http://bld3r.com aims to find the best print-ready objects whether they’re hosted on our site or on others.’ So recently we’ve made a push to link to every site imaginable, including thingiverse, youmagine, cubehero, ponoko, github, instructables, grabcad, personal websites, universities, and museums like the Smithsonian and http://africanfossils.org. As geeky as it sounds, we hope to be the reddit/ stackoverflow/ hackernews of 3D printed objects. In response to “movements in the industry,” we’re dedicated to being independent so that people can find the coolest objects and so that builders can have complete control over their objects. #3dprinting #bld3r #socialnetwork
http://www.bld3r.com
So what’s your model? Or more to the point, how does this site become sustainable? It looks very promising btw.
Thanks! How do we become sustainable? In a word: users. We figure that if we make a site that a lot of people like and use, good things will happen. The model is probably closest to reddit’s: make an awesome site where people can discover, vote, and rate any object from us or any host. Our model is NOT makerbot’s: we succeed when there is tons of great stuff to print on a plurality of repositories. We think users should have the control of sharing what they want, where they want, and how they want.
Those are excellent goals. So, how do you and your team get paid? Reddit works because the have the Gold system eh?
Haha, well we don’t get paid! And there’s only two of us. The site only costs us time, which we’ve been happy to give. And, it’s kind of embarrassing, but we’re not even seriously thinking about money.
If we become like Reddit, maybe we’ll have a gold system or minimal advertising! But if there’s no money in the site but lots of users, we’d love to be like a Wikipedia or Craigslist.
We just want to make a great website that people will find useful. We didn’t build the site because of profit. It’s just after my friend bought a printer, we both saw how incredibly useful printing will be, and the idea of being able to find any object on the web as easily as doing a google search will be valuable in it self.
Bld3r something great, and good things will follow? 
Cool, well count me in, I think there is definitely a market for an unaffiliated source of printable objects. I think it’s worth establishing a mechanism for making it self sustainable, that way people can have the confidence it will persist even if you and your buddy get hit by a bus or whatever. @ThantiK , you seen this?
@Tim_Rastall I forgot their name once already, remind me to edit the community page to include their site. I’m cool with supporting them.
@Tim_Rastall and @ThantiK thank you so much for listing us on the community page! We’re both giddy and honored!