Quote - One reason you don't see as much crap coming from the high-end apps, is that what you see is highly filtered, either by moderators or by public, humiliating abuse of those who post less than stellar work so that most don't try. There are plenty of crappy models and renders being made from top-end applications, there just isn't anywhere welcoming to those of lesser abilities in that tier to post them.

Sounds great, can we have the same here?...That as a bit of background..... I've been one of those pro's as they tend to be called around here. I NEVER laughed about Poser, most of the pro's are a bit jealous of Poser users. I don't have a problem with the application, the problem is in the stuff people create with it. I still am amazed by the rubish the majority produces with it. It's given Poser a bad name and the content (geared at the majority of users preference) is it's biggest selling stubling block. Most Pro's will never take Poser seriously (not even when EF/SM puts Pro behind it's name) due to it's primary focus of the content and community. If the same filtering would have been applied to Poser, it would have gone a completely different direction and Poser wouldn't be in so much trouble is it is now. But by over-focussing on a certain genre, Poser has dug it's own grave and allowed itself to become the stepchild in 3D. The application itself has come a long way and offers a lot, the majority of the users are still the same and creating mediocre images with it, completely wasting the application. The most worriying is that most of these users never get any better at all and are cheering each other on with praising remarks. No wonder most of the 3D world laughs about the Poser related communities when all they seem to be able to do is creating mediocre images pretending they're masters at what they do and calling each other artists....

The way I see it is that Poser really isn't a true fleshed out 3D platform.  It's a rendering tool with some utilities built in to make it easier to deal with already complete meshes. (boning, materials/textures, etc)  In other words, it's a hobby tool.  I don't put it in the same class as anything which is actually designed to construct meshes and create them from the ground up.  I also don't put it in the same class of tools used most commonly in professional rendering/animation either.  In short, it's a hobbyist tool and the users, community and publishers seem to recognize that.

The publisher's job, in this case, is they have to keep their product alive.  Poser became popular not because it was some awesome 3D tool.  It became popular because it automated many complex tasks and presented some decently powerful options using a click of a button.  But, all of that takes up space and programming skills necessary to support them.  Thus, the package is trimmed and cut to give exactly what the publisher/devloper wants even if it part of a much larger market segment.  (ie: You can get a spreadsheet to manage your checkbook, you don't need an online stock portfolio manager with dedicated feeds to your PDA every 5 secs.) Poser is a check-book management piece of software and not a stock portfolio and futures trading tool.

So, they have to tailor their site to the people that buy, or would buy, their product.  That's the hobbyist.  Hobbyist like experiencing their hobby and sharing that experience.  So, the easier it is to do that, the better it is for the publisher and the hobbyist/fan.  That's where crappy renders and questionable/objectionable content comes from.  If you're a big fan and can upload a crappy render on a whim, and you are sincerely impressed with it, then you'll do it.  As far as Poser is concerned.. they want you to do that.  If you feel good about having it on their site, they're happy because you're more inclined to keep spending money on your hobby.  If you were constantly bombarded with 3D artwork rendered by professionals which made your 3 minute wonder look like garbage after you "worked" at it all day, you'd be somewhat less inclined to be enthusiastic about your hobby.  If someone had to critque every Poser hobbyist's work, there wouldn't be very much content and a lack of content is "bad" for anything online.

I understand your frustration, somewhat.  But, it's a hobbyist's site.  Anyone who represents it as otherwise isn't really being honest with themselves IF, and only IF, they are trying to compare it to a professional, working class, 3D artist's site.  There are wizards that can force Poser to do some really wonderful things.  They do deserve respect for what they can do with that tool.  The are "professionals" regarding its use in many ways.  But, in the end, it's in its own class of 3D software and they're just astronomically talented with it in order to produce some of what they do.

I expect to see garbage renders.  I am also pleasantly surprised by some pretty amazing ones from time to time.  It takes a heck of a lot of skill using Poser to get a decent quality render out of it. (life still shots, etc.)  But, no matter how much they develop it, it won't be replacing ZBrush, 3ds, etc.. and it won't be on render-farms at ILM.