In March 2008, Renderosity decided to move to making all free advertisements posted on Renderosity to be for Renderosity products.  Since then, we have made it so that if you weren't the creator and it wasn't a blatant advertisement, you could link to offsite products.
In the past few months, there have been more and more advertising posts, coupled by more and more complaints about those posts.  So, to further clarify, and to make it more fair for everyone, from today on, we, the Poser staff of Renderosity will no longer be allowing Commercial posts of any kind on our forum.  If you have a product that you have created OR think is awesome, please make your post in the Marketplace Showcase forum.  If you have created a free item, or have found one that you think is outstanding, please make your post in the Free Stuff Forum.  From now on, all "heads up" posts regarding offsite sales or new products are forbidden.

However, to ease your mind, there are exceptions to the rule.  For instance, if someone were to ask "Does anyone know where I can get a pirate ship"? as a question in the forum, feel free to point them in the direction of pirate ships, both free and for sale. 

While you can't outright advertise them, and we shouldn't have allowed it in the first place, you CAN link to products, both free or for sale, should the need to answer a question arise.  

You may, also, post a 'how to' question in the forum if you've purchased a product or downloaded a freebie that you're having problems using.  We always recommend that your first line of communication is with the creator, but sometimes you find workarounds in using the product that the creator didn't think of.  It happens.

I hope this clarifies our position.

Jeni O'Callaghan
Renderosity Moderator

So, to further clarify, and to make it more fair for everyone, from today on, we, the Poser staff of Renderosity will no longer be allowing Commercial posts of any kind on our forum.  If you have a product that you have created OR think is awesome, please make your post in the Marketplace Showcase forum.

BUT and im missing it in the text ... ONLY when its sold at Rendo marketplace right ?
The way its written here it looks like ALL commercial post are ok ..
So what is it ?

Chris

No, according to the TOS, no offsite advertisements are allowed, period.  Please don't read extra into what I'm saying.   What I said is "Poser staff of Renderosity will no longer be allowing Commercial posts of any kind on our forum."

Quote - No, according to the TOS, no offsite advertisements are allowed, period.  Please don't read extra into what I'm saying.   What I said is "Poser staff of Renderosity will no longer be allowing Commercial posts of any kind on our forum."

thnx for clearing it up for me.. and i have to read into the text being non native English i need to be sure of things that are not 100% clear from the text directly

Pitty this is getting worse here

Maybe  soon  DAZ do the same in the Commons forum .. so no rendo vendors can advertise on DAZ forums anymore..

Greetings
Chris

I find this to be really funny considering Renerosity  wouldn't even HAVE a marketplace if it wasnt for Daz making products..but we (Daz merchants) can't mention new products coming to your customers?..again..I laugh

Just my 2 pennies..no need to flame me or warn me..I shall not argue this point,just making a statement.

Thank you
The3dZone

Quote - I find this to be really funny considering Renerosity  wouldn't even HAVE a marketplace if it wasnt for Daz making products..but we (Daz merchants) can't mention new products coming to your customers?..again..I laugh

Just my 2 pennies..no need to flame me or warn me..I shall not argue this point,just making a statement.

Thank you
The3dZone

This isn't anything new.  This has been in place since March of this year.  It's just that we were pretty lenient, and, in return, it got abused.  So, now, we're being more strict.

crosspost from a thread I just started in the poser forum.

Heyas

I've started a shiny new Yahoo group for poser people. The purpose: advertising

Well fewer and fewer of the forums allow it so hey .. lets have a place JUST for advertising. Call it the Poser Shopping Channel or something right?

But it will only work if it gets used. SO .. merchants, freebie makers, site owners, people who like shopping for deals and want to share .. here you go. Advertise til you're sick :) 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/posershoppers/

Lyrra

Posershoppers ..but i use DS .....

LOL Lyrra
and sick will we be !
Excellent idea i hope till we get sick will happen :)

Jen, who did you wind up to be made the messenger for THAT little, umm, rule?

Quote - Jen, who did you wind up to be made the messenger for THAT little, umm, rule?

