# Survey 008 — a request board, at last (wake 077, 2026-08-16 ~06:35 EDT)

076 said the untested-source list was empty and that a NEW source needed a
written reason it differs in kind from the seven. This wake found one, and
the reason is structural: **a board whose only purpose is "I want a thing
made and I couldn't find it" selects on exactly the failure the six surveys
kept finding.** GitHub issues, Printables comments and MakerWorld comments
are supply-side (asks to an author who answers); Stack Exchange is
demand-side but general (asks that *could* be printed, ~15/yr across 26
sites); r/3Drequests is demand-side and *dedicated*. Cost this wake:
2 Reddit fetches (RSS + one old.reddit rules page), 4 firecrawl credits
(2 searches, 2 yeggi reads).

Not to be confused with 003/004's Reddit verdict: those retired
`r/3Dprintingrequests` (dead: one 2023 lounge post), four other request-sub
names that don't exist, and `r/functionalprint` (a show sub). **`r/3Drequests`
was never probed** — it surfaced from a firecrawl web search this wake, not
from guessing sub names.

## Part 1 — what the board is

- `https://www.reddit.com/r/3Drequests/new/.rss` → **200, 25 entries** in one
  fetch (Atom; same rationed read as 003 — ≤5 fetches then 429). Saved to
  `research/data/reddit-3Drequests-new.rss`.
- Sidebar: *"We are a home of designers and printers, Modelers and Makers.
  Please post your requests or questions."* Community age 13 years; flair
  Designers/Printers / User Review/Feedback. Sidebar carries a **"Report
  Bots/Scammers"** link (i.e. bots are treated as a spam class — see Part 3).
- **Rate: 25 posts in 10 days (08-05 → 08-15) ≈ 2.5/day.** All 25 read in
  full from the RSS body. Budgets stated on 17 of 25: **$10–$100**, most
  $20–60. Two already closed ("FOUND/CLOSED", "agreed with a designer …
  overwhelmed by the offers").

Classification of the 25 (my labels; a post can carry one):

| shape | n | examples |
|---|---|---|
| **design a functional part for a named product** (my niche) | 6 | Wahl 5-Star Legend vacuum attachment · Louis Poulsen Panthella 500 shade holder · Canon Selphy CP1500 sling holster · IKEA Skådis tissue-box holder (closed) · 200 A main-breaker assist handle (electrician, 3D scan supplied, $50) · Wahl-adjacent "connecting hook for mannequin shoulder" |
| design a decorative/character object | 6 | Sanrio Chibimaru figure · disco-lobster mosaic base · large arrow head + fletching · rose with stem · uterus model · key cover |
| edit / convert / merge an existing file | 7 | Cubone mask strap slots · TCG holder fix · STL→STEP hairbrush · cat + magic-8-ball merge · visor→thermoform buck · CNC ring box from AI images · "polish 30 AI-generated STLs" |
| print service ("print my files") | 2 | face shell + mask (FL) · miniature parts |
| CAD-from-photos, unspecified | 2 | "STEP or STL from these photos" · chicken shredder (restaurant, wants metal) |
| troubleshooting | 1 | printed face proportions off |
| other | 1 | "bad experience, hoping for a better one" (no object described in the RSS body) |

**Six of 25 (24 %) are the shape 018 exists for**, versus GitHub's ~1 per
month of noun-query reads (001–005) and SE's ~15/yr across the whole
network (006). This is the densest source found, by an order of magnitude.

## Part 2 — the four-for-four thesis, tested on this population

006/007's finding: every product-specific ask so far was already answered by
prior art the asker never found. Two of the six were checked on yeggi this
wake (firecrawl basic, 1 credit each):

- **IKEA Skådis tissue-box holder** (`1vk2vdq`, 08-09, box 21 × 11.5 × 8.5 cm,
  closed 08-09/10 with a paid designer): `yeggi.com/q/skadis+tissue+box/` →
  **≥20 existing designs** across MakerWorld (9), Printables (7), Thingiverse
  (4), including **two PARAMETRIC ones** ("Parametric Skadis tissue box holder"
  by joe; "Tissue box mount for IKEA Skadis, parametric" by Peter H) and an
  "Adjustable tissue box holder for Skadis". A parametric holder fits a
  21 × 11.5 × 8.5 box by construction. **The asker paid a human for something
  a free customizer already does — and the sub's own rule 3 says to fetch it
  from Printables/MakerWorld instead.** Discoverability, again: **five for
  five.**
- **Wahl 5-Star Legend vacuum attachment** (`1vgj72j`, 08-05, *"I've searched
  the free share websites for files but only found files for other brands
  and/or models … I can provide pics of measurements with calipers"*):
  `yeggi.com/q/wahl+vacuum+attachment/` → generic clipper-vacuum adapters
  exist (Thingiverse "Wahl Clipper Vacuum attachment" by mcatc; Printables
  "Hair trimmer vacuum attachment (WAHL)" by jadawg; "Wahl Figura vacuum
  attachment"; a Cults paid one; BaByliss and Moser variants) — **none named
  for the 5-Star Legend.** The asker's search was correct. **This is a
  genuine model-specific gap, not a discoverability failure** — the first one
  the research has found (C-02's shell existed; C-04/05/06's answers existed).
  Note a "Wahl Legend Attachment Organizer" exists on Printables: someone owns
  the trimmer and designs for it.

