Probably OT but don't know where else to ask. Are they down again??? This is getting real old. Can anyone else get on the site? Thanks, Marque

Attached Link: http://209.120.239.222/

I received this in an e-mail from them today: "Our server host experienced a slight hiccup (so consequently we did as well) on the back end of things. For the time being please use: http://209.120.239.222/ . . .to access the site. We should be back to normal soon."

Would be nice if they had sent me an email since I've been with them since they started. Of course since I have apparently been deleted from their database as a user and I can't get a new password I guess I won't be getting on today anyway. Are they EVER going to get this right???? Marque

Used an old password to get in. So since they had a "hiccup" I suppose we won't be getting a model this week? Sorry to vent but it's been getting later and later, I wish they would figure out a specific day and just do it. Marque

It's alright to vent. I didnt get that "email" either. And trust me I check my email all day long. It is definitely getting more than just a little annoying all this downtime they seem to experience. Dave

I asked a question there about the texture maps not matching head to body and got a rude reply that they work for a living and will get to it, still waiting a week later for an answer. I realize that people work, but it doesn't take that long to just fire off a reply that they are checking it..or we have a fix here it is..or just that's the texture you paid for live with it. Just acknowledge that you are there for the customer not in spite of them. Marque

Which texture was it?

Attached Link: http://www.poserpros.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24320

Marque, I read Sting's reply. I don't read his tone as "rude". Personally, I give the subscription sites lots of latitude. Not quite the same as buying an item directly. If one model disappoints, hopefully another will make up for it. Patience - I'll bet the problem gets resolved eventually. I agree that a whole week is a long time for SILENCE. I doubt they are rolling in money, and I like knowing it is the creator of an item who will reply, not some intermediary who may be prompt, but may or may not be capable of solving my problem, or giving me an authoritative answer. It's a trade-off. Deal directly with the one who knows, but between day jobs, real life, state-of-mind (sometimes one needs a break from computers. Maybe even a LONG break...), unpredictable delays in responding. Here are some alternate places for inexpensive purchases with your hard-earned money (I say this more for newer Poser users): PoserWorld maintains a consistent high-quality subscription site. PoserPros "Pro Club" items are quality, and $2.50 (no membership fee). DAZ "Platinum Club" items are quality, and $2.00 (but membership fee in addition). - - - - - - - - - - And pardon the self-promotion, but it is my interest in encouraging lots of inexpensive items, and making it easy for non-technically-inclined clothiers to bring new fashions to Poser, without mastering all the technical gunk, that led me to spend a year developing WardrobeValet (expected Beta in March 2004), an AUTOMATIC clothing-fitting utility, that will make thousands of free and inexpensive clothing items work well, and fit a wide range of human models. For early pictures, click on link above.

I already have a sub to poserworld, I buy from Daz, and I would buy from PoserPros again if they go credit card and not paypal, as I have canceled my paypal account. I am just tired of all the excuses from the site, it gets old. Other sites seem to get the products out and in working order. If they are not, they fix them or drop them from the list. I'm not interested in your product. I'm interested in getting the products I paid for to work. Marque

"Other sites seem to get the products out and in working order." Agreed. The burden is on the folks at PoserStyle to show that they can fix such problems. If your problem DOES eventually get solved, please post a reply on this thread -- I'd like to see how well they do, and how long it takes to get a fix. OK?

I will, I let folks know when things are good as well as not so good. I am not a jerk, contrary to what some may think. If you offer an item free, then you can offer it any way you like, and if I don't like it well..too bad. But if you sell an item or service, then make sure it's up to snuff and ready when expected, in this case once per week. If you intend to run a business, and Poserstyle is a business, then be prepared to deal with your customer's issues. You don't get to "take a break" as you have made a commitment to your customer base. If that is the case then list some rules of the site, as in, we take this long to answer questions about tech problems...our models or items will be out on this day. Then we know what to expect. All I'm asking for is courtesy and consistancy. They should take a look at the poserworld site as a template on how to keep customers happy. Marque

PoserPros does accept credit cards now. Used to be a subscriber to Poserstyle, but frankly the web issues they had put me off on renewing. It looked like they were stable for awhile.

no email here either. not surprised. at all.

