An Open Letter to the 3D Printing Community

I'm pretty sure this video is going to bomb, but I just can't keep silent anymore. I've been stewing on this for a couple weeks at this point, and I honestly just need to get it off of my chest. (There is no sponsor for this video... go support your favorite open source project!)

One of the most incredible things about the 3D printing community, without a doubt, is the collaborative, open source nature. It's mind-blowing, actually, that in our little corner of the internet, people contribute so much of their hard work and talent towards creating things that all of us can use and enjoy. I absolutely love it.

But with that said, as I've gone deeper into this community, I've come to notice what I believe to be a major issue that is holding back our beloved little community. The people at the forefront - the ones moving us forward with true innovations that the rest of the industry later adopts (i.e. klipper, mainsail, fluidd, orcaslicer, the ercf / enraged rabbit carrot feeder v2, freecad, stealthchanger, the voron tool changer, tradrack, type things) - are not being compensated for their work.

I wrote this from the heart, and know that I was just as guilty as any of us. But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized we need to change it. So, to be the change I wish to see, I made donations to Voron Design, Nadir, OrcaSlicer, Klipper, and Mainsail before requesting that you guys do the same.

I hope you'll take the time to listen to the argument I have to make, and whether or not you agree, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. I read them all, and try to respond to as many as I can.

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[flioink]

I've designed a couple of popular props and shared them freely on the biggest 3d printing file sharing sites.
My reward was that these designs ended up on Etsy with people claiming they designed them...

[DiavloPL]

Keep in mind, the only reason we can even have any fun with 3d printing is the fact that the patents Expired some time ago, and we were finally allowed to do anything in that area. If not for the patents held hostage by singular companies we could have it already evolving for the last 25 years.

[cbking]

Considering Voron is a free project the “customer service” the dev team provides on discord is insane. Even the community support is insane on discord. Better than any company can or will provide.

[CoreyStup]

My biggest complaint are the companies which openly (no pun intended) violate open source license requirements for closed products. Anycubic is known to do this (KobraOS). It companies want to build on the backs of open source products, thats completely fine as long as they conform to the license requirements.

[kylequinn]

I like the idea, now everyone should take this and also start donating to the FreeCad project so we can get a free and open source alternative to Fusion and Solidworks so we can keep creating the designs we print.

[ldomotorsjason]

Thanks shouting for open source projects! Glad LDO is doing right support to them. ❤

[Mainsail-Crew]

thank you very much for the video and for linking our donation platforms! we have already received a few donations!

[pierresmithps]

The opensource community spends a lot of time to create the opensource projects we all use - sure they can do things like creating content on a youtube channel or making merch but I am pretty sure they are spending most of their free time on fixing and updating their projects. Can the community using their projects not use their skills and time to provide these opensource people with the items to make money. So if you can make a T-shirt design for merch or you know how to setup merch websites or know who to contact for merch. Can you not then trade your time to as example the orca slicer devs so that they can make money of merch but they spend their time in improving the software. It doesn't always have to be a donation of money, surely it can be a donation of time and skill too ?

[deadlymedley]

As a designer who has only recently put out a paid STL package I've found that designing something you plan on monetizing also motivates you to elevate the design further and finish it completely with instructions, and assembly videos. With free designs I'm not willing to make an assembly video or thoroughly test them or even keep track of the files. So I don't mind or see an issue with charging for all of that extra tedious work that I would likely otherwise not do. I also thought of doing modular designs where the base model is free, but with the option of paid upgrades and add-ons sort of like a free game with in-game purchases. Designers could also start using dual licenses and outlining mod agreements where the full model is copyright protected but the components are parts friendly and individual parts public domain so that other designers could modify parts, create their own add-ons and even sell them either for full profit or have a percentage go to the original creator or have the original creator sell them for a commission or whatever

[Enjoymentboy]

I am absolutely more than happy to pay for designs I want. I also make sure to make anything I design available and I have a number on thingiverse. Regarding open vs closed source: I have become much more friendly towards proprietary hardware as long as spare parts are easy to source and at a reasonable price. Software however I have to insist on open source. I cannot abide any manufacturer telling me what I am allowed to do on a machine I paid for. If it can do it I want it to be able to do it.

[kloakovalimonada]

But that's the typical trajectory of new technologies - enthusiasts doing volunteer work for the community, and then giants arise from that. Home computers were exactly the same.

[vit.budina]

The only motivator to make free things is the gratitude of the users for that, but when it is seen as the norm, it's only a matter of time till you burn out of the lack of positive feedback. As a 3D designer, I've experienced this myself. What is weird is that up until recently, asking for money for your work was often seen as 'greedy', and the lack of support was one of the reasons I took an indefinite break. My work has racked up over 150, 000 downloads over the past 6 or 7 years, and of all the thousands of people who downloaded my designs, less than 10 sent me a PayPal donation over that period. I eventually started making paid models, but I still felt bad not publishing at least one free model for each paid one. On the contrary, what Printables did with their Make system was a great decision. It often entices people to not only give back some feedback in regards to printability but to also write a few kind words, which is always welcome.

[jneilliii]

I think it's amazing that Gina Häußge is supported by the community enough to be able to work on OctoPrint full time.

[ernststravoblofeld]

Open source was NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE A BUSINESS MODEL. Some things are not about money. It really shouldn't be that hard to understand.

[nadirD]

Jonathan yet another great video, and thanks for the shout out 🙏 like always you are giving back to the community by supporting the creators.

[HHDJD]

There are open source licenses that can limit commercial usage and they could require them to pay for whatever it is. This is one of the better ways to make money but not go close source. Another thing to do is offer pay support options which is often popular in some areas of open source but not sure how useful that would be in the 3d printer space

[thenextlayer]

Thanks for watching. I'd really love to hear your thoughts. Am I way out of line here? Or do you agree that something must be done? Let me know. I read every comment, and reply to as many as I can...

[worshaw]

As someone who has designed several items, it is very rewarding to see people download my work. I have included a Ko-fi link on my pages for donations and tips, but it seems to deter people, rather than attract. At the same time I am guilty of not donating as well.

[Chrissi]

Up until now I've always offered my models for free, but I always wirte something like "if this model provided value to you, please consider donating a dollar to my paypal" and to this day, in over 8 years, I have not gotten a single donation, even for models i spent way more time on that I would like to admit.
Thank god for prusas and bambus reward system, which at least got me some rolls of filament.

Cults 3D really did a good one in offering paid models but it never took off and got basically rejected by the community. I bought multiple models on their side to help other creators out but at the same time its not feasable to pay for every model you download.
But knowing that not a single person who downloaded my models went through and donated even a single dollar really shows that youre right. We should donate more to makers and open source projects.

[jaybz]

I'm not entirely sold on putting pressure on individuals who do not contribute (monetary or otherwise) to open source projects they find useful. It might turn away people who do not necessarily have the ability to contribute yet. They could, in turn, end up contributing to the project or its community in a big way later if you just let them do their thing without any pressure.

I sort of have been in that situation except my eventual contribution (both time and monetary) wasn't big. I could have easily decided it wasn't for me though if there was any pressure for me to make any sort of contribution at that time.