Why Another Upgrade?

Last June, we made adjustments to the point system to reduce exploitative behavior while ensuring that high-quality models receive greater rewards. However, through the discussions and feedback following our announcement, we realized that several more important issues are emerging that deserve our serious attention.

Here are a few key concerns we’ve identified:

A. High-quality models should start from user value

Whether a model can deliver a great experience for users is the most important standard for evaluating quality.

A good model can be highly complex and sophisticated, or it can be quick to produce and cleverly designed. Ultimately, however, everything depends on whether it improves other users’ printing and usage experience, which we will discuss in more detail below.

We do not encourage pursuing complexity for its own sake—such as increasing printing costs or creating unnecessary usage barriers.

B. Creators in their growth stage need more encouragement from the community

No one is born a fully developed designer.

During their growth stage, creators often face limited experience, less feedback, and uncertainty while exploring their direction. This stage is not only about personal iteration and accumulation, but also requires support from the platform and the community to help build a more inclusive environment that encourages experimentation and creativity.

C. AI's Impact on the Creative Environment Affects Both Creators and Users

• Excessive use of AI to enhance images may result in a mismatch between the model and its presentation images, making it difficult for users to accurately judge the actual printing results.
• The rapid growth of mass‑produced, homogenized models may shift the focus from quality to quantity, potentially impacting the visibility and rewards that creators who genuinely refine their work deserve.

Based on these observations, we have conducted a systematic review of the point system and initiated related mechanism upgrades to better align rewards with genuine creative value.

Core Elements of This Upgrade

Whether in the previous adjustment or this upgrade, MakerWorld's total investment in points and incentives remains consistently growing.

MakerWorld's ultimate requirement for a model design is that users can print it successfully. Therefore, printing and downloading remain the core behaviors tracked by the point system. This upgrade does not negate the original mechanism but builds upon it, aiming to provide higher incentives for high-quality models, growing creators, and creators committed to continuous creation.

1.Upgrading the Understanding of 'High-Quality Models'

Starting from the value a model brings to users, we have refined our perspective: a model can be considered high‑quality if it provides a positive experience—either mentally or practically—during use or appreciation. Guided by this user‑value‑driven principle, the criteria for evaluating high‑quality models will become more diverse, allowing a broader range of models to receive weighting within the point system.

Based on community feedback and the platform’s overall context, we will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of model performance across the following dimensions.

Overall Completeness (Basic Requirement)

Overall completeness is the fundamental requirement for a high‑quality model. It reflects solid print feasibility and ensures that users can print and use the model smoothly. A model that meets the completeness standard should possess all of the following characteristics.:

• Include real photos of the printed object that accurately demonstrate the actual print results.
• Provide print profiles that users can apply directly for printing.
• Be printable without inherent design flaws that could lead to print failures, such as excessive overhangs or missing necessary supports.
• Have complete and intact structures, with no missing or damaged parts or assemblies; parts that require assembly should fit together correctly.
• Provide clear and complete printing instructions, such as recommended filaments, materials, or accessories, print settings, as well as assembly and usage guidelines, to ensure a smooth user experience.

Visual Appeal

The model's design is aesthetically pleasing, with harmonious proportions and color combinations, refined details, and a distinct stylistic quality.

Functional Practicality

The model provides utility and practicality, addressing needs in everyday life that may not yet be widely served by existing 3D-printed solutions.

Experiential Enjoyment

The model incorporates fun or engaging elements in its appearance or interaction design, offering users an enjoyable experience.

Technical Execution

The model demonstrates a high level of design complexity that results in a well‑executed final product. Simply increasing the number of parts or adding unnecessary structural complexity does not constitute strong technical execution.

Design Novelty

Originality and innovative thinking in concept or technique.

Under the new point system, overall completeness serves as the baseline requirement for a model to be considered high‑quality. Once this requirement is met, visual appeal, functional practicality, and experiential enjoyment become the core evaluation dimensions. A model that excels in any one of these areas may qualify for high‑quality incentive weighting and additional points multipliers.At the same time, technical execution and design originality are treated as important bonus scoring dimensions, allowing us to more precisely differentiate performance among high‑quality models. As a result, even models that meet the high‑quality standard may receive different final point totals and incentive levels, depending on their overall strengths.

2.Providing More Encouragement and Practical Support to Growing Creators

We have observed that many now accomplished creators went through a developmental stage in which their models’ print and download volumes plateaued, making it difficult for them to break through this stagnation. At the same time, through manual reviews of models with mid‑range print and download performance on the platform, we identified many designs with strong potential.

To better support creators in this growth stage, the platform will provide additional community support. In addition to high‑quality models, models with mid‑range print and download performance will also receive additional points weighting, which can be combined with the weighting applied to high‑quality models.

3.Optimizing the Feedback Pace of Points for More Timely Recognition

To better reflect different stages of model performance, we will refine the platform’s print and download tiers from four to nine, each with its own coefficient. This adjustment creates smoother progression between tiers and better aligns incentives with different stages of creation. It also makes it easier to identify creators in the growth stage and provide performance‑based support.

4.Encouraging Continuous Creation

Due to algorithmic recommendations, older models with accumulated print data tend to gain user trust more easily, leading to sustained growth in print counts. As MakerWorld's model library expands, it becomes harder for newly published models to break through.

To address this, besides adjustments to the recommendation algorithm, the point system will also give higher weight to newly published models. For models that have been on the platform longer, the points awarded per download will gradually decrease as the time since publication increases. Our goal is to ensure creators' efforts receive quicker feedback, reducing the barrier for new models to gain traction.

5.Community Governance and a Fair Ecosystem

To maintain the community ecosystem and creative order, models violating community rules will have their points affected.

• Models falling into the following categories will not earn points incentives: Model plagiarism, inconsistencies between renders and actual model/ absence of photos of the physical print, duplicate uploads, non-printable/ unusable models (e.g., only images uploaded/ corrupted files).
• Points for other types of rule-violating models will also be significantly impacted. For detailed violation types, please refer to the Community Guidelines.
• Furthermore, considering model completeness and user experience, models without uploaded print profiles will also see a substantial reduction in points earned.

This optimization of the points system will officially take effect today. 

With the upgrade of the point system, the points a model earns will be determined by a combination of multiple metrics, leading to variations in performance between different models. Through this more comprehensive evaluation mechanism, we aim for a more reasonable distribution of incentives.

MakerWorld encourages creators to continuously create models that are highly polished, deliver a great user experience, and comply with the community guidelines. The platform will also continue to safeguard the earnings of these models, ensuring that dedicated creation is rewarded with long-term, stable returns.

A Preview of Creator Income

One of Bambu Lab and MakerWorld's top priorities this year is to enable creators to gain sustainable material rewards on the platform.

And income isn't limited to points.

In 2025, we launched the crowdfunding system, allowing some "larger-scale" projects to generate more revenue. Some creators have already earned hundreds of thousands of US dollars through this method. In early 2026, we adjusted the thresholds for commission incentives eligibility to allow more creators to earn cash commissions through the BOM feature. It's worth mentioning that some creators were already earning nearly twenty thousand US dollars per month through this feature.

In the future, we will continue our efforts to extend the benefits of these two mechanisms to more creators and persistently explore new ways to enhance creator income.

Finally, we would like to sincerely thank everyone for your continued support and companionship along the way. We will keep working to improve and refine the platform, creating a better experience for creators. We also warmly welcome your ongoing feedback as we work together to build a healthier and more vibrant creative ecosystem.