The enquiry recently about Eve 4 reminded me once again how much those of us who have been using Poser for the last 3 years or so are better off than anyone coming new to the scene now. There have been so many excellent things for Poser that have been made available for free over that period that are gone now. So many download sites closed. Every so often I get emails saying, "I so liked XXX in your picture, where can I get it?" Usually the answer is: you can't. I have it, you can't have it. Actually, the last time I was asked this question, it turned out that the item in question WAS still available at exactly the same address, but this is the exception rather than the rule. So pity the poor new Poser user. You had to be there.

You're so right, Phantast! And the problem with Websites closing down is that it sometimes is just that which kills them: Fact: Lots of sites dies coz of bandwidth cost. But exactely becourse you don't know how long a given site will be up, you usually grab anything in sight whenever you come across a new site, making it's bandwidth go skyrocket, therefore the site closes down.... you see what I mean? On a side note, MY site has just got it's own domain btw ;o) So all my stuff is now available at http://trekkiegrrrl.dk

In the Poser community we have the interesting situation that people actually pay money to be able to give stuff away for free... (i.e. pay bandwidth for hosting their free stuff) This is a kind of generosity that makes this community unique. But it also means that a lot of free stuff will disappear from time to time when generous contributors need to take certain items offline to keep costs in control. Trekkiegrrrl has a good point that the mere suspicion of a certain item disappearing in a near future makes people download it "just in case". I probably use less than half of the free stuff I download, so I'm guilty of that behaviour myself... But the good thing is that so much new items are being made that even newbies will find most of the things they need. We who have been here for a while will suffer from oveloaded HD's instead. The voids that old stuff leave by disappearing are filled pretty fast. That also means that we are saved from seeing the same old temple and sword over and over again, even if Vicky remains! ;-)

Thats so true, whats bad is when you know something existed but you didnt need it when you originally found it but now you have the perfect use for it and its gone.

Ah, Mock - that is exactly why I keep practically EVERYTHING I find out there. Which makes for enormous amounts of zips and thumbs over the last 6 years. At the present rate, about 1,5 GB of Poser stuff per month, you can imagine the space it all occupies... Then I only install the ones I need. The rest gets kept in waiting, in case. The hard part is finding things. And of course I often completely forget what I have. :] Fish

I think it would be an excellet idea if people createing models for poser would put a descriptive name and use on them...so when you go looking for something you can find it. I have a lot of stuff with arcane symbols or names...and can never figure out what it is. This gets real fun when you go into geometries...where nothing works right if it isn't there....and you can't figure that out cuz you can't find th *&^%$)) thing.

There is indeed a lot of freestuff still available, which can be all but impossible to keep track of. I'm now in the nice position of having a completely new PC to play with. Having learned from past experience, I'm only transferring what I need, and am making a point of including all the Readme files, renamed to match the prop, character or whatever, in the same folder, along with a browsable thumbnail. It takes longer to start with, but it's going to be quicker in the long run!

I can recommend to all newbies, when hit by that initial rush of downloading:

1. Rename your zip and .exe files if they don't have self-explanetory names ('so-and-so hair.zip' rather than 'BBH-2000923746-tr.zip'),

2. Always keep your readme files associated with the download (or make one if there isn't one) so you know who made it and where it came from, in case of questions and so you can give credits with your images.

3. Always re-save models back to the library that don't have Poser preview files, to replace Mister Shruggy. You might remember what it is now, but in six months' time you probably won't.

4. If you're not going to use a model right away, download any preview thumbnail image used to advertise the model and add it to the zip file, or rename it to match the zip and keep it in the same directory or on the same CD. Then you know what it looks like when you find it again three years later.

Yeah, I'm a new Poser user, well, relatively new; and its tough to find good stuff, which is why I make my own. I'd love to be able to share some of the stuff I make, too, but finding a web server to put it on is a hassle. I hate Geocities, Tripod, and all those "free" sites, especially because they don't allow direct image linking and have lots of pop-up ads, which makes things look sort of unprofessional. And, about a week ago, I finished sorting out my Poser 5 library, putting all the furniture into a "furniture" folder, etc. Of course, I went and downloaded more stuff and now I need to do it again! My one complaint about the P5 library is you can't mix-and-match. For example, I've got two "Sets and Stages" folders with scenery and backgrounds- one in figures, one in props. Would be so much easier if I could combine them both into one.

