My model was removed from Exclusive Model Program, lost all points

MakerWorld
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I just woke up to a really disappointing message, saying my most successful model was pulled from the Exclusive Model Program for “violation of the rules”. This is the model in question, which has been my most successful model to date. From what I can tell, apparently I violated the “creativity/originality” guideline? The notification says that they received “reports”. Are people truly reporting models because of a lack of creativity? I understand it’s a simple model, but I designed it to be functional. The model is my own. I CAD designed it myself, went through testing and iterations myself and used it myself even well before putting it on MakerWorld. Besides, lots of people seem to have found it useful, it got thousands of views and hundreds of prints, isn’t that what matters? This guideline seems to imply that simple models can’t be good models.

Isn’t the point of the Exclusive Model Program to keep successful models exclusive to MakerWorld? Since my model was removed from the program, does MakerWorld want me to publish my models elsewhere? Of course, maybe I should have more thoroughly read the model guidelines, but in all the promotional material of the Exclusive Model Program the requirements only mentioned the model being exclusive to MakerWorld, as the name implies. I don’t understand why something as subjective as “creativity” is reason for something to be thrown out of the Exclusive Model Program for, almost 2 months after it was put up no less. I find this especially strange since the Exclusive Model Program is filled with models just like mine (the little christmas trees, the planters, the countless vases), or models that simply copy something straight out of popular media. Isn’t that fundamentally lacking any sort of creativity? I’m not saying these should be removed either, the opposite really. I believe these should all remain eligible for the Exclusive Model Program because their success benefits MakerWorld. Isn’t that the whole point?

Then, aside from what is or isn’t grounds for being removed form the Exclusive Model Program, all the points I got from the model while it was in the Exclusive Model Program were taken away. In my analytics page it now shows the model having -1406.25 points as you can see below.

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It’s not that the exclusive points were “translated” back to regular points at the appropriate rates, they were simply taken away altogether.

I love 3D printing, and MakerWorld really incentivized me to start making my own models. That’s why this entire situation has honestly made me really disappointed. I feel like I’m being treated like some sort of fraud…

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I suspect this fell into the category of “not 3D”.

I disagree with the idea of that banned category as Bambu Lab (BL) only sell 3D printers, they only create 3D models yet, BL believe it creates 2D models.

Their floored argument will be this.

It is a simple shape extruded in one dimension

The fact that it is popular and serves a necessary function is entirely lost on them.

These are all considered 3D.

This is my biggest pet peeve, they should have rolled this out as a testing process letting everyone get used to it during a launch window.

They should have only removed the “extra” 25% not the 125% they have been. They changed the rules p, the designers suffer.

They have changed the rules at least three times and not bothered to communicate those to anyone in the exclusive program.

They launched this as the Exclusive program and said some models might do better than others. They quickly changed this to be the “Premium Exclusive” program, by function, yet not in name.

They want your models exclusively, but now they only want certain types.

Unfortunately they went out of their way not to communicate this. They also missed some easy fixes.

  • Test entrant’s models for simple geometry
  • Test entrant’s models for flat models (under 3mm for example)

If either is triggered, they disqualify the model.

It can be done when the designer enters the program.

Waiting almost three months to review a model and thus steel the points you would have gained had you any idea of this dumb 2D vs 3D rule is reprehensible.

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Are people truly reporting models because of a lack of creativity?

As far as I know, yes.

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It just feels backwards. I didn’t know the rules were changed, nothing was communicated to me as a creator about it. But even then, if a model is functional, popular and successful, isn’t that exactly what Bambu wants in their Exclusive Model Program? Sure, it’s not a complex or overly creative model, but it fulfills its function. I didn’t intend to make it some art piece.

Are you saying there legimitately is a system in place that flags objects as 2D, despite being made for a 3D printer?

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You’re not alone, they make great printers. Unfortunately that is all, they clearly have no idea how to deal with actual people. I wonder when they will start punishing users for not downloading and printing enough. I hope I haven’t given them an idea :slight_smile:

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The rules didn’t change while your design was online. While Bambu indeed failed to release the guidelines in time, they were online one or two days after launch of the exclusive program. So when you uploaded your designs, the guidelines were online and stated 2D designs were not allowed.

Not defending this rule, they also did a very bad job to explain what they define as a 2D Design.

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The whole exclusive program is a tough pill to swallow the way it was rolled out. When I read the rules as they were initially it still sounded like a bad idea. I’m glad I never joined it. I had no idea at that time that it would be hard to exit or that the penalties would be so harsh.

I’m all for harsh penalties especially with all the scamming that giving bonus points brings, but to impose those penalties on people who took the program at face value was wrong. They needed a grace period and they needed to hand approve things to both know what was being submitted for rule refinement as well as reject models they didn’t want without penalty.

They didn’t do that. It’s a very messed up system and doesn’t seem like they are going to grace anyone. Violators all just get caned and they should love it.