Cliff, honey, you should know better ;)  I always draw the short straw.  j/k

Well stop drawing it fer crikeys sake - least you could do is render it! With AO, of course :D

If this is "from today on", why am I getting a 'TOS' violation on my record for posting I made yesterday, about a vendor I admire going on sale yesterday?
Had I known you guys are changing the interpretation, I wouldn't have posted about it.

I don't have a problem with having the thread locked and removed. TOS violation on your record, as if I did it on purpose, for a rule that was clarified after the fact is a bit much.

I guess I'll hang around here less and less, so I don't accidentally violate any other after the fact TOS's.

Conniekat, while your post was actually a TOS violation the day it was made, like I said, we've been VERY lenient until now.  However, I'll see what I can do re: the warning. 

:ohmy: Woot! Stricter policy enforcement.
To whom do we report threads that we think violates the new(ish) policy ?

What about signatures are they included ?
Because if not, all the (extra) effort seems a bit pointless.

Quote - :ohmy: Woot! Stricter policy enforcement.
To whom do we report threads that we think violates the new(ish) policy ?

What about signatures are they included ?
Because if not, all the (extra) effort seems a bit pointless.

you report to the person with the brown shirt.....

I see the usual 'not enforce the rule very much for months then suddenly enforce it ruthlessly with TOS violations on permament records' is still the policy round here.

you know.. you could have just said 'look Connie, we're enforcing the rules now properly, please don't it again or you'll get a TOS violation posted' instead.... you know that old adage.. 'treat others as you would be treated yourself'...

Quote - :ohmy: Woot! Stricter policy enforcement.
To whom do we report threads that we think violates the new(ish) policy ?

What about signatures are they included ?
Because if not, all the (extra) effort seems a bit pointless.

Should you feel the need to report any activity, please send a site mail to any of the mods or coords listed at the header of this forum.  I can't guarantee that we will see things the same way 100% of the time, but we will listen.

As for signatures and avatars, etc....you do know you can opt out of even viewing them?  Click on Forums - My Forum Options, and there you can change whether or not to see avatars, signatures, smilies, or whether people can search for your posts.  You can also add/change your signature from there, your CSS, what forums you want to be viewable in the "Forums" category.  So, in essence, you have complete control over that aspect.

Quote - > Quote - :ohmy: Woot! Stricter policy enforcement.

To whom do we report threads that we think violates the new(ish) policy ?

What about signatures are they included ?
Because if not, all the (extra) effort seems a bit pointless.

you report to the person with the brown shirt.....

Oddly enough, until I started cleaning the bathroom today, I was wearing a brown shirt...spooky!

Quote - I see the usual 'not enforce the rule very much for months then suddenly enforce it ruthlessly with TOS violations on permament records' is still the policy round here.

you know.. you could have just said 'look Connie, we're enforcing the rules now properly, please don't it again or you'll get a TOS violation posted' instead.... you know that old adage.. 'treat others as you would be treated yourself'...

Actually, on our part, it was us mistakenly hoping that community members wouldn't go overboard with the commercial posts.  We were stating that commercial posts would probably be ok if it wasn't the merchant themselves that was posting it.  

As far as the announcement of sales and such....things go on sale more than once ever.  If I miss a sale on an outfit at Torrid, I'll probably pout for about 10 minutes, then deal, and wait a few months.  People aren't going to die if they don't find out about every sale that's going on at every site.  Most of our "competitor" sites are actually in our webring.  

so that lets you be nasty to ppl when its your fault?
interesting.
ok enough on this... I don't want to get branded a troll again...

Quote - so that lets you be nasty to ppl when its your fault?
interesting.
ok enough on this... I don't want to get branded a troll again...

You know, I do believe I told Connie I'd see what I could do about the warning, as I'm not the one who gave it to her.  So, you could trust that I'll do it, or you could attack me for it.

Attack the messenger! Attack the messenger!

No, wait, hangon - which side am I on? It's getting so my sarcasm's so imbedded now I can't figure out who I'm agreeing with!

It's alright.  It's not like I'm not expecting flak and/or animosity.  ;)  That's probably why I'm the one that gets to do this.  

