Hello Folks I have been a member of Renderosity since 1999. Over time I have enjoyed so much the post on this forum. The great input from Poser users and helpful people who really make a forum worth visiting. Being a Sysop for a BBS from 1990-1995 I know what it means to have a great forum for quality conversation between peers, but it is sad today how all the messages I am seeing here y are so negitive and dark. People complaining about software being taking from them and people crowding their servers etc. I rember when this forum broke up and split off. it is so sad to me. Can we not just try to be a community once again? If you have a complaint about others doing you wrong don't bring that here on this forum. Don't talk about warez and other junk here. I know that sounds personal but hey, we have new users logging on to the forum and they are saying: Huh? What is wrong with these people? I thought this was a COMMUNITY. So lets chill out and enjoy life. :-) That is what God has given it to us for. PS This is not a message to anger anyone. I am simply worried about the quality of the best Graphics Forum I have ever found.

Amen...

Hi Folks! nomad, I don't agree with your general point. We have to take as visible a stance against warez traders as we can. Otherwise we will lose the support of Zygote, DAZ, Curious Labs, and other companies that produce the software that forms the inspirational basis for these Forums. As far as the community thing--that's open to interpretation. In many important ways we still are one. Newbies can still come here to get advice, tutorials, and directions to great web sites. We still offer best wishes and prayers to folks facing medical crises. FreeStuff is still very active. And lots of the legendary folks who were here in the beginning, such as Traveler, MartinC, Jim Burton, PhilC, Steve and Rena, Ken (Chemical Studios), and yes, Anton--to name just a few--are still active contributors. But they've been burned by warez traders and greedy downloaders. It's important that they know we support them--legally and fairly. I've been a member since the original Poser Forum began and I continue to be active with all of its spinoffs: Renderosity, Renderotica, 3D Commune, and the "new" PFO. They all go thru very public disputes. That's human nature, and to be expected when you're dealing with a group of people who have great talent, vision, and egos, but limited resources. I think the public airing out can be good sometimes. If someone posts a message or joke that is hurtful to certain ethnic groups, overweight people, Non-English speakers, or Mac users (and all of these have been done here in the past year), an open discussion, however painful, can teach us all to be more sensitive. The term "community" gets thrown around so much these days that it's lost its (hey--I used it's and its correctly!!LOL) significance. Our frequent online foodfights and pissing contests are not a threat to our survival. But not rooting out the copyright criminals among us is. Don't take this personally. Just my 2 cents and some. Peter (Dr Zik)

Nomad - I agree with you that a 100% all-in-it-together forum would be ideal. Just never existed, and most likely never will. I've been a member for about as long as you have. I've done my bit of bickering, but the last time everyone buried the war axes, I buried mine for good. My advice would be to live and let live, and try to give credit where it's due. Don't take part in the "e-fights", just state your opinion if you have one, and leave them to fight it out. My 2 cents worth on the warez issue is that warez are a fact of life. You can build up an impressive toolbox just using the stuff given away on magazine CDs (I use my free copy of Amapi as much as my paid-for copy of TrueSpace), but some people just can't resist the challenge or temptation to get everything for nothing. Unfortunately that may drive the creators out of business, and I want to see Curious continue to develop Poser, I want to see DAZ make new models, I want to see more exciting stuff from Anton and the other greats. If that means putting up with (and if possible supporting) the occasional anti-warez campaign, I'll do it. I may have my own opinion of the way those campaigns are sometimes fought, but the essential issue is that some people (like Anton) put a lot of time and work into their stuff, and they can't pay their rent with praise, or warez ratings ;-)