Flash contests by community vote.  

No,

Flash contests are a terrible idea, they have made the database almost unuseable.

Contests encourage users to work on designs for that specific purpose - OK so far, but even the six week contests do not allow time for proper testing of the prints so the winner is the best looking idea - not the best implementation, resulting in a flood of rubbish and winners that are way below par for a functioning part.

So, a user looking for a specific part sees one labelled 'Contest Winner', thinks 'That must be good', downloads and prints and ... it disappoints.  This is a great way to make newcomers think that 3D printing is a waste of plastic.

Flash contests don't allow *any* time for testing so all the entries are untried, unless the winner happened already to be working on the part before the contest was announced the 'best' is guaranteed to be sub optimal at best...

And worst of all, it's not possible to filter a database search to exclude contest entries.

Cheerio,

RE:

It seems like a good idea to me, it is possible that improvements need to be implemented, for example, that super contests be notified months before and that registration is not opened until months later

RE: Flash contests by community vote.

Flash contests are a terrible idea, they have made the database almost unuseable.

Well spoken, my friend. Nothing to add to that. 

RE: Flash contests by community vote.

I have to agree with @Diem: since they only let you enter designs created within a certain time-frame of the contests you're all but guaranteeing that entries have had little time to germinate.

Personally, I don't design things for the sake of any contest. I design on the basis of need. That's also when the inspiration is greatest because I've got a practical application for what I intend to design and print. I'm also invested in making sure it works right for what I'm intending it for.

RE: Flash contests by community vote.

Necroposting in this thread because what I have to say seems to follow on well with Extra Fox's last post.  I posted the following to the Prusa blog post concerning the Typography contest that is currently running, wondering if I am completely off base here?

From the contest description:

"or perhaps even a tool to aid in hand lettering, we want to see it all!"

This is what's known as a lie. You don't want to see it all, you want to see a bunch of crap that was specifically thrown together for the contest, whether it is any good or not. I've got a stamping jig that I designed, and published on Printables, which I think is actually a useful tool. Unfortunately, I published it back in February. Because you have an asinine rule disqualifying pre-existing models, it's not eligible. This is the second time this has happened with one of my models, and it's enough to discourage me from publishing anything on the site going forward. It would be more worthwhile to post my models elsewhere, and only post on Printables when a contest pops up that one happens to be eligible for.

The way things are currently run, what you will mostly get, is a large quantity of quickly produced, garbage models to add to those already cluttering up the site going forward. Along with a relative handful which are actually decent, from people who have the free time to devote to developing something that's actually good on the compressed timeline of one of the contests. Judging by past contests, it's 50/50 which group the winner will belong in.

I've entered a Printables contest exactly once. That model did reasonably well, but I just don't have the time to do that very often, at least not if I want to do it well. And when I already have a model published on the site, which meets the contest criteria perfectly, but a stupid rule prevents me from entering it, my motivation for having anything to do with the contests drops to zero.

I realize that it's their site, their contest, and they can run it any way that they want.  But it's obvious that their goal is quantity over quality.  Based on some of his other posts,  I do think that Diem probably expects maybe a little too much in terms of testing of models before they get posted, but that's just a difference in degree.  I do agree that people should test their stuff before posting, and he's absolutely right about the flash contests not allowing enough time.

I am thankful that Prusa recognized my glasses case in the glasses holder contest, but I will be the first to admit that it could have been better.  They announced that contest, and I had a rare alignment of being at the beginning of the contest, having an idea that I liked, some prior work on a design I use daily (but never published due to it being too specialized), and the beginning of my weekend.  For the next 3 days, I neglected my family and drew, printed, tested, iterated, etc until I had something that was decent and worked.  It could have been better, but it worked, did the job I designed it for,  and the contest would end prior to the start of my next weekend, so I sent it.  Would have liked to have tweaked it some more but those were the rules; to be fair to myself, I still use it daily, and have printed more of them, because it's good enough.

I think I have in common with a lot of hobbyists, that I only have so much time in a stretch to work on something.  So it's a little frustrating when the rules exclude models that I did have the time to tweak, free of time constraints of an artificial contest.  Simply because I already decided to share it, rather than wait for the announcement of a contest it could potentially be entered in.

RE: Flash contests by community vote.

I very much agree with the sentiment expressed here. I've pretty much given up even looking at the contest entries. Most themes I couldn't care less about, and the ones I do seem to be filled with mostly nonsense. Almost certainly Prusa's primary goal is getting numbers up--even though they also stated that they see it as a way to encourage new people to get into design, which is arguably a noble goal. 

On one aspect of your comment I have a slightly different perspective:

It would be more worthwhile to post my models elsewhere, and only post on Printables when a contest pops up that one happens to be eligible for.

 I don't quite see how that would be more worthwhile. Posting your models elsewhere gets you exactly as much as posting them on Printables, nada. Actually, on Printables you may end up getting Prusameters if your design is popular. YMMV as to how you value those but I got a free Mini out of it so I'm not complaining. 

