Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=33313

Yup, some peeps will take anything that is "free" whether they need it (or can use it) or not. ;=[

It many slow things down if you prominantly display that it "Requires NXX Battledroid." That's just a guess but people may think it's an add on to Poser instead of an add on to your droid. Just a thought...???

No, I think people download anything that's free, even when they know they cant use it. They might buy the item later, after all. And the way free stuff goes, when they do, the freebie might no longer be available.

Sometimes people like to test a product before they buy. If they like the freebie then maybe they'd buy the product that it goes with, isn't that the whole idea behind a freebie or demo? I always try before I buy. :)

Well, sure, but in this case, the freebie is useless unless you have already bought the product.

One thing that seems to work is to make registration required. Most webhosting packages include a free message board now, so you could post it to your message board and require registration before people could download it. Only people who really want it will bother registering.

I've bought a few things in the MP that the seller has mailed me afterwards with a link for additional "add on" freebie. Maybe you could try that?

or how about putting it in bold letters in your title of the download so people will kow it's an add-on? Like some people will put link or something like that in their topic title too, to let people know it's a site link maybe the same can work for an add-on product?? To let people know they need the software for the add-on?

Yup, some peeps will take anything that is "free" whether they need it (or can use it) or not.

Well, it's somewhat like having a hardware bin which is full of all types of screws, nails, hinges, fittings, etc......

You never know when those #10 nails might come in handy.

And it's a lot easier to store 100's or even 1000's of .zip files than it is to store a bunch of building supplies.

Besides which.....that free "looks real!" delicious fruit prop might no longer be available six months from now -- which is exactly when I'll need it. So I'm better off to grab it now while I can.

Look at the positive side -- it's possible that some of those extra downloaders might be inspired to purchase your product after viewing the add-on file.

And another thing -- some of the extra downloaders might be planning on buying your product anyway. By downloading the free add-on, they are catching it while it's still up for them.

Attached Link: http://digitaldreams.bbay.com/

Well, I may add I take the free stuff as an additional advert for store items. And it works ! Many times I followed the link to item that was really nice and I bought some of them. I think it is always a good idea to show customers (or future customers) they will get something more for the money. I already did some of the suggestions like putting the free item on the product page and I will email the old customers too.

As for your problem Holli... the thumbnail should be the text "NXX Battledroid Update" or "NXX Battledroid ServiceRealease" black on white... that should slow down the compulsive downloaders. Ugh! I have the opposite problem. I won't download or purchase stuff that doesn't indicate what figure it is for. How can I tell from a given render if something is for V2 or V3? I often can't tell. I can't figure out why people think indicating the figure isn't important! Often vendors don't indicate the figure an item is compatable with or intended for in the graphic, the text, the "requirements" or the ReadMe. I am trying to get my affairs in order for P6 and I find that the .zip file names are less than enlightening and as for trying to move stuff over runtime to runtime the texture and geometry folders are almost always named very crypticly... I have to open the characters and props in a text editor one by one to track down the files I have to move (I sure wish there was an app or script for that!~).

This thread is answering some questions I've had. In Free Stuff I see items which are Add-Ons to relatively obscure Poser products, and the Add-Ons have been downloaded thousands of times. Which would mean that if all the downloaders had paid, a lot of merchants are making a lot more money than I had imagined. "Wow! Making Poser stuff must be an easy way to get rich," I thought. But then something tells me that this may not be true.

It never occured to me that so many people would download something useless to them. I just assumed that most of the downloaders had gotten the for-pay product as warez, or from a friend who had paid.

Does anybody have a guess as to what percentage of the owners and users of the average MP product are not paying owners but are using it illegally? I presume it's greater than 0% but how much greater? Any guesses?

I also wondered if there is some kind of bot or something which automatically downloads everything in Free Stuff.

Does anybody have a guess as to what percentage of the owners and users of the average MP product are not paying owners but are using it illegally? I presume it's greater than 0% but how much greater? Any guesses?

I wouldn't have a clue. What's more, I don't believe that anyone could come up with an accurate answer to this question -- there are simply too many variables.

The simplest explanation is probably the best.

If people see something for free, then a certain percentage of people will download the free item -- no matter what it's for.

Several good ways to get around this type of behavior have already been listed.

yup..as a longtime offender (120 CD's, 18,500+ downloads, maybe 7,000 different items), I do know that many Poser items have the shelf life of an open bag of chips. Get it now, or cry later when you can't..;) As the 'rosity Freestuff folks can tell you (I can to, with the updates to my URL database), many sites are up, use up their bandwidth, get shut down, and that's all she wrote (not that yours would, I'm just saying that an appreciable fraction of sites from 6 months ago are gone).
I'd always caution anyone getting freestuff to look for those magic words 'notes and requirements'..it's kept me from having 125 CD's..;)
Another thing I see is 'item X for the Item Y', which tends to make the connection. I can categorically state, though, that unless someone's dropped a MP item into freebies, I have no MP items (can't buy without credit cards, folks..;)

I honestly do not know of anyone using pirated content. Ever. I have heard from "a friend of a friend" that pirated Poser 5 is out there (Russia? China?) but he didn't think any seroius users were using it... that it was kind of like "evaluation ware". There is some content I have bought and NEVER used and is not even on my drive after first trying it and finding it useless to my work but that I can not sell according to the strict usage interpretations in the community. That bums me out. For reasons I can not recall, Metacreations sold me my Poser 3 without any EULA, I can't remeber why. I should look at the EULA on my other Poser to see if it is permited to buy them as a gift to give someone or to use them if they are given to you as a gift ;) I have many books in my house that I can not read allowed even if I am alone all by myself in a room according to the copyright notice.

