Yes, I remember the good 'ol Chicken Coop.  And I eventually came to the belated conclusion that there were much better and more productive ways for me to be spending my time.  I haven't been a regular there for a very long period, in Poserdom years.  Endlessly arguing the same points over and over again just lost its appeal.  It can devolve into to a sort of Möbius-like trap for the unwary.  Like Sisyphus and his stone. 

Since when do businesses receive dispensations any the less than individuals or communities?  The Poser software program itself derives from a business.  And yet an entire flourishing community has grown up around that business -- a community of which (by your own tacit admission) Renderosity is a very large part.

You know -- I've never understood the purist line of thought regarding 'businesses vs. communities'.  That is to say -- the line of thought which seems to accept as revealed truth that somehow the primal artistic purity of a given website is automatically and irretrievably corrupted by the activity of running a store.  Ignoring, of course, the simple fact that a website such as the one that Renderosity has grown into would be impossible without the existence of the commercial side.

Even Michelangelo had to have patrons.  He couldn't have done what he did without their support.  It's tough to paint & sculpt while starving.  Or at least it's very uncomfortable.  However -- the extreme volume of bandwidth which a website like Renderosity sustains would be absolutely impossible to maintain without some sort of financial underpinning coming from somewhere.  And it needs to be a pretty successful financial underpinning at that.  In the absence of any billionaire 3D patrons who would be willing to run a website like this as a public charity: Renderosity has its own highly successful store.  And thank goodness that they do: because without it both I and others wouldn't have this community to enjoy.

BTW - I don't feel "lied to", because I haven't been.  Nor have I been "ripped off".  I have, however, been well-supplied with tons of products, reams of freestuff -- and most of all -- a gigantic supply of information which would have all been sadly missing without Rendo's being there to supply it.  I've gotten real value for the money that I've spent here......and that isn't being ripped off............

Well, it's late here.

There is no pretense.  Just a lot of advantages free for the taking, and open to everyone.

I.......just can't seem to see the downside to a deal like that.  But I suppose that some wouldn't be happy in paradise.

Something To Do At 3:00AM