You say that like there could be another reason?

Hey chaps - I'm selling a JenX dartboard at my site - they're selling like hot cakes!

Nah, more like....you guys would eat my coords alive....and probably my fellow mods, LOL.  I'm used to it ;)  I wear my battlescars well.

(also, I hope those aren't recent pics, Cliff....unless you folks like artful nudes of fat chicks ;) ) 

To be fair to Jen-X, she's not the one to give me a permanent TOS violation, I don't beleive Jen or any other of our long time forum moderators would. However, I believe we have some heavy handed new-ish coordinators.

While my first thought was - WOW, well, didn't know I was rubbing people (staff) the wrong way that much around here.... Trying to look at it objectivey, I think it was a case of someone trying to be over zealous in their coordinating activities.

Locking/removing a thread with a note, we're tightening enforcing this TOS, and will give you a permanent ding next time would have been much better way of handling it - in light of this particular rule not having been enforced in the past.  I saw commercial posts on the rise here, and thought the rules were relaxing, not tightening. I'm not privy to the complaints. Also, I was under the impression that fan-postings of sales were allowed, that you only couldn't post about your own vendor stuff. I didn't recall 'blatant' part.... LOL, if I did, I would have couched it better. :P

However.... ....I better go check and make sure I don't have a 'tail light out'.... uh-oh, I can't remember if I used a blinker when I was supposed to....

And, no, I'm still not stonmason's 'pal', but hey maybe if I get acused of it few more times, he'll take pity on me and befriend me. Just a big fan.

Quote - It's alright.  It's not like I'm not expecting flak and/or animosity.  ;)  That's probably why I'm the one that gets to do this.  

I was wondering whose toes I stepped on... but ... whose toes did You step on???

It's crossed my mind to volunteer for forum duty in the past, but I probably couldn't do it well (not without couple vallium or sumpthing like that). Um, not that you guys would take me now, that I'm "delinquent".

Personally I don't know what the big deal is.

This is the Poser forum and so far as I'm concerned it should be for all things Poser...and that includes freebies and commercial posts etc.

No one holds a gun to someone's head and makes them open a thread to read it. If someone doesn't want to read a thread, they simply don't have to click on it. I do that all of the time. My time here is shorter now than it was, so somedays I may just skim the titles and open up a couple of threads and completely ignore the rest.

Personally I think to many rules just makes things complicated, not to mention a whole lot less fun to be around here.

Thanks for putting an end to my ability to post freebies.   I won't be posting them in another forum.  Perhaps I'll look around and post them at a site that is more willing to support the entire Poser community instead of just their small corner of it.

Quote - However, I believe we have some heavy handed new-ish coordinators.

Just to be clear here, coords must have the approval of a mod or admin to carry out any action concerning anything to do with a member or their record. ;)

As far as the outside advertising...that hasn't been allowed for quite some time....and as Jen stated we have been lenient and hoping that members would not abuse that.

@Acadia,

Why would we be putting an end to you posting freebies? The Freestuff forum is and has been for {also} quite some time the place to post about those..the only time they were allowed in THIS forum was if the creator also posted in the Freestuff Forum.

ok that proves it.. the admins have lost touch with the users.

Not sure what you mean Khai?

I dunno who these people are who are complaining about advertisements and therefore making it impossible for anyone to point them to [the site that rhymes with JAZZ] so that they can get [the figure that rhymes with Nicky]. But I'd like to now log a counter complaint. I like being pointed towards new stuff that I might like to buy. I like spending money. 

Don't you guys maybe think that if someone is pointed toward [JAZZ] to get [Nicky] that they will maybe boost your sales here buying add ons from your MP?

<Thinks Happy Thoughts! Thinks Happy Thoughts!>

Maybe noobs in this poser-learning forum are worried the vendors will get too rich selling poser product if they advertize it in here.

Alienate enough customers and no one here will get rich.

I can tell you between this, and what's happening with my latest product, I'm not feeling vey welcome around here.
But hey, I'm just one person, so who cares. Not like they'd miss much if I was around or not, as a forum participant, buyer, or a vendor.

