Free Stuff. Some general comments first, and then some specific sites highlighted. This is a monstrously large category, thanks to the incredible and overwhelming generosity of many, many, many people in this extended community. Whether it is only a couple of items, or a new item each week, or a site with dozens and hundreds of items, it all adds to the growth. Many of the contributors now are folks who benefitted in the past, and are at the point where they can share, too. There are sites which haven't been updated as the owner has gone on to other things in his life, but which are left just in case anybody needs some of the older stuff. HappyWorldLand is one such site. Tim made dozens and dozens of skin textures for Posette. Most of us have used them gladly. Even today, with the more advanced characters, there are still times when the older models are needed to fill out crowd scenes, and having enough different faces helps! Some of the early troves no longer exist. PoserForumOnline sprang from the original userlist, where there was originally no stores at all, just people sharing. Politics has resulted in many splits, and people taking sides, voting with their feet. Some of the stuff posted there has been posted elsewhere, other stuff has simply vanished. The PFO itself is gone now. Besides politics, there has been theft. Mitch had an incredible site for undersea life... and he offered his models to us freely. Some [unmentionable] took his shark and sold it as his own, doubling the insult. When a modeler asks us not to redistribute, not to repackage, not to sell or resell, it behooves us to respect their wishes. We might gain short-term, but the entire community suffers a loss when a modeler or texture maker decides that they have had enough. We almost lost Traveler; people were taking his free morphs and using them to make characters for sale, so he closed his site, more than once. I'm impressed when someone can rise above the ripoff artists, shove the anger aside, and keep going. His Morphworld is one of the brighter beacons. Every once in a while there is a flurry over copyright. Many of the earlier files didn't have a readme. Perhaps the makers assumed that everybody would be honest, and it was such a small community that work was recognizable anyway. We can not assume that anything is abandonware. Unless a file specifically says that it may be passed on, we can't, even if the original artist is no longer here to ask. A few artists have given blanket permissions when they have lost their webhosts, and those artists are listed (I think in the Poser Backroom here). What we can do is direct an inquirer to the site where the object in question may be found. On one hand, that artist carries the burden of the bandwidth. OTOH, he knows how many people like his work and which of his pieces they like... and that is inducement to make more. The other thing we can do is say thank you. Maybe take a minute to sign a guestbook. If an artist spent a month modeling a hairpiece or texturing a suite of dresses, letting them know that we appreciate it might be all the encouragement they need to brighten their day. to be continued...