Significantly drop of views / downloads / prints / boosts

[Basti85]

Hi guys,

I just wanted to know whether I’m the only one who has almost no more ongoing interactions regarding the models. Approx. 2 or 3 weeks ago everything dropped out of nowhere. I used to answer questions / comments in the morning. On a daily base I had ~10-15 notifications per day (boosts, ratings, comments, messages). Also my views dropped out of nowhere (besides there is a bug in the creator center when you try to view 1 year). Am I the only one or do guys have also recognized this?
In the history of makerworld we had this twice before when the point system was changed and when the downloads / print counting was reduced to 5 a day. I think 3 weeks ago they changed the boost distribution algorithms. I think this maybe has something in common with my observations. It’s really frustrating that something similar happened again…

[VictorLagina]

yeah seems to have lost momentum for me as well…

[Basti85]

thx for your answer

I just got the creator center views working again (just select 1y, then wait until it loads and displays nothing. then refresh the site). it seems like this started even earlier than expected (time runs really out of hands the last weeks). I would say with April 21st. Can you approve?

[MalcTheOracle]

It started early in the year, before April.

However, the April date you mention was when MW introduced further any designer changes.

Part of this was telling people WHO they may boost at the expense of their choice, and the original purpose of the Boosts. Failure to abide by the new rules means you get less Boosts to share.

Originally, Boosts were meant to be targeted at smaller designer’s or those models a user found useful.

The change (weirdly defined by MW as the original purpose, despite what they said at the launch) was meant to reward larger designers already benefitting from all the other ways MW promotes specific designers.

They wrap up this new target by saying designers with more complicated models should receive the Boosts.

Never mind how much work goes into models or that they achieve the goal sought by the user as print in place and no assembly required.

Boosts have not been the only way points have been withheld.

Some, myself included are having their models suppressed. I assume this is in part to my public calls for improvements, a stop to the lies and actual communication when it should be made and not after public pressure.

Other are having their models hidden from users, they cannot be found in search results. I am also in this camp.

Last year I was in the top 1% of designers and in the top revenue earners, according to the year end reports. Famous(ish) for my then popular fidget spinners and the recipient of several DM’s a week thanking me for helping their students or child with my models that help ADD, ADHD and sensory issues. As the fidget spinners/gyros are so heavily suppressed, it is no longer worth me creating new ones. The users are the ones suffering because of this attack on me by MW.

This year, having been suppressed, the story is very different.

With over 800 models that I have uploaded, I could hit 1300 points in a single day at the height, today I will be lucky to hit 100 (a particular bad day today).

I cannot produce any reports as the Creator Center times out due to the large number of data points for me.

It has been a constant and devastating decline.

[primewelder]

you are def not the only one that has notice this shame but they seem to be promoting alot of the same user like always and still not helping by promoting the smaller designers shame really

[Dr_Operator]

@MalcTheOracle

Some, myself included are having their models suppressed.

I wonder if they’re aware that by suppressing our models here, they’re driving traffic to other model repositories.

My Star Wars AT-ST model has been suppressed here and as a result, my Printables traffic and downloads have increased. Thanks to sites like Yeggi, Thangs and STLfinder people are still finding the model, but they no longer have the choice of MakerWorld or Printables.

[VictorLagina]

yeah I getting a pretty obvious throttling right now… very frustrating

[Mr_PJ]

yeah i feel like the same thing is kinda happening to me… not too sure why. makerworld algoritm genuinley confuses me because im trying my best here to dish out whatever cute or cool models i can yet it doesnt seem like the platform is giving me much exposure…

[hottr]

thanks for the tip, i could not get this to work. now i can see how my boosts/downloads reduced.

[JonRaymond]

Also remember that it is summer time in much of the world and people are printing less as they are outside doing other things.

The activity on the forum follows a similar tread where in the winter we see more traffic than the summer time.

[VictorLagina]

quite the drop suddenly all activity just dropped from the face of the earth ZERO activity on 5/31 seems pretty sus to me

[Uhl]

Looking at the graphs shared by @Basti85 and @VictorLagina, I don’t think this can be explained by sunny weather alone. The drop is both sudden and remarkably consistent from one day to the next.

Personally, even though I’ve been mostly inactive over the past six months, I haven’t seen such an abrupt decline in user activity before. What I’ve observed instead is a more gradual decrease, which seems to correlate with rising temperatures:

[MalcTheOracle]

The fact that it started in winter and got far worse in spring makes the summer statement unrelated.

More importantly, summer doesn’t start until Saturday, 21 June 2025, that is 18 days in the future.

[JJTechPrints]

BL is likely hitting the ceiling of their reward budget. More users, more models more cost. I expect the quiet knobs to be turned as much as possible until the louder knob is turned, aka reward reduction announcement. It’s a simple bleeding of money versus bleeding of users problem.

[MalcTheOracle]

Logically speaking a percentage of each sale should be contributed to the budget.

The more sales equals a larger budget.

This would mean the services designed to help produce more sales would continue to be funded.

Reducing the budget makes people unhappy, the happiness of the current audience helps drive future sales.

Any reduction is self-defeating.

[Cypherous]

Odd, mine seems pretty consistent

What type of models are you making? could be something specific to that

[VictorLagina]

odd how days later, data has been added to those drop off days, seems manipulated

[Cypherous]

@VictorLagina

odd how days later, data has been added to those drop off days, seems manipulated

Or, and follow with me here, the script that generated those reports was just broken and incorrectly reporting, but clearly its manipulation

[VictorLagina]

plastic 3d models… PLA PETG ETC

[Dextera]

@JonRaymond

Also remember that it is summer time

Pretty bold thesis on such an international platform, don’t you think? In fact, observations have been going on for a few months now …