We have some questions regarding our current point reward system that we hope to hear honest feedback from all of you.
The first question is: Do you believe that under MakerWorld’s current point reward system, models that are more niche generally receive less popularity and thus less rewards?
The second question is: Do you believe that more sophisticated and complexed models generally receive lesser rewards due to difficulty of printing?
In your opinion, do you believe that these phenomenon are quite common in MakerWorld and require actions to prevent them from happening?
We really appreciate candid responses so let us know what you think. Thank you very much!
First of all: I really appreciate that you are thinking about this and asking us.
Yes, but it is to be expected that less interest generates fewer downloads. It could help if the selection of featured designs specifically takes such models into account.
Again yes.
Yes. The general problem is that the “New Uploads” selection is spammed, so new designs have a very short time to gain attention. If they have scrolled out of view and have not acquired any downloads by then, they usually disappear into nirvana.
I previously suggested limiting the number of new uploads per user and day, for instance to one or two. Then these mass uploaders would inevitably limit themselves to uploading their better designs, which would benefit the quality of Makerworld.
I believe that the reward system is fair enough. Do I believe that more niche designs get less downloads and therefore less rewards? Yes, but I don’t think that it’s a big problem, because they are made for smaller amount of people and we can’t expect people who are looking for toys to want to download something related to, for example, kitchen organizers. It would be nice that smaller niche designs receive more points per download, but I don’t see this as big issue.
I completely agree with this - I have designed some designs that require multiple hours of printing and they get more likes than downloads. to me that seems odd - if you like the design, why not print it. and the answer is the time and material used makes it less interesting and therefore people would not print them even though they like and appreciate the design. on the other hand I believe that a design that’s nice enough and have only 20-30 minute print time will get lots more downloads as it’s a quick and cheap print.
I believe that there could be some sort of reward increase for more sophisticated and complex models - possible solution is to also give rewards for likes and how often a model is added to collection - those show if the model is desired too.
Additionally, I believe that many designers don’t upload their “more complex” designs as they don’t want these models to be offered for free. I have a couple of designs that I am offering on other platforms, but not here due to that reason. Of course the point are rewarded for downloads, but sometimes I rather keep them available only on other platforms for sale than get a single point for download. I believe that this is something that a lot of designers are looking for.
Naturally “Popular” will always be popular, and there is no way a “left handed screwdriver”, for example, is going to win over a “splitter” mod. The point system is very generous but can’t keep going the way it is.
I’d propose scaling it in a way that a model can only claim the first level of a gift card then you need to double the points to get the next level and so on. Possibly capping it at the 5th level. That could possibly make it a little less obnoxious for the little guy who struggles to get his “left handed screwdriver” up to the first layer and gain a giftcard.
I’ll never hit the “Trending” page and I’m ok with that, I honestly don’t go for the flash presentation and studio lighting for my basic uploads. They give me satisfaction in the design process and seeing the few comments left with a good rating.
I use gift cards as the said goal as we all know thats the attraction. It honestly doesn’t worry me if they disappear altogether.
1/ yes but when I publish that kind of model I know it and agree . I post it not for points but to help a friend , example my otovent that is made for a friend who practice diving and have 2 dl . I shared it because maybe one day it will help someone else . But for another example I havent publish some very great games because they are not famous . And i know noone will see and discover them even if they are very cute and took me a long time to design.
2/ yes . But aigain I agree with it . Sometimes I dont publish some because I know it will have too much feedback that its too hard .
I find very good the points system . They are very generous compare to others where I no more go because of poor points / or I have points but dont have good rewards .
I agree with others that spam publish put our design very far on news and could be block to one per day easily .
Yes, but probably as it should be. Models with broad utilitarian or artistic appeal seem to get the most downloads, which is OK. It’s challenging to find the “secret sauce” combination of quality design, perfect print profile and eye-catching presentation. It has caused me to upgrade my game thinking about how to attract downloads. It’s fun. I enjoy it.
