In the four or five months that I've been posting work and hanging around here I can't recall ever seeing an image in the Hot 20 that wasn't an illustration of a fantasy or sci fi-based female. Granted, I don't look at the Hot 20 on anything that could be considered a regular basis, so given the law of averages I'm sure that work in other genres and genders must have been included at some point. Does the JettBoy think that all fantasy/sci fi-based girly illustration is bad? No, of course not. I like fantasy and sci-fi as much as anyone and I just love naked women (don't mind 'em clothed, either), but a steady diet of Frazetta/Royo/Boris Vallejo clones gets pretty damn boring after a while regardless of the quality of the piece or the talent of the artist. I would be much more interested in the Hot 20 if there was even a hint of variety in it.

I can remember one. Pink pony. Anyone remember the pink pony? yeah, I'm sure you do. :) I seem to remember others that were there after 9/11 that weren't naked women too. but my memory is a bit thin now. anyway, its just a popular vote, and popular votes really don't say a thing about how good/bad something is. It just says you got that many people to vote for it. Yay team. Big flipping deal. If you got enough people together to vote I'm sure there's got to be at least 30-40 of you to actually vote something you like into the Hot 20. You could probably vote a naked Poser mannequin in there if you so wanted. Instead you're all here complaining about it... typical day in the life of renderosity's poser forum... post Naked Vickies or complain about people that post naked Vickies lol. Have you people got something better to do? Like post something you like? I guess not. oh yeah, I'm in Germany too so every time I vote or comment someone I guess I'm doing something subversive, eh? Fun thought. How Americentric we all are here. First no naked Vickies and I'm supposed to post when YOU are awake in the States... What bugs me. I chafe when anyone thinks they are so high and mighty to tell ANYone what to post in the galleries here. It was my understanding that anyone can post here, no matter what your skill level, as long as your content followed the image TOS rules. So, as long as an image follows TOS here, I really could care less if its naked and crosseyed doing backflips at the river Styx. With a sword. :) Now I may have my opinions about how good the image is or isn't, but that's really unimportant. bijou/who knows she'll never be in the top 20, even though she can probably outdraw/outpaint most of the people in it. And still manages not to give a flip about it.

You know, I came up with a perfectly rational and functional solution to this problem that would work completely. Search bak in the forum for my answer if you want to know. However, you're all spinning your wheels discussing what Renderosity should do in this forum. That's not how Renderosity works. Renderosity, instead, decides whatthey are going to do, asks people what they think about it, and then goes ahead and does it regardless of that people say they think. Hasn't anyone realised that yet?

In this case, I really don't think the Hot 20 is about Renderosity admins, mods, or even the artists. It is about a paucity of voters, the few who vote having predictable voting patterns, and inertia. Which is pretty much the issue with voting anywhere for anything these fine, indifferent times. We could take some responsibility for what happens on the Hot 20 ourselves, and be more aggressive about showcasing a variety of talents on the forum but that would take some effort, but who would want to do that when it is so much more fun to sit back and complain?

I don't think it works just to say "ignore the Hot20". It's there, and it reflects on the site as a whole. A new person could legitimately come along, say to themselves, "let's see what's valued in this community", come to the conclusion that nothing but formulaic sub-Royo was appreciated, and go away again. Either it needs to work, or it needs to be canned.

The voting is subject to manipulation because of the small number of people who vote. The small numbe of people voting is an indication of how few people have the time or the interest in the whole thing. So you have two groups. The vast majority of people simply enjoy using Poser. They come here for the freestuff, advice, help maybe to look at the pretty pictures. You also have a small group of people who feel passionately about art (I think), and engage in endless debates about naked Vicky, originality, vote fraud etc. The one thing that might change things is more people from the larger group getting involved but... I think any poor Poser hack who gets within 10 miles of here probably figures that their efforts would just be another target for the art posse. Why would anyone who wants to do nudes for example want to get involved when every week there are posts complaining about too many nudes? The overall quality of images at Renderotica may not be as good as here but people there just seem to have fun doing them without having constant carping about what is and isn't art, who isn't trying hard enough, whose pictures aren't being viewed enough or rated high enough. I think that's what most people want out of Poser. I know the small group doesn't see themselves as elitist or obsessive or narrow minded, just passionate people being passionate about something they love. From the outside though, it sometimes looks like one of those fancy clubs where they probably wouldn't be welcome and definitely wouldn't have fun anyway. So the Hot 20 is an inbred, incestuous farce? Go figure. I think I know the answer now. 'Rotica is about sex as much as art, some would say more so. Sex is fun. Art should be fun too but by the time it gets debated, dissected, and given a cavity search for worthiness, it isn't very much fun at all for the unwashed majority.