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Community Center F.A.Q (Last Updated: 2025 Feb 10 11:31 pm)
Subject: The state of the site and forums
Hi Laurie,
Well first off I'm sorry you feel this way. We have undergone a lot of transition as well as working on some exciting new things recently so we are all trying to adjust and I hope you can understand that this is a hectic time.
The chat will be addressed but when looking at the list of priorities unfortunately there are multiple important items ahead of it. Not saying the chat isn't important but in weighing the other priorities we have to focus on them in that way. But it will be addressed, that's definite.
As for the community, membership and the marketplace, overall activity is up. In some areas of the site it's up more than it ever has been so that is great news:)
We will be doing the annual surveys as we always do and we welcome suggestions.
Have a great night:)
Stacey
I think that some of it probably has to do with the variety of social networking available now, too. Time was when people came here to discuss both their art and there personal going's on; with so many platforms for discussing personal issues, there's naturally going to be less of that going on here. People have more choices, but still only the same number of minutes in the day.
Trolls are a fact of life on the 'net, and it does take a lot of work to keep a rein on them. It's hard to strike a good balance, though, and I commend all the hard workin' folks here for what they accomplish. It's awfully easy to go the other way and create a regimented, all-business-and-no-play site, too. CG Society is like that, for example, and it does what it does well, but Renderosity's niche is being about art AND about being fun, I think.
That said, I think the "fun" part is up to us even more than the mods. They provide the playground, and they do their part to keep the bullies settled down and unpleasant influences out, but we have to keep it alive.
To my way of thinking, that means posting fun news and personal tidbits here in the community center, posting our own, just-for-fun challenges, asking people how they're doing, and so on. That sort of leadership on our part will encourage other people to join in, and that's what makes this a great place.
Trolls are a fact of life on the 'net, and it does take a lot of work to keep a rein on them.
*Except NOTHING is being done. we have thread after thread locked due to the same trolls over and over again. the latest was last night, a thread started by vintorix, by his own admission in the thread, to troll users. this is not new, he's doing it all the damn time! and he's just one of a core group.
Example of why people might not be posting here...
I had an issue, dealing with 3 new enities, Win7Pro, 64 bit, and PP2012. Just as I was getting comfy in PP2012 in XP Pro 32 bit, I built a new computer, and then life turned very wicked! Nothing would load or be recognized. Numerous conflicts and failures to function. I was so exhausted trying to understand the problems. So I went and asked in the poser forum how to deal with all three after a lot of frustration and time trying to get them all synced together on my own. 'Some' people were incredibly rude and condescending to my issue. There was a definite "Holier then Thou" attitude on "New Users" and how put out it made them feel.
I'm not a new user, but new to Win 7, 64 bit technology and the issues this did cause with PP2012. Now that I have my settings and protocols set correctly I have no issues. And found out about the Daz ini file mess, from another site, not here. But I also got no assistance from 'some' people. The idea of the poser forum partly is to help with issues, as well as discuss different scenarios in poser.
If someone asks for help, and this is the type of 'help' they receive, well no wonder no one goes into the forums much. If a person asks a question and they are treated so badly (*or as I often see many times ignored!) they say "Hey, peeps over at so & so are a whole lot nicer! Why am I here?" Well there you go!
Now if it seems the Mods are MIA, well step up and be nice to people that ask for help, or if you see a true Newb post a question, answer it insted of letting it set with 1.089 people (*exaggerated for effect!) who looked, and not one who could post a simple, "I don't have an answer for you, but I can try to help (*or refer them to a place where they will get help)." But if no one reaches out, you all know it makes someone new feel bad!!! Shame!
I have been here for a lot of years, seen the 'ebb and flow' of the "Old Timers" that have so much disdain for newbs and 'others'. So that could be why it seems quiet.... this happens every 2-3 years. Then comes the 'I am leaving and never coming back' phase. This is the way it has always been.
Capt. Jack is right. It is up to ALL of us to make this community fun and active. If it takes a villiage (*sometimes complete with idiots), then that is what makes a community!
