From the moment we launched Printables, we knew adding a way for designers and artists to turn their passion into a viable source of income was something we definitely wanted to do in the future. But how exactly to implement it is a huge question to tackle. And doing it wrong could do more harm than good. Needless to say, we want to keep the main 3D printable model database free.
Fast forward a year of hard work and brainstorming, we now have a system that we believe strikes the right balance and we’re ready to show it to you. But before we officially launch the first version, we want to hear your feedback and ensure that we create the best possible experience for everyone in our community! If you’re in just for the free models, you’ll barely notice anything different (we won’t mix paid and free models) and if you’re a creator, you’ll have awesome new ways to engage with your audience.
Why do it in the first place?
The Printables database is large and diverse. From huge projects and incredibly detailed sculptures, small, but very practical prints, to toys and calibration models. It’s clear that many of the authors spent endless hours fine-tuning everything to perfection. And there’s only so much time you can put into a model if it’s something you’ll be releasing for free or something you’re doing in your free time. Over the years, we have talked to many artists and designers who managed to turn their hobby into a successful source of income. Many of them would love to have their models on Printables. And vice-versa, we would love to bring their high-quality content to our large user base. Speaking of…
Every year we set goals that we would like to achieve with Printables. And every year, we put “Become no.1 model database” on the list as a kind of “world domination” joke. It seemed completely impossible – the market was already dominated by established websites. We started by tackling and fixing various issues that were bothering us on these platforms. Just like with our printers, we wanted to have something that we personally want to use as well. And as time went on, Printables were growing at a faster and faster rate.
Printables is now the 2nd most visited 3D printable model database. We have over 2 million unique visitors per month (doubled year-on-year), 10.3 million monthly visits, and there are over 750 models uploaded to Printables every day. With this traffic, we feel like it will finally be possible to realize the plan to let designers and artists make a living or at least get a nice boost to their standard income.
(source – SimilarWeb)
Keeping Printables a database of free models
There are several ways to monetize 3D printable models. From charging for individual models, charging for packs of models, to donations and monthly subscriptions.
It was interesting to see that when we briefly mentioned the possibility of adding monetization to Printables in a blog post from March 2022, there were many comments with strong feelings about this.
A lot of the comments aligned with our own opinion on the matter. We hate browsing sites where free and paid content is mixed. You find exactly what you were looking for, only to realize it’s hidden behind a paywall. Even with the option to filter for free results, it’s still cumbersome to toggle the filter every time you forget to enable it.
After much discussion, we decided that it’s crucial that the main database of models on Printables stays completely free. Everything you see when browsing the database or when using the search function is downloadable without any paywalls, you don’t even have to be logged in.
Instead, we drafted a different system – in short, it’s a monthly donation system. We presented it to several creators last September to get valuable feedback, polished the idea, and implemented the base functionality.
The idea behind this monthly subscription system is to give content creators useful options to engage with their audience – a system similar to Patreon (with a few upgrades – more on that in a second). We’re leaving it completely up to the designers to approach their audience however they see fit – pricing, rewards, number of models per month, etc.: that’s entirely up to you.
If you’ve been following along with the recent updates, you might have noticed that we’ve been releasing a lot of features related to all of this. User handles and nice short user profile URLs, completely revamped user settings with plenty of space for extra categories, detailed analytics, and so on.
Why not just use Patreon?
Many of the full-time artists and designers we’ve talked with have a Patreon account. But since Patreon is not made specifically for 3D printable models, the designers mentioned all sorts of features they miss and things that should work differently.
First of all, Patreon doesn’t have any file-management system. Creators that wish to release models only for their supporters have to manage a Dropbox or Google Drive storage and create a new link every time they wish to invalidate the old one. There is also no way to show what models the supporter will get, once they start the subscription. Artists get around this by manually creating galleries of their work. It was mentioned by one of the artists on our call, that it sometimes takes them more time to publish their model and manage all of this than to actually model it.
Discoverability is another significant challenge, as creators must consistently produce content on social media to attract new patrons and drive people from other websites to their Patreon profile. At Printables.com, there are millions of users interested in the content. These are just a few of the hurdles that were brought up during our discussions.
We did our best to take all this feedback into account when creating the new system on Printables.
How it works
You’ll be able to subscribe to an artist for a monthly fee. Our goal is to make it clear that while you will get extra benefits as a supporter, the main motivation for the monthly donation should be supporting the designer. Designers can create up to 5 tiers with customized benefits and prices for each tier. Such as subscriber-only posts, voting in polls, access to commercial licensing options, and more.
The designer can still choose to release all their work for free. As the models are visible to everyone browsing Printables, they are a great way to attract new fans and supporters. However, creators also have the option to offer exclusive content solely for their supporters. These models will only be visible on the designer’s profile. If you’re not a supporter yet, you will see a preview of all the models (thumbnail and short description), but you won’t be able to download them. The same goes for visiting a direct link to a supporter-only model. Supporters, on the other hand, will have access to the models in their search results and within the database, clearly labeled as supporter-only models. Designers will be able to choose to automatically release supporter-only models for free to everyone after a specified period (e.g. 30 days).
Users will be able to pin their favorite creations on their profile – everyone visiting your profile will immediately see the models you are most proud of. This feature will be available to everyone, even to users outside of the subscription program.
The Community Feed will also get a significant upgrade. A new tab will let you see the feed of posts only from creators you are subscribed to. Such as screenshots of work in progress of upcoming models, polls the creator wants to ask their community or general text posts with updates and topics for discussion. For every post, the creator will be able to decide if it should be visible to everyone or to the subscribers only, the same goes for polls, images and videos.
As far as payments go, we will start by accepting credit card and PayPal transfers. On the side of withdrawing the earned donations, we will support PayPal only for now. We would like to expand these options in the future. As far as fees go, we will take a small cut (about 10%) to at least partially cover the costs of running Printables – from maintaining the servers to developer and moderator salaries. All of these costs are currently covered by our 3D printer sales (there are no ads) and we’re committed to continue doing that, but it will be nice if Printables eventually become a fully self-sustainable project. It is worth noting that every payment will also be subject to transaction fees by credit card companies or banks (these fees are outside our control).
Users supporting the creator will have a badge next to their name whenever they post a comment or a make on any of the creator’s models. This is one of the things we’re still polishing, but we’re considering also adding a number to the label to show how long has the user been supporting the creator.
You will be able to see a list of all your active memberships, so you can easily visit the creator’s profile or cancel the membership at any time. You will also see the list of expired memberships.
And what about Prusameters? The existing reward system stays in place! Creators in the subscription program will still be able to earn Prusameters for likes/downloads of their free models, but models available only to subscribers won’t generate any Prusamenters.
Just like with the Prusameter reward system, our moderators and automated systems will be carefully monitoring all activity, to make sure that nobody is trying to cheat the system, farm likes and downloads with bots to get to the front page, etc.
Help us name it!
Throughout this article, you may have noticed that we’ve used various terms interchangeably—supporter, subscriber, member.… Our working title is Designer’s club / joining a club. We’re still not sure what to call this system and how to call the action of becoming a supporter. And because it is for you, we want you to name it! We’ll pick our favorite and award the first mention of it with 10,000 Prusameters! 🙂
Closed-beta for designers
If you’re an artist or designer eager to be a part of the Printables Subscriptions program, we invite you to join our closed beta testing phase. Simply email us at [email protected] and include a link to your portfolio (please include “Printables early access” in the subject). We will give a selected few early access, enabling them to be in direct communication with our team, and set up their profiles ahead of the official launch, scheduled around the end of June. If you have a large existing library of models, our team will assist you in migrating it over to Printables.
Your feedback
We would love to hear your thoughts about our proposed system. Do you have a suggestion on how to do something differently? Or how to improve it? Let us know! As with everything on Printables, we’re planning to regularly update and expand the features of the subscription system based on your feedback. Happy printing!
Sounds good, Go for IT!
I say Makers Mark, written in a way that it looks like a nozzle wrote it in filament. Either animated nozzle writing it or in cursive with animation and a nozzle writing it. It could be just the first layer or animated in a way that it is a 3d object.
Makers Mark alcohol has an apostrophe between the r and s in Makers. So idk if you are able to name it Makers Mark( without apostrophe).
Just an idea
Creators Mark, written in the same way as I posted above.
here is my idea
Service naming:
Prusa User Design D(th)ing
PUDDING
Designer naming:
Patissier or Chef ?
Subscription naming:
Get Scoop!