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The worst part is, I just recently uploaded a new model that is also “just” a 2D extruded shape. I went through a lot of design iterations and testing to ensure this model works perfectly, but I feel it may again be caught by this kind of system now that I know it exists. It’s already doing quite well, but the worst thing is, you can’t exit the Exclusive Model Program within 90 days after posting! So I can’t even pull it out.

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@MakerWorld is there nothing you can do about these kinds of flags?

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I don’t know if there are penalties but it has been mentioned you can change models to “private” to hide them at least.

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Hi, we apologize for the confusion. Your model, although simple, does provide certain functionality.
However, according to our Exclusive Model Guidelines(MakerWorld Exclusive Model Guideline | Bambu Lab Wiki), we do have requirements for the originality of model designs. Regrettably, a significant number of models highly similar to yours had been uploaded to MakerWorld prior to your model upload date. This was the reason why your model was removed from the program.

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When entering into the program, please make sure that your model do comply with our Guidelines. You can find them right under the Join switch on the upload page.

We would also like to re-emphasize on our desire for Unique, structurally sophisticated and intricately designed models in our Exclusive Program. We guarantee that these type of models will face no risk from being removed from the program. For example, your Multicolor Headphone Stand meets the criteria and is allowed in our Exclusive Program.
Hopefully this provides an answer to your question. Thank you very much for your support and understanding.

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I find it kind of funny how differently people interprete the rules of the exclusive program.
I only put one model from my last 5 into the program since I thought it is complex enough to fit the criteria.
From all my other models I can only consider 5-6 which will fit my interpreted criteria for the eclusive model program. And even all my other ones I don’t consider to fit into these program, are way more complex than other models you actually find there right now.

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This is the main problem with this program though. I am sure there are a “significant number of models highly similar to” the headphone stand model given as an example of what is desired in the program. Both the OPs and the highlighted example are effectively extruded 2D profiles, one just happens to be larger with a touch more refinement.

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You should emphasize on this more often casue most of them does not seem to have a clue…

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Ok, now you need to explain yourself. That headphone stand is also a 3D extrusion of a 2D part. How exactly is that different from the towel hook?

Is it because there is an accent color? If OP added a color band too, would his model then qualify?

That headphone stand is otherwise the same as the towel hook. It looks a little bigger. Is there a minimum filament weight? Is it that there is another color pressed into a little groove?

You guys need to be specific about these rules because all you are doing is making the water muddier. What is special about that headphone stand that makes it ok?

I would disqualify both models as being 3D extrusions of 2D models. If a color band is all it takes to be legal, that’s what you need to clearly state.

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I don’t think the issue is with 2D though as their reply has not mentioned anything about 2D

This is the reason according to them

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Hello @MakerWorld , and thank you very much for the response! I highly appreciate your transparency on this matter. Of course, I do understand your explanation, and I also understand why such a system exists in place in the first place.

But I would not have created this model if the existing models fulfilled my needs. They may be similar, but they are not the same and must not be confused as such. Of course, it is not entirely “original”, but tons of models in the Exclusive Model Program have exactly the same “lack” of originality and are allowed to remain in the program. Like other users also pointed out. Besides, if there were so many highly similar models around prior to my model being uplaoded, why has my particular model managed to become so successful?

Things like “originality” and “creativity” are hard for us creators to interpret, as is shown by the several posts on similar situations. Of course I could have made my model structurally sophisticated, but that wouldn’t have added anything to the functionality at all. The model was well-loved, popular and successful, is that not what we as a community strive for? You even said it yourself that although simple, my model provides the functionality as it was designed for. The really disheartening part is that, despite being an active member of the community that loves this platform, the points for my most successful model were entirely taken away. These are 1406 points, which I was extremely proud of…

Ultimately, you make the rules, but I also believe exceptions should be made. I know it might be bold to ask this, but could you at least reinstate my points? I hope you can make an exception here, and help us make these kinds of distinctions more concrete for the community of creators.

Thank you.

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Yeah, but. Now they are making it incumbent on the uploader to evaluate originality. How many headphone stands are there on MW? A lot.

So what guidelines are there on originality? We can each interpret that a number of ways.

Is there a number involved somewhere? More than 10 other headphone stands or hooks invalidate them? More than 100? Again, it’s ambiguity that is causing trouble. They are asking uploaders to be mind readers with the same value system for originality they have and then penalizing people heavily for getting it wrong.

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Thank you very much for your candid thoughts.
From your track record, we absolutely recognize and understand that you’ve long been an active and proud member of our community, and we are truly appreciative of your contributions.
We have returned the amount of regular points your model would earn during this time if it was not entered into the Program. It is the amount of points deducted/1.25.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to reinstate your model back into the program as we are trying to set higher standards for our Exclusive Model Program entries.
Thank you very much for your understanding, and always feel free to enter more unique and sophisticated models into our program!

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This is the way. When people enter the program sincerely it’s not right to blast them with penalties because the rules are vague - which they are in places.

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