Well I don't know. What is the larger problem? That they want to advertise? That's not a problem, that's business, the way they see fit.

Nothing is going to change that, really. I suppose it's possible if a whole lot of people complain then they might curtail it a bit, but it seems to me to be a wasted effort when it's so easy to simply avoid it.

The bandaid has caused me to really not care what's going on behind the scenes. Out of sight, out of mind and all that. A whole lot simpler than trying to get it changed. And even if it were changed, they're not going to remove ads entirely. Being that I find even a few ads unacceptable, I'd still use the bandaid, even if they went so far as to reduce their ads to only 10% of what they have now. I don't come here to buy stuff or to download stuff, and something has to be really good and something I can't make myself for me to be interested. Which means, 95% or more of the stuff here I have no interest in anyway.
Being that their quality control here is nonexistent and extends to something simply having to work as advertised (meaning load into Poser and not hose your OS), to me it's not even worth looking anything over.
I'll mention though that there are a few merchants I know of whose own QC is important to them and if they made something I wanted, would buy it in good faith.

But as for "the larger problem", if they ad-spam us to death and force everyone to start blocking them out, that's far more of a problem to them than to us and would be more likely to lead to them reducing the ads than complaining in a forum would.

So I urge everyone to start blocking them out, and let the admin know you're blocking them out. I think that would be a much stronger message.
Probably ought to start a thread for it, linking to all the ad/banner/flash blocking tools available for all browsers, to make more people aware, and to begin getting  count of how many people are doing that, for the admins to see.
I think the admins would really enjoy knowing how many of us are simply blocking it all out, don't you? ;-)

Quote -
It's just bad business manners, Mike, pure and simple.

I didn't notice the whole paragraph in your earlier post. For some reason my brain registered it as a paragraph of mine, quoted. Go figure. Too much coffee, not enough sleep, probably. ;-)

But yeah, I agree, it all is pretty bad business manners, as you say, and has become just ridiculously obnoxious.

Quote - however, as long as that is, it fully describes who , what, hmmm.. no where ... plus that awesome string of numbers.

POSIX and any modern filesystem gives you up to 255 characters to describe the thing with (minus four for the the dot-extension, thanks to Microsoft's stupid insistence on those things).

If you can't do it in that kind of space, something is way wrong with the contents...

==

Quote - It's great that the requests of the downloaders has been honored by a restriction of uploads to the Renderosity server.

"There have been continued demonstrations, by all the workers, voicing their gratitude and joy!" -Fahrenheit 451, movie version

==

Quote - I'm still not seeing the problem with the advertising, Sean.

There was once a time when folks paid for Cable TV because it bore no advertisements. Now, you can't find a single non-movie channel on Cable (except CSPAN and the ComAccess channels) that doesn't condense an hour of content down to 34 minutes of content + 26 minutes of ads. They've even launched that irritating credits-compression where you see the closing credits for one show on one half of a split-screen, opening credits for the next show on the other side, and adverts along the bottom.
 

The web itself once kept itself to maybe a banner ad along the top of a page and a couple along the side, nice and discreet. Now they're jammed into every crevice that CSS coding allows for, and pop-ups are as common as zits at a high school (and the funny thing is, some of us remember a time when the web had no ads...)

The radio? Forget it. Aside from one station here in PDX (94.7 FM, Heaven Bless 'Em), the morning radio is full of lame jokes and ads, with maybe two songs an hour if you're lucky.

IOW, I think we've been a bit pounded flat with ads, ne?

Quote - ...Too much coffee, not enough sleep, probably. ;-)...

IS there a such thing as too much coffee? I'm still trying to achieve that....

Now back to your regularly scheduled gripe (and I have to grudgingly agree with most...sigh).

Laurie

Quote - > Quote - ...Too much coffee, not enough sleep, probably. ;-)...

IS there a such thing as too much coffee? I'm still trying to achieve that....

Now back to your regularly scheduled gripe (and I have to grudgingly agree with most...sigh).

