So, didn't it used to be that thumbnails were not supposed to contain nudity? And how come when you check the nudity flag, it doesn't really show up when you view the thumbnails, so what good is it and what difference does it make, especially when the nudity is already right there in your face in the thumbnail? Geez, I'm no prude when it comes to nudity, I've done my fair share of nude images ... but sometimes, maybe it's just when I have PMS or whatever, it's really irritating when I'm browsing the galleries and suddenly I'm presented with a thumbnail full of huge 3D nipples. Sorry if I sound like a hussy, or if this subject has been hashed out, guess I'm just in a pissy mood this morning. Rhi

I take the opposite view. IMO, the trouble with the gallery is, in three words, Not Enough Nipples. The more nipples the better, if you ask me--and you did. In fact, there should be a "no nipples" flag, so I don't waste my time looking at images that do not contain any nipples. There should be a "cuteness" flag, too, and a "Poser gallery clich flag, though that wouldn't leave you much to look at.

Thanks Mosca ... now my mood is not "quite" as pissy. :-)

No need to thank me, Rhi--it's what I do.

Rhiannon, Dr. Gryffnn always prescribes chocolate for PMS. Mosca, thanks a lot - now I'm stuck with a mental image of NVIATs with rows of nipples. Guys!

Why Dr. Gryffnn ... how can I ever thank you ... who woulda' thought a simple thing like chocolate could take away the impulse to choke the living sh&*&#;@@! out of everyone (or every nipple) that comes near me!!! :_))))))))))))

Wait till you hit menopause...Willy Wonka doesn't have enough chocolate in his factory to feed the beast that is released with that! Men have no idea...none.

"Men have no idea...none." And frankly, we wish you'd stop complaining and go get us a beer. (Run away! Run away!)

Actually, I'm pretty mellow right now. Given enough bread pudding soaked in bourbon, even a menopausal woman can smile benignly at the other half of the world. But because you weren't nice, I'm not sharing. Why is it okay to plaster two slabs of female flesh in thumbnails and not okay to plaster one slab of male flesh in them? That's what inquiring (and bourban soaked) minds want to know. I don't find either particularly interesting or attractive inducements to view a graphic, but someone must. But if I have another spoonful of bread pudding, I won't care.

Why would anyone ruin perfectly good bourbon by throwing a bread pudding into it? Plaster away, I say. And the more plastered I get, the more I say it.

Because I love bread pudding and I'm not fond of bourbon. Except the more bread pudding I eat, the better I feel about the bourbon part. :) I am beginning to think they marinated the raisins in it too. I think we're getting off topic in a big way. I'd better stop before I end up in the Virtual Tavern. 8-)

Boobs I personally don't mind looking at, but they really shouldn't be in the thumb if Admin is trying to protect sensitive eyes. One time I saw a thumb that was a closeup of a guy's ahem "equipment".

heyas; you're thinking of 3d commune; THEY have the rule about no nudity in thumbnails. when you check the nudity option at upload of a gallery image, it is not visibly marked or tagged in any way. however, for people who have, in their member options, chosen to block nude images, those gallery images do not appear at all. that is what the nudity tag on the gallery does, it 'hides' those images for those who choose not to see them. it is not an advertisement. now, on the forums, i believe, all messages show up to everybody, even those who have opted not to view nude gallery images. the threads need to be properly marked and people have to consciously avoid those.

Hmmmm...well, at least we know that the thumbnails aren't limited to females thrusting their whatevers at the viewer. Equal opportunity strikes again. It would be nice if people didn't have to appeal to the most prurient interests of people to get views, but I know that's living in a fantasy land. The fact is, when I go through the galleries, I skip past the ones that have those advertisements because I know that 99.9% are something I've seen before. Over time, you can learn how to weed quickly through the clones and copies, and get to people who are either really original, or those who may be less experienced but are at least trying to do something a little different with their time and talent. That may mean I miss something really wonderful among the nudes, but time is limited and so is my patience. One more plastic looking set of thrust up breasts is one too many for me. Of course considering the fact that the graphics that get the most hits are the ones that I generally skip, it shows my tastes have nothing to do with popularity. I'm okay with that.

