As the head says…
MyMiniFactory buys Thingiverse.
Interesting potential to uplift the whole market.
https://www.myminifactory.com/blog/myminifactory-has-acquired-thingiverse
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Thingiverse is now SoulCrafted
In 2025 we launched the SoulCrafted initiative. SoulCrafted is our way of trying to protect human creativity from the flood of AI-generated content that is now inundating online communities. It gives creators a way to say clearly: this was made by a person, not a prompt. It gives customers confidence that they are buying human made content. As part of our commitment to SoulCrafted content, MyMiniFactory has adopted a zero-tolerance stance on AI generated content on our platform.
Thingiverse is now a SoulCrafted platform. In practice, that means we’ll be taking steps to reduce and eventually remove AI-generated designs from the site. It also means we’ll be building out ways for Thingiverse creators to actually earn from their work. More on that soon..
■■■■ yeah, I wish them good luck and swift bans.
The public has shown they are not able to use AI to contribute to a repository in a rational and constructive manner. Please note this is not a pro or anti AI statement, it is actually a commentary about the observed reality of the behavior people are contemporaneously exhibiting.
6 Likes
It will be a good change, but I also do not see it working that well.
Thingiverse, while not flooded with AI as much, has a huge data cleanliness issue. It is best to have a clean slate, or at least a thorough review of each model and removal of duplicates.
Fighting AI is the big thing now, but I can easily see it getting to the point of amazing. Even for something like DND figurines, I think it is a great tool, assuming you do some cleanup work on it.
So what does that mean? Does the platform only have a useful life of a few years?
Stepping away from the whole AI thing. I can see this easily turning into a site full of subscriptions and pay walls. They just spent a lot of money, have to make it up somehow.
Thanks for the FYI
111111111
On the other end of the spectrum Elegoo (MakeRoad) has a current contest that is FOR AI models… seems weird to me.
Based on an AI query I wonder?
This. The trend is moving away from free models, and it is coming “soon” for Thingiverse. Models that remain free will be the low quality ones.
MakerWorld will be the only platform left offering users good quality models for free, at least for a while until it too decides that paying creators so users can have free models is either not worth it or not sustainable.
Is this trend good for 3D printing? In the short term may be not, but I think over the long term it can be. Right now all platforms are flooded with low quality models. This is so because designing good models, which takes full-time commitment, is not financially viable for creators because the general public are accustomed to having models for free and not willing to pay.
The trend towards paid models can gradually change that mindset and condition the public to accept that models, like any other products, are made with labor and skills and payments are expected.
I think paying for models is a good idea but I do wish the prices were more reasonable. I feel the trend lately has been a sharp increase in the average price for models that I have considered paying for, regardless of quality.
I was thinking that maybe a subscription model might work - perhaps one could download a limited amount per week or pay a subscription for a full meal deal. It still wouldn’t do much for the model creators though but it might at least keep a site like MakerWorld giving incentives to them. The problem I have even suggesting it though is that EVERYTHING wants to have a subscription and $10+ a month from everything is impossible.
I wish we could dial back few years to when creators when content with putting up an app for $0.99, before subscriptions. I would pay a few bucks for a simple model that I liked, and more for something more complicated but I personally feel already prices have got out of hand.
Personally I am pretty happy with the few MakerWorld points I have managed to collect so far from my amateur offerings and hope that this can hold for at least a few more years!