so there is a little bit of a point there, but there are a few flipsides to it as well.  There are too many people who equate free with garbage regardless of quality.  I think the bias also goes the other way, where if the exact same product that has been released for free as a generous community project was to have been launched 'for profit' that some of the people who shun 'amateur community freebie crap' would give it serious consideration.  I have watched a parade of absolute garbage released for sale for v4 and nobody seems to mind, people seem happy to pick it up.  

As for the 'scrutiny sheild' its true to a certain degree but really, its more in the expected courtesey factor than the scrutiny being off limits.  When something is for sale there is a lot more tolerance for customer to be dicks about the product.  That has nothing to do with scrutiny or quality, that is all about customer entitlement to be an ass because they forked over, or are being asked to fork over, a little cash.  With a free product there is a certain generosity involved that causes some folk to self censor their feedback/critique.  However we are a community of artists and thoughtful constructive feedback/critique generally accepted well.  Certain members sometimes come to these discussions with nothing to contribute but negativity and thats when the 'freebie sheild' really kicks in.  

Its not so much that a freebie should be beyond reproach, its just less tolerable to be an ass about it.  To my mind there shouldn't be tolerance for people to be asses on the paid side either, but thats the lumps you take by being in business unfortunately.

Quote - > Quote - Now, from what I've (sadly) seen in Poser so far? All too many people put in 'good enough' into a project that has a ton of potential. Add-ons are introduced and trumpeted that contain numerous errors and deficiencies, and the result only detracts from the product itself. I'm not going to name names (people tend to get all upset when I do that) but suffice it to say that nearly every community project in Poserdom has suffered this problem, and it ends up slowly killing the project.

I agree. One problem seems to be that community projects often produce free items and sometimes that generosity becomes a shield.  A freebie is considered beyond reproach and not subject to the same level of scrutiny as a fully commercial version. 

I think it's lovely and generous that people create products for free.  But, me, I'd rather pay $150 for a very good figure than nothing for one that I can't use in half my renders without learning how to fix jcms, etc.  Others obviously feel differently...