I got this in email today. Apparently too many people were spamming the site with everything and anything in order to make money, so those people ruined it for everyone:

[quote]Dear ShareCG Members,

It is with much regret that we are ending our revenue sharing system. The payouts you will receive for December will be the last that ShareCG gives out.

We are ending the revenue sharing system for a few reasons. First, it encouraged a lot of mediocre, copyright, and spam material to be posted to our site. We want ShareCG to be a community that represents high quality content, and revenue sharing brought out the worst, not the best, in our community. Second, it became uneconomical. We would pay thousands of dollars to our users, but most individual users would not make that much.

We are still exploring alternate ways to deal with these problems and begin revenue sharing again. We are still committed to that ideal. For the time being, however, we are disabling revenue sharing until we come up with a better system.

We are now concentrating on making the website more useful for our users in other ways. We will integrate a jobs section, where you can use the talent you have shown on the site to find work. We will also introduce a flash enabled and embeddable portfolio, which will allow you to show off the work you have posted to ShareCG to employers and peers. Finally, we will be restructuring the layout of the site to make it easier for you to share feedback with your expert peers, and help you become a better artist.

I think that we have a great site with a lot of excellent material and committed users. I hope our community of over 20,000 contributions continues to grow.

Thank You,
The ShareCG Team[/quote]

I don't blame them one bit.  The old saying goes "one bad apple ruins the whole crate full" or something like that.  Really sux though! 

oh my...
I agree with you RAMWolff

The idea was good. But the siteowner is not able to establish at least a low-level quality control.

No big surprise really. And it wouldnt be a shock if they eventually end up closing the site or at least not allowing additional uploads.
 I'm sure we will now see a decline in free stuff being posted here and an increase in marketplace items.

Quote - The idea was good. But the siteowner is not able to establish at least a low-level quality control.

Not really. Its simple math that eventually the cost of the server would outweigh the income generated by ads.  The quality control should have been implemented from the very beginning, and even then the same thing would have happened, it just would have taken longer.

Yes, I got the email too, and just when it started generating revenue for me...boo hoo. Dang it, I need every little penny I can generate too. :( Now where will I find a place to stire my freebies? My site won't hold all of it and I hate to pull most of it. But I did see some backgrounds there I know was made from copyright photos from Webshots. I have a collection of stuff for my desktop and that's all they're supposed to be used for. One is a beautiful fall scene, it was used as a background for a freebie set but I don't remember who posted it there...sigh. I keep stuff like that separate from my texture resources so I don't goof up. That is not hard for me to do, goof up, that is...lol.

Quote -
Not really. Its simple math that eventually the cost of the server would outweigh the income generated by ads.

A fast Up-/Download server with 500 Gig traffic is 20 Euro per month (www.hosting-planet.biz)

BluEcho, it doesn't state that you have to take your goods some place else, it says FOR NOW payments have been discontinued. 

Quote from the letter:

Quote - We are still exploring alternate ways to deal with these problems and begin revenue sharing again. We are still committed to that ideal. For the time being, however, we are disabling revenue sharing until we come up with a better system.

It seems this is only temporary and they just need to think about things and I don't blame them one bit for their decision!!

Quote - > Quote -

Not really. Its simple math that eventually the cost of the server would outweigh the income generated by ads.

A fast Up-/Download server with 500 Gig traffic is 20 Euro per month (www.hosting-planet.biz)

even so. Say the average user at sharecg uses 5 gb of bandwidth a month. that will cover a hundred of them.

I wonder if it would be more like 1 good apple in a crate full of rotten ones? he needs to get it up and running ASAP, before a competitor does a new start-up with proper administration to weed out the copyright thieves and spammers. how hard could it be to hire well-informed staff? if they manage their freestuff here with only a few errors per week, then they can do the same on a larger scale.

Quote - > Quote - > Quote -

Not really. Its simple math that eventually the cost of the server would outweigh the income generated by ads.

A fast Up-/Download server with 500 Gig traffic is 20 Euro per month (www.hosting-planet.biz)

 

even so. Say the average user at sharecg uses 5 gb of bandwidth a month. that will cover a hundred of them.

Wrong math :)

Unlimited traffic on a quality server is 300 Euro a month.

@Miss Nancy: Exactly what I mean :)

Quote - I wonder if it would be more like 1 good apple in a crate full of rotten ones? he needs to get it up and running ASAP, before a competitor does a new start-up with proper administration to weed out the copyright thieves and spammers. how hard could it be to hire well-informed staff? if they manage their freestuff here with only a few errors per week, then they can do the same on a larger scale.

