I visited Thingiverse today by someone's referral. Big mistake.

I remember when it was a cool little hangout for makers, hobbyists, and dreamers with 3D printers. A simple, community-driven place. No bells. No whistles. Just STL files and good vibes. I even have a couple models uploaded there.

Fast forward to today and ad banners sliding in from all sides. Stuff blinking, jumping, auto-playing. I'm just too old for that kind of sensory assault. So when a modal appeared when I moved the mouse, I closed the tab. And I'm not planning to open it again. Goodbye, Thingiverse.

Now, I know some will say, "Just install an ad blocker already." But ad blocker just a duct tape that really solves nothing. The real problem is that Thingiverse sold out. Once upon a time, the occasional banner ad felt tolerable, even fair. Servers cost money. Okay, fine.

But now? It's clear. It’s not about supporting a community anymore. It’s about milking it. Every click, every scroll, every bit of attention monetized. This isn't about 3D printing anymore. It's about printing ad revenue.

And I get it that the traffic they have probably comparable to Facebook. But there are better ways to reduce it. They could introduce download credits. Disable zip downloads. But instead, they chose to turn their site into an ad landfill

I'm not here for the arms race between ads and ad-blockers. That's just two people slapping each other with increasingly larger fish. I'm here to make things. To share. To download cool stuff without dodging flashing "Hot Single STL Files In Your Area" popups.

Fortunately, there are alternatives. Like Printables.com from the printer-man himself. Or, if you want to go fully zen, just upload your models to GitLab or Codeberg. Bonus: you get actual version control and zero cookie banners asking to sell your soul to thirty tracking companies.

So yeah. I’ve left Thingiverse. For good. Because the only thing I want to print is a model. Not a page full of ads.