Actually you can, according to _dodger. He just wrote in another thread that you could rename cr2 props to pp2 props, and so have them all in the props folder. I haven't tried it yet but I think I will one of these days. I always forget about those props that hide in my character folder LOL

Attached Link: http://www.haxial.com/

Those of you who save freebies off onto CD's can get Haxial's CD Cataloging app. It's shareware (I think it asks for a $20 send-in) and is the easiest, fastest utility I've found....And 'no' I don't work for them! In the beginning, you just feed it all your CD's and in less than a minute, it reads each one, stores the info, and spits the disc back out. Each new one that I burn is fed to it before I put it away, and I can now find *anything* in seconds. In fact, I'm amazed at how much stuff I DL'ed and forgot about that I'm using now ;) It has the fastest search feature I've ever used, even though I've accumulated dozens and dozens of CD's full of Poser Stuff. It's MUCH faster to find a freebie on CD than it is on my computer :)

Sometimes I find it easier to download an item a second time than try and find it amongst the various CDs I have lying around - which means a second bandwidth hit for the poor provider! I wonder if the best answer wouldn't be a distributed file sharing system.

I have Poser (4) for a couple of weeks now.
At the beginning, I was a little bit frustrated because everybody seemed to be into Vicky and Michael, and there didn't seem to be much stuff for Posette and the Dork.

However, the more I get into it, the more "freebies" I find. It is an amazing community out there, and some day (when I'm better) I hope to be able to give something back. If I am to be pitied for what is out there now, I would have been overwhelmed by what must have been available in the glorious past you are speaking of.

And yes, I face the same dilemma: On the one hand, I don't want to waste unnecessary bandwith. On the other hand, there is such a lot of stuff I can use someday. And it would be such a pity if I revisit the site in some months to find the goodies aren't there anymore or the site has closed. :-(

And even now - with me being a newbie - it isn't trivial to stay in control. I have already learned what Haigan told - that it is better to have descriptive filenames to have any chance at all. Another problem (of which I have no idea how to solve it): How on earth can I keep track of all the readme files? I see myself having installed some prop some months ago and pondering who created it and shared it under which conditions of use.

How do I avoid to feel like the Shrugging man?

I got Poser 5 this past December. Since I'd been using Bryce 4 and Vue I had already downloaded a lot of Poser stuff for the .obj files that many of them contained or for the .pp2 files that can be converted pretty easily to a geometry file. I save everything,categorize it by type and back it up on cd's (of which I now have tons!). When I finally got Poser, I sort of went nuts and purchased the major DAZ products and have been on a spending spree ever since. But I'm older and can afford it financially. I feel sorry for people on a more limited budget, especially if they purchased Poser 5. Not much free stuff for the P5 characters at all!

I'm a bit late to the dicussion... but it's exactly what happened to sites dedicated to The Sims. Most sites that are still around are either pay sites or are down a lot becuase of bandwith restrictions, seems that's happening to a lot of poser sites aswell. What really is sad is that a lot of people whom's site goes down don't desirve this, becuase they make wonderfull objects. People who make the time to make stuff and then are so generous to give it to the comunity should all be given a medal :) And a hug.. maybe a big fat kiss, or a bouquet of pretty flowers or, or....

Sandoppe, tell me about it- I'm on a limited budget and have to this day resisted the urge to buy V3... but all the freestuff out there is for Vicky, it seems. Poor Judy and Don, they've either gotta wear those out-of-style clothes they shipped with, or go nekkid. And, although the faceroom is nice to play with, I wish there were a few more high-quality morphs and textures for them. (I'd love an epiphelial fold eye-morph for Don and Judy; would help me render more realistic looking asian characters.)

On the other hand EsnRedshirt, looking at it from the standpoint of "cup half full", those of you who don't run out and buy everything that's available, will probably learn more about how to really use Poser :) You'll be expert's at "tweaking" and creating your own textures and meshes. I, on the other hand, will be an "expert loader" :) Just another way to look at it! :)