Love this!
My ideas:
Service could be called:
Prusa space
Prusa Workshop
STL Club
XYZ Club
Maker’s Club
Becoming a supporter could be:
Joining the club “Join the [insert club name here] Club!”
Well, supporter makes sense – since supports *are* needed for many makes. 😉 But, for a clearer differentiator, what about “rafters?”
I don’t download very often, but I would be willing to pay a one time amount for models. A membership does not make sense for me.
Agreed. I’d MUCH rather be able to pay on a per model basis given my use history of the site… I don’t often follow a single designer or download multiple objects from them. But I happily pay per model.
Exactly that
I agree, the monthly subscription doesn’t make sense to me either 🙁
I agree. Foe example if I wanted to subscribe to, say 10 artists/designers (at $5/month), that would add up to $50/month!! What if I don’t always find something I’d download from these designers, then I would’ve wasted money! Paying some fee per one design at a time, makes much more sense!!
Agreed. I wouldnt subscribe. This whole subscription model companies are trying to push down our throats is getting out of hand. I’ll pay for a good model no issues.
I agree.
I get what you mean, but what stops you from paying once, downloading the models you want and unsubscribing?
+1 I want to reward creators but unless you are subscribing for somthing regula e.g D&D models, there is little motivation for me to subscribe to indeviduals.
I would prefer somthing where i subscribed to printables.com but that money is distributed automaticly to the creators whos models i have used that month or (Prusameters) for smaller hobby creators suchas myself. or a simple ‘tip’ button.
Yea, I like the idea, but not sure how practical it is. I think it could be great for some creators, but there should also be a printable subscription that has credits or something a money that can be spent on models, or a alacart option to buy models individually and a tip option. It’ll pull more revenue for creators and printables, and get more use than just patreon. You could even still keep the models as part of the whole database, but make it a default to not show them and have the switch to show them right next to the submit button, so people expect to see paid models and opt in to see them.
I agree here with AlexW. Subscription doesn’t make any sense to me. Better get the same idea like Cults3D where designers can make a decent one time fee to download. There were several designs which I bought off Cults 3D. I totally respect the designers and their time and energy to do something but in my opinion the price should be per model if stated by the designer.
I rather pay (or donate prusameters) to a model, and would never do it on a subscription basis. And as an amateur designer I would like to get some dono’s for my models, but I would never setup some kind of a subscription for my audience. As that is way too much commitment for me.
I totally agree. Subscriptions for designers not knowing what you would get would be risky. Either you could get a preview of what that designer is making that month so you could continue or hold your subscription for that month. Another option is you could subscribe to tiers on Printables in general which would give you access to models under said tiers from a variety of designers. The money would be distributed to the designers from Printables based on how many downloads they received per model. Just an idea. For the name how about Printables Design Groups.
Same here. I’m not a subscriber. Individual model pricing is a must for success. Subscription should be an option where one might get discounts from the designer on their models.
Yes, a pay per model option is what I would prefer. The subscription model is not attractive for me.
Any idea for the “pay per use” model. Other sites have a “buy me a coffee” button that facilitatea the one off donation.
Just add two buttons – subscribe and donate.
I Agree. Like so many others here, my piggy bank doesn’t have an infinite supply of money in it’s belly and I have to make choices about what I do with my money.
I’d rather pay for individual models than subscribe to a few designers. Money that I spend on designer X’s subscription I can no longer spend on that one fantastic design by designer Y.
You could also come up with a concept where you can buy individual designs but for which you pay less if you have a subscription with this designer.
I agree with the group who would much rather pay per model. I’ve paid $5 or $10 for a good STL file. I would not subscribe to multiple designers. I get why designers prefer the subscription/patreon model, but I’m just not that likely to join in.
I agree. I downloaded and happily paid for several STL’s from Cults 3D. I did this because it was the best model I found for what I was looking for, not to support the designer (which is of course the same in a way).
I like to compare it with the music industry, even though I’m sure there are many things wrong with this analogy: If I want to buy an album of a group, let’s say Foo Fighters, I don’t care what label they are with, nor do I want to subscribe or support that label. I just want that album from Foo Fighters. The next album I buy most likely will be by a different artist from a different label.
I would not be willing to pay for models, but I might be willing to give tips for useful models that are released under licenses that respect the four freedoms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms_(free_software)
I 100% agree with AlexW here. I would happily pay for a well designed model, but have a hard time picturing any scenario where I would subscribe to a single artist/designer. Even the original designs I’ve posted are quite varied in nature. I can’t see how anyone would look at my collection of work and see benefit in paying a recurring monthly subscription for the next (unknown) random thing I produce.
Ač mi tento systém u tematických kanálů třeba na YT přijde zcela odpovídající, tak se mi zdá divný pro 3D modely. Netuším proč bych měl chtít více modelů pravidelně od nějakého autora. Ale dobře, může být.
Chybí mi možnosti :
– jednorázová platba za model
– jednorázová platba za úpravu byť volného modelu pro konkrétního žadatele.
– zadávat veřejné poptávky s termínem/cenou na vytvoření něčeho (a klidně podobně jako jsou stávající tematické soutěže)
My idea for the name…
Incentive!
Some ideas:
VIP: very important printers (i.e., the people who print)
Print Master
Maker’s Circle
Maker’s Guild
Printables Elite
Printables Plus
Prusamember
Prusa Patron
Supporters are a great name, since it is more about supporting that locking the models from the public.
I thing fan is in the same category. Become a fan. Support your favourite maker by becoming a fan of them. You are currently a fan of the following makers etc etc.
Backer, follower and sponsor are also in the right category of words in my mind.
I was going to suggest Guild, but it looks Jake beat me to it, haha.
On the other side of things, I think Supporters is a great name, as to me it strongly suggests that “the main motivation for the monthly donation should be supporting the designer.” Other ideas along these lines might be:
– Advocates
– Encouragers
– Boosters
I’m SOOO happy to see this!
Naming: How about:
Printsupporter
Model-Fans
Onlymodelfans
PrinterfanHub
Yourmodelfan
Pay2Print
FairUsers
PrintArtSupporters
IthinkIPrintIpay
HappyFairPrinting/HappyFairPrintersClub
Ipay2Print
Printers-Club-Lounge
PrintersEasyNotesInterimsSalary (P.E.N.I.S) 😛
PrintablesPowerUsers
FairPrinters
Printables & Moooore (Depending on the tier you get more „o’s“
Designers Delight
PrinterFeedersClub
Freedom4DesignersClub
FeedMyPrinter
4TheLoveOfDesign
stl-Lovers-Club
Designersheaven
FairDesign
Will premium contents show up in free users’ searches? If not, how do free users know what they what may be available as a premium design?
I suggest showing two columns of results, one for available results and one for not yet available.
This was my exact concern that I came here to add. I understand why they would want to make the default search results only show models available to you, but I think it would be just as important to allow any user to opt in to including all models in their search result, both free and subscription-required. Ideally a check box in my account settings I can toggle once and have it save the choice/option, or less ideally a checkbox next to the search bar we can select everytime we search.
Great!!
P.in.c.a.
P. – Prusa (or Printables)
In. – Incentive
(for)
C. – Creators
A. – Aid
Pinca is also a bread which is funny because it can help creators put bread on the table 😉
(https://www.google.com/search?q=pinca&rlz=1C1VDKB_svSE1002SE1002&oq=pinca&aqs=chrome..69i57j46i175i199i512j46i10i512j0i10i512l2j46i10i512j0i10i512l3j46i10i175i199i512.1514j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)
Naming idea:
Something along the lines of being ‘PART’ of the club, by getting access to someone’s models.
This sounds like a nice solution to replace the Patreon memberships a lot of designers use, but I kind of wish there would be an option to buy individual models too.
I am quite often visiting links to competing websites for interesting models that I can buy for a few bucks. If I had to subscribe for each of them, I’d probably ignore them.
There are quite a few designs on Printables that are parts of a bigger commercially available set and use links to external sites so people can buy the main collection.
I agree !
I agree.
An option to pay for a single model or subscribe sounds pretty good.
Printourage (play on both encourage and entourage)
Appreciation Donation
Feelin’ It
Thank with Bank
For my part, I have nothing of a professional designer, I am unfortunately not part of this elite.
My catalog has nothing comparable to what can be found on Patreon. On the other hand, there are one or two models of which I am very proud and which I would like to be able to sell.
