How are contest decisions determined? I took part in the “Maker’s Beginner Kit Design” Contest and submitted some entries of my own. My Coke can model that took me quite a while to make performed quite well, ranking 4th in likes and 3rd in downloads, but it didn’t receive any recognition by the judges. Others with great designs that ranked even higher than mine were also overlooked.
I was particularly surprised to see the winner, who had only 3 downloads. To be fair, the winning model is fantastic—I genuinely think it’s cool and am even considering printing it for my son. The maker absolutely deserves recognition. However, I’m struggling to understand the criteria they use to select the winners.
No one really knows This topic has been discussed many times during other contests. I had my personal favorites for the first 3 places, 2 of them got excellent participation award, the other one didn’t recieve any recognition.
Remember: No MakerWorld’s contest is a popularity contest. Actually, now that I think of it, I haven’t seen any contest where the most popular model was named the winner…
When you remove popularity as a criteria, you’d notice you answered yourself (partially):
From there it’s combination of that + contest criteria + judges biases and you got your answer
I’ve gotten (recognition) awards on printables and MakerWorld, where printables seems more of a popularity contest and MakerWorld not so much?
So my guess is they actually do judge the entries and rank them based on their own judgement and not purely on downloads. I’ve gotten a 3rd prize on the marble run without much downloads and still no makes, so I think purely on ingenuity and quality?
Getting your design popular involves a lot of luck, so for me having non popular models get extra attention through deservingly winning contests is a good thing, even though you might disagree with the outcome (in the end it will always be subjective)
Edit: the winner uses a lot of different components of the kit, which a lot of designs didn’t, I think that also played a huge role. And on another note, the second place entry might be a benchy remix. Curious to see how that one pans out
I guess you both are right, in a way it´s good a model gets a price that is good but did not get much rewards from users for whatever reason. Oh the poor benchy!
I may take some flak for this one but it’s not as bad as the pizza oven which came third but was absolutely a copy of the pizza oven that was released the previous day which was a better more thought out model.
It may hurt someones feelings if popularity dioesnt decide who wins, but honestly I feel much better with knowing the owners of the platform chose to use their own criteria. So we are free to decide if we put effort in and how much, NOT just create the potential most liked model.
Then the platform would be flooded with the same stuff over and over again.
AND I often read “I have worked days…on that model”. Yeah, we all do. I would not mention it, because its very common.
Hi @thisnoise, I very sorry that my work is making you think that I, in whatever way, stole or ripped off another designer’s model. Though this is simply not true I would like to take this opportunity to explain myself. I do agree that due to our untimely uploads it may be perceived as if made a quick copy but this far from the truth. Upon seeing the contest, my wife and already were making plans of designing something we could relate to. This turned out to be a pizza oven. After uploading the other designer in question also reached out and we had a conversation about my work and I provided my full support in showing that is was entirely my own work. It is based on a pizza oven, I pretty sure pizza ovens are not copyrighted in any way. An idea is a free form of creativity that we, in this case, used for designing what we did. If we generalize everything like is being done, then hundreds of filament clips, keychain, led candles holders are ALL copies of one another and should be taken down. Aside from that, I was not the second and last participant to enter the contest with a pizza oven so clearly it wasn’t just me that had this idea.
As for the contest results, I’m very sorry that my model was picked! I had no control over how the judges make the decisions to pick mine and so I think it’s a little unfair the criticise mine only for this reason. If the 3rd pizza oven entry won, would you have done the some thing? I’m very glad that MakerWorld uses independent judges and does NOT look for upvotes as you can clearly see from the contest winner. Support, likes and downloads have no influence at all on the final result.
I do not wish to engage in any hate speech and so I hope you can only take my comment here as I way to explain myself. If I offended you in any way, I sincerely apologize.
No need to explain yourself or apologize for you’ve done nothing wrong and have nothing to apologize for. And if somebody’s offended, that’s their problem, not yours.
Your model is fine, also the judges explained why it was chosen.
Sometimes it´s also about the little details, like the texture on the wood, or the more delicious looking pizza. The judges try to find uniqueness, and as mentioned before, this is a creativity and not a popularity contest.
Thank you guys for re-enforcing on what is a better way of thinking. I just felled sad on unfortunately being wrongly accused of ripping off / stealing designs. This is a practice I am very much against and actually frequently reach out to other creators when their work has litteraly been copied only in the effort to keep this community up to a certain standard. I’m well aware that everyone has their own opinions and I won’t be able to convince everyone of the work I put in. Like I said, I actually reached out to the other designer in this topic and explained and provided proof of the work I did. Thanks again for your kind words!
pretty sure they just roll a dice and pick random stuff. I have tried to follow guide lines in a few contests only to lose to people that didnt follow rules, kind of makes the contests less desirable, when you put in a lot of effort to make something unique and conforming to guidelines only to lose to a last minute entry that just “appeals” to the judges
This wasnt a dig at you, design what you want. This is an issue with the judging criteria.
The reasons they gave for picking your model would be stand up for most of the pizza oven models or your BBQ grill which I feel is a better model than your pizza oven.
It does feel that when they pick winners they just roll a dice & go with it, sometimes to detriment of others models & designers who entered the contest.
I am sorry to say that the way you wrote your comment was quite a slap in the face. Regardless I agree that with many conests so far it seems very random in choosing a winner. Also the uploads that appear are just not relevant and should be much more closely monitored. I mean, a fruit basket in a vaults contest and it is not getting removed?
These post are like groundhog day. It’s the same thing nearly every content, even to the point that I say the same thing.
Nearly every contest, someone makes a post complaining about the winners and why was this person picked and not that person. Inevitably, someone’s feelings get hurt because someone makes some comment about one of the winners, then that person shuffles in to defend themselves and we all have an awkward time while we try and walk back the negative vibes that were previously put down.
I don’t think they do, but there are hundreds (sometimes thousands) of entries so they most likely will thin it down with a quick once over. Maybe missing some great designs and including some that might feel random. Especially for that once over presentation and popularity might be more important than the little intricacies of the model itself.
But I do believe that the winners are chosen with some reason after that and not just a roll of the dice. And yes, sometimes it will be a great design that does not 100% fit within the constraints of the contest.
Yeah, people drop all kinds of stuff in there to get clicks but I don’t think MakerWorld is constantly monitoring every entry, rather they rely on people reporting models. But after then it will take at least a day before it gets reviewed and removed.
And yeah, don’t be, there might be some luck involved but I don’t think the top 3 will be chosen lightly. So enjoy your prize and feel good about it, well deserved!
This topic has been discussed many times during other contests. I had my personal favorites for the first 3 places, 2 of them got excellent participation award, the other one didn’t recieve any recognition.
