Exactly, if you don’t know what it’s about, it’s always about money.
Introducing unclear rules, basically giving discretion as to what is a bot and what is not, what is fraud and what results from promoting one’s own works in social media or YT, introduces a huge scope for abuse for the person who sets such rules.
If there has been an avalanche in statistics within a few days, it either means that the creators are also IT specialists, creating bots that give them false points. Or the new rules are dramatically unfair. Or they were introduced to significantly limit expenses for creators. Or all of the above… Delete as appropriate.
I have recently started designing, I have only been on MW for a month, and I also share my models on several other platforms. I am not a fraudster, I have not programmed bots, and I do not use fake accounts. When comparing the statistics here, and on other websites, there is a huge difference between them, not a few dozen percent, not a 2 or 3 hundred percent… the difference is even tenfold!!!
To be fair though, Makerworld has a much smaller user base compared to those other sites, and is much more focused towards Bambu users specifically, while other sites are a free for all for anyone with a printer. It’s a young site too, less than a year old?
I’ve been focused towards Makerworld because I like the setup here, but have put a few of my newer popular designs up on other sites too and they certainly get more attention there. Someone posted one of my designs from makerworld to another site, so I’ve been slowly getting my stuff on other sites too, to help prevent that.
And still MW rewards designers the best I would say - at least for free non-paid models. On other sites the models might get more downloads and views (especially among non bambu users), but they appreciate and reward the work of the designers much less.
From my testing once you’ve had captau popup… your downloads stop registering… anyone have this? pretty easy to test. if that case… its not working right or fair.
Yes, once you get the captcha, every download you make wont count and everyone that downloads a model of yours wont count for you too.
This is what i have been saying since this started.
That means theoretically one of my models could have been downloaded 100 times, but I only get to see 2 or 3 because those were the only downloaders where no capture was triggered before?
Well that would be a big deal, some might even call it fraud, unless Makerworld is not aware of the problem.
But it would certainly explain everything that many people have been complaining about here for days…
I can only say from what is happening to me since last week atleast.
Have been doing some tests with several makerworld users and until now, that checks out.
Once you or anyone gets the captcha, it won’t count towards the user/model.
Maybe it’s limited to some users only, but if that’s the case, then i would like to know why. Maybe someone can test that to check if it’s for everyone or just me/other impacted users.
I just downloaded 10 of your models, but only the first 5 models were registered. I did not get any captchas. I then downloaded a random model. That download did not count either. So pretty much the same experience as TheBreadman.
If I understand the rules correctly, for each model or print profile, only the first download or print from the same user is counted. The same user keeps downloading the same model won’t increase the count.
For the situation that the same user downloads too many models from the same designer in a short period of time, the system probably treats that as bulk downloads like a bot will do, or someone download lots of their own models from an alternative account, or some uploaders making a pack bulk downloading each other’s models in one go.
In real situations, how often does the same user download many models from one designer in a short span of time? If it rarely happens, then allowing 5 downloads in quick succession, or whatever that number is, maybe enough to accommodate most normal situations?
The primary issue with this move centers around communication. It begs the question: Why must unusual occurrences precede discovery by the community themselves?
Echoing @benjaminkott’s earlier remarks, it’s perplexing why Makerworld opts to modify data rather than straightforwardly curbing point rewards. This approach breeds perceptions of deceit. Moreover, the rationale behind employing captchas becomes questionable when users are treated as bots regardless, ostensibly to save a minor amount of web traffic. As a result, the statistics have been rendered almost worthless. They ought to accurately represent every user action, not merely a filtered segment constrained by reward limits. It’s acceptable to limit rewards, but authenticity in data should be maintained @MakerWorld.
I can agree with this, a misappropriation of the download figures, i.e. the raw data, not only undermines their own scoring system. The worst thing about the whole story is that you feel a bit stupid yourself because you doubt whether you are too stupid to reach a certain download level from one moment to the next, especially if the models are still in the contest. Personally, I think I’m a bit screwed in that respect at the moment.
I would also like to add… many have a new printer… what did you do when you made a printer for the first time… you downloaded models without end - you collected them, so to speak. now a contest, how does it work… you scroll through, either for new things or for the one with the most downloads. but now you like ten models and because you are a collector, you download all ten… but five designers are looking at nothing, because the first five have already downloaded… really awesome
That is my experience too. 4 to 5 models and then it wont count anymore, even for another user. And even if you print one of the “not counted” models, you cant rate it too.
Me, i like to browse and find fun models for the kids and many times i download more than 10 models from the same user because i like them.
It’s a strange resolution for a bot problem indeed. But i am not in charge of MW so i can’t do anything.
Similar here. I like to hand out keychains and I normally find a designer I like and go through and download a dozen or so models to print on one plate. So based on this system then only the first 5 count and the rest don’t get credit from the download.
Also, I might hop around and find a number of models from different people and open each in a separate tab on my browser. I would then go through them at the end and download the ones I want to mess with pretty much at the same time. Again, credit is not given to those it is due, and I am not botting the system or doing anything illegal.
Seems they reigned in the system and threw out the baby with the bath water…
It takes time for a user to decide to download a model. First s/he will have to open the model page, look at the photos, read the description. So in reality, it’s rare that one user needs to download more than 5 (or whatever that number is) models in quick succesion fast enough to trigger the limit. If a user really needs that speed, s/he can always put the models in the collections and download them a little later.
BTW, you guys are in a different level from normal designers whose primary concern is not that users may not be able to download their models fast enough but that if any user will decide to download any at all
I share the same sentiment. When searching for a specific model with numerous options available, I don’t immediately settle for the first one I find. Instead, I open them in Bambu Studio to examine the details, among other things. MW definitely crossed the line with this restriction. However, it seems to be a classic psychological tactic: push the boundaries far beyond what users find acceptable, then retract slightly, making the new limit seem more palatable by comparison. This strategy creates the illusion that MW is offering a concession rather than imposing a restriction.