I was hoping so much that you would offer me a way to help me achieve this goal, unfortunately it seems that your approach is only favorable to the big names in this world 🙁
+1, support! As an amateur / hobbyist designer I wouldn’t be able to provide sufficient content to justify a monthly subscription cost to subscribers. I love being able to post things for free on printables that other individuals can enjoy, benefit from, and provide feedback on. If one of my models does get picked up by someone that would like to use it commercially though, it’d be nice if there was a more clear way to receive some benefit.
Awesome! Maybe call the subscribers Supports? Slicer jokes…
In my case, I don’t think people would be willing to pay a monthly subscription just to have one of my models, on the other hand, if it were possible to manage a commercial license while keeping my models free and visible for everyone, that however, i think it would be useful to me
+1, support! As an amateur / hobbyist designer I wouldn’t be able to provide sufficient content to justify a monthly subscription cost to subscribers. I love being able to post things for free on printables that other individuals can enjoy, benefit from, and provide feedback on. If one of my models does get picked up by someone that would like to use it commercially though, it’d be nice if there was a more clear way to receive some benefit.
Her experience highlights the perils of trying to reach customer service at giant social media platforms. “facebook login and Instagram serve nearly 3 billion users a day with a help desk that numbers closer to zero,” The Wall Street Journal reported last month.
Was hoping for a marketplace where Prusa was the middle man single purchase .stl’s oh well haha
This makes sense for active quality modelers, probably even have a little migration from patreon maybe.
How much for a blue checkmark? 🙂
I like the concept, but as others mentioned, There should be a paid-single-model option (and you retain access permanently). That’s more in line with my searches and models I’ve paid for in the past. Those models should show up in search results. I’m fine with a setting to exclude/include them. User settings can control that default.
I don’t have a problem with the *option* of a designer follower model, but I’d much rather pay for (and keep access to) a model and continue to receive updates to that model.
Robert
I agree.
Supportables!
I see a few people talking about how they’d rather just pay for individual models, rather than a subscription. I like this and to me it seems to be the biggest benefit of MyMiniFactory’s FronTier over Patreon. It also has the potential to make a more “friendly” place than MyMiniFactory, which always feels to me like someone vomited free models, paid models, and advertisements all over the page with reckless abandon.
What I’d love to see is the ability to even offer “tiered” purchases. That way everything you search would still be free, but the free object could organically flow into a paid set should the user like it and want to “upgrade.” Like the main page and search rather obviously links to free objects, but then on some free pages there are teirs letting you know “hey, there is a paid version of this model available.”
That way makers could charge for things like expansions on existing models (clothing for your posable figure, a villiage to go with that cool house, a high resolution model of that neat bust, the fully printable clock from that escapement, etc.), and users still get the same great database of free models.
This could even be automatically timed. Say a creator advertises that models are given to subscribers for the first 2 months, then offered as paid for 2 months, then a piece of that model is free while the rest is paid for 6 months, then everything becomes free. Or some version of that.
Potentially, creators could use the system to drive subscriptions (steady income is definitely better for creators), by saying you could either buy individual models for, say $5 a piece, or just subscribe for $10/month and get at least 5 models a month.
Or something like that.
I agree with everyone else who prefers individual payments over a subscription.
I’d also like to see some sort of easy to use payment system where I can load up my account with some amount of money into “Prusa coins” or the like that could be used both to purchase models or donate on free models.
Paid models, be it a one of payment or subscription, can come at the expense of the remix culture and community around projects since we can’t readily share improvements or modifications to purchased files. RC car/plane projects are a good example of this, they benefit greatly from the community of builders sharing remixes of original parts.
It would be great if your site supported a way for those who’ve purchased/subscribed to then be able to access and share remixes and new parts with others who have also purchased/subscribed to the same design, building up a mini community of users around the project and keeping them all together on your site.
Ideas for Name:
MakerQuarters (play on headquarters symbolizing the designers model hub and maker for their supporters!)
Could use things like “Join (USERNAME’s) MakerQuarters to access all exclusive files.” or as mentioned in the article the member aspect you can “Become a member of this MakerQuarters”
For tiers here are some names:
T1: Pro Crafter
T2: Craftsmaster
T3: Master Maker
T4: Elite Builder
T5: Superfan
Anyone like this?
How about steppers since creators are the driving force just like stepper motors are the driving force of the printers.
Supporter: Pruspporter, Prusapporter, minion, grupie,
First off, congrats on the huge growth in the printing database category! I switched from Tv after you guys addressed a lot of my gripes with that site, and I’m never switching back. Also thanks for dark mode 🙂
My nomination for the naming of the subscriber system is: Printer’s Post / Joining the Post
I appreciate the attention to detail the team has in not bloating the site and making it more cumbersome to navigate. However, I think the option to sell individual files would be more appealing to a lot of us that don’t model files for a living but maybe have a few projects we’ve created that are worth selling. I think an account setting to permanently filter out paid models would alleviate the frustration of having to manually filter searches all the time, but design wise I also understand that adding too much can be a bad thing.
Perhaps there is a good compromise to be found in a ‘one-time subscriber’ kind of model, where someone can provide permanent access to all their modeled files for a single charge/month in the Post 😉
Would love to hear anyone’s thoughts on this.
First, that’s a great idea and it will bring more people on the platform 👍 I tried to get inspiration in different fields around our “Geek” community. Here are some possibles names. I tried to make only “one word” things as possible but there can be associations too 😉:
– Admirers
– Advocates
– Afficionados
– Alliance
– Backers
– Benefactors
– Believers
– Brotherhood
– Circle
– Citadel
– Clan
– Club
– Contributors
– Crew
– Donors
– Enthusiasts
– Enchanters
– Fans
– Fellowship
– Friends
– Guardians
– Guild
– Knights
– League
– Partners
– Patrons
– Squad
– Supporters
– Supporters Circle
– Supporters Club
– Thankers
– Tribe
– Whispers
Just „Modeler“?
Misread as a name for the creator -.-
Adding monetization might help to even further increase the model quality on this site, even though many of us design for fun and are already happy with fake internet points and a few prusameters.
As a user, I‘d be willing to leave a tipp or donation for a helpful free model that solved my problem if the paying process is convenient.
I‘d also be willig to pay a fixed price for more complex models and wouldn‘t mind them showing up among the free ones, given there is a big toggle switch to hide them if wanted.
But please make the Patreon model optional to support exceptional designers, not to get access to specific models. We all pay too many subscriptions already, I wouldn‘t be surprised if this trend reverses soon, personally I already have strong feeling against apps or sites that require yet another subscription.
I think you should allow to pay once for a model too. Subscription will sometimes not be a good option if someone wants to reward only once for one model. That will helps designers that are designing only in theirs free time. Not everyone are designer but sometimes should be rewarded for their work.
I wouldnt subscribe. This whole subscription model companies are trying to push down our throats is getting out of hand. I’ll pay for a good model no issues.
Without some sort of guarantee that the part is printable this is worthless.
Please implement a search filter to show only entries with pictures of actual prints, not renderings.
I cannot imagine anyone designing and testing worthwhile models at a rate that justifies a monthly subscription so pay per print is the only payment I would consider; OK, it might be worth joining for a day, downloading and then cancelling but it had better be very easy to cancel.
Plus we need a greatly improved sorting system, some designers spam every tag, others do not describe or tag their work well enough; we need a Wiki style method for users to refine descriptions and search terms so that worthwhile print *can* be found easily.
Also, as a quality metric, add a long term rating, something like: “One year ago today you downloaded X, did it work as intended and do you still use it?”
Cheerio,
though it may sound nice, I will gladly skip. My models will remain free in any case. If anyone wants to send some appreciation, they can always donate, but I will never hide anything behind a paywall…
So, you need a way to fund Printables to keep it free, and you have found a niche of professional designers who want to sell their designs, and you can earn a bit on the transactions. Sounds fair enough.
The problem is that you want to keep most of the models on Printables free, meaning that most users visiting will be people looking for free models. Those users are not likely to subscribe to creators to download models. So, why not simply keep the two different use cases on two different sites? Create a “Printables Professional” site where people can sell their subscriptions and keep “Printables Free” as it is now. The creators on “Printables Professional” will do their own marketing, just like they do now on SoMe and Patreon, so there’s no need to annoy people on “Printables Free” with tight integration between the two sites. A “Support my work on Printables Professional” link should be enough.
What “Printables Free” needs is a way for users to show their appreciation for the time others put into their models. Currently, there is a “support designer” button, but it is not integrated with the site, and expecting people to go to a separate site to support is a high barrier for many.