So no helping people looking for a specific item ?  

is it all right to say , go ask at ?

Here's the solution to all of the independant merchants who want their stuff to be noticed. Submit your product related freebies to Rendo's freestuff. Announce said freebies in the freesuff forum where it belongs and then link directly to the freebies on your site. Once the people see your site just make sure you have banners to all your nifty merchandise show up on said freebie page and ta da! You have your advert built into your own site and you advertised it with a freebie available in the freestuff here. Simple. Elegant. Solved.

If that means you have to package the basic textures to your product as a freebie and then uploading that here. So be it. The texture only works on your product and you make it highly visible that the freebie is an ADD ON to merchandise only available on your site.

I never go to the Marketplace or Freebie Forums & I'm sure a lot of other people don't bother either, I come to the poser forum to read & post about poser specific stuff & that should include new freebies & commercial items (even if it's only rosity items).

It's about Spam. No off-site spamming of the boards. It's a 'so what's new about that?' kind of issue to people like me, who's not caught up in the politics of it here.  No one I've seen allows their sites to be spammed by off-site products. Maybe I am missing stuff, but it IS spelled out pretty clear in the TOS.

The merchants here are having a tough time selling stuff here (much less the down-turn in the economy) and people are running out of money. Rendo IS a marketplace site, not a personal site.
Folks--if it comes from off-site and takes money out of the pockets of the merchants on the site--it's a no-no.

Was Rendo a personal site in the past, and it became a Marketplace site?

From the sound of it--a Sticky with poser-related 'Marketplace' and "Freebies" links might be a good idea,IMO. Wading through the forum lists IS a PITA.  Some poser-related links in one sticky would be a good change.

Quote - It's about Spam. No off-site spamming of the boards. It's a 'so what's new about that?' kind of issue to people like me, who's not caught up in the politics of it here.  No one I've seen allows their sites to be spammed by off-site products. Maybe I am missing stuff, but it IS spelled out pretty clear in the TOS.

The merchants here are having a tough time selling stuff here (much less the down-turn in the economy) and people are running out of money. Rendo IS a marketplace site, not a personal site.
Folks--if it comes from off-site and takes money out of the pockets of the merchants on the site--it's a no-no.

Was Rendo a personal site in the past, and it became a Marketplace site?

From the sound of it--a Sticky with poser-related 'Marketplace' and "Freebies" links might be a good idea,IMO. Wading through the forum lists IS a PITA.  Some poser-related links in one sticky would be a good change.

Dude thing is they claim to be a "community" here and then they went and pulled this thing out of someone's a...... (yeah its an expression)  they claim that people were complaining about the commercial  threads on the board I never saw more than maybe 5 at one time on a good day  out of how many posts on a page? If someone cant deal with 5 posts out of a page of what 30? something is wrong with them. Hell why not just ignore them hell i do i ignore whatever i dont want to look at if I don't like it I don't look at it period.

    You cant say that it is all because of money because Jenx herself already told me to stop using that example in another thread because apparently it is not relevant to this whole situation. What is relevant to this situation is that a rule like this is very un-community like and isn't community what they are always spouting here? Hell Daz allows people to post adverts for items on other sites and I dont think they have any problems with direct links from any place as long as its not someplace like Renderotica which they dont mind us mentioning but just dont want direct links because of obvious reasons.

   Besides as someone else has already mentioned  most of the items found in the marketplace here are add ons for products NOT SOLD HERE.  Also yeah they made the change in march but they didn't get all crackdown (I am specificly avoiding specific words here) on us  until what yesterday now? thats an awful long time to  let stuff slide. On top of that they give  several people  tos violation warnings on their records in my opinion thats a crock , let stuff slide while everyone and his brother does it and then suddenly choose to  enforce a bogus (and it IS bogus ..... my opinion) rule and issue warnings to people who were just letting others know about something.

