How do you assume “banning the accounts wont make much difference” ? Yeah letting them break the rules with absolutely no punishment seems to be such a much better idea.
I dont know why you seem to be fighting so hard for the other side, but id would be fine with some sort of verification such as tying printers or phone number to accounts as most of who i describe have zero model contributions, zero reason for having alt accounts other than to manipulate the system and/or abuse others with such accounts.
Many of these accounts upload stolen designs, since if they get caught they can simply just create another account… wash, rinse, repeat. Even ones i have reported, all makerworld will do is take down the models and keep their accounts live, ZERO PUNISHMENT
They actually did in the early days of Makerworld do exactly that. You couldn’t have certain things added to your uploaded thumbnail to make them look “official”. I do agree this is a good idea.
You answered your own question.
I’m not but I think it’s important to realize it might not be as simple as “banning” or “punishing” troublesome accounts as you make it out to be. Removing troublesome people isn’t as easy as it seems. There are a lot of things behind the scenes that come into play. Even on the forum there have been accounts banned and reinstated because of lawsuits.
Adding phone number verification does seem like it would help.
Do you not reserve the right to refuse in the ToS ?
accounts like that should also be being reported to your provider and at least be accompanied by an ip ban
Proxys can/could also be banned and a vpn is just an email on a private server
, if it were me id be asking the provider to help with the illegal activity coming through the site, phishing is illegal. a prob microsft work on tirelessly albeit email
If your printer or phone number is tied to an account, you will think twice about breaking rules as the consequences are tough. Many video game comp0anies use such strategies to filter out cheaters. Although there are ways to circumvent the phone number thing to an extent, it makes it tougher to make more accounts as you would need multiple phone numbers to create more accounts once that phone number is “blacklisted”. If you risk losing all the perks of your using machine. Its quite the deterrent, as you risk access to those things like farming points, or makerworld print files etc.
As for banning accounts… yes it will make a difference if you are limited on how many accounts you can create as I laid out above… these 2 concepts combined would definitely tame the abusers.
The current punishment for copyright or uploading stolen files is simply to delete their files, with no account removal… so again they can just upload more stolen models to same account knowing they will only get a slap on the wrist…
Similar to enabling a drug abuser, by letting them continue to live in your house after they stole your DVD player to buy drugs.
The issue is that you are looking at it from the perspective of someone that actually wants to build a successful and contributing/profitable Makerworld profile.
There isn’t any risk or deterrent for people who are just looking to try to make a quick buck or spam phishing links as they are not in it for the long term.
We’ve also seen it in the past where bad actors have used the system against legitimate model owners so remember that tougher punishment can be used as a two way street.
A vitual private network is just a mask you sign up for by email, its to hide an identity or give it a new residence (netflix) , most of which are now official buisness ,illegal activity through them would ruin that buisness
Just a note, I can’t speak for everyone, of course: In the country where I live, everyone gets a new IP from their service provider every day. Even without a VPN. IP banning is completely ineffective.
I can even assign a new IP address at any time with the VPN I use.
you would be suprised or not, about how much of it is actually traceable the onus is with prevention , and disruption to illegal activity on the site , and yes i can see in my emails that the last two digits can be changed but yet they are still prevented / disrupted
i guess you skipped over the part where i pointed out if they have a real world identification tied to their account then they can only “abuse” once or twice they will eventually find out its not worth trying to bypass the penalty system… again it works wonders on video games… idk just not right the way it is but we will just roll with the punches and hope one day it will be solved. I get you are no fan of mine so we can just agree to disagree