I have been extremely lucky to have very helpful people, who have guided and taught me how to work in several programs. I have hopefully helped some people myself. At least I try, or I also will post that I see their post, and I will try to help if I can. Mostly I have made friends this way here. But surprisingly there is a large number of people with odd attitudes and well you can only ignore those.
My only complaint about RO now? I wish there were a lot more activities, and participation threads.
I have a suggestion. On the say Wednesday sneak preview day, have a best render contest for those who buy the product and the vendor sellects the winner! When you win you get some little freebie thing or other from the vendor as an award! Boosts sales and also postings! Must post by the following Monday, and the winner is announced on Tuesday! Hey a suggestion is at least participation and shows that the person cares. I think everyone should try to add a suggestion for improvements & participation. Gives you a vested interest. ;)
~Ariana~
Is there water in your future or is
it being shipped away to be resold to you?
Water, the ultimate
weapon...
www.futurefantasydesign.com
I get the impression that Rendo is in the process of taking a step back to take ten steps ahead. Keeping up with latest and greatest on the Internet is a daunting task.
LukeA
How is the activity on most of these forums Rendos fault?
Maybe it is the fault of the developers of Vue or the users of it? Maybe it's the vast competition Vue has? Maybe it is the quickly evolving social media?
LukeA
Well, I don't think it's the staff's fault really, at least not directly of course. I think there's nothing on the site that's interesting people enough to participate in the forums anymore. No monthly/weekly challenges, no interviews, no active lobbying for tutorials. It's been a wasteland basically ;). Put all that together and it could be construed that the powers that be either no longer care about the site or don't have time for it. Either one has the same effect.
Laurie
Well I know they have had some recent big changes which will slow things down. It also seems to me the changes being made are for the long term success of the site. Some things will suffer when changes are occuring.
I understand if the forums were a place you loved and they dried up for some reason. I wish I could help there. My only advice would be to try and figure it out. Message some of the formerly active mebers and ask them what's up? It could be a simple thing to fix or follow.
L
LukeA
Quote - That is exactl correct Luke .
Laurie I can assure you one more time that so far this year membership is UP, sales are UP, overall gallery, forum and freestuff activity are UP.
We do have some great stuff coming this year.
forums are up? I must be looking at the wrong ones. I'm seeing Max, Blender, Poser, etc all down..... which ones are up? and no, I'm not being sarcastic. I'm wondering for real what I'm not seeing.
Thank you Laurie, that is all I'm asking:)
Khai, our reports/stats are a total, not seperated out. We are slowly going to be trying to get activity staying on the up in each area with a starting point of the previous years activity which so far this year is happening.
As I stated we have lots of things in the works and that includes the Poser area. This is already being planned out by Poser staff and new staff that will be brought on. This is a time of great transition so please bear with us as we all adjust to our new roles.
Thank you
Khai, our reports/stats are a total, not seperated out. We are slowly going to be trying to get activity staying on the up in each area with a starting point of the previous years activity which so far this year is happening.
what does that actually mean? your seeing what exactly? posts are down and dropping.. so what are these stats based on? views? calls by search engines?
some examples - the max forum has seen no posts in 2 days. Photoshop in 3 days. there are many forums that have seen no posts in over 6 months. others, such has Hexagon and Blender see 5-6 posts a day, it that.
so, call me cynical, I am wondering at the accuracy of the stats your seeing. it's not exactly tallying with what is actually being seen by using the forums.... I think you may want to take a good look. seriously.
Well fact is there used to be pages and pages of topics in the Vue forum, it's down to just one now, and even that page gets smaller by the day..It's like a ghost Town in there..
It used to take me a while to catch up with all the forums I look at on a daily basis, now it takes just a couple of minutes...
Hard to see how it's increasing when the evidence suggests otherwise..
Injustice will be avenged.
Cofiwch Dryweryn.