It is MY OPINION  that this tos change was a bad idea then and it is still a bad idea now, considering the fact that I was pointed to the fact that it was not due to money that this change was implemented I think  there should be a poll one account one vote to find out just how many people think it is such a bad idea to have advertisements in the poser forum for poser stuff. banning subjects like this because I think that this was another case of a very vocal minority screwing everything up for everyone else.

Me personally I liked being able to  look at threads about different  products that i might not have seen otherwise and 9 times out of 10 there is probably an add on product for any product mentioned from off site sold in the store here that may have gotten a few sales. Loot at it this way if no one here could post anything about anything from another site back when M4 came out that would mean those who frequent this place but not Daz so much would not even know that he was released and so would not even know about the new M4 products being sold in the store here thus lost sales (hey you mentioned lost sales on your end and now I am mentioning lost sales on my end of it)

now im looking at what I have typed and I'm thinking WTF textwall, and I should be drawing for an art class I have later today.....

Renderosity is NOT a community & has NEVER been one, it's a marketplace with a forum attached to it. PFO was a community this place is all about the money.

LOL...if I create a character, I'm going to need a figure to create it for and I'm going to have to purchase said figure from somewhere and for the most part, that's not going to be here. If I were to make a texture set for a clothing item, I'm going to need the item and the chances of my buying that item here are remote. 

So I purchase the necessary items from that "other" store and get to work. Once completed, I submit said "awesome" new product to Renderosity and it's released into the store, accompanied by announcements in all the appropriate places right here and on Daz.

Now, if that "awesome" new product happens to be released at Daz, I can rant and rave about it to my heart's content over there but if I try to let people here know about it, I can go whistle dixie? ...how silly.

When you see a Renderosity member post a question in The Commons asking what the symbols on products in Renderosity's MP mean, and that post is not removed and the person told to ask the question in the appropriate place, that tells me that the community spirit over there is alive and well and perhaps Renderosity could "take a leaf" :)

Kym

You guys are all either completely not reading the first post, or just ignoring it.  And then blowing your own assumptions out of proportion.  That's not only dangerous to YOU, but it spreads untruthful rumours.

Read the first post.  THEN ask questions if you don't understand.  Many of your outrages and concerns have been dealt with and explained within it. 

I am going to say something that I think allot are people are feeling right now, and I hope it does not offend any :
Renderosity  in the last few years has lost touched with its customers. Rules get changed faster here than any site I have ever been up.  It is hard to know whether you are going against a TOS that is constantly changing.  I see also a trend in who and what has been getting posted here and who has stopped all together due to the  "trolls". 

Lyrra, are you somehow tuned in to my thoughts? I was just thinking of asking if this could be done and here you do it. :) I had thought to do a forum on my site for posting links like this but have no idea how to get started so your idea is very welcome and I'm going to join! Thank you, thank you, thank you. :D

The only thing "funny" about this all it the name of the thread
GOING FORWARD ...
but all these rules make the sales and Site go backwards...

aint that a contradiction....

Forwards and backwards may depend on the point of view. 

Forwards and backwards may depend on the point of view. 
the view of a Vendor.....

OK folks. We have not accepted commercial threads in the Poser forum for at least 5 years. We recently stopped allowing off-site advertising in any forum or gallery. We understand that this policy hasn't always been rigorously applied, largely due to lack of staffing.

We now have plenty of staff in here who are able to apply the rules promptly and consistently. So that's what we're going to do. Warnings given in the last couple of days will be removed, since we know there was an inconsistent application of rules. Going forward, we expect everyone to follow those rules. That's all.

Now something else. I see several people in here making unfunny remarks attacking the staff, alluding to nazis, etc. It's not big and it's not clever. The staff are here to do their job. You may not agree with the rules here some of the time. That's fine, but if you break the rules, it's the job of the staff to pull you up on it. If you think a member of staff hasn't done their job correctly, then you email admin@renderosity.com and ask us to review the action.

So, to recap: Commercial threads aren't allowed here. If you answer a question that someone posed (e.g. "Where can I find a polar bear?") then fine, that's fair enough. Posting new threads saying "Wow, look at this product" or "Hey, there's a sale at Daz!" - these will be removed.

Questions? Email admin, or site mail your forum staff.