I think it's rather amusing that this thread contains lots of whining and complaining about people whining and complaining.

cruzin has an interesting idea, up to the point where he suggests Renderosity should charge for it, especially 20 bucks a month. I see a couple problems with it though.

Quote - Now imagine you're going through the galleries you find an artist you like and in the same place where it currently has add image, add artist, it has "view members private gallery"
you click that and it sends a request to that member via IM asking for permision to view their private gallery.
A warning pops up such as : Adult related images and if the member is a minor it says unable to view because minor or something similar.

Now once that member goes to his inbox he has "cruzin has requested to view your private gallery will you alllow, a drop down that says allow or do not allow is there and that member chooses to let you or not let you.

It's very easy for someone to lie about their age and Renderosity does not do any form of age check. There would be some liability associated with this that could backfire pretty heavily on someone that allows a minor access to their private gallery.

Quote - The kicker: it will cost around 20 bucks per month for that user, another option in it will be so that a member can "click a button" and choose to support this gallery, clicking this allows the person looking to give....let's say 5 bucks to keep that gallery open.  Meaning if an artist has a strong enough following, that he or she won't even have to pay the 20 bucks to keep their private gallery open.    The patron can choose to have their 5 bucks go to "keep gallery open"  "gift certificate" or "artist choice"

This would be another accounting nightmare for Renderosity. I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but it's not a simple task. In addition, it's doubtful that there are many "artists" here that people would be willing to spend 5 bucks to see their "private" gallery. I'm not so sure there would be many people that would be willing to spend $20 bucks a month  to establish a private gallery here. I'm not sure many would be willing to even spend $1.00 a month. Most could probably live with the TOS (even those that despise it) and those that want to post porn can go do it over at Renderotica. I don't really understand why anyone would want to pay to allow others to see their art anyway, the concept doesn't "grok"

By the way, many people don't know that Renderotica was the "dark side" of Renderosity at one time. Yes that's right, Renderotica was a part of Renderosity. It was the "other side of the tracks" where people could post their porn. It's connection with the site was broken a long time ago and a TOS was created to prevent those types of images from being posted here. That makes me think Renderosity wouldn't be so keen to have "private" galleries with a less restrictive TOS anyway.

The idea of people acting as "patrons" and giving 5 bucks to get into a private gallery is interesting. Now I can see why someone might be willing to pay to allow others to view their art. Why who knows, some "artists" may be able to attract enough patrons to pay for their Poser habit or even pay some bills. Nothing wrong with that, except if you want to make money with your art, try peddling your portfolio around, sell prints of your work, or become a content creator. There's lots of opportunities out there if you're good enough.

As far as a "premier" gallery goes, the whole idea sounds elitist and would be just another opportunity for Renderosity to make money and give very little value to it's members, especially the members not interested in looking in the "premier" gallery.

When I look at options this site takes to generate more revenue, I also look at what value members get from them. Personally, with the revenue the marketplace, and all the other "pay to use" options generate, not to mention revenue generated from the images we post and the free advertising via credits we give to products in the marketplace used to make those images, I really don't see members getting any more value out of this site now than they did when it was a free site. Granted, some of that revenue goes to keeping the site running and I'm thankful for that, but aside from more and more restrictions, what additonal value are we getting for the money Renderosity receives from us?

A search engine that isn't very useful, the loss of site customization, backrooms that aren't complete or maintained, Art Charts that pretty much the same popularity contest the Hot 20 was, 1 image upload a day, a more restrictive TOS, thumbnail restrictions, stricter limits on what can or cannot be said in forums...etc. Now, I'm not saying that's all bad...I'm just not seeing members really gaining any ground here.

If you love this place and are happy with things the way they are, fine and dandy, more power too you. If you want to have a "private country club" where only those who can afford it can get in, that's ok too. Me, I'll stick with browsing the free gallery, posting my images in the free gallery where anyone can enjoy them, be amused with the comments and blathering of Renderosity sycophants in the forums, and offer help and advice where I can in the forums.

It's all fun and games...
Until the flying monkeys attack!!!