Competition would have the same problem. Its not about the quality of items, 

ShareCG Discussion

adp you were in the middle of that discussion so I'm assuming you know that quality and bandwidth were not the problem.

I'm sure we will now see a decline in free stuff being posted here 

This in itself would make a whole lot of difference to me being one of 2 who had to approve a lot of the el crappo stuff that came out that hole.....would be a good idea in my books for them to politely back out of that venture and maybe start up again with a real set of rules and the will to enforce them. I see them getting flack from copyrights concerns soon also as I've spotted sold items up there, notably max objects mainly
They had a good and benevolent idea that they really didn't think out thoroughly.....too bad.. ...

Quote - I'm sure we will now see a decline in free stuff being posted here 

This in itself would make a whole lot of difference to me being one of 2 who had to approve a lot of the el crappo stuff that came out that hole.....would be a good idea in my books for them to politely back out of that venture and maybe start up again with a real set of rules and the will to enforce them. I see them getting flack from copyrights concerns soon also as I've spotted sold items up there, notably max objects mainly
They had a good and benevolent idea that they really didn't think out thoroughly.....too bad.. ...

yeah but is the marketplace here going to see an increase of uploads because of it?
From what I understand the marketplace team is about maxxed out on what they can handle already...

Ramwolf, it's true that at present I won't need to worry about moving stuff but I worry it may happen.
I didn't see this coming either.
Thanks for making it clear though as my worry may make others think it is gonna happen now.
I gotta learn to stop fretting so much...sigh.

I do understand why they had to do it but still there's a niggling little worry that they may have to either charge us (I can't afford another fee) or close all together.

As I said, I did see a few things that were obvious copyright infringements and wondered how long that would last.
And, yes, it made it bad here too for that to happen.

Too bad about revising rules and regulations but it seems with such selfish and devious people in the mix it does tend to make it so little companies like ShareCG need to implement more stringent rules and regulations to weed out those types that are taking advantage and breaking rules and what not.... shame really but I guess that's the world we live in! 

Quote - I'm sure we will now see a decline in free stuff being posted here 

This in itself would make a whole lot of difference to me being one of 2 who had to approve a lot of the el crappo stuff that came out that hole.....would be a good idea in my books for them to politely back out of that venture and maybe start up again with a real set of rules and the will to enforce them. I see them getting flack from copyrights concerns soon also as I've spotted sold items up there, notably max objects mainly
They had a good and benevolent idea that they really didn't think out thoroughly.....too bad.. ...

As much as I'd love to blame this all on the spam of mediocrity that ShareCG experienced, part of the blame still has to rest with the owners/admins of the site who seemed both unwilling and unable to enforce even the slightest bit of policing their own site.  Yeah they had a staff of three or 4 folks working the site, but you wouldn't have known anyone was at the helm judging from the lack of presence they exhibited in policing their own forums.

I know several other users who were reporting copyright and spam in attempts to help but the people reported never seemed to be affected or stop, so it became apparent to me that reporting infringements wasn't worth my time. I was told on several occasions that certain infringing members would be removed but in the end they were not and they just continued or created new screen names with the same sort of content.

I'm dissappointed but I'm not surprised. The concept will not work without a lot of investment in time keeping the content policed and culled.

Maybe the only solution would be to collaborate with the 3D sites which send traffic to them (the mods here already check and approve FreeStuff entries, other sites seem to have less bureaucracy surrounding linked items).

*other sites seem to have less bureaucracy surrounding linked items).
*Or in ShareCG's case apparently none.. ...

Quote - *other sites seem to have less bureaucracy surrounding linked items).
*Or in ShareCG's case apparently none.. ...

DAZ has very little as well.
It's limited to making sure only threads offering freebies are in the various Freepositories and that requests get moved to the Commons.
No site other than 3DC has quite the same size DB of links as Renderosity.

Implement a Digg style voting system. Let the people who download stuff rate things. Stuff that doesn't make the grade, doesn't get cut of the pie.

The crap will scroll off into the void and the cream will rise to the surface, and get rewarded.

You mean a voting system to rate the quality of promopicture and advertising?
Somebody who has just downloaded an item isn't really able to rate the content.