I was gonna start a thread on this one myself, just to ask a question. I've posted a whole bunch of tutorials in my freestuff and was really pleased at the downloads I was getting, one it up to 2500ish. I thought wow people really want to learn. But then I posted a tute that needed some additional files downloaded from my site, and I found that on the 1000 or so people that downlaoded that one, only 50 or so dowloaded the additional files. I'm a bit confused, I just can't understand why you'd download a tutorial and not actaully do it. Seems a bit strange to me. John

In the case of a tutorial, it might be "good intentions." I have about two dozen tutorials bookmarked, and I really do want to do them some day. And I do some of them...but I'm always bookmarking more. Shade, Vue, Poser, Anim8or, Photoshop...I can't keep up. But I keep gathering tutorials anyway. I might find time to do them all one day. At the very least, when I need to do something in particular, I know where I can find the right tutorial.

Well, I certainly don't download every freebie. And I do get frustrated by the clothes which don't clearly reveal the character they're meant for. But I've also taken items for one figure, and re-rigged them for a figure I have. With Poser 5 itself, there are the combat pants for Judy, for instance, Those can be adjusted to fit other figures. Likewise, textures can be more flexible than might be realised.

Sounds like a sensible explanation randym :) I hadnt thought of that. John

I'm agreeing with 'EnglishBob' on this one - keep the item seperate and inform customers of its availability.

I almost downloaded your Battledroid freebie even though I don't own the battle droid but I decided I didn't need the rifle. Quite a few merchants give away freebies that can be used with their sets or alone, so people can see quality of their work and draw you to buying their items, that's what your freebie seemed like. And even though your thumb says 'ADD-ON' a gun and a backpack are rather stand alone items, that anyone with 60 seconds of time can adapt to use on other figures. If you meant your freebie as 'reward' or upgrade for the folks who purchased it, and not for the general public why not just send a link to the folks who bought it rather than put it in free stuff? It would save you bandwidth and keep people from thinking that 'warezers' were downloading their files.

I can remember when I was a beginner with Poser I also have donload all what Ive found - and than I was surprised that not all has worked. I havent knowen what "add on" means.And perhaps you have the same probleme with beginners too?! Sivana

hmm..I've downloaded every Doc Geep tutorial from #1 on..just need to get around to starting them..;)

As one with ODD (Obsessive Download Disorder) I can tell you the word FREE draws me to the Download button like a moth to the flame. Like Pakled, fellow ODD'er (right?) I find it impossible to pass up. I'm up to over 11,000 items right now, which I am painfully aware of as I'm in the process of reorganizing and transfering the entire lot from CD to DVD.

However, if it's a true add-on to something I'm not interested in I don't download it. I'm not into the anime figures, so there goes Aiko, Mayadoll & Co. right out the window. Throw in Koshini and Friends while you're at it, and the Sci-Fi stuff from JHoagland, droids, whatever. That still leaves me with 11,000+ and nearly five years worth of downloads to deal with. :-/

And you betcha it HAS happened that I've went back and found the right freebie, years old, that fit right in.

Yes, the freebies vanish. I don't think there are too many more freebies in Freestuff in 2005 than there were when I joined rosity in 2000.

I downloaded your freebee but I didnt buy your battle droid.

I do have your battle droid.

but you gave it to me for doing this and this.

If you distribute freebe add-ons directly, please dont forget your beta testers and promo image makers :)

Sorry Tyger, I am still not finished with the promotion but I still have the email list of the promo artists. But I already managed to add a list of all promo images in the product description. If you do some more work with the add-on let me know. -Holli

No prob Holli. I'm just finishing up a promo series for The Overlords and I have a project following it but the due date is still a ways off. I'll try to fit an image in with the add-on. I'll let ya know.

Fugazi1968, I for one like your tutorials very much and apreciate your sharing them and doings so in Freestuff rather than only at your site. I wish more people were producing stuff like this for us... and I wish someone would host geep and he was in freestuff, I can't get a proper download of his .pdfs from ebonshire and I don't come to the forum often enough to easily catch one of his online at its completed... I search old threads but then they are for me annoingly clutterd. Anyway, geep is great with the technical, but I like your approach to creative ideas :) Anyway, I didn't download your files until third reading of the tutorial (I wanted to really get it right) and I often don't have the chance to read such stuff until several days or a week after download. But realy it is peculiar the phenominea you guys are describing... are there "download bots"?

well if an addon is something like "Gun for bla bla bla" It may well be usable with other figures.

Well, to be honest the gun may fit any other character if it is adjusted a bit. But the backpack is another thing. I never saw a woman with a metal box growing right out of the flesh.

Attached Link: http://www.geocities.com/amaa-admin/images/jw-gundamzzgirl.jpg

Message edited on: 03/16/2005 09:58

Looks pretty cute. But I better stick to my "Iron Man" comics. One day I will do a battle armor for V3/M3 right after I invent time travel. Still too much to do.

Thanks for teh feedbacm Momodot :) I'm glad people find them useful. Jus tto be clear, I don't mind people downloading things and not using them :) I just find it a bit mistifying. Oh and if the mighty geep wants to host some files on my site I would not mind talking to him about it. Take care John.