Yes, but again, that’s OK in my opinion. I have spent weeks designing complex models requiring screws, gears, motors and other purchased parts, so I don’t expect a ton of downloads. My joy comes from designing and sharing.
I think the introduction of attainable and significant rewards is a benefit, but comes at the cost of people trying to game the system just to get points. It must be like a game of Whac-A-Mole for MW moderators trying to tamp down on accounts set up to spam models and profiles. I think a significant change would be to award all non-designer profile points to the designer. This would minimize the number of useless profiles attached to popular models in favor of those who truly want to improve the printability of a model. There simply doesn’t need to be .12mm and .16mm versions of any .2mm models in my opinion (for example). And if someone still wants to take the time to upload such a profile, any points get awarded to the model designer.
If the gift cards disappear I am out of here. The current point system is generous and I like it as is.
Should more complex models be highlighted more? Absolutely, but the fixation should not be the shape, or the print time, but the function!
If a model fits a specific use case, people will download it. A rich description helps a lot. Add a video showing the functionality and/ or the assembly process and you have more chances for people to see it’s merits.
Constructive suggestions:
Add filter for print time
Add filter for filament usage in grams
Add filter for number of plates
Add filter for support usage
The most important: allow filtering for multiple criteria, not only Google Search-like.
Print time alone is enough to reduce the number of downloads and so rewards.
Common - absolutely, Prevent from happening? How?
I already suggested a scheme for users to thank designers for models they found particularly useful by giving them some of their points and possibly a scheme to buy points for that purpose.
I suppose adjusting reward amounts a bit according to print time and/or filament usage would be an improvement although a bit complicated.
I completely agree with the idea of limiting uploads per user. I believe that allowing one upload per day is more than sufficient for regular ones.
However, I would also recommend implementing a thorough review process, surpassing the current one, which I suspect is automated with a basic algorithm merely checking for adequacy.
An enhanced review system would ensure a more rigorous evaluation of content quality and compliance.
Good suggestions but the problem is that these metrics (as currently implemented) are calculated across all plates. So for example if I load one model with multiple plates containing color/design options, it shows the total across all plates. One 100g/2hr model with 5 options will show up as 600g, 12hr print time.
I think a better search engine is what we need. I agree GenericUser “popular will always be popular”. More sophisticated and complexed models maybe could feature more in the front page so people could have more chance to see it. Feature already means official recognition at some point, I guess that could passing out information to designer that “hey we like something more creative and sophisticated.”
On the other hand, punishment may also help to leading the site to right direction. It is very annoying to see copy and paste upload from same people taking all over the trending. If one person abuses the points system, more people will take his approach. Download popular designs and change one or two features of the design, upload with eye-catching thumbnails claim it is original design. It is not acceptable.
Limit the amount of upload per day is good approach but it may also causing inconvenience to somepeople. Like myself, I do design on certain days of the week and test print, making revisions in next few days, edit and upload them all in a day.
I also totally agree with ‘ThreeD-Michael’. I spend many many hours on a model just to see it disappear in a split second. I have really tried to follow Bambu’s suggestions and made a thorough PDF-description of how to prepare and assemble it, added many photos of my print and of the Bambu print profile etc.
As a result of the bad response I decided to pause uploading to ‘MakerWorld’ and started to use another ‘upload-page’ instead. It seems like I am getting a better view result already but I would really love to go back to ‘MakerWorld’.
When I decide to print a model, I do not select it based on its size, ease of print or filament usage. I focus on its function.
Is the function stated by the designer matching my use case? If yes, I download it and/or print it.
Do not change the current point system!
I do not care if the designer spent hours or days modeling a zillion of details and he/she is very proud of that.
Maybe another designer created a much simpler model that could do accomplish the same function.
The fact that you worked hard to create the model is not something people who download it care or treasure. The point system should not care either.
I spent hours on a model with complex shapes and it has 100 times fewer downloads than another model completed in 10 minutes.
What we need is better filtering tools. Users should be able to quickly find what they need.
