New categories on Thingiverse

[thingiro]

Categories on Thingiverse have not evolved since 2012. A few things have changed since (just a few ), and the categories are in a dire need of updating.

With Thingiverse’s renewed focus on Opensource Hardware, we will update the categories, so as to better identify and highlight some of the communities that exist in the world of opensource hardware.

This is not a final list: these categories will evolve, as these communities grow on Thingiverse or as we identify other communities. We might add categories, split categories, introduce subcategories, nest categories under other categories, etc.

Below is a list of categories open for feedback.

• Do you feel like you are represented in those communities?
• Should we name some categories differently?
• Should we split or organize categories differently?
• Do you feel like we’re missing some really obvious categories?

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Healthware | Prosthetics | Wearables | Biometrics

Farming | Aquaponics | Pets | Aquariums | Birds

Storage & Organization (subcategories: tools, household, hobby, bins, rolling bins, filament storage) | Furniture (including woodworking) | Off-grid | Lights | IKEA Hacks | Home Automation | Garden | Seasonal Décor

Keyboards & Controllers | Sound (Audio, Music) | Cameras | Clocks | Computers | Appliances | Video (TV, monitors, projectors) | Phones | Electronic Games | VR | RF (Ham Radio, etc.)

Spare Parts

Mechanical Marvels | Block Designs | Puzzles | Open Play | LARP & Cosplay (including Costumes, Weapons) | Tabletop, Gaming Terrains & Miniatures | Dioramas | RC

Lab Equipment | Space & Satellites | Rocketry | Astronomy | Weather, Climate & Environment

Drones | Flying Wings | Planes | Electric Vehicles | Automotive | Bikes

3D Printers | 3D Scanners | Robotics | CNC | Plotters | Workshop & Fabrication Tools | Knitting & Crafts

[nallath]

Well, spare parts isn’t really a category. It’s something that cuts through almost all other “categories” that are suggested here. In that sense it’s more of a classifier than a real category.

For instance, if you’re making a drone spare part, in which of the two categories would you place them?

Another example; Say we’re making a raspbery pi handheld gaming console. WHere would that live? Computers? Electronic games? Keyboards and controllers?

Or using ikea furniture to create a 3D printing enclosure. Would you leave that under Ikea hacks or under 3d printing?

So the categories seem to exist on multiple different levels and that is currently biting.

In that sense i’d argue that you’re mixing multiple different concepts together. I’d personally think about describing what something is (what a category does right now) and 0-n things that you could use the thing for (which is what a number of these categories seem to do, eg; off-grid, spare parts, etc).

I do see how you would want to create communities, but changing the categories isn’t really going to do that, unless you have it clear what other things you’re going to do with it.

[ekuruvilla]

I think a category for miniatures for wargaming/dioramas would be nice.

Also how can you use the word “IKEA”? Won’t you get copyright struck for that?

[thingiro]

Would you add Miniatures under Tabletop & Gaming Terrains?

Also, you might or might not know our sister company MyMiniFactory. It’s dedicated to Tabletop Creators, but with features that put the emphasis on paid quality models. Do you think we should link to it from the Tabletop & Gaming Terrains category on Thingiverse? If so, how?

For IKEA, as long as we don’t add any yellow to our website that would confuse people, I think we should be OK .

More seriously, I’ve seen the words IKEA Hacks used together in many places, so I assume they are OK with it, but could change if they raised the issue.

[nallath]

That’s not quite how trademarks work though. I’ve just checked and Ikea also holds the trademark on the name alone. So it’s a very grey area of trademark law tbh.

That’s also the reason that a lot of products and sites add disclaimers like “XXXX is a registered trademark of YYYY . This category is not affiliated with or endorsed by YYYY.”

We’ve had quite a few DMCA requests from other brands for the exact same thing. So no idea how IKEA would respond, but if it’s something that we add, it could get expensive fast.

[dazus]

I would like to see a category for seasonal/holidays with subcategories. “Household decor” is the best we have right now and it’s not a good fit.

[thingiro]

You would put Halloween or Xmas decorations in there for example?

[ekuruvilla]

Yes I think maybe expand it to “Tabletop & Gaming Terrains/Miniatures”,

However that catergory doesn’t allow for people who make miniatures not for gaming but for dioramas or the like.

Yes I have heard of MMF. You could link to it from there, however please don’t make it like a large part of that particular page. A line of text that says “For more models in this group check out MyMiniFactory” or something like that would be much better than a large banner or something like that.

[dazus]

Yes. Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Hanukkah, and more holidays. It’s an international forum, so the holidays should reflect that.

I would also add subcategories for Winter, Summer, Spring, and Autumn since there are many seasonal designs that are not specific to a holiday.

[nallath]

So would you want categories or just tags? (the difference being that something can have multiple tags but only a single category)

[thingiro]

@ekuruvilla

Yes I think maybe expand it to “Tabletop & Gaming Terrains/Miniatures”,

I edited the categories in the original post to “Tabletop, Gaming Terrains & Miniatures | Dioramas”. does that make sense to you?

[thingiro]

We could call the category “Seasonal Décor”?

[ekuruvilla]

Yes it does. Thank you!

[Xx-ZoLo-xX]

@thingiro Could we do a live event one day and have a voting ballot for a new design for the main page?

[thingiro]

Yes! Let me create a Thingiverse Home page design for the Homepage and let’s take it from there.

[Xx-ZoLo-xX]

@thingiro Alrigth let em know if you need anything else

[Xx-ZoLo-xX]

I got an idea already

[remi_rafael]

I definitely would like to upvote the concept of nested categories. It allows peoples who are not looking for anything very specific to stay on the roots and others to have very specific research restrictions.

[nallath]

Thingiverse currently already has nested categories.

If you search for the “top” category, you also search for everything in the nested ones

[aaem]

How about a Fishing category? Maybe a subcategory of Hobby. About 95% of what I upload is fishing lure, it would be nice to have an accurate category to put it in. I know it would make my fishing addict followers happy, all 3 of them.