This thread really saddens me, Im all behind whatever options you choose to keep your site and the other affiliated sites alive. Running two of the other big free sites, I know exactly what you guys are going through. The thing that really tee's me off is the reaction generated from user's becuase they cant access their freestuff. You should see the coloful email we get whenever the PropsGuild site goes down. Steve and Rena, I hope everything works out for the best for your sites, And for you ungrateful folk out there...and you all know who you are....Lighten up!?! And be thankful for all the generosity Steve, Rena and others have offered over the years and supplying the community with so much. Ken

I feel a little out of place since I'm not someone known here and my English is more than weak (I'm French) but I would just say thanks to Steve, Rena and all the people at Poserworld :) I try to imagine in the "real" world. Someone who don't know me tell "I've made a thing, if you want it I offer it to you but I cannot afford the post so please pay the post for me" I kwnow the gift is a really nice think I will appreciate to have, do I find it unacceptable to pay for the post, do I think it should the person who offer to pay for it ? NO, and I'm sure no one will (At least I hope so :) ) Here we have the same situation on the net why should we act differently ? So thanks a lot for this wondeful things you offer me Steve and Rena and yes even if I'm far to be rich I find it NORMAL to pay the post :) When somebody is generous we all start after a while to find it normal as if this person had to be like this and we even attack this persons if they stop giving us what they used to. Better would be to say tanks a lot for all what you did for me, can I do something for you now ? J-L

Maybe I'm blind or just too old, but I don't really see ANYONE complaining about not getting free stuff anymore. Am I missing something? I see a load of support for poserworld. If you have to charge so be it. Better to charge than not be there at all. Just do what you have to do and don't worry about it. We'll all still be here, and the ones that might complain will go away after a while. Sometimes this forum really gets me going and I have to turn off replies...think it's about that time....lol The dicision has been made folks, let this thread die already....lol Marque

If it boils down to either paying a fee or never seeing Fairywoods again... I'LL PAY!!!!

Thanks to Steve, Rena, and everyone else, at Poserworld and Fairywoods, for all you have done for the community. Those, of you, who are potshotting them for their new move to subscription, to save their sites, I don;t get you at all, things cost money, someone somewhere has to pay for what we have been getting for free, well the piper needs to be paid now. As for the download accellerators, they are bandwidth pigs,, and can and often seize a server, forcing it to be manually reset. Getright and GoZilla are just as bad as any of them and many sites, this one included (at least it used to anyway), codes the download section so they don;t work. Download sessions from accellerators leave orphaned or open sessions behind, net spyders being the worst. A server sees the open session as drawing bandwidth even though it may no longer be physically downloading, and a spyder can and will have up to 1000 open sessions at once. There is your bandwidth problem and server slowdown right there, which forces an unnaturally high bandwidth bill to the site owner at the end of the month. Thus ruining what was for free and making it a pay site, simply out of laziness or impatience.

Steve: Rough choice. We're getting to see on a macro scale what happened 6 months ago with free webspace providers like Homestead. Half the reason I stick with GeoCities for my tiny little site is because they can handle the traffic, and have put up roadblocks to mechanical harvesters. Let me ask you: if there were a software solution which deterred these d/l accelerators, would you still need to go to being a pay site?

Uhm .. Just wanted to say thanks for all the stuff through the years. Wish I could do something or say something else but don't know what to say. Never complained about speeds and never used any of the harvesters. The only time I downloaded a bunch of stuff in a day was when PoserGamers came back up with new stuff and I grabbed 5 of the figures or so. Sorry to hear that you have to go through this and all.

um... this isn't gonna work, guys. at least, in my opinion. people went nutso here, when they were talking about charging membership prices to have access to download free stuff. and the point is, if there's a fee... then it's no longer free stuff. and it's not just the visitors who are looking to get goodies. what about the contributors? i'm sure that the fees will all be non-profit for the benefit of running the site, blah blah blah. but how sure is everybody else gonna be? then accusations of skimming start flying.... and then the contributors wonder why these other people are 'making money' off their free items. as a semi-major contributor to poserworld, i'm trying to reconcile this whole deal. i mean... when i make free stuff, it's so everybody can get it -- for free. now, if they can't get it for free.... i mean, what's the point? sure, they say they will have a 'small' free area that will remain open to public access, that contributors can elect to be placed in. but what if all the contributors want to be placed there? or the poserworld free stuff catalogue will be rotated through the 'small free area.' so what do i tell people? 'well, you can get my swan free, but only on months with a j in them' or something? i support poserworld, but to be frank.... i can't see having access to my free stuff limited in this way. and because i have a paid server with 'unlimited' bandwidth now, it would be better for me to host the files at my site, and post links to them on the link-only free stuff areas. :/ yanking my content from poserworld makes me feel bad, like i'm failing to support them and make their fees worthwhile with all my nice stuff. but i'd also feel bad and frustrated if people had to pay to get my free goodies, or could only get them free once in a while. i dunno. this sucks.

I have to say just one more thing...apparently someone in here has a guilty conscience or is REALLY thin skinned and thinks that everyone is talking about them. To this person (who shall remain anonymous) if you wish to get into a mouth battle with me and berate me for the truth...THEN GET BACK IN HERE AND DO SO. My statement was ambiguous and only targeted to the responsible parties....I am not sorry you took it otherwise.

Hey, Sir... I wrote you a private email, telling you that, for my lil 2 or 3 line comment this morning....I didn't appreciate being grouped into the huge category that you were upset with. What can I say? Thin skinned? Perhaps. I'm an artish. I am a woman. I'm sensitive. (And, I also didn't get my free "perm hair".....sniff... Well, those 4 access numbers between here and Cuba just wouldn't let me d/l from the overcrowded Poserworld...sniff.) Do battle? No, I don't think so. You hurt my feelings. I would have liked an apology. Didn't get it. Oh, well. As I stated in my first post this a.m. Just another "swell" day. Pop...pop...pop.

