The same friend that got me in to printing told me about Printables. When I checked back in and told him the point system looked cool he compared it to Skee-ball at an arcade… “Only do it if you enjoy it, not for the rewards… because you’re never going to get enough tickets to get that dusty old Playstation they’ve had on the top shelf for years”. LOL. It looks like some of the people here can actually get a Prusa printer though, disproving his analogy. Now that they are actually making filament here at PrintedSolid I just with I could use points there and not pay $17 shipping if I ever get enought points for another roll.
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And here I am just made a successful-ish video that brings me some points finally, looking towards cashing them out for replacement beds…
Very strong VETO.
I have to say the reason why I upload all my models now to makerworld is first and foremost the points and reward system.
I think for active people who regularly publish genuine models it is an awesome way to get some form of contribution that does not end up into paying for models.
I agree every system that involves money is subject to fraud. But I also strongly believe there are ways to counter those bad intentions. One easy fix for a huge fraud imo would be to ban gaining points for publishing print profiles of other creators. Happened to me a number of times. At least give the creator the option to remove fraudulent print profiles / block 3rd party print profiles of specific (popular) models altogether or have them approved by the creator first.
I think BambuLabs should just crack down a bit more on the cheating aspects of the system - which is a great one overall.
In Chinese, there is an idiom “因噎废食” (yīn yē fèi shí), which means “giving up eating for fear of choking.” It is a metaphor for overreacting to a problem. The points system should not be canceled, as it allows amateur users like me to gain a sense of accomplishment from sharing designs. The website should strengthen the review process for models, promptly removing those that cannot be printed properly or are uploaded solely to gain points illegitimately.
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As a designer I’d simply stop uploading to makerworld. And concentrate on my patreon and thangs memberships.
As of today the gift option at redemption has disappeared so you have already got your wish.
They could be going all in on the exclusive models. But as Somone with a patreon and thangs I can’t commit to being exclusive on maker without potentially upsetting or even losing subscribers elsewhere. They should get the model first.
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Welcome to the forum! Regarding gift cards, they’re doing short maintenance. It’s not a permanent thing. See any of the 5 posts here on the forum
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Have you considered creating a blog in social media where you declare the names of the companies and people who are stealing? Set it up under an anonymous ownership so there is no direct line to the people on the blog, set up a form where the violators name is openly declared and copies of urls to the copied/stolen materials this is filled out by the complainant but their identities remains anonymous unless they wish to prove their ownership. Now this could get interesting as all the various shysters try to accuse each other. If nothing else it could present a list of suspected violations that social media users could decide to stop useing…
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
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Could be interesting. But, what sets makerworld apart from the rest of the other 3D model websites like Thingiverse and Printables is exactly how it easily monetizes peoples’ designs. I feel your pain, bro, but in a way, this is how makerworld rewards good modellers by letting them earn a little money from their models, unlike most other websites. I think it is a great balance they found that they:
- Aren’t charging people to download profiles and files like Cults3D
- But also arent putting stuff entirely for free
As an experienced modeller but new to the makerworld scene, of course I might have been “lured” into the promise of free money for models, but even after taking a step back, if we don’t focus on the money aspect and just focus on producing models of things we love and interacting with other passionate modellers, then it becomes that the money is just an added bonus and that the experience is the key point.
You might get a lot of support from this, but just know that then makerworld would just become another thingiverse.
(just sharing my thoughts haha, feel free anyone to chip in their two cents!)
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I’d have agreed with you last week, I really would’ve. I’ve spent the last 2 months building my skills and creating things along the way, with the assumption that a little bit of profit would be thrown my way for the work i put in and the designs I created. But I was declined for my very first $40 gift card redemption due to a model that they removed from the exclusive program - one that had zero downloads and prints, and I wasn’t using exclusive points to redeem.
I guess what I’m saying is an INCENTIVE works, but an IMAGINARY incentive that has an unknown amount of barriers that aren’t clearly defined will drive people away really really fast, AND there is an element of broken trust now.
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With the current Exclusive Model Guidelines that I’ve criticised for absolutely subjective language, except for couple clear language (like 2D items being mostly not allowed), all the other are “Guess if we think you’re good enough and if you guess wrong we’ll take ALL your points away for that model”
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I suggested that there should be a metric on the 2d at the very least, like, can’t be less than so many mm thick or must have x amount of differently shaped layers, but you’re spot on. For the rest of the items, it’s a vague statement on what is “unlikely to be welcomed” if I remember right? That is not only clearly subjective, but also unclear on what “welcomed” means. I would’ve assumed that to mean users wouldn’t be that interested in you - not that they would retroactively decide things that were popular weren’t good enough lol.
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Me and others also wrote on how subjective and unclear the language is and lack of objective metric. I think i even wrote 2 article-long replies… I won’t go further into that. As currently is it’s a high-stakes calvinball.
