowing that smaller creators have a shot!
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Mine had 
and angry phrases for mugs. Interactive if you fling it at your mother.
From your mouth to their ears - I would have a chance because I sure am not popular.
Yep, you can win even if you create ■■■■ that nobody cares about. LOL
Well that really bums me out.
I don’t think they are random at all. I think it’s just MakerWorld picking whatever model they want to feature for the benefit of MakerWorld \ Bambu marketing
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If it was on downloads alone. Then whoever entered at start would win. But if entered on last day. would never have chance.
Like me with 3 great things with zero download. …oh wait… i didn’t even get mine uploaded … lol
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Good point, but if a model was uploaded on 4/26 and has six downloads (now up to 10 since winning) it seems odd to give it to the top spot.
Tbh, I think its just as worthy of winning. I personally would never dl it. But that’s not saying it not unique or creative design.
Winning is completely subjective. Tons of things are worthy of winning.
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I’m a newbie and I’ve participated in the contest to learn and gain experience. I was not expecting to get so many doenloads but even with the success of my design I could recognize that there were many other fantastic design that would deserve an award and not me.
I have to agree with the @Just_Josh. it sounds so random… there were brillant designs and the honestly from the list of awards half are very poor.
From the past contests I would say that downloads and prints (popularity) doesn’t matter in contests - and that’s a thing I really like and appreciate. Contests are a place where even niche things have a chance, but also people that submit towards the end of the contest with no time to gain much downloads / likes / prints.
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I do agree… some designs become popular due to the timings they post and/or the amount of “advertisement” done on social media. Some designs are very cool and do not get that many visibility… but still for me half of the awarded designs are very poor compared with many other
I have been selective lately of which 3d modeling/design competitions I join simply because I get baffled on the results. Often I would follow the contest brief and would not win any award at all and I can’t figure out what are the merits of the chosen winners why they were chosen over mine.
I understand that it’s all subjective and depends on the judges. However, I wish the judging would be more transparent, like come up with criteria that everyone else will be subjected to and by the end of the contest, there would be explanation as to why the winners were chosen complete with the breakdown on how they fared according the criteria.
For example, the criteria would be something like below, where popularity is just 10% of the factor in order to win.
-
originality/uniqueness: 30%
Is this the first time such 3d model has been released? Has anyone thought of the same idea before? Is there a similar model already available for download a while? -
engineering/complexity: 30%
What was the amount of effort involved in designing and engineering the model? What 3d printing technology limitations were overcome to complete the model? -
presentation/packaging: 20%
What is the level of effort put in creating documentation so that others could reproduce the model? How much effort involved in coming up with the finished model? -
downloads/popularity: 10%
How many people like the model? Does the model appeal to a wide variety of audience? -
overall impact: 10%
How does the model stand out among the other entries? Does the model possess the “wow” factor?
I don’t care whatever criteria they come up for the contests so long as there’s a set of criteria to begin with and be more transparent of the judging.
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it was never judged by how many downloads… the people behind the scenes vote on them personally
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I understand, but really doesn’t seem to be a good way to evaluate. Seems like there should be some emphasis on what hundreds/thousands of people consider useful vs what the reviewers think is neat.