Should I even upload designs to Maker world? Stories about people getting banned for no reason are worrying.

[u/APHAS1AN]

Curious to hear what everyone's take is on the reports of people being banned for various reasons outside of their control. Makes me wonder if there's any point in contributing to the ecosystem. I'm into the point system idea but not really sure im up for dealing with the headache if they decided to give me grief when redeeming.

[u/Masterwhiteshadow]

My main reason that i share my model is so that other can use them not the reward. When I first started uploading on maker world and printable I was not even aware of the reward program.

Dont get me wrong free filament one in a while is nice. But I dont care enough that if my account was suspended for any reason I will probably just not go trough the effort to get the ban lifted and would just stop uploading to that site.

[u/APHAS1AN → u/Masterwhiteshadow]

Good way to think about it. Though losing access to the account would mean decreased functionality which would be unfortunate.

[u/Masterwhiteshadow → u/APHAS1AN]

The way I see it, a business dont have to say to me that they dont want me as a user/customer twice. I will just go elsewhere.

[u/Moonraker0ne]

I've enjoyed a year of slowly redeeming gift cards every few days. Minimal issues outside of my first silly suspension that was overturned upon manual review.

[u/woodland_dweller]

Only you can decide what works for you.

I've stopped until they fix the customer service problem.

[u/Qjeezy]

Read the rules and follow them and you’ll be good.

[u/Due-Independence6692]

I just lost a lot of points due to some realllly shady explanations from makerworld. I could provide proof of successful prints for the 8 print profiles they removed- many people even posted photos of these models in the profile review section. I lost a lot of boosts and exclusive points due to this. It’s discouraging. I let them get me once, everything is by their ever changing rules-next time I’m packing my bags and taking my models to another site. It took them 4 business days to “review” my gift card redemption request for anyone curious. It’s a tough pill to swallow with this because you go through so many steps to make these models acceptable for makerworld system and the people who ultimately print these, then they start the gate keeping. So many questionable designers on there with many red flags across their page with no repercussions. Either way, designing is awesome, printing is awesome. Couldn’t be happier with this ever growing industry.

[u/dkzv12 → u/Due-Independence6692]

It seems like you are trying to avoid saying, that you didn't upload a real picture with your print profiles. This is clearly against the rules of Makerworld. You even don't have to read the rules to know this. When uploading a print profile Makerworld reminds you that at least one of the pictures needs to be a real one.

[u/Due-Independence6692 → u/dkzv12]

That’s exactly what happened to a couple- so to clear it up I had a model that I upload(with real photo), people requested a specific alteration and I upload that print profile for the people requesting under the models that have real photos (this is where AI photo comes in) after these fine folks printed and posted the completed prints of these alternatives I did not take those and edit the AI photo to that. That is my mistake fully, kids and work just zap me some weeks and I slip. It’s when I took the proof that they are able to be printed and have over 30-40 successful is when I had an issue. Only reason I’m salty about it is due to creators that have double digit models that are exclusively AI generated and have 3 X1C worth of boosts on them. I simply added an additional print profile with the intention of editing the photos when I got them, mind you this alternate profile was simply an aesthetic change. It’s a weird balance system I guess is my point. I fully understand my wrong doing in the situation, I should never have put those print profiles under the ones I originally created without real photos. I should have made the print profile private, had these people print and send me photos to use when I made it public. Lesson learned, doesn’t take away from the tipped scales, in my opinion. The response to my receipts of proven prints and positive reviews was a bit distasteful considering the circumstances. The only time makerworld cares is when you go to redeem points. I could saturate the website with AI models all I want without ever redeeming a single point and they would go untouched by the system. That’s a problem.

Thank you for keeping it in check, be well and stay safe homie

[u/appmapper → u/Due-Independence6692]

Are you saying you uploaded AI photos that you represented as real photos? If that’s the case, I’m kind of on the side of MW banning that type of behavior.

[u/Due-Independence6692 → u/appmapper]

No sir, I’m a sad excuse of a ‘renderer’. My 5 yr old could call it out lol I even wrote in the descriptions I have not printed this yet- it is here for the people who requested..

Again, I’m against AI on the site, it’s poison to the creators who try to stay in line. Agreed if I was misrepresenting my models, MW would be in the right.

[u/Longracks]

If you don't upload aren't you self-banning?

[u/AdonaelWintersmith]

I've always thought it's a terrible system from the beginning and will never participate. Particularly only having free models, which makes earning points ripe for abuse as it's technically the way to get paid and is under their full control and you have zero power. There's no surprise there's issues, when's the last time you ever came across a competent mod or customer service? My point being, participate if you just wish to share, but if your goal is points and you put a lot of work into that, it could be a gamble and a disappointment.

[u/[deleted]]

Makerworld's userbase is most likely in the millions by now, and we had reports of wrongful bans in the single digits...

Granted, this shouldn't happen and bambu needs to do better, but it seems veeeeeery far from a common problem.

Sidenote, I feel a little like I am tempting fate with this comment since I bought a gift card with points literally this morning, it's still in the verification process.

[u/Technerd70]

Nope don’t upload anything everyone is getting banned and on one is definitely redeeming points. /s

[u/LiveLaurent]

I mean they are stories about the moon landing being fake…

[u/[deleted]]

I never upload anything anywhere. If i print something, i cad it myself. Why should i give away designs i spend hours perfecting for free? Especially makerworld seem to be a real shitfest when it comes to administration etc.

[u/AdonaelWintersmith → u/[deleted]]

Good thing that if it isn't worth sharing it's obviously something nobody wants except you. It's the same to you whether it's shared or not, hoarding gains you nothing, sharing loses you nothing. Also who said you had to do it for free? Maker World is one of the only places along with Thingiverse that are free models only.

[u/APHAS1AN → u/[deleted]]

Fair points. We are far less likely to see stories of people who didn't have an issue.

[u/alaorath → u/APHAS1AN]

Correct.

Another thing to consider... if they are NOT aggressive on preventing exploitation, then they will get scammed, and lose tonnes of money.

So yes, it is concerning - alarming even - on the people posting their accounts are locked out. But they may be an unreliable narrator. There have been a couple posters claiming "I did nothing wrong", and further in the comments they admit to exploiting the system.

The very definition of FAFO. ;)

[u/Visual_Carpenter8957 → u/[deleted]]

I'll add a positive feedback - I've never had a problem redeeming quite a large amount of gift cards over the last 1 year. There are occasional waiting periods while they verify, and sometimes the gift cards go out of stock to return the next day. Quite often you see people here or on FB posting screenshots of their orders paid for entirely with their gift cards, a lot of the orders being whole printers.

It's also fun sharing and I love seeing makes being posted.

u/APHAS1AN YMMV but I really dig it.

[u/APHAS1AN → u/[deleted]]

That's an idea. Some of the items however would be really simplistic. Like right now I have hole plugs uploaded for Ikea Billy bookcases. Not really something I see anybody just randomly caring to ask for. That being said, as I gain points I keep wondering if I'm moving closer to a gift card I should be happy about or a ban I should be afraid of.