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Part of the entire incentive to use MakerWorld IS redeeming points for cash. It’s also one of the biggest ways MakerWorld competes with similar sites like Printables. Take that away, and people will just stop using MakerWorld and resort to competitive sites, which ultimately means your suggestion would kill MakerWorld.
Just because you have a bad experience with something doesn’t mean everyone else will, and it certainly doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to remove MakerWorlds biggest incentivizer.
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For now, I’ve been following this thread anonymously, but it’s time to join the conversation and share my opinion. I know the author of this post’s case from another topic and I sincerely sympathize with him. It’s not really about 40 euros on a gift card, but about fair treatment. I know that there are no flawless systems, but it’s a mistake for Bambu to entrust matters only to bots and to consider manually for so long cases that raise doubts.
At the beginning, I also posted models out of pure curiosity and without any desire for profit. However, when playing by the rules, you can buy back a little of your precious time that I spent on developing models, then I gladly accept such a system. I bought some filament and spare parts for the printer with my gift cards that I redeemed a few months ago, so I think it’s a good system. At the same time, I think that obvious cheaters should be punished. My only gift card this week was rejected due to the incompatibility of several models with the exclusive program (interestingly, I tried to use only normal points). The models were removed from the program and I accepted it. At the moment I am trying to redeem 10 gift cards and I know that I will fight for them, not because I am entitled to them, but because I played by the rules and according to the rules organized by Bambu I earned points.
If they still think that they are earned incorrectly, the human factor should act, but often it is based on “the computer said” and that’s it.
So they will make this points program much more transparent and introduce control at earlier stages, because when everyone wants to redeem points, it leads to a bottleneck and long waiting time, which is important in the case of the black week promotion (yes, I also want to add points to the new printer because I earned them legally)
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Hit the nail on the head!
Thanks for your understanding.
I already admitted that i am wrong in my thoughts about stopping the points incentive.
I think that with my posts i got the whole community of makers agains me, really thinking i am a points farm. Thats why i didn’t communicate via this forum anymore.
Fun fact, makerworld restored almost everything for me, except the 60 points they took away. After that, i again had enough points for a gift card, but i am not going to redeem that. For me, the point mean nothing anymore. I try to be here for the joy that making designs gives me, and i appreciate a photo of a print or a thank you message more than i appreciate points.
Also, i took down all the models that i made with AI and posted them on thingi. There they are well received, here they are not. I now only upload some fusion 360 designs here, and all the meshmixer and ai designs are published on thingi.
Well, now my models are getting removed from the exclusive program for “repeated reports.” Strange how that was not at all a problem prior to questioning how it is we can comply with ambiguous rules. I’m sure it wasn’t at all anyone from the forum being salty and gatekeeping aspects of a program they don’t like, that aren’t actually against any stated rule.
Also A+ that support can respond to those reports, but not to me asking how to comply with their rules for any grey area models lol.
So, if I remove something from the exclusive program and they come back and say I violated the program rules by removing something that complied, then what?
Good grief, I just wanted the $40 gift card from months of earning points outside the exclusive program, what a wildly awful experience this has become.
Which they added days after the launch and penalised people for by stealing 125% back for not knowing rules yet to have been written.
They pulled one of my items twice, I appealed the first time and they apologised as it was “an excellent model worthy of the exclusive program, they pulled it again.
I tore them a new one asking how they can be so incompetent to flag a model they manually approved and praised, I received very disingenuous platitudes assuring me it can’t happen again. I expect it will happen again.
I appealed another model they agreed should be a print for all newbies, they agreed, telling me how important it was, refused to let it back in the exclusive program, but assured me it was very worthwhile.
That is some ninja level rubbish.
Well said.
Unfortunately, they do a lot of shooting of feet.
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This whole thread is a proof that Blackstone’s formulation is correct:
It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.
John Adams (one of United States founding fathers) had also a good bit about that:
We are to look upon it as more beneficial, that many guilty persons should escape unpunished, than one innocent person should suffer. The reason is, because it’s of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished; for guilt and crimes are so frequent in the world, that all of them cannot be punished; and many times they happen in such a manner, that it is not of much consequence to the public, whether they are punished or not. But when innocence itself, is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, it is immaterial to me, whether I behave well or ill; for virtue itself, is no security. And if such a sentiment as this, should take place in the mind of the subject, there would be an end to all security what so ever.
So yeah - I’m all for punishing people actually gaming the system and obtaining points in manner that goes against community guidelines (or even law in applicable jurisdiction. AFAIK there are laws against “hacking” that do cover “maliciously gaining points in computer systems”), but that should not and cannot harm innocents. I still believe and hope that manual reviewer doing proper job will clear the situation for the innocent.