Quote -
As much as I'd love to blame this all on the spam of mediocrity that ShareCG experienced, part of the blame still has to rest with the owners/admins of the site who seemed both unwilling and unable to enforce even the slightest bit of policing their own site.  Yeah they had a staff of three or 4 folks working the site, but you wouldn't have known anyone was at the helm judging from the lack of presence they exhibited in policing their own forums.

I know several other users who were reporting copyright and spam in attempts to help but the people reported never seemed to be affected or stop, so it became apparent to me that reporting infringements wasn't worth my time. I was told on several occasions that certain infringing members would be removed but in the end they were not and they just continued or created new screen names with the same sort of content.

I'm dissappointed but I'm not surprised. The concept will not work without a lot of investment in time keeping the content policed and culled.

Sadly I just don't see sharecg's admins investing much of any time into the site at all, in fact the entire thing looks to be a "when we have a minute" sort of project for there company, which is actually quite a shame.

They can't or won't even keep there message bases moderated, much less there file area.  I also find it very curious that they just canceled revenue sharing at the drop of a hat with no warning and no notice whatsoever.  They have said nothing about what  if any provisions will be made if they decide to bring revenue sharing back for those items uploaded or viewed in the interim, indeed the whole board seems to be in limbo ATM.

They did ask for suggestions on how to improve the process of revenue sharing, but then remained utterly silent even after the message bases were turned into a blood bath by a couple of immature posters who didn't like anyone disagreeing with there ideas and decided to make personal attacks on anyone with the temerity to suggest a different way of doing things.  Indeed the only statement they made after that debacle was that they were "staying out of it" so that they wouldn't influence the final outcome in any way.

This one really left me scratching my head.  Dunno folks, just between you me and the fencepost I think there is more going on over at sharecg than what has been publically stated, so I'm glad I'm a relatively new member and I have what little I did upload to them backed up elsewhere, just in case.  Wouldn't surprise me if they changed the revenue sharing system around, realized it was actually the scammers who were making a good portion that revenue available in the first place and then either cancel revenue sharing completely for good or just pull the plug on the whole thing without a word in advance.

So personally I'm looking for another solution - and I think a lot of other people are too.  Although I initially thought I'd support sharecg, over the last week or so my impression of them has changed dramatically.  It's a good concept, but one that is being very poorly managed indeed. 

Just my 2 cents worth.

Quote - You mean a voting system to rate the quality of promopicture and advertising?
Somebody who has just downloaded an item isn't really able to rate the content.

Why not? I ussually check out stuff right after I D/L it. In fact... it's a better judgment. If I like it enough to come back file a positive, or hate it so much I came back to neg it.

From that end it's a little like E-bays rating system.

I think the rating system should allow user to rate items at any time.
I know I'm going to start yet another diplomatic flame war here, but we ALL rate stuff before we download it, to decide if we think it's worth filling our harddrive.
Then we rate it again after we download it.

Maybe ShareCG could even use the rating system as part of their revised revenue sharing. More popular stuff draws more traffic, so the contributor should get more IMHO.

There are problems with cliques and gaming of social rating systems like this, but I think the overall benefit of letting the users manage the site in this way out weighs any possible abuse.

I'm sure their old system was being abused anyway.
This way they don't have to dedicate personal time to anything but making the code work. The managment is done by the users.

Under normal circumstances a rating system works - more or less. If money is involved, people becomes "creative" to get better ratings.
A jury may be a way to go. Maybe with monthly changing members. Or a combination of both, a jury and a public voting system.

Anyway. It's a pity but I think ShareCG is going to be dead. I'll create my own site, because traffic isn't an issue anymore.

Quote - Under normal circumstances a rating system works - more or less. If money is involved, people becomes "creative" to get better ratings.
A jury may be a way to go. Maybe with monthly changing members. Or a combination of both, a jury and a public voting system.

Anyway. It's a pity but I think ShareCG is going to be dead. I'll create my own site, because traffic isn't an issue anymore.

Sadly I'd have to agree, it's probably only a matter of time really before sharecg dies.  They can't survive without revenue sharing, not at this point, and they can't manage revenue sharing properly because there admins simply aren't willing to put forth the effort it takes to do so, and as a result I think sharecg isn't going to last long one way or the other.

Even now new uploads have slowed to a crawl with everyone waiting to find out what is going to be done next, and there hasn't been a peep out of the admins on the subject since they announced they were stopping the revenue sharing, other than a couple of quick posts here and there asking for ideas and then saying they weren't going to get involved in the discussion, which quite frankly is ludicrous at best.