Laurie

waves... Hi Lau

Junior Padawan, the farce is apparently not with you.... yet

:P

JV

Hey JV ;o).

The farce is always with me. It's called My Life...lol.

Laurie

Folks, for once it seems our caveling worked. Check the new freestuff layout.

And thank you for listening, Rosity admins.

Getting there - still have the popup, and the filenumber thingy, but otherwise, it is moving in the right direction...

The BIG problem for us free stuff providers is that.. now when the download button is back in place... they essentially took the option for us to link to our site (or a paypal donate button or whatever) away again.

Not really of course. You can still put that in the notes.. but honestly.. how many people EVER read those? They're like a readme.. if people actually read readmes (and manuals for that matter) this forum would be dead as a dodo L 

So in essence, there's no way those of us who DO have our own sites and DO maintain them. And are counting on the hits in our eforts to do a business here.. we're SOL. I might as well close my site, since ... why would anyone come there anymore? All they need is to click a download button and poof.. the file is theirs. For all intents and purposes, my site does no longer exist in the minds of the downloaders. All they get is a freebie. And a load of ads that MIGHT tick them off thinking they were some I had forced upon them.

Remember that a lot of people here NEVER read the forums. The look at the galleries or they download the freebies. But forums requires reading - perhaps in an alien language (I know I've grabbed lots of things from Japanese sites where I can't read any other words than "download")

And all THOSE people will never know that it isn't the greebie providers that has turned greedy and are now smacking them in the face with irrellevant ads. Nor will they ever know that the freebie provider they downloaded the temple from ALSO has done a nice sword and a skimpy armour to go with it.

Oh and did anyone notice.. there IS a delay now so we can have time to look at the Poser 8 ad...

I just looked at a free item by Adam Thwaites. If you click the download on the thumbnail page, it goes to the Renderosity download server. If you click details, you see the notes. He has a HUGE link to his site and a statement about support.

Maybe if oyu hit details you will see this. If you just hit download you will not.
Is it possible to put a note on the thumbnail so folks goto the detail page and read the notes?

Otherwise, I like the new approach.

 The creator would have to do that when creating the thumbnail, and it's not a guarantee that folks would actually do it.

Quote -
Oh and did anyone notice.. there IS a delay now so we can have time to look at the Poser 8 ad...

Yeah, I noticed that. First thing I did after reading this new development was check it out and that caught my attention pretty quickly.
It's always something around here. You can always almost have what you want, but they're still gonna do something to piss people off. ;-)
It's like a video game, where obstacles are constantly being thrown up against you to try to make your mission more difficult.
"please wait while we prepare your download..."
You can bypass it though by clicking on the "if your download doesn't start blahblahblah..." link, and get to it right away.

Hey Jen, I remembered to click the damn "Language" button, after writing "piss people off."
I did good, huh? :biggrin:

 pats MikeJ on the head  Yes, you did good :)  

 Please note that I'm not leaving the sandbox here. But I'm not supplying any new showels and buckets either.

In other words.. as long as my site will be totally non-existant in the New Order™ I won't post any new freebies here either. But the old stuff stays. At least as long as I can keep THOSE on my own site.

Apart from the pesky delay I like how linked sites open in a nice new window now. WHY couldn't that just still be an option? We'll look at the Poser 8 banner for 5 seconds if that's what it takes to keep the stuff on our own sites =) I'll even click it a few times if that helps ;)

I suppose we should be "grateful" for one thing, the FreeStuff files are actually hosted on Amazon's S3 cloud (look at the links), so we no longer have to worry that an external site going down will take a few freebies offline.

P.S. If anybody has some spare sarcasm tags please send them along, I seem to have run out

*"Folks, for once it seems our caveling worked." * I think you mean caviling - except that means petty or trivial objections which I don't think you mean :-)

*"You can bypass it though..." * Shhh! don't give them any ideas.

"Is it possible to put a note on the thumbnail so folks goto the detail page and read the notes?"