Now you've done it...sigh, my credit card is overburdened but I may have to visit PoserPros again....lol Marque

i made the mistake of renewing again. tuesday. i wasn't going to do it... but i caved. ugh. and now this happens. and no annoucement.

I am no longer a member but I recieved 2 emails concerning the IP problem and a link from Whitney. I must have gotten both of your emails sorry about that haha.

I still get mail from them too :) Not this one though. I didn't renew my membership because of some of the downtime issues. I really hated to do it, but I work hard for my money too. Poser World is a dream when it comes to the amount of product they produce. Steve is like the engergizer bunny! :) Poser Style's biggest problem is their website. They keep getting "whacked" by hackers, and the "hiccups" are real regular. I think they need someone like Steve's guy to get their website and server issues straightened out :) Then maybe the others could concentrate on the models and textures.

Mine's not getting renewed, still no download for this week and I'm sure there will be some excuse. Marque

I had a problem with one of PoserStyle's products that was over a year old. I posted a forum message, and got tired of waiting for an answer after 5 months. Then my subscription lapsed. Need I say more?

I didn't renew my membership because of some of the downtime issues. I didn't renew because of downtime and many other issues, such as their lack of good customer support and their apparent lack of care with their site and their databases. I understand that some things really are beyond their control, but there is such a thing as "making backups" and answering questions in a timely manner. They're not getting any more of my money until and unless I'm very, VERY sure they've figured out how to run a subscription site with something even vaguely approaching professional care. (Which, I'm guessing, means "never".) bonni

I also have given up on Poserstyle. I was a member for a couple of years but the continual problems and severe lack of communication outweighed the products - I just could not stand the hassle! I am very happy to me a member of Poserworld and the Plat Club - both of which offer quality and excellent service. Poserstyle did offer nice things but .... Besides, if I ever do renew then I can still download all the things I have missed (kinda of a strange arangement when you think of it!).

Heck I didn't know PoserStyle was even around for a couple years. One maybe?! Poserworld is a great deal, and I plan to join again some day. I don't see the point in DAZ's Platinum club. You pay about $8 a month and get nothing for your money. You pay $1.99 for an item that is apparently broken up into many other items?! I bought 3 items during the free trial membership, yawned, and didn't renew. I downloaded DAZ studio, couldn't figure it out, and forgot about it.

I actually joined on the 8th September 2002 so I guess you are right, just over a year, Bobbie! It just seemed longer!!! The Daz Plat club can be great - with some items like the Morphing dresses and the new scenery items, you only need to but a couple a month, plus something with the voucher and you have to have saved money. I agree that it is dependent on your actually spending money - but the $1.99 items are often tip-top. And we got Steph and the Freak free, and loads of other freebies too - including the lot when you renew and various club specials. No, I am not earning commission from Daz - but perhaps I should!

PoserStyle appears to have solved their Internet problems. On the content front, they have added a formal gown (conforming) for Vicki 3, as well as a baby grand piano, with some useful poses. The gown readme says: "The Gown has a series of positioning morphs in the Hip." However, I looked at those - I didn't see morphs for either walking or sitting. (When I get a chance, I'll feed it into the current alpha of my cloth-fitting utility - I expect to be able to turn it into a 'truly' conforming dress without any problems. So I'm kind of glad for such limitations - gives us utility-makers something useful to do. :-) )

PoserStyle has had too many problems in their short "lifetime." That can only be counter-acted by an extended trouble-free period. If they went 6 months or a year with no further site problems, I might be convinced. They'd still need to work on their customer service. I got tired of waiting for a helpful response concerning one of their products. I'd only waited six months before I gave up.

Hey gang.

So that I don't miss important discussions like this one, I will set up a forum over at PoserStyle (there are a few there already) where you guys can post this stuff there. Had it not been for a helpful email from someone who saw this, some of these issues would have been missed.

I am very much aware of Marque's issues with PoserStyle, and yes the site has been plagued with technical issues over the past year. I will say publicly that there was no rude intent meant in the post (http://www.poserstyle.com/ftopicp-595.html#595) that said the artist would get to it when their day jobs permit. It was merely a factual statement, as all of us at that time were busy with our day jobs. I apologize if it sounded rude in any way.