Nope, I don't imagine sharecg will last too much longer, it simply doesn't appear to be their companies highest priority by a long shot, and it would take a lot more time and effort to make something like that work than it seems the admins are willing to invest.

Any system is going to get gamed. I've caught people on Digg who worked for Microsoft burying comments from ANYONE criticizing Windows Vista. It was an epidemic right around the time of the launch. That didn't do a thing to stop the 40% uninstall rate, but it sure made them look bad for trying to cover up the truth.

Every political candidate has group dedicated to spinning their results on social networking sites.

If you can use the social networking to police 80% of your population democratically, that's only 20% you need to chase down for abuse.

No system is perfect, but you can make it better. And letting everyone decide makes it more fair than letting a select few do it.

This of course is all up to the ShareCG admins. If they want this little venture to go on, this is an idea to do it. If it's too much work... it's up to the next people who try this.

Okay, I'm new to the whole thing, and it's driving me nuts. ShareCG may indeed be heading for a breakup.

Looks like it might be happening as I post. It's been down twice now in the last four hours, and I find myself wondering where I can go to get anything close to that nice in free hosting. 

I can put up a nice-sized promo image, and collect comments. The little-bitty thumbs Rendo tells us to use aren't the greatest  as far as showing off the nuances of a pose.

The 600x600 size we can use in the DAZ forums is quite nice, but thumbing through a couple of hundred pages of forum threads acan get tedious too. Kinda wishing there was a middle ground there somewhere. 

ShareCG looked like it might have been it for a bit there.

Oh, well.

Quote - The little-bitty thumbs Rendo tells us to use aren't the greatest  as far as showing off the nuances of a pose.

Ahhh...but we have a Freestuff Gallery now,  that you can use to show off your freebies in action.

Oh, and fixed that link for ya in on the 1st page onnetz

Something I am now well aware of, and am now in the process of using to evil extant... :lol:

Now that I have your attention JSM, maybe you can tell me how to get links fixed in the not yet approved freebies? The one for the ChibiBel pack is known wrong(I just spotted it myself, and it's been like that for a couple of days now), and they might all be moving to another host if I can get things done.

Anyway, the corrected link for the ChibiBel pack is: http://www.sharecg.com/v/22294/poser/TAPP:-Action-Posekit-1-ChibiBel

Hmmm I downloaded and tested it just fine a few mins ago....?

Oh, and you can always sitemail me and send me a corrected link or what-not, and I can get it fixed from this side ;)

Thank you much... Duly noted. So long as I know who to pick on, usually I can accomplish the goal.

Nice part is, I don't usually pick on people until they have it coming...

Quote - > Quote - The little-bitty thumbs Rendo tells us to use aren't the greatest  as far as showing off the nuances of a pose.

Ahhh...but we have a Freestuff Gallery now,  that you can use to show off your freebies in action.

I don't suppose someone could poke the Renderosity programers and ask them to make it so we can link to our Freestuff gallery images from the freestuff items directly so that folks can click on it for a better view of the items?

Good idea, I can ask them,  but make no promises

They'd probably still limit your image size to 200x200, but I can't see why they wouldn't.

Presuming their code is reasonably in order, it wouldn't take long to do.

All I ask is for the ability to put a URL tag to the freebie gallery image on my freestuff. Not an actual image. The downloaders could click the link to load the image from the gallery totally leaving the regular thumbnail sizes as is.

I'll admit, I recently started putting Free items at ShareCG, only because I no longer had room on my web hosted server -- I will admit though, the idea of making any kind of revenue/money from free stuff is neat, and interesting. On quite a few freebie sites you'll see people post a button to "Donate" to them, through a PayPal process. Can someone please explain to me, what revenues were people making @ShareCG that couldn't also be coming their way through donations? Thanks! *I'm just wondering, is it more like a marketing thing, example, would the consumer rather pay for something, rather than just make a simple donation? 

I'm just curious, as all though I'm with CGShare, I didn't pay any attention to that revenue stuff :-) It went over my head, any ways :-) Thaaaanks!!!! Hope you're all having a great weekend too!!

Attached Link: 3d models

I'm surprised it took this long for it to blow up.  As it was, the system was wide open to abuse - there was no connection between amount of labor, e.g. a fully original rigged, textured model was scored the same as a single jpeg.  It actually encouraged abuse.  Really a bad system from the get-go.