I am redesigning my graphics web site and have decided to add a poser gallery since I am in no danger of anyone stealing my work ;). I have a question regarding whether it is common practice to give credits in galleries that are posted on personal web sites. I do give credits when I upload my imaages here, of course, and have no problem doing it on my personal page either. I'm just not sure if it's common practice/appropriate or do most people just post the render and call that good? Thanks, Towal

I don't have a web site, but I would give credits if I did have. To me, it's good manners. Just my opinion :-) Cheers, Diolma

I'd suggest crediting any Free Stuff you used, anyway. People who suppy it don't really get any other reward. ;-)

I try to give credit with my images..never does any harm to be nice :)

I give credit for the free stuff, but not the commercial. My credit card is all the credit they get. Sorry, not being a jerk, but I don't tell everyone at the table where their food comes from unless someone else brought it. Then I believe a thank you is in order. Marque

As a merchant, I would have to agree with Marque. --Rebekah--

I give all the credits when I post here and in my own personal website.

I third with Marque. I usually just mention the creator's name, but not the products. :o)

Marque lmao

Credits don't only give thanks to the product creator, they also tell the rest of us what you used. I can't count the number of times I've seen renders and thought "that (thing) is exactly what I need for this project, I wonder where they got it" and then no credits. Off I go to try and find out where they got (thing), or if they post worked it. I always appreciate those who put up credits for this reason. Just something else to think about. Unzipped

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. You've covered most of the things that went through my mind when trying to decide which way to go. Unzipped: I agree with you and that was one of the first thoughts I had when trying to decide. I've seen things a number of times and then went to purchase/download them after seeing the credits. As I said I certainly do not mind giving credits and do at least try to have manners (though I'm sure some would disagree given the threads I've posted on here ;). I was mainly curious to see what the "norm" for the community was. One thought I had regarding only giving credits on free stuff is that I sorta wonder if that wouldn't give the illusion that I did everything else myself. Of course people in the Poser World would know that was not the case, but Joe Public might not. Does anyone have any opinion on that one way or the other? Thanks again, Towal

Joe Public probably isn't going to know how the heck you did much of it, so I wouldn't be to concerned with that. Something I'd consider is just having a separate Credits page, unrelated to any specific render/image. You could just list products and the artists who made them and refer to which renders you used them in for the ones you don't use consistently throughout your work (I figure you don't need to credit DAZ with V3 for every single image you use her in for instance, just a general acknowledgement works there), then just give a link to your credits page from your image pages. That way you don't have to burden each image with a long list of credits and still give people the credit they deserve and the rest of us a one stop place to find out where you got your goodies. I'll probably do something like that if/when I ever get to posting things on a site of my own. Unzipped

As a merchant, I'd say that crediting Freestuff definitely comes first and crediting products you buy is optional. As marque says, the merchant got your money, what more do they want? Well... not to be greedy, but here's something to consider. From time to time, I do a search in the galleries for my products and save the images. I probably only see about 5 - 10% of the images actually made with my products, since very few people bother with merchant credits. Anyway, a few months back I saw that a lot of people were pasting background pics into the images to simulate the outside scene. So I sat down and made some background props for my products. That's an example of product credits helping. If I can see how my products are being used, I'm likely to see their shortcomings and do something about it. So it helps both the merchant and the user. But I still consider a credit optional for bought items. I certainly wouldn't complain about not getting one. mac

On my own website, I don't do the credit thing unless I have some very specific reason to do so. The majority of visitors to my site have absolutely no clue what those credits mean, anyway. bonni

i wouldn't mind adding credits but my file system is so large and getting pretty disorganized that is getting hard to remember where the stuff comes from

I try to give credit when I can, especially on free stuff. I always add the name of the creator at the end of the file name when I d/l the item, but of course this is lost once the file is installed unless the creator directs the install to a folder containing their name. These folks who support our hobby with their efforts out of the goodness of their hearts deserve recognition. I don't worry as much about commercial products, they receive plenty of promotion by other means. Only when it is an exceptional product with highly unique features do I make a serious effort to credit. Not a complaint, but I do wish all who give away or sell would make their file paths leaning more toward the item name than a vanity name. [I.E., Runtime/Libraries/Character/Vic3/Hilda and not Runtime/Libraries/Character/Joan_Xkpt/Abdu_49]

I think it depends somewhat on who you expect to see your site. If you are hosting free stuff and actively trying to get other Poser users to see your gallery then credits are both polite and useful. If your gallery is aimed at potential clients (ie purchasers of your art) or firends and family (non-Poser users) then credits are probably not needed as they would mean little.

Thanks for the input everyone. I have to say I'm still pretty much undecided what to do, but I expect by the time I actually get around to getting the page up that the decision will make itself. As far as who will see my page, my "main" graphics page is for PhotoImpact basically. I have various free items for PI and I get a fair number of hits (especially considering it hasn't been updated in probably 2 years really). I do really like unzipped's idea of a credits page that is independant of any particular render and am seriously considering going that route since that would also be easy to update as I upload new images. Thanks again for the input :) Towal