This speaks to ethics, honesty, and personal integrity. In an anonymous environment like this any individuals weak on those will create problems.
If you start with thinking all cultures are equal you are already going to be disappointed.
Individuals who use social media for income nearly all lose their scruples, and ethics… assuming they come from a culture that even values honesty and mutual respect. Many do not. Many are taught that you are a chump to be taken advantage of. Amplifying this is a notion that there is no victim (in a world where individuals are told to be the biggest victim).
With anonymity at the centre of this it’s unsurprising we see the worst of people.
Nearly all the people milking this tag situation will lack genuine capacity to grow a following. They have to scam people. Most with high quality offerings generate organic followings.
Remember we live in the age of individualism and entitlement. Where looking for the easiest way is “success” even where it compromises essential quality.
The way that Bambu / YT or other over-seers manage their platforms sets the playing field and rules. When their interest is just profit, they will sacrifice quality and good will.
It’s massively a problem on YT and increasingly one with MW and other incentive based design platforms. A flood of trash is being produced to gain “money” not to meet a need for the trash.
Many decent designers or individuals who begin creating content - virtual or otherwise, who discover a cash incentive, end up losing their way and become about the money instead of what they actually began as. WE become the product instead of the “thing” they do/make. Optimising for that ultimately arrives at producing a giant steamingshit wrapped in gold foil.
Look at some of the channel creators on YT as example who begin with a useful collection of knowledge to share… but then get desperate and just start churning ■■■■ to keep the metrics up. It’s not a real business with a plan and real product… just a person trying to brand themselves. Woodwork YT channels are the prime example I reckon which crosses into the 3d printing space. In 3d printing, or any mechanical sector - Female content creators sexualising their videos with skimpy tops, no bra, mini skirts and other deliberate nonsense shows how much getting clicks and likes and whatever financial incentive exists as a priority over quality content/product. It’s all happening on here now with many crossing over platforms. AI is compounding the ease with which the system can be gamed.
MW will end up like YT I think…because of greed and lack of ethics. The tools to enable you to find the exact knowledge you need (design) will be gamed to the point of absurdity where the terms of reference no longer even link to the content. Here people are already abusing tags… wait until the thumbnails and titles start being misleading like on YT.
“10 non-working clones of designs you didn’t know you don’t want to know about” <presented by a chick (or guy with AI filter) in deliberately provocative clothes massively over-acting, with AI voiceover and undisclosed financial links to products being reviewed after 15 minutes of use>
The Solution? disincentivise ruining the search system and deliberate misleading titles etc as a start. Remove algorithms that try to predict because that’s what led to all of this to begin with.
Set up review processes for the model and its functionality - not just print profiles. I don’t mind variants of ideas… but straight up clones by people trying to jump on bandwagons is a problem too when it comes to comps / payments but I don’t know how to separate that from individual desire to customise their own version or avoid blocking innovation on existing works. Motivations of a designer may be inferred but can’t really be known from a design and its marketing is my point there.
I’m rambling but it’s a topic aligned with issues I’ve been dealing with in my own work and groups I run in Social media so a lot on my mind.
