First of all, thank you Tom for all your efforts and contributions to the community. And I really mean that. In the early days it was through members like you that the site was able to grow into the run-away success it is today. But I just have to respond to one or two points you made.

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Okay...I say all that to say this:

First of all... I "Chose" to offer up my services and give back to the community. I didn't complain until someone had the nerve to call me a freeloader.

I suppose humility would have been a better approach on my part, but hey....I'm human, and subject to the shortcomings that come with that.

 

* But just because someone is on staff, does not give non-staff members the right to abuse them (Sometimes Daily) After all... They are Human too.*

 

I work in customer services, I deal with angry customers sometimes every day but it’s not ME the customers are angry at, it’s the company. Similarly, it’s not the admins or the moderators who are under fire here, again it’s the company. The admins and moderators are the interface between the membership and the entity called Renderosity they are the face and the voice of the company and in my ‘professional’ opinion they do a hell of a good job

 

I'd wager that 50% the people who complain about how the site is run, couldn’t run a lemonade stand, let alone run a place this size and probably wouldn't last a week on staff running a community like this one. 40% might be able to run a lemonade stand,(Right into the Ground) the remaining 10% could probably pull it off with some measure of success.

 

Sorry, what relevance is that? Renderosity is supposed to be a professionally run business. People are invited to become members of a community run by that business and that fact, if nothing else, gives the membership a right to at least voice their opinions on how that community is run. Whether any member of that community has the ability to run any kind of profit making organisation is totally irrelevant. How many shareholders of a multi-national company are qualified to run that organisation? Not many, but every last one of them has a right to voice their opinion of how the company is run.

 

*The reason this site exists is not "Just" because of the store. There is lots of other marketing arrangements going on too.Y'no?... sometimes you have to keep those who "Sponsor" the site happy too,...and try to strike a balance between keeping sponsors happy, as well as the membership. *

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Renderosity had to come up with a way to pay for YOU to have this resource available to you. There are several other means of drawing people to the site. Not just your precious "Art". Perhaps Renderosity should feel insulted that you have the ego and nerve to assume that it is only the members "Art" services (galleries, forums, blogs, etc...) is the only thing that draws revenue to the site. I’m sure the person who busts ass everyday to get sponsorship from developers might find that comment very insulting.

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Actually, it is ALL about the store. If the store suddenly folded the rest of the site would collapse. Everything else on the site exists because of the store and exists to support the store, galleries, tutorials, freestuff and forums. All there simply to bring in customers. No store, no customers. No customers, no sponsorship or any of the other ‘marketing arrangements’. And, most importantly, no store, no profit for the site owners and so no reason to keep the site open