Back to the technical issues, I thought the hack in December would be the last major glitch, but the DNS issue popped up last week and shocked everyone.

As for the emails - 1800 emails went out the very day it was down. And guess what - 1800 emails bounced back the very minute it came back up. By the time it was realized, the site was back up.

The really hard part for me (being a Poser outsider and more of a php-Nuke person) is hearing all of the comments about how bad PoserStyle appears to be. I have only been with the site since around November or so and the two artists have put out an average of one product per week since I have been there. The span between releases has often caused confusion as to why it seems to be more than a week between them, but I started a month ago posting the releases by week in a summary so all could see.

From the limited amount of Poser I have seen, the quality at PoserStyle is amazing.

As for the site itself - ANYONE who has had problems getting to the content due to techncial problems can contact me for an extention on their subscription. Its that easy. I will answer as quickly as possible, but yes, I do have a day job and on top of that several sites that I maintain. If you email me or post it on the board, I will see it eventually.

My favorite 'technical glitch' of late (and one where people become irate at me because the site 'doesn't work' for them) is not even a site issue. Microsoft Internet Explorer has had some major problems with various cookie and/or password related sites since the last IE update and people think I am ignoring them by not fixing it for them.

For the amount of money that is paid for a subscription and renewal, it could be argued that PoserStyle is not a business, as some have suggested, but rather a hobby put together by a 'starving artist' who loves what he does and wants to share it with anyone who is interested.

Keep in mind all of the above may or may not reflect the opinions of the site owner and the other artist. I just work here..

Until then, I will keep plugging away at it - and if anyone needs anything, please don't hesitate to contact me there.

Regards,
-sting

Actually I'm still waiting for the fixes on the three sets of textures that were released last year. Yes, I have issues with the site. I know, don't subscribe. Well I probably won't re-subscribe. For the most part the content is great, but I am tired of either having questions ignored or having folks tell me that it's a subcription site so I should be lenient. It may be a hobby to you, but normally you don't charge money for a hobby. I have told you about the issues I have at the poserstyle site, I am not ragging on you here and then acting like nothing is wrong at the poserstyle forum. The explorer problem is with the site, not the user. If you will read the article at the microsoft site you would know this. Once you do the update some sites don't work if they have certain password protection up, the user in most cases just needs to re-enter the password info. I guess I'm just tired of the excuses made at poserstyle. If it's a hobby then treat it as such, if it's a business then treat it as a business. Marque

Ouch. . If I am not mistaken, we are talking about two different IE issues - as most members can actually get to the data with IE. There are a handful that cannot, but nothing I change on the 'site' will fix that for them. If you could send me the URL to the one you have read and are mentioning, I would appreciate it. It's not a hobby to me, I actually don't user Poser at all, just maintain the php-Nuke portion of the site (and try to answer questions non-Poser related). There is nothing personal in my comment about being aware of your concerns, issues, etc. Did not mean to imply that you were 'ragging here' and not there, and if you have issues with the site, I never said 'don't subscribe'. In fact, Will and I have both talked about being glad that there are those who post constructively, tell us what is on their mind, and give us ideas on how to make it better. I saw your post last week on the three textures from last year, I think Will mentioned he would be getting to that soon. I will remind him just in case. Regards, -sting

"The explorer problem is with the site, not the user." I suspect that there is SOMETHING about the technique being used for PoserStyle, that is different than other web sites. I had repeated problems with my password going bad, over the past few months. Never had that happen anywhere else. Though each time, the fix was as simple as clicking on the link you provide, to have a new password e-mailed to me. So I grumbled to myself, but it was not a show-stopper. Maybe this problem was somehow caused by the technical difficulties you were having? - - - - - Marque's comment "having questions ignored". To me, this is the crux of the matter: If you folks at PoserStyle focus on making sure customers do not feel ignored, then you will gain the "breathing room" you need to show everyone your best side.

sting- "I never said 'don't subscribe'." lol. Don't think he meant YOU were suggesting that. Rather, this is basic community wisdom: if complaining seems fruitless, then vote with your pocketbook - take your money elsewhere!