If the linking were standard, they could use an overlay on the thumb or some other indicator. Since it is up to the uploader to create their link in the HTML... "Maybe if you hit details you will see this. If you just hit download you will not." Exactly, to have it otherwise would put both alternatives on too equal a footing. Either take the path to the ad or take a chance that there may be a site link on the details page - which will still have ads but they may be for the person who created the free item.

I hope with this thread, what is on the front page and the thread in the freebie forum, Rosity will see that what they have done is a bone headed move. I personally will not post any freebie here ever again.  I will post anything new I have in the freebie forum but I will not host my stuff here.

Quote -
The difference between "Torture is illegal" and "Illegal torture" implies that there is Legal Torture.
-------------------------------------------------------- 
We live in a world where torture is legal and pot isn't. Where nudity is banned and violence is entertainment.
--------------------------------------------------------  
Republicans spend all there time telling us goverment is bad- and when in power they prove it!!! 
--------------------------------------------------------  
The silence of the Christian Right on Health Care is deafening,
--------------------------------------------------------  
In the ideology of cowards EVERYONE is an enemy.
--------------------------------------------------------  
**Medicare for All

What a load of crap!!!!!!!!
**

Quote - Quote -
The difference between "Torture is illegal" and "Illegal torture" implies that there is Legal Torture.
-------------------------------------------------------- 
We live in a world where torture is legal and pot isn't. Where nudity is banned and violence is entertainment.
--------------------------------------------------------  
Republicans spend all there time telling us goverment is bad- and when in power they prove it!!! 
--------------------------------------------------------  
The silence of the Christian Right on Health Care is deafening,
--------------------------------------------------------  
In the ideology of cowards EVERYONE is an enemy.
--------------------------------------------------------  
**Medicare for All

What a load of crap!!!!!!!!**

What exactly IS this and what does it have to do with the thread???

I must need sleep.

Laurie

 My feelings exactly It was part of a post by geoegress

It wasn't a post, it was his SIGNATURE. It's in every one of his posts. If you have a problem with what's in his signature, please don't post it here. This isn't the place for it.

Laurie

Excuse Me. Now I  know.

PS You don't have to yell ( All Caps is not polite)

By the way i takes less than a few seconds to download a freebee, and I love the new system.

I wasn't yelling. I was making a point (I tend not to use font styles). Sorry. I guess neither of us is very polite this evening.

Laurie

I Changed my preferences, Now other people signatures wont bother me.

I'm sorry too, Goodnight.

Steve

now that was an enlightening moment

Quote - Well I don't know. What is the larger problem? That they want to advertise? That's not a problem, that's business, the way they see fit.

That is not what the big problem with the new way of freebies, it is the off site hosting that is no longer allowed. Some of us (myself included) use the offsite hosting on our own websites and with then no longer allowing it, traffic to our site can suffer. Some of us have stores on our sites some don't but still rely on the site traffic to stay "afloat".

That is just one reason why some are upset, the other is we don't like it when a choice is taken away and someone says this is now how you have to do things from this point forward and we don't care WTF you think!

Well guess what I am PISSED about this and I will still support vendors here but if they have stores on other sites I will buy from there.  

 Actually, I don't know where the "It's Not Allowed" is coming from.

It is allowed.  You may advertise your freestuff, wherever hosted, in the forum.  If you want to list it in the freestuff, and include a link to your site, you can.  If you add the HTML.  Yes, you have to upload the file here, also, but, you ARE allowed to link to your off-site freestuff.  

If you're not versed in HTML, here you go:

Your Text Here

 sigh

Quote -  Actually, I don't know where the "It's Not Allowed" is coming from.

It is allowed.  You may advertise your freestuff, wherever hosted, in the forum.  If you want to list it in the freestuff, and include a link to your site, you can.  If you add the HTML.  Yes, you have to upload the file here, also, but, you ARE allowed to link to your off-site freestuff.  