Personally, I don't mind if the site stays free or become a pay site. I love Rena's characters and I'd like to know what will happen to the characters that have already been offered for free. Will they be moved to the members area or in the freestuff? And what's going to happen with Schlabber's poses, for example, that were offered for free. Will they be accessible through the members area as well?

Maira..at this moment we are planning all along with steve and working on it..it's not easy to decide but I guess freestuff will have to be limited to a few items of each section (characters/textures etc) each update and all the old stuff to go in rounds to those pages. The new subcribed section will only include NEW items 100% ours as well as CDs items..I'm also considering at this moment to make available just face moprhs in groups, of all my previous characters..I think lots of people would find that pretty handy and versatile..just an idea.. Another one is to offer a poll where people might vote what old stuff they'd wish to see available on the next update..no idea yet how that would work out either! To reply shortly in Bloodsong's questions above..though steve will do it much more efficiently once he gets home :o)....I know we have talked about contributors being limited to a few but with full free access to the subscribed area. That means we will have to revise most of our old zips, keep the items we will get certification of creators to use with a free subscription as compansation & proceed to revison of the rest accordingly.. It's a tough job but one that HAS to be done if we wish to see PW and FW back online soon..hey, those are our babies, we'll stay up all night working if need be, just to keep them alive! :o) I promise we fill you in more details as soon as we know them ...even hard for us to keep updated at this moment...

Again a huge thanks to everyone while there have been a few colorful emails (thanks Ken for the description :o) most have been very positive and supportive.....the way we are planning it (and nothing is 100% yet so we may see small changes)is to have 3 sites Poserworld free, Fairywoods free and a combined site, the free ones wil have about 6 models/sets on each which will rotate weekly at most (to give folks time to download) now these will be a combination of old items (not the really old :o) and new items rotated so anything you missed will pop back up......the members site will be divided into sections as the old site was but this time if i create a garment and rena a texture the whole set will be downloadable from one page and any additional textures ect. done later will have a link so you can easily match up which items go with which......basicaly we are trying to make it so you can find your way around quickly and easily.....Also its expected that the number of members will be smaller than the number of previous surfers so we will be better able to take requests for models where as before it wouldn't have really been possible and you'll be able to use the members forum or email to discuss this.....as I said this is our basic plan and not 100% but close to 99% :o)....Steve

"..at this moment we are planning all along with steve and working on it.." Rena, sounds like you are back in business. If it's true, you should let everybody know about it because I've heard a lot of ppl saying how sad they were to hear you leaving the place :-) And a suggestion: I think it's better not to blame anybody for a bandwidth abuse. You see, there's no way they could have known since there was no warning about it. If I had a fast connection and not a silly dial-up (you know how it is in Greece), most likely I would have tried to download as many characters and meshes as I could. Who could resist the temptation to grab all those beautiful things at once? Anyway, I wish you the best of luck with the new time. It was time you made some money out of your work. Maira

Maira..unfortunately it was not an easy choice..either we have to take it or quits! Steve is not as easy going when it comes to make you change your mind as he seems..ROFLOL! Hey..in case you can just give me a call at home (031-743246) after 6 p.m..I'm sure we'll enjoy the talk! :o)

oh - well - Rena - you must be totally crazy by leaving your private phone-Nr. here (lol) - and for Maira: Finally glad to hear something from you - and to answere your question: As Rena said we have to take the choice or quit ... for me (at the moment) it means the 2nd one - but don't worry ... I'll make a statement to all of this when it is worked out 100% - don't worry to much about it ... I really need some Internet-holidays (even it is only possible in my freetime - you know I'm a webdesigner and so I have to keep in touch with the internet)

I'd also like to say a huge thanks to Bloodsong and you'll never have a reason to feel bad buddy your support of Poserworld over the years has been fantastic and also the wonderful way you put up with my disorganised ways LOL I'm just sorry we couldn't carry on as we where......check your email buddy :o).........Steve

Schlabber..do you think any of the above would be willing to spend on over atlantinc long distance calls just for pranks? VL Grin

Rena , some of would to talk to you..LOL..after all it is only .77 cents a minute LOL

Gee..rates must have dropped since I WAS in US..LOL!

"To this person (who shall remain anonymous)" Thank you for helping me prove my point.

<< Schlabber..do you think any of the above would be willing to spend on over atlantinc long distance calls just for pranks? VL Grin >> Wrong thing to say, Rena... my family is in Germany, so I am used to trans-atlantic calls myself! That is not saying I'll bother you with phone calls, though... I am glad to see you back in business! Heike

I would like to commend Steve. You are such a gentleman. Your responses have been polite and positive. I admire your patience. I'm just grateful to you for all the wonderful things you've brought to us and I want you to know that I appreciate all of your hard work. You haven't lost me as a customer. Rena, I understand your frustration. You work so hard on those incredible textures and characters. You're truly one of the Stars here! I know things will work out for PoserWorld one way or another. The things at PoserWorld are well worth a price and I'm willing to pay. I just don't want to lose you. All my respect to you and everyone at PoserWorld, Melanie

I don't see it so much as paying for the characters and models anymore... I see it as helping PW to keep their site open for us all. But - is this going to stop the Go!Zilla hogs from doing it again? Or are they just going to consider using download managers their god-given right, especially since they paid to get in? In my experience, you can't change idiots!

heyas; rena, for heaven's sake, they'll call you collect!! ;D steve: thanks, i'll check my email and get back to ya.

IF they ever find my line non-busy bloodsong! I'm always on the net when at home! ROFLOL!