I rarely find myself defending the mods, but I'm certainly not as deeply offended by Jenx's comments as cobalt dream and orchid noir. A couple of reasons: The people who post in the forums are not the majority of the 2500-odd members but a select group of highly motivated users who are "serious" about Poser. We get the occasional "Dude, how do I put a sword in Judy's hand?" from the noob who can't be bothered to read the manual for his free P5 and thought he'd be making his very own "quiet time in the toilet" art five minutes after downloading.  But 90% of the people in the forums are serious artists or at least serious technicians with artistic interests.

So while the "present company excepted" aside is usually unacceptable, in a case like this, it is sort of accurate. And she's right that this is not the Prado, nor is it an professional art gallery funded by rich fat cats who think they can get richer by selling your work. But who said it was? A much better analogy is the State Fair art show, with a touch of the local artist's club. I love State Fair art shows. Not the same way I love the National Art Gallery, BMFA, DAM or the Tate, but quite a lot. I don't go to visit my favorite Renoir (Boston), Bierhorst (DAM), or Leighton (Tate), but to see what kids are up to, to look for pleasant surprises, and to possibly find an artist I can afford. Of 200 entries, a huge percentage is schlock, even if it's juried. Those I may or may not bother with. Of 10-20 State Fairs I've attended I have found things I considered buying at more than half.

I've never been a part of an Artist club, but I've done the comparable for my vocation: joined and attended Poetry and Short Story clubs. On that analogy, I don't expect to meet Matisse at a club meeting or see the next Rothko's work. I expect to meet earnest people serious about their art, most of them hobbyists, some of them brave but untrained, some of them with quirky visions they are desperate to realize. I expect we'll spend the evening critiquing each other constructively because we care about what we are doing. I expect to see things I loathe, to be loathed, and all with overall passion and civility.

R'osity has an element that belongs in neither circle and would be shunned by both. You all know who it is, and it isn't a matter of professionalism. The loud-mouthed lout whose idea of art is naked beachball tits. He draws them because he can't photograph them or, most likely, possess them. Give him a Real Doll, and he'd go away to spend long hours in the privacy of his room. If he submitted to the State Fair, he'd either be rejected by the jury or ignored by the fair-goers (except for pimple-faced boys dragged to the exhibit and blue-haired ladies who want him pilloried). If he showed up at the Art Club they would try to make him unwelcome and, if it came to that, ban him. Here, he rules the galleries. If you don't think so, take a look at the Top 20.

I don't want him banned, but I wish he would go away, and I pay absolutely no attention to him, except when provoked. R'osity's nudity rules are intended to make him welcome without appearing to welcome him. I'm surprised none of the admins have defended him with that rightwing special interest in free speech that makes them money. I don't find him particularly offensive, just uninteresting with a spice of tiresome. I'm much more disturbed by the people who design props like a "Throne of Doom" that turned up in the freebies a few years ago -- transparently a drooling, fanged vulva -- or post pictures of women being degraded and humiliated (within the generous limits of the TOS, of course, and properly aged and dressed).

Frankly, I never visit the galleries unless someone I trust recommends and links here in the forums. The dross level is just too much trouble to wade through. And by dross I don't mean lack of quality, I mean lack of seriousness in the sense I'm using the word. Seriousness can be playful, but it must be more than just frivolous. PJZ99 and LinkDink's voluptuous girls are "serious" in the sense I mean, as are the some of the sentimental Pink Pony fairies and Keane kids, and the occasional arresting, heart-grabbing, unforgettable image.

If someone said to me, "You're no da Vinci," my answer would be "Well, duh," not outrage. And that would be so even if I were a professional artist. I'm no Yeats either, or Frost, Fowles or Atwood. I wish, but I know my limits, and I have their eyes behind my shoulder when I write. I can't match, but I'd like them to approve.

And in non-defense of the admins, the fact that the galleries are glutted with bad (that is, frivolous) art is not an argument for their current jihad. The frivolousness is only incidentally nude, and the very people who are making these stupid rules are the ones who let them in, welcome them, and take their money. No, not the admins, but the shadowy PTB who con mostly decent folk into doing their dirty work. And, finally, if you sell your soul to the Devil, you do not get to plead that you are only doing your job. ANd more finally, if all you got for it was a 10cc jolt to your vanity, don't look to me for sympathy.

M