The most obvious way for users to support would be by tipping with “Prusa meters” since that is already the integrated payment system of the site. I do believe that people will actually donate their own meters to others to show their appreciation for the models. Maybe people would even be willing to buy extra “support meters” that could only be used for donations, knowing that they would not only support the designer, but also pay a bit in transaction fee to help fund the site.
Maybe it wasn’t clear from the above, but my suggestion for name is “Printables Professional”, “Printables Pro”, or maybe “Pro Printables”.
Also, for the “tipping” idea, the most obvious place to ask for a tip, is when someones uploads a make. People taking their time to upload a picture of their make, have already shown that they appreciate the design, so they may be more willing to actually share meters. And linking it to a make would limit the amount of fake transactions.
How about naming it “ The Makers’ Guild “ or “ The Creative Collective “
It’s great that designers will be able to make some money but I have issues with the whole idea done this way…
1) I NEVER subscribe to services. Not this, not TV, not anything.
2) There is a real risk that all the best models will disappear behind the pay wall and we makers miss out.
3) What protection is there for Makers from Designers charging a subscription and then never producing anything… How do Makers get their money back?
Remember there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there, you see it with Patreon and other services.
I think it would be better to have ALL models free, then there is an option to donate once or regularly to a designer. Also allow designers to take paid for requests, so for example Fred Bloggs gets a request ‘can he make such and such for Mr. X?’ He then can say OK but it’ll cost £10, Mr. X then donates the £10 and he makes and allows just me access to the new model.
I also think the idea that you can donate Prusa Meters to people is a great one!
Sites like Cults3D and Turbo-squid already offer pay per download so why don’t the designers just put their models up on those if they want money?!
I’ve noticed that all the best models are pay only and some are are silly prices!
Finally have Prusa considered the legal aspect of this service? If people put up paid for models that are copyrighted then they are breaching the law. I know that the BBC here in the UK is quite strict about anything about Doctor Who being charged for unless you have a product licence agreement with them. Also people like Disney are very strict!
I don’t want to see Prusa being hit with loads of law suits, take down notices etc.!
No, I think the best system would be one that expands the donation system (by firstly allowing it via Prusa, then allow Prusa Meters to be used as well as money), and by allowing paid for ‘Requests’.
For those that have suggested the donation model, Prusa already has this for some time with the ‘support designer’. It doesn’t work, I’ve had my Paypal account linked for quite some time and uploaded many (IMHO) totally unique designs that will save many lots of $ or at least hopefully inspire other designs and got exactly zero donations. For sure I don’t expect any donation for something I upload for free but I do donate for totally exceptional stuff that others post for free….however this content is harder and harder to discover. Subscription model for sure will kill the majority of creativity and just promote more plastic waste in Prusa’s quest to be #1 in numbers. Like their printers they should instead be 100% focused on quality of models uploaded, printability, creativity, awesomeness etc instead of trying to beat Thingiverse in download count.
Name suggestions:
– The Creators Dungeon
– The Makers Dungeon
– The Creators Basement
– The Makers Basement
– The Creators Treasury
– The Makers Treasury
– The Creators Mine
– The Makers Mine
– The Creators Cave
– The Makers Cave
I would say:
Supporter’s Club
So you can join the Supporter’s Club to support the designers.
Prusaclub or Prusasub
Can you add an up or down vote button for these name suggestions? Or create a separate page where people can suggest a name along with a short explanation, and reject suggestions that are already listed? Allow some sorting capability as well? I already see people trying to plaster as many naming options that they can think of without much thoughtfulness, which is…unproductive.
Here is my idea
Prusa membership
A lot of people have already said that there must be an option to purchase only one specific model and I agree with them. Also I think it would be nice to use Prusameters as payment method – only for a limited number of times per month.
Next problem is how to verify the quality of the model, because even on Printables there are some professional designers who make models which are impossible to print. Also on sites like Cults3D anyone can monetize their model but it doesn’t verify the quality of the model, so I think this monetization should be accessible only to verified designers.
On Printables I would prefer to add more search options and filters. It would be nice to add something telling you how complicated or big the model is or how long it prints without need of uploading g-code, so you could filter these models based on their complexity – when I use the printing time filter it takes out all models without g-code. This new option can be added by the creator when publishing the model. I would also like to have a search option that would filter out models which I have in collections, but maybe this won’t be useful for a lot of users.
If this update ensures survival of Printables it is worth it.
I also have to try my luck. The whole service can be called COMA = Club Of MAsters, designer publishing models can be Master and the person paying them monthly can be subscriber – because why make it complicated when there is a word that everyone understands.
I’m disappointed. I’ve been waiting for a paid option since it was first mentioned. MyMiniFactory is too expensive for me and cults3d has always felt a bit clunky and the name has negative connotations. I was hoping printables would be a better place to put paid models someday.
But I hate the idea of subscription to individual creators from all angles. As a creator, I don’t create things fast enough or on a regular cadence. I don’t see how I could make a subscription model work for me or my subscribers. I’m not looking to make a full time job of model designing. This is why I have never created a Patreon.
I want to be able to be compensated for the work I have done without committing to do a bunch more work in the future.
As a consumer, I am not sure I have ever used multiple models from the same person. I want to be able to pay on a per model basis. I feel like I could only afford to subscribe to a few people at a time and it would really limit what I could buy. Usually my needs are one-time in nature. This is why I have never subscribed to a Patreon.
If I was licensing a model for commercial printing, I’d rather pay a per print amount to them (or percentage of the sale price the customer paid me).
If the big concern is mixing paid and free being an inconvenience to those searching for free only, couldn’t you make a user-level setting that allows or disallows paid models? As someone who doesn’t mind compensating people, I actually want paid and free to show up together. I don’t want to search twice and I want to find what I need. It would be an inconvenience to me for them not to be together. I think it would be nice to still have the ability to change that filter on a specific search but the user setting could dictate the default for that user.
Alternately I’d prefer something where I pay a monthly amount for “printables plus” or “printables premium” or something and get access to whatever paid models I want (or maybe x number of paid models a month), then you split those revenues with the creators based on how much their prints were used. Then I only have to manage one subscription instead of a bunch of individual ones. And as a creator I don’t have to worry about constantly creating new things, but still have a chance of getting something for the stuff I’ve already created.
I just have no interest in this system as described. I don’t see myself making a subscription or subscribing to anything.
I completely disagree with Prusa’s current approach. Definitely would never subscribe. Much better to charge per model. Subscription puts too much pressure on designer to keep coming up with new models…this will tend to encourage easier simple models that are similar to be uploaded as easier for designer to keep up. In essence it is obvious Prusa is looking for quantity, not quality as it will encourage simple prints but discourage complex designs.
It is similar to the competitions, simple designs that are quick prints tend to win as they get downloaded more but the more complicated models never win as few download as not many people have the time to print. However it is these more complicated designs I think Printables should encourage and ones I would be happy to pay for. I think both the competitions and this subscription model discourage designers uploading models they take a long time making. These designers are currently putting their models up for sale elsewhere. However, as a suppository for awesome stuff Prusa should be doing the opposite to encourage those designers who put a lot of effort in to upload their designs.
Designers would attract customers to buy their awesome models by advertising their design skills by offering simpler models for free and letting everyone view their designs for free. Prusa could make it very clear to people browsing that a model is free or paid just on the thumbnail, doesn’t mean it is hiding behind a paywall. Everyone should be able to view all models and check them out up to the download point.
I understand right now Prusa probably are going for numbers to be number #1 but really they should focus on quality not quantity. As someone who might download an awesome model once or twice a year I don’t want to subscribe in order to download that one cool model. However, I would be happy to pay substantially for a ‘cool’ model. I also don’t want to subscribe in order to download a good idea which I myself could design in a few minutes. A simple idea that only costs a few cents to download is far preferable to a subscription if the designer feels like their idea is good enough.
As a designer I am likely to upload lots of simple stuff for free but would rather charge for epic designs that take months to make. i.e. my Sail Rocket 2 model took two months to make and uploaded for free only because it is mockup for the 1/5 scale. No way in a million years will I upload this model for free and neither will anyone subscribe to me in order to download it as there is just no way I could keep designing this level on a regular basis and people would know it. However, there are probably 20 or so people who might pay $20 to $100 or more for the model. As an example on the CNC side I happily paid $100 for Colibri design by Derrek Hugger https://www.derekhugger.com/colibri.html as I appreciate the amount of time an effort he went in to making this awesome model. There is no way could this guy keep this level of design up under subscription model.
