I know that the quality of entries to competitions is not a new topic of discussion, but I have to say that the music box competition has got my particularly frustrated.
The theme is very clear, a music box that uses the maker’s supply music box kit.
As of this post, there are 20 entries:
Four are music boxes that don’t use the makers supply component, one of which isn’t even an original work
One is a supposedly printable music box mechanism
One is a “finger drum” (I feel like they entered the wrong competition)
One is a “TonieBox”, whatever that is
One is just a giant pair of ear pods???
Ten are phone speaker amplifiers
And two, including my own entry, are music boxes that use the required component
I’m not saying (or trying to imply) my entry deserves to win or any nonsense like that, but it’s disheartening to try and make something that follows the competition brief (even buying a component just for that purpose), only for it to be drowned out by irrelevant noise
It’s got to the point where I will like and download entries that are competing with me just because they follow the brief in the hopes of at least not loosing to garbage.
You’re absolutely right, @Davyd. This contest’s theme is clear, and it should serve as a litmus test for MakerWorld’s enforcement of irrelevant entries. It also highlights the issue with vague contest theme hints—why put effort into creating something only to realize you missed the mark because of a specific part requirement?
I feel like given the the maker’s supply integration into model uploads, for a contest like this it should be possible to automatically detect if someone hasn’t at least added the relevant part to the bill of supplies.
In fact, here’s what I’d like to see for competitions
automatic detection of required maker’s supply components and automatic rejection if they’re not linked
more contests that use a specific maker’s supply component, but
those competitions tie in to a discount on said component, even if it’s on single purchases
I feel this would benefit almost everyone, or at least the people who participate in competitions to challenge themselves, diversify their modelling skills, and get noticed by the community.
It looks like they removed a lot of the offending models which is good.
However, I’d like to echo protoboard’s complaint about vague contest themes/titles when they are first announced.
I was very excited to see a “Music Box” competition as it motivated me to continue working on a fully 3D printed music box mechanism that I was getting a bit frustrated by. I will finish the design, but I guess I won’t be submitting it to the contest as I had hoped.
I really don’t understand why we don’t get the full details of a contest before it goes live. In my opinion this would help everyone. The designers would be less frustrated and the MakerWorld community would, hopefully, get better models entered in the competition.
I agree that the contest theme at the very least should be put up in full before the competition goes live. It’s frustrating to see a vague title and spend time working on something (as you did), only for it not to be valid.
I got done by the spool competition as I thought it applied to full spools (ie non-bambu spools) and didn’t realise it included the cores from bambu spools. I would’ve probably designed something very different if I knew.
And yeah, I got a load of notifications that my reports had been actioned, so that’s something I guess.
sadly @MakerWorld will just change the rules to suit the entries, it happened to me a few times it really is getting discouraging to even try to make something following the guidelines and the fact they dont really police the entries and allow unrelated models to join just to get exposure is the most ridiculous part… NO IRRELEVENT MODELS SHOULD BE ALLOWED
I guess that’s true, and I can kinda see why Bambu would do it. You put up a competition and generally entries fall into three categories:
Follows the rules exactly
Follows the rules, sorta, misunderstood (sometimes because they’re vague)
Doesn’t follow the rules at all
In any case 3 should be kicked out (and I’m given a ban from the next X competitions which increases each time it happens), but for 2, I can see Bambu going "We’ve got all these good entries that come close so let’s tweak things to include them). However, this is unfair on 1, especially when it involves a lot of personal cost in printing prototypes, etc.
Regardless of any thoughts on this topic of which with some I agree and some I do not. For me it is quite black and white, either an entry meets the contest requirements or it does not and @MakerWorld should just stick with their words and show respect towards the creators that take these contests seriously and remove the irrelevant entries whether they are on purpose or an honest mistake.
Here is a very complicated chart I made to help with filtering through the entries or give me permission to do it!
Thanks for your advice Davyd. To avoid these kind of confusions in the future, we will have detailed descriptions incorporated to the upcoming schedule in our next update.
For the irrelevant entries, you can help us monitor the contest entry page by reporting them. Our moderating team will also work on monitoring the entries as frequently as possible.
Thank you very much for your support!
not happening Davyd. More talking from @MakerWorld as this contest is yet again being flooded with junk and reported entries remain live and pushing down entries there ARE valid entries.
@MakerWorld
The same thing is happening to this contest that happened to the corcelain contest. You say you will properly monitor the contests for irrelevant entries yet nothing happens. All the models that ARE actually meeting the contest requirements are being pushed down the list by lame ‘phone sound amplifiers’ or other models made by users who apparently have a difficulty reading. It is VERY disrespectful to the creators that try hard and make valid entries and is also getting frustrating to the point were they will probably refuse to participate in future contest. I don’t think that is what you would want to happen. OR maybe you should consider having a ‘Irrelevant’ contest where users can just upload their junk?
I made it very easy for you, here is the collection of models that should be removed. Some may have self designed music boxing which may seem cool but they simply DO NOT adhere to the contest theme. https://makerworld.com/en/collections/4264931-default-collection
I’ve just had two notifications that entries I reported have been removed, so they are working through the reports. I wouldn’t be hasty to write MW off
@Davyd you are right, but this problem is on every contest. I feel like many users either
don’t read the contest description (sometimes the theme of a contest doesn’t make the rules very clear, like in this case one could thinks it is about general music boxes)
just don’t care about the rules and just try to use the contest to get more traffic on their model
I see it as you do, irrelevant entries should be removed from contests. And as you said, when using a maker supply it should atumatically be detected if this is not added as a needed supply.
So… you guys had a look at the winners yet? Btw, congratulations @Rossero
It would appear the maker supply part wasn’t really that hard a requirement. Happy Easter Egg Hunt, I’m sure you guys will have no problem finding which one managed to win without using the Piano Music Box Winding Kit…
…I’m at a point where I just consider it a wildcard factor as far as these contests. Lesson learned here, don’t submit early on while people still monitor and report such entries.
You got to check the benchy contest then… it’s crazy… the rules are not even being applied and @MakerWorld, even after being called lots of times, are doing nothing about it… It’s a cr@p festival right there…
Contests are for exposure only, from what i see. Rules? What rules??
or give me permission to do it!