If you're not versed in HTML, here you go:

Your Text Here

but to post in the free stuff area you have to host here "cannot host offsite"

Unless something has changed in the last 48 hours.

 Which I explained, but if you have your items posted off-site, you can input the html in the description to link to it.  

Quote - but to post in the free stuff area you have to host here "cannot host offsite"

Unless something has changed in the last 48 hours.

From the initiation of the new freestuff you have been able to add your own html link like JenX has posted above. If you'd rather not host here you can still add the html to the freebie description that will add a link to your own website so downloaders may go there.

(edit) Sorry Jen ;o)....crosspost...lol.

Laurie

 That's not wholly true, Laurie.  In the Freestuff Listing, something has to be uploaded (and the Freestuff Staff will not accept it if you just upload a random file.  It HAS TO be the file offered).   In order to link to your off-site stuff, you input the HTML.

Nothing against you JenX but that is just a work around and you still have to upload some sort of file.

I truthfully think that the powers to be did not  (more like refused) listen  to the majority of complaints about the hosting policy due to they (not you) made up their mind about it and they (not you) won't budge on their policies.

 Ok, I'm glad that you're finally noticing, but I'd said that at least twice.  Exactly what you said, only shorter.  

But, stating that "off-site freestuff is not allowed" is a fallacy.  It is allowed.  The way the listing works right now is that a file must be uploaded.  It's a change.  Not everyone is happy with it.  But, posting to a 2-week-old thread isn't going to change anything.  

Contact admin.  it's admin@renderosity.com  I know it seems like they're not going to listen, but, you know, maybe they might.  At this time, they felt that, with the feedback we've been getting for YEARS, it's best to continue with the upload being required at this time.  I can't see them changing it, and I, and a lot of other people, can understand why.  We're liable for linked content, anyway, why not just have it hosted onsite?

 So it's double "hosted" so to speak...here and on your site. Should a member prefer to go to your site to dl it's a simple matter of clicking the URL you paste it with the provided html. How is this not better?...you have 2 chances of giving your stuff away...and it's really not a lot of work to paste in your URL with the html template JenX provided above. From my position as the person who approves most of the freestuff, the new system serves a lot more members than it ticks off...I'm currently spending about as much time doing freestuff vetting as I did before the changes, so some folks do like it.. ...

Quote -  That's not wholly true, Laurie.  In the Freestuff Listing, something has to be uploaded (and the Freestuff Staff will not accept it if you just upload a random file.  It HAS TO be the file offered).   In order to link to your off-site stuff, you input the HTML.

Sorry...I knew that, I just failed to point that out ;o).

Laurie

If I wanted my stuff double "hosted" I would use ShareCG first.

JenX as I said nothing against you, but I'd have a better chance of having a brick wall listen than the emailing the admin@renderosity.com on this subject.

Quote - but I'd have a better chance of having a brick wall listen than the emailing the admin@renderosity.com on this subject.

Well ...have you even written Admin re: this?...just curious...

Quote - If I wanted my stuff double "hosted" I would use ShareCG first.

JenX as I said nothing against you, but I'd have a better chance of having a brick wall listen than the emailing the admin@renderosity.com on this subject.

Suit yourself then :o). Perhaps you could just mention your freebie in the freestuff forum and be satisfied with that? I know that's not really the alternative you were seeking...

Laurie

Quote - If I wanted my stuff double "hosted" I would use ShareCG first.

JenX as I said nothing against you, but I'd have a better chance of having a brick wall listen than the emailing the admin@renderosity.com on this subject.

So, why are you posting this here?  Sorry, but if you're not willing to actually contact the people who have a hand in actually getting things changed, then I don't understand why anyone should be bothered to actually care what you think about this.  Sorry, but I'm tired of people not going through the proper channels in this.  I've given you links, but if all you want to do is complain, blog it somewhere, just quit repeating yourself here.

 Hear hear.. ...