But I totally appreciate where you're coming from. The influx of crap triggered by those flash contests is truly disturbing. And not being able to enter previously published models is annoying. I've been like you in situations in which I had what I thought was a great model (and in my not so humble opinion better than the eventual winner 😊) but published it the week before the competition. And I really didn't want to do what I have seen others do, just add a fillet to make it a "new" model...

RE: Flash contests by community vote.

they also stated that they see it as a way to encourage new people to get into design

I am living proof of this. I don't have a background in engineering, graphic design or anything like that. I'm a 42 year old cook. I found Printables.com almost a year ago to the day and at the end of July 2022 I entered my first flash contest, Sharpie Mods. My entry (Sharpie Guy) was super basic and made entirely in Tinkercad because that's all I knew at the time, but was recognized by the judges as a runner-up (or whatever that white trophy means) and I was hooked on designing. Almost a year, 70-ish toys and a bunch of "free" (Stupid Canadian taxes) filament later, I have nothing but love for the flash contests.

I 100% agree with everyone on the Previously Published Models stance. They should be allowed.

Crap isn't exclusive to Printables, it's everywhere. Cults, Thingiverse, Printables, doesn't matter. All you can do is try to ignore the trash and focus on those models which are actually decent and worth your time.

RE: Flash contests by community vote.

Printables is/was late to the game, so you can't blame them for wanting their platform (models AND users) to grow. Having said that I wouldn't mind if they would add a way to make updates of a model visible to the general public (notifications) and reward the maker for that update, so the quality of models would increase. This would be more useful than creating yet another remix buried within the huge amount of new entries.

As an experiment I have recently tried looking at (skimming through) every new submission on printables; it's a chore 'though, I don't know how much longer I can keep it up.

Over a fortnight: 8400 prints submitted, 600 a day:  I tend to look closer at (open the page) around a dozen a day, usually because it's not obvious what they are.  Downloads? None.

To be fair, there have been three that intruiged me enough that I might try designing something of the sort myself but I don't trust the published files.

It's probably skewed by the current contest but a very high proportion of the submitted prints are not even 3D, they are 2D designs either extruded as line 'art' or silhouettes or lithophanes or they are two or more colour designs on a flat surface.  All of them would be better printed on card and perhaps laminated.  IMO none of these should be accepted but I suppose they *are* printable...

...and I did download one much older file but that was one a new user here was having trouble with so I took a closer look at it to find the source of the problem, I didn't print it.

Cheerio,

RE:

Personally my view for flash contests changed from 'wow' to 'meh' within two months.

- Rules are limiting existing designs, so people cheat by making minor changes to post it as new model, totally dropping 'remix' option.

- Time frame is so short it is really hard to make something decent, most uploads are just model renders, or actually screenshots, not even in decent quality/angle. Also doing decent model takes time, so unless you already had something it is just really time consuming especially if it is complex, to the point if you are hooked up you start neglecting other things... And then you become reluctant in getting into another contest.

- Models are just poor quality due to various reasons (well, been there, merely because of time/material). Now I see flash contests merely as way to produce plastic waste - it's just some people do not even think 'should I print this?', but treat a fresh printer as a hammer (so everything is a nail for few days). Some entries are not even related to the contest.

- Some models look like they are picked up because they were just trendy/nerdy and that really makes me wonder 'how did the jury took that one as a winner?' I get the feeling doing model from Mario or Zelda universe makes it a near winner'.

- The only positive thing I discovered is the new ways of using printer, or to be precise how to achieve something by actually not printing that much, and doing it with other methods like paper and paint ( merely because of printing time and material constraints), or discovering new ways of work with printer but usually it happened few days after the contest such as litophane or HueForge...

Maybe instead of random content rush it would be better for the service owners review weekly new models or updated models and 'feature' them on the blog entry with analysis with (this is ho you do it or here ideas to improve it) instead?

RE: Flash contests by community vote.

I will admit to creating an object for the 45 Adapter contest. The thing I found funny about it, is that I technically disqualified myself since my record player's spindle dimension was larger in diameter than the requirement they stated. Using their dimension I couldn't even get the adapter on the spindle so it was useless to me.

RE: Flash contests by community vote.

Today I received this email from Cults:

A 3D model you have already downloaded has been updated!

You are receiving this email because kendofuji, a designer from the Cults community, has made some changes to their 3D model flexi turtle. As you have already downloaded this file, you can re-download the updated version for free.

RE:

Having said that I wouldn't mind if they would add a way to make updates of a model visible to the general public (notifications)

I really like this idea, that would be very useful. Have you submitted it through the Share your feedback tab on the website?

RE: Flash contests by community vote.

Posted by: @dr-operator

Having said that I wouldn't mind if they would add a way to make updates of a model visible to the general public (notifications)

 

I really like this idea, that would be very useful. Have you submitted it through the Share your feedback tab on the website?

What might be a better feature idea, would be the ability to "follow" a model.  Right now you can follow a designer, but I think that's it.  Following a model could do useful things besides just letting you know when updates are made; ideally you would receive notifications when remixes are posted.  With maybe the ability to select whether or not to be told when a new make is posted, etc.

RE: Flash contests by community vote.

What might be a better feature idea, would be the ability to "follow" a model.

You're right, that is a better idea. I really hope we see this in the future.