The Store is being decimated by a handful of developers spamming low-effort apps

"They do contribute to an overburden of apps on the server with to many apps and as you can read in these topics it interferes with the use and enjoyment of the Site of a lot of people."

Point taken. I'll start an internal discussion about this topic of spam specifically.

I recognize the problem and I personally agree with many of the assessments you've made. We use the store ourselves frequently for testing, so get to experience a lot of the same things you've all mentioned here.

My intent wasn't to imply there are no solutions we're willing to consider—in fact, I created a ticket this morning to request the addition of client-side filtering to see if it's something we'd be willing to do. It sounds like a great idea to me. I know that we've talked about other ideas internally, but I'm not familiar with everything that's been discussed. My purpose was to simply describe our current approach and explain why all of these apps are on the store in the first place.

Let me address a couple of questions raised by Usul:

• Why can't there be one central way to pay? We offer a first-party payment system that was launched last month, and I'd encourage everyone to check it out because it's a much better experience for customers. However, we still allow developers to use third-party payment systems if they prefer.
• Some watch faces have multiple versions...It seems like it should be possible to group them together..." I know this question was about the store UX, but there's another solution already available. Build configurations can be used by developers to intelligently support multiple products in one project and avoid creating multiple versions of an app. I realize this doesn't deal with developers that don't use build configs, but it's the preferred approach.
• Ability to filter based on compatibility. This happens automatically based on the device you're currently using. For example, if you have a fenix 7 paired with your phone and are browsing apps in the CIQ Store mobile app, you'll only see apps compatible with the fenix 7. However, if you're browsing the web store and aren't logged in you'll just see all available apps. At one point, we had a device selector but the list of compatible devices grew so large that it was removed. Perhaps we can look at doing something else to provide this functionality again.
• "Report a problem" needs to be dramatically improved. Agreed. There are already things in the works regarding this, but I'll refrain from making any promises at this point. FWIW, this impacts me personally, so I would also like it improved. :)

You asked for feedback on some moderation questions:

• Is someone that makes a lot of watch faces a spammer?
  • It depends. One click on a developer's page and 10 seconds is enough for any rational moderator to decide if they are a spammer or not.
  • E.g.,
    • reasonable number of apps with healthy number of downloads and reviews (users giving their vote of approval) -- not spammer.
    • many apps (> 100) with low number of downloads and no reviews -- spammer. Spammers pump out an unusually large number of low effort apps. 
  • Since Garmin wants CIQ store to be community-driven, allow us in the community to vote down an app or developer. If you give us these tools to vote down and flag apps or developers and collect the stats, I suspect you'll get a nice report every day with just a handful of developers being flagged by the community as spammers. 
• What about someone that is learning and creates some objectively poor watch faces but offers them earnestly?
  • Their new apps can be shown in a special "New" section. (E.g. see reddit.com for how new posts appear).
  • New apps should not be listed above more popular apps that have been "voted up" by users (Downloads and Ratings).
  • New apps need to earn their place in the listings through users' votes (Downloads and Ratings).
• Are watch faces that are too similar in design spam?
  • Yes. 
  • Watchfaces with the same complications but different backgrounds? Spam. See my previous post with titles like "African lily flowers", "Impala lily flower", "Fairy lily flowers", "Blooming red flowers", etc. 
  • Garmin, don't forget that you own CIQ store, you set the rules. You have to draw the line somewhere. Otherwise, what's stopping clowns from spamming even more variations like "12 hour format", "24 hour format", "white text 1", "white text 2", "red text 3", "red text 4", "blue text A", "blue text B", "white text with three data fields", "blue text with 2 data fields", ... do you see the problem?

What to do when a developer gets flagged as a spammer by the community?

• Send them an email with the Terms of Use
• use of the CIQ is a privilege, not a right. As you said, Garmin provides CIQ as a hosting service. If a developer misuses their privilege, limit or revoke their privilege. 

Brandon after a long period of multiple discussion about this topic I am glad there is finally a voice from Garmin. I actual do think that they violate the terms: 

No Spam, Malicious Software, or Other Damaging or Disruptive Activity. You may not use the Site in any manner that could overburden, damage, impair, disable, or breach the security of any Garmin server or network, or interfere with anyone else’s use and enjoyment of the Site.

They do contribute to an overburden of apps on the server with to many apps and as you can read in these topics it interferes with the use and enjoyment of the Site of a lot of people. What do you think will happen if all developers here are going to be the same prolific and push hundreds or thousands of apps in the store to build their own webs? Are you still convinced that this would not lead to server or Site problems or are you just going to scale up?

I bought in 2021 my second Garmin watch,  an Epix for 1000 euro, could not find a desired watch face, tried the old ones that are always visible and probably will be for ever and was a bit disappointed that such highend watch face lacked great watch faces. Started my first tryout project GVWatch for free and at that time it had a fear chance to be noticed. But all my other creations after that fail to be noticed because at that time the sit hit the fa.....eh.. Store. My expensive Epix feels cheap with all the spam in the Store and why would I try to create the same highend  class watch face when nobody gets to see or find it? Precise thats the reason I stopped all my development for the Store. Hope you all Garmin users enjoy the site thats in the Store and being dumped every day again and again..

In your message I only read that Garmin provides the platform but you are not going to deal with the problems and all the users that are not happy with it because the doing of these spammers. My next watch will be an Apple watch if nothing happens, but who cares about that.....

Some more questions to help you think about Connect iQ:

- Is it fit for purpose?

- Is it easy to find good content?

- Is it used a lot? 

- Is it what Garmin had hoped for? i.e. is it going well from a Garmin perspective?