Quote - Khai, our reports/stats are a total, not seperated out. We are slowly going to be trying to get activity staying on the up in each area with a starting point of the previous years activity which so far this year is happening.
what does that actually mean? your seeing what exactly? posts are down and dropping.. so what are these stats based on? views? calls by search engines?
some examples - the max forum has seen no posts in 2 days. Photoshop in 3 days. there are many forums that have seen no posts in over 6 months. others, such has Hexagon and Blender see 5-6 posts a day, it that.
so, call me cynical, I am wondering at the accuracy of the stats your seeing. it's not exactly tallying with what is actually being seen by using the forums.... I ink you may want to take a good look. seriously.
It means just what I said, it combines every forum we have and tallies forum posts in any given window of time. I'm comparing them to growth month to month.
There are things being worked on as we speak (I think I already said this in this thread) that will help increase activity throughout the site even more..
You are welcome to Start some discussions on some positive productive topic related issues in whatever forum(s) you'd like :)
I've been a lurker here for a long time but am now trying to participate more. I really love the info and generous people here and would be very sad to see the forums go. Any ideas for making things more fun and active would be great. I look forward to what is being planned for the future.
By the way, I really do not like the archive feature in the forum. This makes the forums look even more inactive to newcomers. Those old threads contain some good info and it is a shame to hide them away and people new to the site may not know about the archives.
I agree about the archive function. Maybe there should be a highlighted thread forum or something... too early sorry coffree not in brain
Quote - I've been a lurker here for a long time but am now trying to participate more. I really love the info and generous people here and would be very sad to see the forums go. Any ideas for making things more fun and active would be great. I look forward to what is being planned for the future.
By the way, I really do not like the archive feature in the forum. This makes the forums look even more inactive to newcomers. Those old threads contain some good info and it is a shame to hide them away and people new to the site may not know about the archives.
LukeA
my feeling: one should ignore those who are buggin. just try chillin, not illin. they post a message - ignore it, nobody forcinya to read it. other option: start one's own site from which one can exclude those one doesn't like.
in re: archives, anything older than a year (poser) is likely obsolete and is the wrong method for current versions of poser, given that this is a poser website.
oops, forgot to mention - chat room always works for me. maybe those for whom it don't work should try to change their approach to the chat room, rather than vice versa.
I agree with alot of what has been said here, as a DS user I find the state of the Daz Studio forum abysmal, the staff picks are done ever few weeks instead of everyweek, the moderators and staff seem to rarely if ever visit and most questions are answered by a moderator from another site.
I realise that this is primarily a Poser site but I'm beginning to wonder if there is a place for DS users at all.
Quote -
in re: archives, anything older than a year (poser) is likely obsolete and is the wrong method for current versions of poser, given that this is a poser website.
because we can all spend the money for the latest versions everytime. sorry no. the archives are needed.
Quote - oops, forgot to mention - chat room always works for me. maybe those for whom it don't work should try to change their approach to the chat room, rather than vice versa.
try spending more than a few minutes in there. we're not imagining the bugs.
Quote - oops, forgot to mention - chat room always works for me. maybe those for whom it don't work should try to change their approach to the chat room, rather than vice versa.
Change my approach? Like not going there anymore?
;)
To experience the bugs one must frequent the chat longer then just a minute.
We follow lessons there, learn eachother techniques and it's very unfortunate when you keep losing what the teacher says when the chat freezes!
Quote - in re: archives, anything older than a year (poser) is likely obsolete and is the wrong method for current versions of poser, given that this is a poser website.
There are more forums concerning other topics than there are forums dealing with Poser. Some of those forums look absolutely empty due to the archive function and some have only one or two threads. It does not give a newcomer a very good impression of an active site.
Plus, you may be able to upgrade your programs with every new version but many people can not. For example, information regarding Photoshop CS3 still interests me and some software I own goes back even further. For a long time I was using Modo 302 and have just upgraded to Modo 601 so earlier info was of interest to me.
Poser forum does seem to be dying a slow death. Of course, while some people complain that it's the trolls who are responsible and the mods aren't around to be seen, I sometimes think it's that threads are locked at the first hint of controversy, making the entire forum seem like a place to post only cautious and positive thoughts.
