I have really reduced the number of downloads that I grab here since the change.  There are a number of reasons for that.

First, the download speed here can really crawl.  Today, I was getting a download speed of 12k/s on a 5M line.  It's seldom better.  It takes a lot longer to get stuff from here now than it used to, and if it's over a meg or two, I usually kill the download out of disgust.

Second, I have to alter the file name, removing the member name and numbers, from every single file that I download.  It adds up, especially in terms of aggravation.  It just doesn't fit my archive's cataloging system, and it's a constant reminder of the changes that I consider a move in the wrong direction.

Third, as I predicted, there are a lot more merchant add-on freebies, many for items I haven't nor will likely purchase.  It bugs me that the freebie sections are now largely just another part of the store.

There are more, but I'll stop.  It's been proven to me that it does no good to go on, so I'll cease with my reasons.

As far as I'm concerned, the freebie section has been ruined, and I definitely don't plan on changing my mind about my no longer distributing freebies here.

I realize that it doesn't bother some people, and I don't want to take away from their enjoyment of the new system.  But for me, there is very little enjoyment left here.  I feel that all the effort that I have put into this place for the last decade is now all for naught.

Thanks for ruining one of the last sites where I was still active after a decade plus of service to the 3D community.

 Sorry you feel that way.. ...

I'm getting 430 KB/sec on a 15/5 line. Takes me less than a minute to download a 45 mb file. Not sure where the issues you're describing are coming from, but from what I can tell the bottleneck isn't on Renderosity's end.

Your measurement for downloading is a bit vague. Is it Kb/s or KB/s? If it's 12 Kb then that would be the equivalent of a 14.4 baud modem. Here's a website with more info on download measurement speeds. It's an older site but the info is still pertinent:

About Network Speed.

I happen to actually like having the vendor's name at the beginning of the file. Saves me the trouble of remembering. It's not exactly like my archive system, either, but, after all, it's a freebie - so I don't sweat it.

As Bobby* said, sorry you feel that way.

Personally, I like the new filename system. Always peeved me when people would upload a Runtime.zip file....  Gahhh, the laziness! That is one of my pet peeves, along with thumbs.db files...

I have no idea if they dl fast or slow. I haven't really used the freestuff since it changed, as most of the people whose freebies I used to like don't seem to post there any more.

I don't like having marketplace items at the top of the page where you can click on them by accident, imagining that it's a free item. If I want to buy stuff - and I do buy a lot of stuff here - then I go to the marketplace.

The point of the freestuff has always seemed to me to be to find something good and exciting that you don't have to pay for.

Everyone loves a bargain, no? And there's no better bargain than free :D I don't think I buy less at the store because I dl freebies. If anything, it means I'm in the frame of mind where I'm thinking - now I can go and buy so-and-so, because I got that other thing I needed for nothing.

Now the freestuff, as Fringewood says, seems like just an adjunct to and an advertisement for the store. It's depressing and I don't bother with it, I go surf the Japanese sites instead and look for nice freebies there. So in fact, this move has taken me further away from the Renderosity store, not encouraged me to go there!

 It's 12 KB/s, which relates roughly to a 100k line in comparison to the 5M capacity I have.  (I've been working at internet design and interactive server development, as well as 3D, since the early 90's, so lessons I don't need.  Transfer rate is usually in expressed in bytes, whereas BAUD capacity is usually in bits, since audio signal rate isn't octal digital.)

Renderosity is rather infamous for it's sporadic bottlenecking because of high traffic on the server complex on which it resides, so transfer rate may be quite good sometimes and absolutely horrid at others.  The least that could have been done was to choose a file server on a backbone with a dependable outflow, instead of the very iffy connection it's using now.  (I know this bandwidth syndrome well from the decade I've been here.)

My domain sits on a backbone, and there is never a router bottleneck for downloading my files like there is now at R'osity.  My direct downloads are never slow, always at a user's capacity.

All I can say is that except for Nursoda's work, I don't buy at the Marketplace any more.  And if Nursoda sold his goods elsewhere, that is where I'd buy them.  This has driven my money away.

This has created a pretty intense backlash.  Not the first, no doubt not the last.  But it's my last.  I've had enough of the business model here.  I've had enough of most of the business models in the community, because the decisions like this are not made with nearly enough foresight about the repercussions.

I'm bone tired of the lack of sensitivity by the stores.

As for naming, I catalog by what the item is, for utility searchability in scene assembly, not who made it.  That's what the read-mes are for.  Yeah, the occasional runtime.zip files needed to be renamed, but not every stinking file name had to be altered front and back.  I want all my eggs in one folder, not scattered all over the place.  Renaming files from here now is a real pain.  It has to be something very special for me to grab it here now.

As much as I'd like to get over the resentment, it's there every time I download a file.