I see a lot of folk reading WAY more into posts made by people who've made themselves known to have some involvement with the dev (either as testers or whatever)....and then a run with "OMGIWILLNOTBUYITIFTHATHAPPENSOMGWTFBBQ!!!!!111!!!!!ZORZ!!!"

For real.

Back up for a minute.  Take a deep breath.  Calm down.

No, really.

SM didn't run over your dog, isn't asking for your kidney, and didn't spraypaint your grass pink. 

They're creating a new version of Poser.  That is all.

They get feedback from their customers.  Which include more people than participate here.  I know, I know, totally hard to believe.  The world doesn't involve around threads bashing Poser by people who admittedly use it.  I was shocked when I found out, too.  There's a cure for this.

It's called realizing that it's not the end of the world.

Over the course of the past few years, the most misquoted man in Poserdom (That would be Baggins Bill) has worked hard on a crusade for Poser owners worldwide to get the most out of their program.  I'm not saying that everyone will get the output that Lightwave Masters will get, but some will get close.  The ones willing to push the program and do more than Load Stuff and Click Render. 

Some people want more out of Poser.  Which would be completely awesome.  Most people aren't even using what it has.  I've read (and contracted migrain headaches from) threads where people have preached the ultimate awesomeness of the Poser 4 Renderer.  It's true.  I've seen threads where the "poor man's" bump map is deemed "really all that's necessary, and usually better than specific bump maps".  I've seen people actually explain how BB is wrong, because what he says takes effort, and doesn't he know that this is a point and click app?

You want radical change?  It's not going to come from SM.  It's going to have to start in communities.  It's going to have to start with more than 3 people actually following GOOD tutorials.  It's going to have to start with people actually engaging and LEARNING. 

The "Poser" community, in general, is a content-based one.  Most other 3D communities are based on technique, art, and the end result.  We can scoff all we want to at Poser and its' lack of abilities, and all that jazz.  In the end, it comes down to, well, those who use it.  Are you willing to push the program to do things you KNOW it can do right now?  If not, and you're not showing Smith Micro what the program is capable of and what its' userbase wants, then you're going to get better content management and a new figure than 14 people will use more than once in Poser 9 (it's a little late to tell them to start over on Poser 8, folks). 

Other apps don't add new cool nifty things because they feel like adding stuff that do things.  They add cool nifty things because that's what their userbase wants.  So, show 'em what you've got, folks.  Prove them wrong.  Prove to them that there is more to Poser than point and click lingerie ads.  Because it's on ALL OF US.  Not them.

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.