I hope my esteemed fellow forum members will not take my post here amiss, even through
I am a recent new comer. Be that as it may, I have:
Some thanks, some questions, and some suggestions.

First, I like to thank you, Un_authorized, for taking an interest in the direction and growth of 3D art. If you can really invest these valuable resources, you will have done a supreme service to the 3D community.

Now here comes the inquistion.

Quote: "I found myself in posession of space and unlimited bandwidth on a server, thanks to a family member who happens to own a web-hosting company."

Is there a possibility that Daddy (or whoever) may yank back the space and bandwidth once this thing really gets going? Is the owner of the web-hosting company aware of just how big this could get? In my time as a COBOL mainframe programmer, I've heard of people running side businesses off 3 am mainframe idle times. They'd typically get found out and
have their datasets erased, screwing not only them, but also all their
"clients." Now I know you are talking about helping hobbists and not
businesses, but hobbist spend money too, and also their time (which is money too). 

One of the reasons the major communities are more businesses then communities is that running and supporting a website (with real support personnel)
really does cost money even while also factoring in the profit motive.
However noble your intentions are regarding having a site that is not distorted by
the profit motive, I think you will still run into the money question. Your operations will still have to support themselves somehow, so the most you will be doing is having an operation that's distorted by money in a different way than the operations that currently exist. As you have said "They have to have that focus, or they would die." Once you have the information you need, you will need to make clear how your new site will support itself.  The more likely your site is to
survive, the more likely it is that it will attract the interest you need to make it worthwhile.

"I think it would be cool to have a shopping guide, based on value, price, and based on actual unbiased experiences."

 I think that would be an excellent ideal, if you could pull it off. The problem would be the cost of gathering all that data to get it in one place. I created an earlier thread (www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php) in which I floated the idea of creating a wiki-fyed database of all the 3D objects that were available, freebie or costie. I also had the idea that this user supported database (which is what I meant by wiki) could also be a collection point for requests for non-existent objects so that independent creators could see the demand for a given kind of object and meet the demand. I was presented with the fact that www.whatever3d.com/, mystic-nights.com/directory/index.php, www.sam3d.com/, and
poserpoorhouse.pbwiki.com/ were all doing this very thing. And for all I know, they may be passing search terms with zero results on to the vendors in some fashion. (Someone made a suggestion here that Rendo's zero-result search terms be handed over to the marketing dept).

The only thing I see that you want to do different is add independent customer satisfaction reviews to the database. More power to you if you can get people interested in doing that. (And make sure you have good moderators or good liability insurance. Ditto for the forums idea. [Did you see the TamelaJ thread?])

"Tutorials rock" Well sorted-out tutorials? Video tutorials? Excellent idea. Little liability in that that I can see. The problem that you are looking at a massive database reorganization. There are a lot of tutorials out there. I thought my wiki-db idea might eventually include things like tutorials as well.  But problem is the cost of having some actual people shuffling the data around.  Even charites pay good money to massage and shuffle data around.

"I think a tiered (or differentiated) gallery would be cool:" Have you looked at the complaints about how galleries are rated? (Here, there, or anywhere?) You would inherit all those complaints. Are you ready for that? Do you have the stomach for it? 

 "News?" Now here might be the best place to start. News put out by any organization that needs to make money nearly always has an ulterior motive. I can see where  reporting that is vendor-free and cross-community might be useful and welcome. But I'm too new here to know if such news sources already exist.  And again, liability insurance. (You do not have to be in the wrong to go wrong. There are such things as "slap" suits.)

I second, third and forth the mega-FAQS idea. Should one come into existence, I recommend that the HTML link to it be in 72 point type with flashing yellow and red colors.  Once Rendo's Poser FAQS is updated, I recommend that for it as well. This might also be a good place to start.

We recently had a discussion about the fact that some vendor's items get kicked out of the market place if they don't generate a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time.  Some of these items are really good things that simply need more time to find their markets. One unique service you could provide would be to provide a home for such "long-tail" items.

Well, that sounds overall like a negative post. I don't mean it to be, or to attack you or knock your enthusiasm for assisting 3D art.  Its just that Thomas Edison had it right when he said everything is "1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." Having wonderful ideas is one thing. Getting other people to fall in with you in executing them is a whole other ball of wax.

I wish you well, and may your tribe increase!