This way, super popular but simple designs can still make money from quantity and cheap price. Similarly complex designs that cost more with lower quantity downloads still can make money. Both types of designers are rewarded.
I also design very random stuff and if someone would subscribe to me for say my windsurf related content would not be happy if I upload stuff unrelated to windsurfing and visa versa. No one would ever subscribe to me as they would never know what was coming next, however, many might think one of my designs is worth paying a few $ once off for. I would think the majority of designers (the ones Prusa should be encouraging at least) out there would be similar to me.
Anyway, just my opinion, but really hope Prusa stops this race going after numbers, far better they get there slower with awesome more complex content not once use junk.
Hello,
I disagree : this approach is in line with the open source model (if it was software I would have say Free Software – “as in freedom, not as in free beer”).
It’s good to bring tools (software, 3D models, whatever creation) to humanity.
Maybe Prusa should insist more on what is open source and why it is more important than just being free.
I do not think that the goal of this support model is to provide all the money a designer needs to live. I understand it more as a regular – even small – revenue and a way to gain visibility and trigger bigger jobs as freelancers.
You need to have the ability to make a one time donation to a creator where the user sets the amount. No rewards needed, just literally a “press this to give creator money, once” button. Look at super chats on streaming platforms, etc.
Payments for individual models are suspiciously missing, probably because of IP Concerns, but if the only method is recurring billing, people are either not going to sign up for it, or sign up and instantly cancel, or worst case charge back next month which will cost you.
here are my ideas for the names :
– “consultables” grant access to their “cabinet” to “collectors” or “curious” to support their “curiosities”
– “crafters” grant access to their “workshop” to “onlookers” to their “crafts”
other name ideas for supporters : pruscribers, backers, sponsors, subscribers
hope this helps 🙂
I totally agree with being able to charge for your own creation, it supports the designer and also helps pay to run the whole of Printables.com. I personally have no problem paying a one-time fee for a good model, I have already bought a few models in the past.
Unfortunately, I consider the subscription model to be the worst option. The subscription is intended more for professionals who need to constantly publish new and new content. Because they have to constantly try to keep as many subscribers as possible. Printables.com may very soon become a platform for the chosen ones.
I am definitely in favor of the option of paying for individual models or a one-time donation.
And the name? I can think of two:
Printablership
Prusaship
Oops, I made a typo.
“Printableship”
Not interested in a Subscription based system, should have bale to sell models/files individually.
People need to stop using paid subscriptions overall for example i was in chat with a friend and i asked how many services do you use? because he said he didn’t had much money left for hobbies… meanwhile he told me he had more than 200 euros on monthly subscriptions costs…
Well there you go.
First of all, sorry for the long post, but these topics are strongly interconnected.
Table of contents (tl;dr):
– names
– payment systems for paywall (single pay next to sponsorship) and open community (prusameters)
– Badges (for pro supporters and contest participants -> for additionally earning (a small amount) of prusameters)
– paywall world encapsulation (search for pro models only, next to free only and/or mixed searches)
– Quality checks and extra infos for models (auto-generate internal gcode for “standard” printer, i.e. MK3s+ for all models to give time and material estimates, details below) and additionally for paid models only: maybe enforce .3mf usage with print settings hint.
– simple anti-theft mechanisms for models
– Some names:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
– Pro Printers (I think printer pros was mentioned above somewhere)
– Prosa Printers (obviously hinting at Pro and Prusa and emphasizing that Prusa is a printer, not a maker 😉 )
– Print-(en)ablers (couples to the website name: printables -> print-ablers)
– About the payment system:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I totally understand that pro designers like (and kind of need) a “stable/steady” income and therefore favor a patreon-approach. But that should not be the only option (as indicated by many previous posters), pay per model should be supported too (fix price and/or itch.io approach with “name-your-price” method, of course designer decides which models he/she want to use). I never used patreon, although I wanted to support several youtubers and similar, but I refrained from the subscription concept. From your (printables) perspective having different payment concepts is of course pretty painful as well, but I think it might increase the total revenue of the platform.
And, to make it even more fun for you page-developers, I’d like to enhance the prusameter concept _for the free models only_ to some sort of in-game money!
So that would mean: the encapsulated “paywall world” sticks to real money (users can buy prusameters in your store, and then use it not only for converting to spools, but also for tipping models) and prusameters is for the open community. Since users that do not spend money on the platform but solely collect prusameters so far can show their appreciation more easily. If _additional_ and _optional_ paypall & co tipping for free models should be possible as well, is imho up to you.
In that context I’d additionally recommend to extend the options for earning free prusameters (it is understandable and clear that you do not want to “loose” too much money on users earning Prusameters instead of actually paying for spools and so on, but I think by now you should be able to see in your analyzing data, that the number of people actually having enough prusameters for even buying a single spool is really, really small).
Especially since I always think that I kind of find the same few models since your algorithm seems to push the already successful models and make the hidden gems even more hidden ;).
About Badges:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
– I’d recommend counting the exp up by month per supporting someone (meaning: count +1 for a month if only supporting one designer, but if supporting 3 -> +3 for a month. With +x I mean not the badge levels, but compareable to downloads, where i.e. 10 exp are needed to get to the next level/badge)
– additionally since by now the number of uploads of weekly and big contests for model creators is really big and therefore for contestants it’s really hard to get into the top 3-5 ranks, I’d like to see some sort of smaller “top 10%” badge and/or top 10, etc. as well. Maybe even a simple “contest contender” as well, since your contest models are curated anyways, you simply kick people from the contest which are completely off-topic (the model-spammers that hope to get easy prusameters) and therefore can tame abuse.
Paywall world encapsulation:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
– I’d really like to have de-coupled searches: so, if I want to see free models only (as you already announced, thanks for that), I only get free models, but additionally, searching for paid models only should also be possible. I do not like mixed searches at all.
Paid model quality checks:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I often upload _untested_ .gcode files with my models (I prominently state that they are only for preview purposes and give concrete print config hints separately) for a standard MK3 setting to allow the downloader to get a rough estimate of time and material consumption of the model (I have no MK3, still waiting for the XL delivery 😉 ), an example of that can be found here: https://www.printables.com/model/211586-laptopnotebook-holder. Adding this step would take some computing power on your side (maybe do not auto-trigger that right after the upload but schedule them for times when traffic is low to prevent overload on your side), but for free and especially paid models that would help a lot.
Since you already have put loads of thought into your prusa slic3r, I think some simple (and later some more complex) auto-analysing scripts, i.e complex overhangs or overhangs that have more than 90°(showing downwards) could be auto-applied for the paid models (should keep processing consumption low for you), which you could use to mark these models with detected possible issues. Maybe additionally require .3mf files for pro users that give extra info like support structures for the paid models only (for open community still supporting stl files is a must).
Simple anti-theft mechanisms:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
From (pro) creators’ point of view a some safety nets against pirate copies of the files would be nice:
– hash and partial hash check for uploaded files with paid models (checking with all models would be very processing expensive) to prevent direct copies of the files being re-uploaded).
– A (very) soft watermark system would be nice as well: If a purchased 3d design file standard (stl, 3mf, gcode, whatever) supports internal comments and/or headers, one could add some meta info that can be parsed to check for re-uploads as well. That would be much faster than hash comparisons. Of course those comments could be deleted by the user by hand (these files are human-readable after all), but 99.9% of the users would not even think about checking for such entries at all, which makes it a simple way to catch them.
if you read until here, wow, you have my sincere respect!
cheers,
makersquirrel
this is definitely something I’m interested in as a creator.
however I strongly believe that there needs to be pay per model option along side the subscriptions. plenty of people who do not want another subscription in their life and it will push them towards the illegal market if there aren’t other options to get the model they want.
I prefer to keep all my work on one platform but if the only way to monetize my work is via a subscription on printables I’d have to offer pay per model somewhere else… making it frustrating and confusing for potential buyers and myself.
definitely a step in the right direction though
additionally, what if you like multiple creators?? can’t just subscribe to them all because the monthly amount you’d have to pay would stack up and up and up
Stick with the Printables Style
Designables
and
Supportables
Hi, my ideas:
PrintClub
Printstyle
Prusamaker
Prusafiles
PrusaClub
Researchables
OriginalSTL
Might try it out for a month if creators bring over back catalogs from Patreon .. but it would be great if there was a super club option where several creators were in the same membership.
