Quote - I was given some advice - I suppose - with the intent to convert me over to DS:

"And to Poser users... if I can learn Poser, then I KNOW you can learn DS"

...to which I responded:
*I will have to take issue with you on that... talk about a closed shop! I tried to get some information on Shader Mixer: the information I was -- seemingly reluctantly -- doled out was anything but helpful. All I was told was that there were no tutorials. Sadly. :glare:

There is a world of difference between this forum (DS) and the Poser forum. The atmosphere of exclusivity reigns supreme here: whilst sharing secrets about how to generate genuine materials in Poser ABOUND in the (I'll let you guess the name) forum, it seems that someone wants to keep the inner working of the Daz's equivalent of the Poser material room a secret reserved for their select group of PAs.

I bought DSAdv with the express purpose to learn and develop shaders for Daz Studio. Based on the answers I've gotten, I feel completely distanced from this community: held at arm's length. I am accustomed to receiving respect and honest answers in my other community. Those-That-Know actually want to see people create something new and different and use Poser's wizardry in the material room and the cloth room to show it off.*

I can't be bothered to learn a programme where when I asked for help on THE reason I bought DSAdv -- Shader Mixer -- the only answer I got is: "there is no tutorial" when it is perfectly clear people are developing sophisticated shaders so someone knows something... they just ain't telling.

---Still Fuming over a monumental waste of time---

I assume you've read what was written after this post of yours.

To suggest that DS users are somehow more selfish than Poser users does not make sense to me. Honestly, how would such a situation come about?

I wish we had more bagginsbills, the Carrara camp could certainly use more of those as well :)