Creator Updates AI Content Disclosure, Improved Buyer Protection, & Platform Fee Correction

[Mick]

Hi everyone! We've got a few updates today, all aimed at making BuiltByBit a marketplace you can buy and sell on with total confidence.

AI Content Disclosure​

We've added a new AI content disclosure to every resource. Creators now tell you whether they used AI, both in the product files and in the marketing, and it sits right there on the product page.

For creators, these are two new required fields alongside the existing ones like open source and DRM-free. Like those, you'll fill them in on new resources when you publish, and update them on your existing resources before you can make any further edits. So over the coming weeks you'll see the marketplace updated across the board.

For buyers, this is a real win for transparency. Until now there was no reliable way to know how AI played into a resource you were buying. We've also added two new filters, so you can hide resources that used AI in their marketing, files, or both. By default you'll still see everything, but avoiding AI is now only a click away.

Significantly AI-generated content and AI art in resource files remain entirely disallowed. This simply gives you visibility and control over the smaller, assisted uses beneath that line. Using AI to genuinely assist your work is completely fine and always has been.

If a disclosure ever looks wrong, just report it and our team will take a look. Misdisclosing, whether that's marking "no AI" on something that used it or hiding significant use as "minimal", will be treated like any other violation. This change is a direct response to the feedback many of you have given us about AI quality on the marketplace, and we think it's a good one for everyone doing things properly.

Improved Buyer Protection​

If a product is removed from the marketplace and the creator doesn't bring it back into compliance, you're entitled to a refund. That protection now covers purchases made within the last 90 days, up from 30, so it's 3x longer than before.

To be clear about what this means:

1. This is in addition to our existing protections. If a product doesn't function as described, you can always request a refund, even if it's been longer than 90 days.
2. Refunding is optional. If a product you bought was removed but it still does the job for you, you're free to keep using it.
3. If you do take a refund, your license is retracted with it, so you'd need to stop using the product.

We want you to feel safe and protected when buying resources through BuiltByBit, and that means protecting you well after the purchase happened. Content removals are rare, but if this ever applies to you, open a transaction dispute on the purchase and it'll be resolved with either a refund or the product being brought back into compliance.

Platform Fee Correction​

We were recently notified of a billing discrepancy on our side and we wanted to be completely upfront about it with you all. Thanks to Otte for flagging it, we'd rather hear about these things and fix them than let them sit.

The system that calculates our fees, splits and payouts is one of the most complex parts of the platform. On the 22nd of June last year we released an update that resulted in our platform fee calculating at 10% instead of the 9.9% rate we advertise. That 0.1% gap is tiny, which is exactly why it went unnoticed for so long.

To put the scale in perspective, on more than 80% of all purchases the difference was either nothing or a single cent. In total that's $2,831.26 out of $2,750,767 processed, spread across 3,503 creators, with the majority owed less than 10 cents each. So for almost everyone we're talking about a very small amount. Small or not, we charged more than we said we would, and that's on us to make right.

If you were one of the impacted creators, you'll have just received an alert on site showing exactly how much you're owed. Rather than trying to send these amounts out individually, which isn't really feasible given how small most of them are, we're crediting them back automatically: we won't take our platform fee or ad fees on your earnings until you've been fully compensated. Nothing for you to do, it happens on its own.

To ensure this doesn't happen again, we've already made sweeping improvements to our development pipeline to automate much of the release process and prevent human errors from causing similar incidents.

BuiltByBit is built on the trust we've earned with our creators, and getting your money right is a big part of that. We take it seriously even when the numbers are small, and we'll keep working to make sure this stays a platform you can rely on.

If you have any questions about any of these changes, as always feel free to open a ticket on site or ask in one of the creator channels and I'll be sure to reply.

Thanks everyone!
Mick