If you modify the current point system to account for “hard word”, “richness of details” and other subjective criteria, the question becomes… who decides which model is more detailed than another.
The first question is: Do you believe that under MakerWorld’s current point reward system, models that are more niche generally receive less popularity and thus less rewards?
Yes, but this is to be expected; niche items are only going to attract that niche demographic. Can anything be done to help those niches gain rewards? Probably, but I don’t know how.
The second question is: Do you believe that more sophisticated and complexed models generally receive lesser rewards due to difficulty of printing?
Yes, but this isn’t just limited to “difficulty” in printing. Some people will make their decision to print a model on more than just having to assemble it; if a model takes a long time, or uses a lot of filament in colour changes, I’ve found people are less likely to print it, too.
Another factor is also the amount of information we can provide the user; what plate they should use and if it needs supports or a brim, can only be provided in the description. I have experienced multiple users who have failed to print the model because they did not read the description, and then they left bad reviews because they didn’t know how to print the model properly.
I would recommend adding a pop-up that appears when a user clicks download, so that before a user can download a model they are provided the information to them before they can print it. Not all print profiles will need this, but some seriously do because users failing to read the model description is a problem.
In your opinion, do you believe that these phenomenon are quite common in MakerWorld and require actions to prevent them from happening?
Yes, very much so. As highlighted by ThreeD-Michael, we have a serious issue with the New Uploads section being spammed by models that are of questionable quality and/or origins. Also, the “print profile requires a real picture” rule isn’t being fully enforced, as these very same spammed models don’t upload real photographs of their prints. Users report them, they get taken down (sometimes) and then they get reuploaded again.
Presently, there is real no penalty for rule violations like these; banned accounts can just use a VPN to bypass the ban. The only way to keep MakerWorld clean of spam, and also punish rule violations as I mentioned, is to limit uploads per user per day as ThreeD-Michael pointed out.
If a user has uploaded their max 2 models per day, that then gets taken down for rule violations, then that’s it for them on that day on that account. They can hop to another and try again, but if they get flagged too then that’s another account they can’t upload on for that day too.
Spammers with multiple accounts are one of MakerWorlds biggest problems right now.
Yes. Niche models are typically less popular, and receive less rewards.
Yes. Complex (too many pieces to print, or multiple steps to assemble), expensive (lots of filament), and long (duration of print) all hinder desirability to print. This leads to them being less popular and receiving less rewards.
I do believe that some form of action could be taken to reasonably skew the rewards to make complex/large/intricate models more desirable to create.
As far as methods of rewards, I would potentially attempt to categorize models into LOW / HIGH effort models (and maybe medium?). How this could be done (and not gamed) is all up for discussion as a group, but it could include a combination of the following items:
self categorization (including a report function)
categorization during the initial review process (appeal function)
community voting (including a report function)
likes / collects
categorize upon successful prints with “upgrading” of a design from low effort to high effort (similar to what print profiles 4 stars and higher does, but adds a high effort bonus) with the option to add a report function and block the design from joining high effort in the future if exploiting is going on
I also really like limiting how many designs a user can upload (and print profiles) a week. Maybe not per day since some folks can’t do it daily, but on a weekly basis someone could upload a few designs each with 1 or 2 print profiles and really work on the quality vs quantity of uploads.
No no no. This will ensure that spam accounts upload , earn rewards, then delete and upload again. Limiting this to the “little guys” will be far worse than just leaving it alone.
Yes yes yes. Good idea and reasoning. This would get rid of a ton of the spam profiles that are created just for points, and would lead to profiles only existing for the sake of improving the original. There is that option currently, just make it permanent
Bingo. Which is why I am suggesting a weekly rate instead of daily. Same quantity but a bit of ability to adjust based on schedule.
Upvoting/downvoting a MODEL (instead of PRINT PROFILE) would also be super excellent. Right now it’s a 5 star rating for just the print profile, and we need to separate the model effort vs print profiles.