Thanks for clarifying where the rule is, bloodsong. :)

Hey, if the image is about boobs, it's ok with me if the thumb reflects that. Have the galleries done pretty much every possible variation of the gigantic, pneumatic virtual implant-titty theme, over and over and over? Absolutely. Do I mind if we keep doing it? Absolutely not. Would I rather look at titties than kartoon kitty kats or cute little mice? Damn straight!

pilon coffee is WAY better than chocolate....for everything...it even tastes a little like chocolate. good with bourbon, too. as for nipples in the thumbs....when folks are hard up for hits, they'll try anything...even a very direct approach.

Not a problem for me. Keep staring at your parts of pretend women, and I will keep enjoying the endless variety of views representing the rest of the world. It's all a matter of perception....each to their own and all that rot. Time for me to go away and hug my dog. The more I see of men, the better I like....well, you know how that goes.

Pilon coffee? What is that? Sounds good, Poppi. Have to check that out. :) Nipples in the thumbs sounds just a little too surrealistic for me. Shudder.

I agree with your sentiments, Mosca. But, along those lines, your art appears to be regressing. Your most recent gallery image contained not only a cat, but also a very un-Mosca pair of nipples that couldn't poke an eye out on the coldest day. Bring back the Mosca nipples!

"Time for me to go away and hug my dog." Hey--while you're up, how about that beer?

"Bring back the Mosca nipples!" Now there's a battle cry. The stranger it gets here, the better I likes it.

pilon coffee....cuban expresso....man, it is worth waking up for in the morning...so what if waking up leads to going to work? seriously....if i wake up at even like 4:30 a.m...and think of pilon coffee when rolling over...ta da...i'm up. it's that good. Time for me to go away and hug my dog. well, i'm not huggin' my parrot tonight. last week he got me in BIG trouble by impersonating a dog, and, getting the mailman in a serious accident with my mailslot....no hugs for poppi-puppi tonight.

My dog hasn't bitten anyone in her entrie life....she lets me handle that task. ;) The coffee sounds good for tonight...we have a storm coming in and us Southern California wimps aren't ready for it. Not so much that there might be a whole .5 inches of rain (we need every bit we can get) but the wind has come up and we always have a lot of fallout from that (lots of eucalyptus trees mean lots of broken branches in the night). I may have to tie weights to my dogs when I let them out to do their doggie thing....if they will go out. Don't be too hard on your parrot....he was only trying to protect your property. That mailman's hand might have been an invading rat for all he knew! Now I need to go find something...maybe hot chai tea. Love something spicey and warm on a chilly night. And I don't see any volunteers in the audience. ;)

maybe hot chai tea. Love something spicey and warm on a chilly night. And I don't see any volunteers in the audience. ;) it's in the 40's, here, near miami. i totally wanted some hot spiced apple cider, all day. i lived in santa clara cali, for most of my adult life. however, my dead, ex husband coming down with a violent brain tumor caused me to flee to chicago, of all places. i hated it there...spent 4 years in that freezing hell hole. i still miss cali, but, florida is pretty sweet. thanks for asking, i'll shut up now :*)

I have nothing but warm thoughts about Chicago...my favorite actor loves that town which has caused me to want to visit it some day. I understand why you needed a drastic change of scene....sometimes we have to do radical things when situations become critical. My "chilly" night is 61 degrees at this moment. Not exactly freezing. But there must be a wind chill factor...I can hear it whistling out there. Doesn't take much for me to want to curl up around something nice and warm. Take care, Poppi.