In reference to the earlier... situation.... in which someone replied to what he or she thought was a post when it was actually someone's signature line:

It is my opinion that a site that doesn't allow political discussions should also not allow strong political statements and innuendo in signature lines.
A signature line containing a statement such as "Republicans spend all there time telling us goverment is bad- and when in power they prove it!!!"

...is intentionally provocative. It is meant to solely to incite people.
Even so, if one is going to make such statements, one should probably at least spell it all correctly. I mean, being that you're putting it out there for all to see with your every post, and all.  ;-)
government
their

At any rate, I would agree with the above statement if it said "Politicians" in place of "Republicans", because the truth is, none of them are any good no matter what party they're in.

Yes I have written the admin and have not received a reply.

 sigh  

If you've got a problem with someone's sigline, there are 2 things you can do.  

Sitemail the person.

Block siglines through your profile setup.

We treat siglines like gallery images.  So long as it doesn't violate the actual TOS, we leave it, and we state as such when people complain that they don't like so-and-so's sigline.  

As for why we don't allow political discussions is...they quickly de-evolve into personal attacks and blatant libel.  So, rather than having to sit and watch one or two threads all day because member 1 is against what member 2 is for, politics is an off-limits topic, as is religion.  Both are still allowed in the galleries, and we monitor those as necessary, but members will usually tell us when a comment has gone over the top (as with any image, really).  

Quote - Yes I have written the admin and have not received a reply.

Good, I'm glad you've written them.  You may not get a reply, initially.  Or at all, depending on how your letter was worded.  I've only ever gotten a reply from one site that I'm a member of when I found a problem and asked for a response, and it was a much smaller site than this.  Or, at least, it was at the time.  And, the response was basically a "thank you for writing us, we'll take it into consideration" canned response.  

Listen, I'm not saying take every problem you'll ever have to them, but, when the changes can only be made by them....not going to them with it but coming here to vent about it doesn't solve anything.  It's the "If I yell loud enough, people will notice me and think I'm right" fallacy that is so permeated into peope these days that tends to drive me nuts.  I'm not saying it's you, nyguy, so, please don't take it as that.  But, if people are unwilling to go through the proper channels to make their voices heard, I am unwilling to back them up if I'm needed.  

Quote -  sigh  

If you've got a problem with someone's sigline, there are 2 things you can do.  

Sitemail the person.

Block siglines through your profile setup.

We treat siglines like gallery images.  So long as it doesn't violate the actual TOS, we leave it, and we state as such when people complain that they don't like so-and-so's sigline.  

sigh

I'm not personally offended by anything anyone puts in a sig line, and I really don't care one way or the other, certainly not enough to block them all out or to start emailing people asking them to do something about it.

What I did, was I pointed out what appears to me to be a contradiction between the posting guidelines and what is actually allowed.
And as you can see from earlier in this thread, the presence of such a sig line caused at least one person to blow up and post about it.

As for that last part, I didn't think that maybe you get complaints about sigs and follow up on them. What am I, psychic or something? ;-)

But just for the record, you're telling me that it is an official Renderosity policy to allow people to insult or provoke or incite others through their sig line?

If it's an outright insult, no, we don't allow it, and those get changed ASAP.  Like, I couldn't go around with a sigline stating "That MikeJ is a real douchebag".  And you couldn't say "That JenX is a real beyotch!" in your sigline.

However, as far as inciting...if someone's opinion incites you to anger, that's not their fault that you're angry.  Everyone has a right to an opinion, and to state it.  In this case, Geogress has determined that potentially angering someone is worth putting in his sigline.  Other people have slyer ways of stating what they feel, he's simply being matter of fact.  You'd be surprised at the amount of siglines with political themes that aren't blatant.  We're not stupid.  

I do believe you spelled "douchebag" wrong.
The correct spelling, as I understand it, is "duffelbag" :-D

 Nah, I spelled it right ;)

I like the 'beyotch!'

Haven't downloaded or visited freestuff since the last time I visited the site.  And was reading this very thread the last time I visited Renderosity.  Kind of like turning on the television and seeing 'I Love Lucy'.

-Rª