I ‘believe’ you agree that if ALL creators left, then the site would be empty.
I do not factor IF people would leave or the percentage into my comment, my point is if they annoy enough creators, it will get to a tipping point where it isn’t worth going back.
I am not in it for the points, you can tell that by many of my models having no downloads and I do not care.
My point is and always has been, that opinions vary and those who do it solely for the points are equally entitled to their views as those who do are doing it for other reasons.
Bashing those who are solely in it for the points and are disappointed is as useful as bashing those who do not care about the points.
My biggest gripe is the lack of information when they change the rules on all subjects.
I will say it again, honesty first, honesty last, and honesty all the way through.
It breaks my brain that they allow downloads without being logged in, seems like the only reason you would do that is to bypass the rewards system for creators.
On behalf of many other questions or complaints that you also express in your comment, I would like to respond with an experience. Perhaps it is much more something to consider rather than a clear answer. Read on…
Many years ago, I installed a game that I had previously bought in a shop. It didn’t work, even though it should have. Problems with the game controls was one of the problems. On later operating systems it just crashed. Then there was a newer version of the game about 5 years ago. This worked, but had some flaws that affected the integrated “AI”, which is made up of many, many rules. As a result, users voiced a lot of complaints, which degenerated into really, really heated discussions, so I stopped posting in the game company’s forum. It’s amazing that it was the same there with the game software as it is here with hardware and Makerworld. I’m experiencing something like déjà vu:
A product is created that is really great, people spend hours of their valuable life time on it until they come across bugs that shouldn’t be difficult to fix. But further use of the product becomes obsolete. Because many people can describe the problems precisely and offer and demand solutions. How did the software company react: they kept a low profile, made no or very cautious statements and if they did, then with promises that they would work on it. Then they released patches of things, most of which didn’t even bother the users. But they were all things that could affect the public image (like bugs in the graphics).
However, the deeper problems of the game mechanism were never solved or rectified. Instead, the company continues to work on new expansions that generate sales. Without really fixing the faults of a product that has already been sold. Out of interest, after two or three years I went back to this one game to see if there was an update that would fix the bugs and inconsistencies. There is nothing like that. This means that the people who are bothered by it will eventually give up because they are disappointed. But there are always new users following, some of whom become dissatisfied users … and the game goes on like this.
As long as this system works and generates sales the way the manufacturer wants it to, why should anything be changed? Public perception is also strongly influenced by advertising, which is not determined by users, but by the company that sells the product. And if the sales are not right, the product is redesigned so that they are right. There are various test phases for this, because of course they have to wait a while to see success or failure. Basically, however, the heartfelt wishes of regular users are not really taken into account. User interaction and feedback is always important, but it is not intended for the users to determine the product. It’s up to the respective company to do this as they see fit, and it’s not only important here, but also in the other case: a lack of transparency, sometimes more, sometimes less.
Let’s stop trying to lecture or teach each other here while the question is posed to MW. Things change, sure, it’s their World and we’re just Makers in it, I get it. That doesn’t excuse the manipulation of raw data. Why provide any analytics if they’re not telling the full story? And this whole “others do it so it’s fine MW does too” is just wrong. Why not go a step further and don’t even display any downloads and makes on model pages?
It’d be better to put the whole points system on pause while they figure it out and possibly reward creator retroactively based on whatever new system they come up with, or not, it’s up to them. Messing with users’ trust is a dangerous road to walk on.
Someone wrote that external downloads do not count because it is also a means against bot downloads. So let bots download, the downloads don’t count. So what now? Now downloads by unregistered users (anonymous downloads) are shown in the statistics. Do you now include the bot downloads? At least the statistics show a trend, after all.
The suggestion that allowing external downloads without login would help diminish the bots came from BL, others have repeated it.
I believe that is an excuse, allowing bots to download models without logging in doesn’t help them generate points to game the system and cash in vouchers, buy printers, and sell printers.
If they can’t get to the money downloading externally, they won’t, they will find new ways.
Weirdly though, it is a great reason to exclude the downloads from creators.
Having a login-only system protects users.
Statistics are also ruined.
Stopping the automation of downloads and conspiring accounts would help fix the issue. They may have also tried this.
This is really annoying because it has a bad impact on the metrics for the creators. Many of us asked for better account verification as a solution to make it harder for bots, but instead they did the opposite.
The print (after the plate changes) and especially the download numbers went so far down since the change that it might make many designers question if people are even still looking for models on Makerworld. “Playing” with the metrics is probably the worst thing that could be done from a marketing perspective imho.
As mentioned, its an annoyance. https://2captcha.com/ you can buy services to solve them for you - happy botting. Yes needs more effort, hard for script kiddies.
Yup, all the popular designers should private their models! Totally on board with this. Do it!
This will give us lower skilled designers more of a chance to rake in those juicey juicey points and win contests. (rubs hands together) yes…yes… pull your models.
Seriously ya’ll are so funny thinking that Makerworld cares at all if you pull your models. It’s just saving them money.
MakerWorld should absolutely not allow downloads unless users are logged in.
Logging in is not too much to ask of someone who wants to access our designs, and then all downloads can be counted as they should be which is what creators want and deserve.
I whole heartly agree. We spend hours and hours creating our designs and the least someone can do it make an account and designers get their download counted.
