Quote -
(by thinkcooper)
Perhaps if there were a little more civility all around, Rendo would be an easier place to participate in.

Well really, what do you expect? Have you spent much time reading non-Poser forums? Lack of civility is more often than not the general rule on internet forums, particularly where a product is the topic. As I'm sure you're well aware, you can't please everyone.
But it is by far not just Poser that has this situation. There are probably far more unhappy Max, Maya and other high end 3D users out there and you can find the same "uncivil" behavior on may forums devoted to those and other products.

But you also have to consider you haven't exactly gone out of your way to endear yourself or your products to the community. The Poser 5 fiasco is one example, and while maybe not quite as bad, now Poser 8, too. All the other versions seemed more or less fine, but those are two striking examples of why there might be a good deal of animosity towards the ever- traveling band of Poser developers.
Poser 5 was rush released when you guys were all but broke and out of business. You foisted an unfinished and probably rather untested version upon this community you love so much, with much ado and fanfare, just to get some cash flow.
And Poser 8 - released just on time, immediately after the presentation at SIGGRAPH, bugs and all. Bugs that you knew were there, as you were already working on a SR1 and already had a hotfix even as the raw version was going out the door. But I imagine it would have been kind of late (and expensive) by that point to have all those DVDs replaced...
And while there were a whole lot of people jumping up and down for joy over it, there were also quite a few people for whom it wouldn't work, and even now still won't. Sure, you have the refund deal, but that's not really a solution. People wanted to buy it and use it, not have a refund.
And then there's the matter of all the IDL hoopla. Says on your site "photorealism". Uh-huh. But everybody who tried it couldn't get jack out of it at first, because you neglected to mention that half the settings were hidden away in an undocumented script. Not to mention that the hotfix was supposed to be included in the download, but wasn't.

And that poll, asking people how much money they make, for one, not including a suggestions field for another. (You could at least have made a token gesture and just ignored the hundreds of suggestions you would have received, you know.)
But instead you came jollypopping along like your poll was the best thing since sliced bread and then seemed surprised when it wasn't as well-received as you'd have liked.

But to recap:
Poser 5 : Tragic release just to bring in some cash, figuring the community loved you so much they would understand.
Poser 8: Wasn't even ready for release, but I imagine you were pressed to make that deadline for right after the SIGGRAPH presentation.

I could go on and on about Poser's problems, but I'm trying to stay civil here and see no real point in it anyway as that's not the subject here, but I will at least mention there are still many long time bugs and issues that haven't even been touched. Things like that also make customers unhappy.

But to go back to your statement, i.e., "Perhaps if there were a little more civility all around, Rendo would be an easier place to participate in."

That does sound whiney. I mean seriously, as "the face of Poser", do you really expect to be greeted everywhere you go like some kind of well-loved king or something, considering your history?
Or are you saying you choose not to participate as much as you'd like because there isn't enough back-patting and fawning as you'd like and too much meanness and animosity for you to be able to function?
The days of Poser as a cult app and you as its Reverend Jim Jones are long over. A decade ago when this place was Poserforum.com and you were being worshiped as the can-do-no-wrong Poser God by the likes of Willow and Grey are over, never to be seen again. Poser got kind of big somewhere along the way, and in spite of all your inadvertent attempts to ruin it, has prevailed, but only because there was always someone else willing to bail you out and fix it up good enough for another version.

I'm sure you're a great guy, and sincere about your love for Poser. I have little doubt about that. But if you're surprised why Poser and yourself are greeted with so much recurring animosity, maybe you are just a little too detached from your user base. And if that's the case, maybe you ought to hang out only in places where you are not questioned or challenged.

For the record, I think you guys are on the right track for Poser's development, and I think Pro and 8 both have some really great qualities. I hope to see you guys eventually bring it up to its full potential. There is no other app that comes close to Poser for what it does, and it would be great to see you guys stop dicking around with it and just do it up right, and for once have a major release that doesn't work for only half the people and needs 6 months and 5 patches to live up to its hype.