Don't be too hard on your parrot....he was only trying to protect your property. That mailman's hand might have been an invading rat for all he knew! actually, he is a bit of an heroic bird. back in santa clara, we had someone break into our basement...the dead ex, i think..anywhooo, our dog did not alert us to the intruder...but the bird started screaming in the middle of the night...and, whoever the fluff broke in, had cut the phone lines there....did i mention i think it was the dead ex? then, in chicago, i caught the kitchen on fire when my microwave went psycho. well, let me tell you, if poppi-the-puppi had not screamed like there was no tomorrow that house would have burned to the ground. he might be annoying, but, he's been my very acceptable good friend for 15 years. kids hate him, 'cause they have a bunch of sibling rivalry. i am not sure where he'll go when i die...parrots live between 80 and 120 years...but, i guess i will just pick out the daughter i like least, and leave him to her...just kidding....my youngest, angela...a.k.a. beelzebaby, is getting him....they are of a kind.

Sounds like he has been a good pet friend to you. Not a bad kind of alarm system (no batteries to worry about). You could write a book about his adventures...sounds like you two have had more than your share. Did you ever find your parrot model (or were you the one looking for one)? I saw Lynne has one up at http://www.vistainternetproducts.com/amazon.htm ... but I don't know if it's the right kind of parrot. They come in such unbelievable variety of types and colors.

Dialyn, I hope that storm lingers down there! The San Diego area needs all the rain it can get. Besides, I've got a group set up for opening night (Wednesday) of The Two Towers here in the Bay Area and even with advance tickets we'll be in line to all sit together. That storm can come north on Thursday. Carolly

I guess your hot flashes would be better taken care of here: -4 to -10 degrees centigrade coupled with a wind chill factor that could bring this down to -15 centigrade. And that humidity that comes across the best polar cloth to chill the bones... With Christmas approaching, we could have a little more clean snow in the streets (yup, we are way off topic), but this is Montreal, and I love it (I'm not a californian) And, no, the galleries don't show much progress as originality, themes, poses, light, etc. Not too mention the blatant use of nudity... Artistry ? Where is it ? Some post are good, but not quite what it could be, IMO. (Preparing the asbestos coat...) A waste of time for the numb, if not the brain damaged... A guy about to give up visiting...tough still looking... Purplehayes

I know the addiction. I have two amazons, an african grey and a pionus. When the phone rings at my house, I get to hear "hello!" coming from every direction. Hey, maybe Anton will do a Toon parrot next, for Mosca!

Carolly...I think the Bay Area already got this storm. It pushed from north to south this time. I hope you are able to see the Two Towers betweens storm systems...I thought there were two more systems behind this one. :( As for the debate on the galleries....guess that's a no win, no win situation. I disagree that no one is posting anything good on the galleries. Like any class, there are students who are stronger artistically than others. And there are a few graduates who are doing very fine works. Just my opinion.

Precision, nuance: I did not say NO ONE is posting something interesting. When Sofandlo, Catharina Prezak (sp ?) or Freeze post, I go see as fast as I can (usually, in the bryce gallery). Most poser works seen in the galleries involve pinups in cute poses, with variyng degrees of scantily cladness (if you permit me) and stupid grin to boot, not to mention the overused cliche of NVIATWAS. Or the sci-fi, or the fae/magical/mediaeval thing. And the sudden crazes some free/cheap models generate: the mouse, the dragon, the gorilla, etc. Its a bit tired. Not that there is something wrong with that, just that the themes have been overused. I recently came over a few pieces that were interesting, mostly trying to reproduce some old classical painting, or faking "ads we'd like to see". Not to mention Doc Legume's works. And the above mentioned artists, plus mome I did not mention because of my poor memory with names (victoria out of the "Birth of Venus" frame, taking a coffee-cigarette break at the museum, now, that was good) Imagination is the key, here, and I think it is sorely lacking. My 2 cents.

If you look at the mass of published fiction in bookstores....isn't the majority of it repetative and lacking imagination? And then there are a few novels (maybe only one or two a year) that lift themselves up from the crowd and are really something special? Movies...the same way. Film after film duplicate a prior success...cloning endlessly, and then something special appears and blows the competitors out of the water. In any endeavor, you have a mass of the average, and then one or two spikes of brilliance, and in between, some above average works. This is natural. I don't know why the galleries would be any different. In fact, the galleries hold true to form for the rest of our society as far as I can see.