I have recently noticed a concerning amount of people stealing others designs, reposting them and the designs not being taken down after being reported. Just on the home page of Thingiverse right now there are at least two designs that are clearly stolen or under suspicion of being stolen (fish by sbgilbuena - Thingiverse and Mini Vader Figurine by agarfieldman - Thingiverse). There is also a specific user that I have come across (Designs - Rayti - Thingiverse) who has been gaining quite a lot of followers and likes by reposting over a hundred of others designs (if you want proof of that look at the people who he or she is following, at least many of their designs come from those creators).
Many of these designs/creators are being reported, but no action is taken.
This is extremely harmful to the Thingiverse community as it demoralizes creators and fills the platform with reposts where very little effort has been put into it. The only way that I have found to get these taken down is to directly message a Thingiverse team member with proof.
There are two potential options that I see that Thingiverse could do here.
- Spend more time and effort cracking down on this (aka probably by hiring someone at least part time to deal with this problem.
- Create a team of volunteer moderators who either when they report something have the ear of staff so staff can delete it or can hide these things until staff has a chance to look over it. They would probably have to provide some proof of copying before they have the option to hide it.