LOL.

Manly - as Richard and others have been pointing out on this and other threads, while no one can ever say "100% never make a mistake", DAZ don't tend to post over topics that are actually reasonable and OT - they delete posts and ban people over their attitude to fellow posters.

I've been sitting here for ages today installing a bunch of stuff from DAZ, and it occurred to me that a better installation strategy could be a huge bonus. For me, based on my current re-installation issues, that better installation strategy would need either zip files (made without errors) or cleverer installers that only ask me stuff once.

If uninstalation is required, I'd love to have it not produce hundreds or thousands of seperate uninstallers or hundreds of links to uninstallers, but one "DAZ Content" uninstaller that keeps it's own database of installed content.

Any uninstallation would seem to suffer, however, if the user moves the content around to organise it better - and this probably links in with DAZ_btfurner's point about ease of locating the product after installation.

If there's one problem that is common with all this content, it is difficulty in finding the content. There appear to be two basic options on this as far as I can see:

1. Have DAZ and their PAs (and Smith Micro and Renderosity and...) organise their content sensibly in the first place. OK, have a "DAZ People" character folder, but under that have "Victora 4" and under that have all her conforming clothing. Don't sort it by product name sometimes, or vendor sometimes, and strangle anyone who introduces the "!" character at the start of any name.

2. Have some kind of "metadata" arrangement, where the underlying data is a complete nightmare but you can get a sorted, organised "view" on the content by using some kind of database. DAZ's CMS is one version of this kind of thing.

The fact that stores have been either unwilling or unable to go route #1 has lead to people re-arranging their content - usually much more than is sensible to be honest, judging by posts - and this basiclaly breaks #2 (or at least simple versions of it) as the metadata doesn't fully understand what's happened to the content.

The problem is not a simple one IMHO, which is probably why DAZ can't tell you what their answer is yet in detail. It's because they don't know. They have to weigh up all the various pros and cons. Being in a position wher eI am installing so much this holiday season, I'm inclined to think that either .zip files or a betetr, more intelligent installation system would be a boon.

One of those is easy to do, but is useless for product removal. The other is going to be very tricky to do without screwing it up - and to be honest, experience of DAZ installers to date doesn't fill me with confidence that DAZ can manage a much more complex arrangement that won't leave some with the shakes.

A superb solution, of course, would also involve other stores - Content Parasite, Rendo, AND the Evil Empire all using the same standard. THAT would be amazing, assuming it avoided all the nasty pitfalls.