I kind of hope though that this could put more pressure on creators to be more aware of FDM printing limits with their models and provide more clarity on making their works more “printable”.
Designer/Club/Booster (as in “give ‘em a boost”)
nhượng quyền cafe
I really enjoyed this blog post, thank you for sharing it. I’ll return for more. See you soon!
I like having an option to support/donate to designers who post content here but would certainly be looking to do so on an ad-hoc basis.
I can’t stand subscription models echoing many of the same thoughts here, primarily it’s unlikely I would be able to subscribe to multiple creators at the same time.
I would much rather either be able to pay on a per model basis, or better yet the whole thing is just completely open and free and I’m able to just send a tip or donation to the creator.
To me nothing is more off-putting than seeing services that were once free introduce monetisation routes only to se all the quality free content disappear behind a paywall leaving utter dross behind as breadcrumbs, it can quickly turn what is a collaborative and kind community into one that hunkers down into competition with each other. 3D printing is deeply rooted in openness and sharing, Prusa and Printables to me have always been strong embodiments of that and it would be a shame to see anything disappear behind paywalls.
I like the donation option the most because there have been several users on Printables who have had 1 or 2 fantastically useful models, but thats all they had and yet it would be nice to be able to express my gratitude. Maybe for those who aren’t actively looking to monetise and so may only get the odd tip here or there you could offer an exchange to Prusameters, so if I’ve got $2-3 in tips but realistically aren’t going to cash them out, I could give them to Prusa in exchange for Prusament meters, something I already get for just being part of this community whilst also them chipping in with the upkeep of the site.
As to naming:
Monetising 3D printing, or making money by printing, like a Mint
introducing….Mintables
I think that it is a great idea, although I don’t know how effective it would be. It might cause a bit of stress for designers to keep up, but it doesn’t seem too bad.
As for names, I think something like “PrintaClubs” might be effective, after all, it is Printables, and they are clubs (kind of?). Other ideas are:
“PrintAssist”
“PrintSupport” (logo/icon could be like the PrusaSlicer support icons)
“PrintAid”
“DesignerFund”
“DesignAid”
“DesignAssist”
“ModelFund”
“PrintMantain”
But whatever the name, it sounds exciting, and is an awesome idea!
My name recommendation is: Designables.
Simple and goes with the Printables theme. Since printable items are free, Designable items evoke extra time and talent (and some coin) for the hard working designers.
A bit late to this but hopefully not too late.
I’m less than enthusiastic about this proposal. There are already viable alternatives for creators that like to monetize their models. If the intent is to increase the size of Printables, well, TV has a lot more models without a pay per model approach, and Printables has grown in leaps and bounds by emphasizing continuous development of a high quality UI/UX.
I make a point of regularly tipping creators and I receive a very modest income from tips, really more as tokens of appreciation. From quite a few comments here I’m surprised that many don’t seem to know that you can already tip creators. Maybe making that function more prominent might help. For example, posting a make may come with an encouragement to tip the creator
Like many others I have zero desire to see another subscription model. It’s the bane of the internet. In almost every case I subscribed to anything I never felt I was getting my money’s worth in terms of value.
Pay or model would be the least evil but I’d hate to see Printables turn into another Cults with a boatload of paid models that clutter the experience. And if you look at some statistics, the vast majority of them nobody pays for anyway.
I should say that I’m primarily a user of, and creator of, functional models. Rarely (never?) does one creator produce a stream of new functional models that I’d consider paying a subscription for. Maybe if you’re happy to print a new vase every month and someone comes up with new designs for it, alright. But then please hide them behind a paywall so I never have to see them.
I suspect the number of creators that could draw any meaningful income from this proposed mechanism is a rounding error. At the same it will make the experience for 99.9+% of users worse. Not a good tradeoff, me thinks.
After giving it more thought how about konstruktables to somewhat bring in the Czech language?
Konstruktér means Designer in Czech, and keeping the theme of Printables bringing the two together. I love it!
My idea for the name of the system: “3Dontation”
I asked the CHATGPT:
“What do you imagine with the name 3Donation in the context of 3D printing, artist and a system to pay the artists?”
And got this answer:
When envisioning the name “3Donation” in the context of 3D printing, artists, and a system to pay the artists, the following possibilities come to mind:
1. Artist Grants and Funding: “3Donation” could represent a platform or program that offers grants and funding opportunities specifically for 3D printing artists. It could serve as a means for artists to apply for financial support to pursue their creative projects, covering costs such as materials, equipment, and research.
2. Community-based Support: “3Donation” might be a community-driven platform where individuals passionate about 3D printing and art can make donations to support artists. It could provide a space for artists to showcase their work, receive recognition, and receive financial contributions from enthusiasts who appreciate their talent.
3. Collaborative Artist Network: “3Donation” could serve as a collaborative network connecting 3D printing artists with potential patrons or sponsors. The platform could facilitate partnerships and collaborations between artists and supporters, allowing artists to receive payment for their work, commission custom projects, or receive donations towards their ongoing artistic endeavors.
4. Artistic Crowdfunding: “3Donation” might function as a crowdfunding platform tailored specifically to 3D printing artists. Artists could showcase their projects or ideas and invite individuals to make donations to help bring those creations to life. Supporters could contribute funds, and in return, receive access to exclusive digital files, limited edition prints, or other perks.
5. Pay-Per-Print Revenue System: “3Donation” could represent a payment system designed for 3D printing artists. Artists could upload their digital designs to the platform, and users interested in printing those designs could make donations or payments directly to the artist. The platform would provide a streamlined process for artists to receive compensation for their work.
Overall, “3Donation” brings to mind a platform or system that encourages financial support for 3D printing artists, fosters collaboration and community involvement, and provides a means for artists to receive payment for their creations.
PRUSA EMPORIUM
I’m new to this, but my 2 cents:
-Supporter system is a great idea but only if no money is involved since almost all models will migrate to the monetized system and supporters will not be real supporters….how it sounds like, football supporters need to pay the team to be…supporters…
-It’s normal to have a monetized system. Still, it should be simple enough and intelligent, inspired by the law of demand&succes: only crossing a level of ranking (achieved by free&sincere supporters’ appreciation, number of downloads, and other forms of appreciation..etc) to enter the monetized system which can offer recurrent pay only if the user chooses so!…so the rest of the models should stay free until will become enough valuable to the system.
-As part of bringing to the surface of creators and engaging the community I highly recommend a system of monthly contests (with prizes) where the community should be involved by chatting on-line and voting similar to Mojizu Wars! 🙂 Good luck! 🙂
I think $60 a year as the base level may be too much to follow designers, but I guess time will tell.
I think “PrusaPro” is a good name for the pay site.
My suggestions for the ranks are :
Rank 1 : Minion
Rank 2 : Follower
Rank 3 : Sidekick
Rank 4 : Courtier
Rank 5 : Royal
I think a doing a combination of a subscription for those who do download a lot from one creator and also allow some models to be purchased on their own.
Name ideas:
Partreon (pun on part and patreon)
Print My Money or Make My Money
Filawers (pun on filament and followers)
Why not use existing success cases such as YouTube or Spotify subscriptions schema? Trying fortune with “Patreon copy” is a high risk. Printables can be a global leading platform only if all 3d models will be always free of charge. It’s clear that the majority of visitors will never pay with money. So they can pay with their time spent on ads (when a file is being downloaded etc.). OK, then a minority of visitors wanna save time and support the whole platform so they will pay for “premium”.
So I’d recommend following system at Printables: to establish own currency e.g. “PrintCoin” or “Pollar” (means Printing-Dollar) or “Prusanberg” (like Gutenberg). Currency can be added to your account by exchange real money (1 Euro = 1 PrintCoin) OR by adding 3d model to Printables OR by adding review with pictures on Printables etc. Currency can be consumed by ads removal OR by highlighting own models OR by specific orders to designers OR by paying for printing etc.
Proposals for naming: designer’s club – Club3d (read as ClubbED), then similar way: Support3d, Subscrib3d, Member3d
I think this is a great update! Here is the name that I think would be a great fit and why.
The name “PrintPalooza” captures the essence of a vibrant and exciting online marketplace for printables, while conveying a sense of celebration and abundance. By incorporating the term “palooza,” which often denotes a grand event or festival, the name suggests a diverse and extensive collection of printables to explore.
Ugh…subscription based makes zero sense for me. I make cosplay props that have a wide range of interest from various different series so what I make one month will be vastly different from what my next model will be. I would much rather have an economy where people can tip real world money in thanks or donate prusament to creators.