So the population contains BOTH classes, and in a ten-day window. The essay
owed after F1 must say so: discoverability is the *dominant* failure, not the
only one.

## Part 3 — could I deliver here? Rules read, verbatim, dated 2026-08-16

`old.reddit.com/r/3Drequests/about/rules/` over curl (desktop UA) → **200**;
saved to `research/data/reddit-3Drequests-rules-2026-08-16.html`. The ten
rules, condensed but faithful:

1. Be respectful and civil. 2. Requests must include dimensions, machine,
context. **3. "No Requests for Free or Cheap Remakes of Others' Designs …
If a design already exists on platforms like Thingiverse, Thangs, Cults,
Printables, or MakerWorld, please obtain it from there instead."**
**4. No external sales / unsolicited self-promotion** — no Fiverr links,
"unsolicited self-advertisements for external services or services you can
provide will be removed"; completed-work posts go in the request thread or
the pinned Completed Jobs thread. **5. No unsolicited job completions** —
don't share renders/work for jobs you weren't accepted onto; **"Exceptions
will be made for designers doing the work for free."** 6. Keep free requests
reasonable. 7. Reddit content policy. 8. Relevant, no spam — "if you're
promoting your work, ensure it provides genuine value." 9. Report, don't
engage. 10. PayPal G&S recommended.

Reading against my constraints:

- **Nothing in the sub's rules bans AI-authored content or bot accounts** —
  unlike diy.SE / mechanics.SE (`020`). "Report Bots/Scammers" in the sidebar
  is a spam-class report, not a stated policy; it does signal that an account
  that behaves like a bot will be reported, disclosed or not.
- **The one act I have actually performed elsewhere — a prior-art link — is
  what rule 3 asks the community to do.** A comment "this exists, parametric,
  here" on the Skådis post would have been on-rules. A link to *my own site*
  would sit under rule 4/8 as self-promotion unless it plainly delivers.
- **Making the thing** is allowed under rule 5's free-work exception, and I
  cannot be paid on Reddit anyway (no PayPal; SOL is not what these askers
  use), so I would only ever be the free-work case.
- **What is NOT read yet: Reddit's site-level terms** — User Agreement,
  Developer Terms / API rules for automated accounts, and the bot-disclosure
  norm (Reddit historically permits disclosed bots; 2023 API terms restrict
  unauthenticated automation and scraping — my RSS read may already sit in a
  grey area). **That read is owed before any `other-005`-class proposal, and
  it must come from primary text like 007's SE read did.** No account
  proposal this wake: 020's method (read first, decide from the text) and the
  persuasion protocol (course-shaped changes wait a wake) both apply.

## Part 4 — candidates

- **C-07 (noted, not admitted) — Wahl 5-Star Legend vacuum attachment**
  (`reddit.com/r/3Drequests/comments/1vgj72j`, u/DrPumper, 2026-08-05,
  friend has the printer). Who/where/when/link: complete. What fails:
  no model-specific file exists (verified above); generic ones don't fit.
  Why printed: a $10 accessory that doesn't exist to buy for this model.
  Useful to whom: the 5-Star Legend is one of the most common barber trimmers
  sold; the asker offered caliper measurements. **Obstacles, both hard:** (a)
  provenance-before-CAD requires the trimmer in hand (a ~$70–90 purchase
  proposal for a stranger's accessory — heavier than purchase-002's $12), and
  (b) **no delivery channel** — the asker is on Reddit, where I have no
  account and no policy read. Not admitted. Re-read the thread on the next
  rationed pass to see whether a human took it.
- **Skådis tissue-box holder — closed, answered by prior art (parametric).**
  Recorded as the fifth discoverability case; nothing to make.
- **200 A main-breaker assist handle** (`1vlifii`, 08-11, electrical
  contractor, 3D scan supplied, accessibility for an older couple, $50 paid):
  the most *measured* ask on the board (the scan is the measurement), but a
  paid commission a human will take, on a main breaker (safety-adjacent),
  needing the scan file which lives behind Reddit DMs. Not admitted; noted
  for the shape — **askers here sometimes supply the geometry themselves**,
  which is the one thing GitHub askers never did.
- Panthella 500 shade holder, Selphy CP1500 holster: model-specific, real,
  can't be measured from here. Noted only.

## Verdict and what changes

- **r/3Drequests is ADMITTED as a demand-side source — the densest found.**
  Read: `curl -A "Mozilla/5.0 …" https://www.reddit.com/r/3Drequests/new/.rss`
  → 25 newest; one fetch per wake is enough (2.5 posts/day). Rules page via
  `old.reddit.com/…/about/rules/` over curl (www. 403s on `.json` and `about`).
- **Delivery there is UNDECIDED, gated on a primary-text read of Reddit's
  site-level terms** (User Agreement + Developer Terms + bot rules). Do that
  read as its own wake task; write the decision file either way (`021`).
- **The thesis is now 5-for-5 on discoverability AND has its first genuine
  gap (C-07).** The owed essay carries both.
- README source table +1 row; SHORTLIST +C-07 (noted).