Maybe it's the inconsistency in moderation that drives people away. We have no idea what's permitted. I've wateched with some curiousity as one thread got locked because someone went off the rails and completely misinterpreted another user's posts as insulting when they clearly weren't -- while another thread contained several posts of lengthy overtly sexist and offensive ranting, but was allowed to remain active.
[ETA: I know it's hard to enforce a consistent policy when you have several people with different levels of tolerance for conflict or interpretation of same. I do not intend to rag on or complain about the moderators who surely have quite a difficult job keeping things from descending into chaos at times.]
As a result, I'm simply not going to get involved in any discussion that looks remotely interesting. Locked threads punish everyone who posts in them, not just the problem users, and when there are too many locked threads, it's easy to lose interest because you never know if it's worth bothering to post when the thread may be locked an hour later.
I suggest deleting individual posts that are a problem and then if any given user has a certain number of posts deleted in this fashion, suspend their posting privileges.
I guess the downside of that is that paying customers do not like to be suspended or banned from forums, so it's easier to just punish everyone equally. But the result of equal punishment, alas, may well be a loss of activity.
If it comes down to a balancing act between keeping forums going and keeping sales going, I can't blame Rendo for choosing the latter. As a customer who buys most of her 3d content here, I'd sacrifice the forums to keep the sales going too. But I do miss them when they were more active.
PoserPro 2014, PS CS5.5 Ext, Nikon D300. Win 8, i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz, AMD Radeon 8570, 12 GB RAM.
Honestly I think what you guys are noticing are the symptoms of things happening on a much larger scale than a few trolls or admins and is way beyond the control of Rendo.
How much has DAZ Studio effected the Poser forum? How many people changed over to DS? Are there other places people are going, Facebook perhaps? And maybe the whole 3D scene is changing. Maybe peoples interests and needs have shifted.
I have noticed for all the years I have been into computer art and game development (over 20 now) that things shift and change in unpredictable ways. Waaaayyyyy back when I developed games using few pixels and ridgid development standards and limited this and limited that. As games progressed I was able to use images larger than I ever imagined and shaders and materials not remotley posible a few years earlier. I literally wrote the book on a lot of this stuff and I am still surprised by the speed and unforeseen directions things evolve. So here I am 20 years later and I am developoing art for iPhones and iPads and I am back to using the same limited, optimized, and structured ways I used 20 years earlier. I thought those days were gone but all of a sudden those long abandoned skills are in demand!
Got off course a little there, sorry :) Anyway I think things might just be changing on a grand scale.
LukeA
LukeA
the users are gonna be monitoring the chat room to see if anything correlates with the occurrence of the problem(s). my guess would be some transitory issues associated with heavy server load. could it be related to somebody with multiple usernames, all originating from the same IP address, trying to access the site from multiple browser windows? at least that's something y'all can check in the logs.
Quote - could it be related to somebody with multiple usernames, all originating from the same IP address, trying to access the site from multiple browser windows? at least that's something y'all can check in the logs.
I don't think any of us who frequent chat do that. The people I know in there have just one username...that's it. I've been using the same name lo these many years. We've had no problems with someone deliberately trying to screw with chat, if that's what you mean. The only problems we've had so far (pertaining to people and not software) are morons being rude to the other chat room members. And that hasn't been for quite awhile that I'm aware.
Laurie
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It's really wretched, yanno? One almost gets the feeling that no one cares about the place anymore. Chat still isn't fixed, the Poser forum is overrun by trolls that are allowed to run rampant, the posts are declining and seems like people are just leaving the place. Mods and coordinators are total no-shows...three mods in the Poser forum, 5 coords and you never see any of them? Well, maybe Kim when she's closing a thread and Kendra now and then. Don't get me wrong, I love you guys...lol...but the site just has the feel of an empty shell. Especially the Poser forum, where it all started. It's sorta depressing ;).
No challenges anymore, no interviews...it's like everyone's gone and the members are the last to know. Some of us have a lot of ideas to get ppl to the site and participate. Have you ever asked any of the members what they'd like to see? Is it too late? Is the new site also the new baby?
Inquiring minds wanna know.
Laurie