Printables+
PrintHub
I’m not a fan of the subscription model – seems like a niche set of designers would benefit from this where releases are consistent and similar enough that you would expect downloads from the same users (eg D&D models). I think most of the designs I would be happy to pay for were one-offs from a designer. This model doesn’t seem to allow for designers who release infrequently or unrelated models.
If you look at all your current featured models most of the designers have unrelated models or models are released infrequently (less than one per month) – this being your own pick of good designers and yet the model would not seem to reward them.
Great to see another company both take care of their designers and the free and availability loving community around them.
However, I’d like to see creators have the option to either have monthly supporters or have fans pay for a single design.
How about calling the service
“Support a Maker” or SaM for short.
Then the maker/creator could be called the MaS-ter
and the supporters would be their SaMs
Thats pretty big brain if you ask me
Just a few name suggestions:
PrintPals
CreateClub
ArtSupporters
PrintMakers
DesignBoost
MakerCircle
CreatorsConnect
ModelMates
ArtPatrons
PrintProtege
MakerSquad
DesignEnthusiasts
ModelMasterminds
PrintRevolution
PrintHub
ThePrinters
PrusaPrintGurus
PrintGurus
PrintJedi
PrintVerse
PrusaVerse
PrintVibes
MakerFlow
CreatorsUnited
ArtFusion
PrintProsper
DesignHive
MakerVerse
ModelRevive
CreateWave
PrintSpark
ArtSync
CraftImpact
MakerGlow
DesignThrive
PrintZenith
This is a great system for certain types of creators that crank out models every month of a similar type of thing. For example Fotis Mint, Eastman, etc. primarily make character busts so you know when you sign up that is what you’ll be getting every month.
However most of us do this part time and don’t upload consistently enough to justify a monthly subscription. Also many people design a variety of stuff from functional objects, decorative designs, electronics projects, etc. No one would sign up for a subscription for that type of creator because you wouldn’t know what you would be getting.
I think the ideal model site needs all 3 variants so that creators can choose the best option for what they make.
1) Free
2) Paid subscription
3) Individual paid models
This exactly.
This exactly.
This could become a circle mostly for creators of character bust and people who run 3D print farm and sell them. I don’t even know if it is legal to “remix” and make money from those DC or Disney or Genshin characters.
I definitely agree
Paypal is no-go. They say they will withdraw money from user accounts if they determine user has promoted “Disinformation” Paypal needs to go the way of Carthage.
I personally would be interested in paying for models that i am allowed to print for profit. I prefer percentage of sales model, as many models flop and i don’t want to pay for anything that does not sell. Maybe you could be another etsy and sell our stuff and give them the royalties directly?
As a designer whose been looking to get into selling my models, I don’t think I’m as interested in a subscription service since that feels very biased towards art models instead of practical models, I wanted to focus on arcade part spare parts or mods, which don’t feel like something someone would want to buy a subscription to access and would be more subject to someone Buying a subscription, downloading all the models they need and leaving.
That also being said I’d be lying if I wouldn’t be annoyed with search being spammed with paid for models, since typically you know what you want with a practical model and it would also encourage model reposters to spam the feed.
That is true, as a creator I find terrible the idea that someone leaves $5 and empties my catalog and then disappears.
Naming idea:
Designer: Slicer
Supporters = Slicee
Supporter tiers = Slices (Slice 1/1st Slice, Slice 2/2nd Slice, etc)
I would suggest avoiding including or theming the name around Prusa so that it is obvious it’s not and exclusive service to those with Prusa products (just like when PrusaPrinters became Printables).
A subscription model sounds a lot like cable TV, where everyone hates paying for stuff they may or may not want and instead want to pay item by item. I’m happy to pay a reasonable fee for a design I might need that takes into account the time, effort, and expertise involved … but I’m not willing to put the designer on a payroll (which is essentially what you are proposing) for the uncertain chance that they may produce something I want in the future. Lots of people doing gig work would like a guaranteed income as well, but that doesn’t mean it represents the reality of the demand model. Item by item sales might have their own difficulties from a fulfillment point of view, but that’s your problem … not that of the market you say you want to serve.
I somewhat agree, I believe it would be good to have a “subscription” to designers, but also have an option to put a single model up for a different price, especially models that take months to design, prototype, and finally get a finished product.
I think it would be really cool if people could apply to be on your design team or collaborate on designing a certain item and also to have different clubs that you can apply to be in, for example, I like building nerf blasters so I could join a club to help advertise my models and work with other people on designing and prototyping ideas.
Single creator doesn’t provide enough value for me to subscribe them. Maybe organize them into clans?
As a subscriber will I get better license for 3d files?
I would prefer the yt premium way, would happily pay monthly subscription to printables and let you split my fee on the creators I recently starred or download from.
Will I get a proper invoice for that subscription (VAT?)? And the artists will pay taxes?
Hopefully, that does not lead too many users to go for money only, resulting much more trashy printables are left to be released for free.
So keep in mind giving enough encourages for people to release even very nice/ professional-made models for free or on base of voluntary donations.
Possible ways could be
(a) restrictions on only-paid models (e. g. no prusameters, no participation on any contest, no front page placements);
(b) support for donation-based models (e. g. no or at least just less cut on generated income from Prusa’s perspective).
that’s exactly what happens now, the creators leave some models free and the rest are redirected to other platforms to monetize it, at the end of the day people should earn a living, but the patreon model would only benefit some, I propose a spotify model , people earn more the more downloads they have
Helping a creator in theory sounds fantastic, there are hundreds of great artists that I would love to help, however it is financially unfeasible to even give everyone $1 a month, it would add up to hundreds of dollars, having to choose, only the best artists would receive support and the minors would be left with nothing, if this system were a reality, I would say that the solution would be to create a *support fund* and all artists receive money depending on the number of downloads of their catalogue, better designs will be downloaded more and will have better dividends, like a Spotify but for 3D models
printables plus
prusa plus
I am in favour of people selling models or a tip facility, but think there may be an issue that has been overlooked with the members idea.
If I read the information correctly there will be member areas that only paying members can see, no-one else will be able to see the models in the members area. The flash and main Printables competitions have demonstrated how people will copy other deisgns (even copywrite material) and pass it off as their own.
Without the wider audience seeing the models in the members area this enables suchfraudulant behaviour.
Why not list the paid models alongside or even in a seperate area to the free models for everyone to see?
I wonder if Patreon would mind if you simply called it Printreon 😉
Otherwise I was thinking Maker ‘Hubs’ and the supporters being ‘Hubscribers’ with different ‘Hubscriptions tiers’
What About Perimeter? Like “John’s Perimeter”
I would also call Tiers Layers instead. “First Layer” “Layer 1” “Layer 2″…….”Top Layer”
I think thats a solid idea XD
Name: Cultivate
Shift the perception from short term/transactional subscriptions to a long-term view of growing a new 3D industry. Instead of fees or donations, it should be positioned as an investment in humanity.
Because of Youtube and social media, our whole global society has gained a skill class skill in videography. What would happen if even your mom could toss together a quick design like she does a video of grandkids? What kind of innovation is waiting in the minds of people too intimidated by design to become inventors?
It is awesome that Printables is finding a financial way to incentivize designers. Money is the prime way to honor things, and “what a culture honors, a culture cultivates.” Making designing profitable gives it validity and entices new designers.
It would be great to see an evolution to compensate for designs shared for free. Possibly set up a general fund that is paid out by monthly download activity. Allow paid customers to allocate a portion of their funds to specific designers, and the rest to the general fund.
I worry that arbitrary lines between “worth money” and “not worth money” will hinder the potential of sharing and collaborating. This is still a great step though; thanks Printables!
Derivatives: Cultivation Clubs, Cultivator, Cultur
Feature suggestion: Give the creatives the chance to make models automatically available for free after X months, years,… that way some designers could decide that the model was fully paid off after this time. Would be nice to see that. Not saying that everyone would/should that feature but it would be nice to offer this.
My idea:
1. Printing Crew
2. Printing Printers
I say the same things as everyone else. Please ad pay-per-model instead of a subscription model. Many people do this as a side project and would probably be happy just for some people wanting to pay for their models. But if one has to subscribe then that puts pressure on the Maker to keep on adding models. Not just when they feel the creative urge.
This is how you make people stop creating models and discourage the opportunity for payment.
But on to the name if you want to continue with the subscription plan. Which I heard you say on the latest live-stream.
I would like to call the supporters of a Maker “Supports”, to reference the printing supports.
And the “group” would be called “Instance”, to reference instances of a printing object in the Slicer. So you can join/subscribe to multiple “Instances”. Or “Makers Corner” could also work.
The whole payment system/function could be called “Prusa Makers” to also put your name behind the Makers. The same way as we say “Youtube Channels” and not only “Channels”.
Hello out there 😃
Well the hexagon, which is a suggestion for bee’s and efficiency, is very present at Prusa… why not using something in this context?
The name could be like:
DesignerHive / ModelerHive / MakerHive / 3DHive / CreatorHive / ArtHive / ArtistHive ….
And the supporters/subscribers could be named “Bees” and maybe there could be more levels of supporter/subscribers and so you can use different levels “BronzeBee” / “SilverBee” / “GoldenBee” / “PlatinumBee” something like that…
The creators could be named as “HiveQueen” & “HiveKing” and also have diferent rankings like gold, silver, bronze and so on 🙂
Had a creative moment so this is my idea, hope you understood what I’ve ment 😅
Cheers & HappyPrinting
My perspective is admittedly very far removed from most.
I have done heuristic design and execution for almost half a century. I have no hesitation to pay another designer or modeler a very fair price for anything I might find of value. I have downloaded several free models from pintables but have never executed one as I mainly downloaded them from interest in the specific approach to satisfy a need.
I am soon closing my business and have been entertaining the idea of taking some of my original designs commercial, but will never be as prolific as some of the younger crowd that has the impetus to draw and model all day. For them the subscription model may be quite beneficial.
For myself, I would only be interested in a pay per item or collection basis or simply give the more entertaining ones for free.
If some federal agency ( and YES, they are on here ) wants to download an accurate model of a full sized, very accurate, football stadium to simulate the many airflow possibilities from a gas based terrorist event, that model would represent weeks of my life to scan and produce and would ( and did ) cost them dearly.
On the other hand if there was interest in the 3d scans of beautiful women, Horses to fit their saddles with or military items that were modeled to simulate loading them into ships and aircraft etc. I would be happy to present them at a very low cost per model.
I just re-read my post and think I need to back off the caffeine and just go fishing.
Normally Prusa is big on open source but for the models this route seems to be closed source full commerce. For me the success and fast climb of Printables is because it offers great free models. That will go away with monetizing everything wether as subscriptions or single pay. For me the current support a designer button is as far as it should go, maybe enhanced be some other pay options.
Who would pay 5€ monthly to a single designer? Or in the other tiers up to 50€? A month! I can’t even imagine a model I would be willing to pay that much once. The thing is I’m an hobbiest and I do 3d printing for fun and as a tool for functional parts, so I won’t subscribe to creators for art stuff they produce regularly. Also a lot of this stuff is not original either but based on other people’s work.
Monetizing art, models, etc. has the same problems as closed source software, it kills creativity and enhancements through adoption and improvement. I’d rather see Prusa also spearheading open art, models, etc as they do with open source than introducing paywalls for the benefit of very few who would even be able to consistently produce new content regularly. And as others already pointed out, so subscriptions won’t work at all for creators of functional models.
As for the pricing of the subscriptions, have you looked at Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, Spotify, etc? They are much cheaper for access to all their content, not just a single artist. Patreon is available already for individual support and artists that want to go that route can already do so without spoiling Printables for everybody else. Users got annoyed at Thingiverse and that helped Printables a lot, but this only shows that people will leave as fast or even faster than they come if a service gets worse. If a lot less new models will be added because more stuff moves behind paywalls, Printables will be dropped like a hot potato.
Subscribing to an individual designer would be strange for me. The models I print are so varied (kind of feels like the point of such a versatile machine like a 3D printer).
Instead, maybe I should be able to subscribe to Printables and have a portion of my subscription go to the designer? Like Spotify or Medium.
Maybe more % is given to models of higher quality, complexity, print-ability? This would give Prusa the ability to drive quality.
I don’t mind paying Printables for a subscription that they divvy up based on my usage. The UX of the site is far beyond that of others, this takes skill, time and investment. It would just be a cost of a “low friction” 3D printing experience in my opinion.
Any flying Spaghetti Monster fans out there??
Prusafarians – devotees to the religion of Prusa.
This just killed my brand loyalty to Prusa. Not like it makes any difference, I know.
The most glaring issue is the absolutely flawed assumption that the community will suffer if designers don’t get paid. Why not launch a new paid site rather than take the work of so many people who donated their efforts to make printables so successful?
Let people pay for high res or individual models? Sure – I already do that. But I have more than enough subscription services.
It’s a very nice feature!
Here’s my name suggestions:
Printeon
Print-on
🙂
How about “Printables Supports”? You get a play on ‘print supports’ and a nod to how it’ll help out the amazing creators on the site. Name the subscription tiers after different types of supports.
system:
Last Layer
First Layer
Best Layers
supporter “pLayer”
“The first rule of First Layer is: you do not talk about First Layer…”
Sounds great to me, i would love to see my designers all in one place where i can download models instead of different site.
Naming wise how about….
Prusa….Patreon>>>>>
Prusatreon!! and people who subscribe are called preeples (Prusa and meeple)
Come on that sounds awesome!!!
How about: Prusaporter, Prusafan, Prusally…
I already see designers here driving traffic to sites where you can purchase an individual model, but users don’t want to chase all around the web looking for the thing they need before they can print it; historically, people have been willing to pay for convenience.
In addition, there are significant costs to running a site with so much data (models and images) and search functionality, so it makes sense that Prusa, as a company, would want to provide convenience and use it to generate revenue.
That said, the amount of negativity surrounding the subscription model being offered stands on its own; I have nothing substantive to add to that part of the discussion.
Same with the general preference for the the pay-as-you go idea.
Alternate schemes (say allowing designers to pay for better positioning in a search for a paid-download model) also are fraught with problems . . . And no-one likes running up against a paywall when they DO finally find what they’re looking for.
I’ll only point out that micro-transactions have been a thorny issue since the early days of the web. . . in the end, I don’t think there’s a perfect answer; but I would suggest a ‘buy PrusaTokens occasionally in bulk, spend them over time’ model (expand the existing Prusameters program?) as a least-bad compromise, in that it allows monetization while reducing the amount of transaction fees on both ends of the equation.
Plus, having something ready to spend anytime we’re logged in would seem to reduce purchase friction to the barest minimum; mashing a ‘Tip the Modeller’ button or a ‘Download for 50 PrusaMeters’ link is a LOT easier than having to log into Paypal or worse, dig out and enter card information every time.
Arbitrage between what it costs to purchase the site currency and what a designer can cash it out for then becomes Prusa’s cut. . . . while the company benefits from the ‘present value of money’ at the time of purchase, and gets to leverage that value until it’s cashed out.
Perhaps, too, there could be benefits for earning high(er) Maker badge levels (to incentivize the growth of the site and the ‘review’ aspect of Makes) e.g.: A better payout rate as a function of someone’s badge level?
Various MMORPGs have tried the reverse-conversion of in-game currency, so there is precedent (even if the mapping is not One-to-One, and the level of success varies).
—-
The above is written from the perspective of a low-badged member and engineer, who will never be prolific enough, nor have sufficient mass appeal, to warrant a subscription. But I MIGHT occasionally come up with something that solves a specific problem for a number of people, and it would be nice to have the option to be compensated for that work.
Hear me out, a lot of things on printables start with "prusa", like prusameters or prusament, so a great name for membership would be "PRUSASHIP". and a supporter could be called a "PRUSAPPORTER", another variation would be "PRUSUPPORTER", which includes all of the word "supporter", but cuts off the A in "prusa". I think this would be a great naming system as it sticks with the brand of Prusa Research, making it much harder for competitors to name their supporter system the same thing. If printables are the first site to incorporate a membership system with a unique name like the one above, they would completey steal the market in my opinion
A great system would be to buy models with PrusaMeters, and those prusameters get transferred to the designers, this would feel like it benefits the community, because more people would be tempted to post designs in order to earn prusameters to buy high quality designs with, this would make an almost infinite loop of people uploading and buying models, getting the site more and more visits! This is a true win win, because it benefits the community and Prusa. The creators should be able to set prices for their models, like "125 Prusameters", for example. The "economy" of PrusaMeters would grow so much, and would generate lots of brand loyalty for Prusa, as people wouldn't want to post on a website where they can't earn rewards like Prusament and printers.