I still don't get what's the point to submit a damn zip file with a txt file inside telling that visit a site to download the stuff? I think is a lack of respect and netiquette for the Renderosity's members do this kind of actions. I guess it is easier if they show a picture and tell us where to download over the forums that makes you download a F#$%% zip with just a txt inside. Admins, could you remove this kind of spam from the freestuff section??? Thanks In advance for the attention.

Attached Link: http://www.propsguild.com

Or you could bypass the freestuff alltogether and make an announcement in here when you have new goodies on your site. That's what I do, I figure anyone who cares will find it sooner or later anyways :) -Trav P.S. Hey Virus, long time no chat, how are things going?

Hey Traveler!!!!! Yes long time not chat with you friend, the things are alright over here!. How are the things with you?? I downloaded your dragon morphs and they are awesome!!! (as always). Hope to catch you some day at our little chat channel :) Best Regardings Virus

COPYPASTE of my reply in C&D: It is their way to try to get around the lack of html access in the free stuff. You are right, that if they would just direct to the download, it would be much better. I don't mind too much going through the rigamoroll if it ends up working in a real usable download. I don't like it when I go through all the hoops and end up with a screwed up file that doesn't work.

FaerieGurl: True, but alot of people do read the forums too, I guess it's one of those "six of one, half a dozen of the other" situations :) Virus: Things are better, I am out of hiding again :) I will pop by the chat sometime, can't tonight.. I am wired on mountain dew and neck deep in half a dozen projects I need to finish.

Traveler, got any Cheetos to go with the Mt Dew?

I wish, I am on my 2nd 2 liter for the day and I am to the point I have stopped blinking :)

I found it today via the Forum :) Nice eye selection. I donwloaded it today, but haven't had the time to use them yet. I did look at most of them, very neat! -Trav

Traveler: I know the feeling friend, have to make a dozen of things and sometimes i don't know where to start first :) Nice to see ya around. Take care friend. wyrwulf: I agreed with ya, but the process should be easy and fast, specially for people who has slow conection as myself, imagine to download a file and then check where you must go after it?. FaerieGurl: I agreed with Traveler, a lot of people visit the forums, I use to visit firs the Poser forum before visit the freestuff section, but oh well that's what i do, and I'm not telling that people should do this.

Virus, I have also been frustrated by downloading a ZIP file, only to find directions to the actual download. Sometimes, as with FaerieGurl's (THANK YOU) eye textures, it's worth it. I know that the administration here is working on the ability to have HTML links in free stuff. Maybe a little tolerance until it is set up would be appropriate.

Sorry Virus, My stuff is GeoCities. They provide the free space with the understanding that you see their ad when you visit. This is a reasonable requirement, it costs nothing. I also have a personal ad with my stuff. This way it is not something for nothing. Direct link and this is bypassed. I have a basic mistrust of open generosity, I cannot figure out the motive. With me, it will be something like this , or nothing at all. This way I do not entirely feel like I am being taken advange of or taken for granted, a situation that may not bother some of you, but does me.

Attached Link: http://www.faerieguild.com/

Personally, I can think of eight or ten reasons why someone with the talent & generosity to offer their work for free might find it difficult or impossible to offer off-site linking to their downloads (from restrictions imposed by the hosting domain to the necessity of alerting/informing anyone of necessary clarifications /qualifications /prerequisites that would otherwise impair the utility of the file. I agree with faeriegurl that opening a zip days or months later only to find a text file is a likely result of that kind of posting (frustrating, would be putting it mildly). I'd think it would help a lot, if the submission screen for people posting free stuff had a simple check-box if the download required an off-site visit. Then the posting in freestuff would have some standardized alert format (a colored box, a boldface notice with a "click here to visit hosting site"-type button, or something of that nature. It would be something for the admins to determine if it were worthwhile, & then to do. I have noticed more & more free webspace domains are going belly-up, & those remaining are resorting to more restrictions on permitted use (They can't sell the adspace that pays their bills, if no-one is visiting the sites with those ads), so this will only become more & more common as time goes on. Unless some member has gigs & gigs of available space to offer as an alternate host for downloads, I think a standardized alert on such postings would be the only fair way to allow a lot of generous members share their creations without confusing & agravating the intended benificiaries of their generosity. Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth. ps - On the question of posting in freestuff - vs - just announcing in the forum, I appreciate it both ways! G (errrr, yes, ahem!) What I mean is, I haven't been frequenting Renderocity that long, & was visiting nearly daily, mostly for freestuff, for quite some time before I even realized the forum was here! Or that Marketplace meant "here there be great stuffs to buy". Now I frequent all 3. I Try to make a contribution to the forums, as well as Supporting the community with Marketplace purchases (perhaps by years-end I'll be comfortable enough with the quality of my work, and have enough un-interrupted time to create a few postings to freestuff as well).

Sorry for the inacuracy, FaerieGurl, what you did was the easiest way to do it, and stay within the guidelines of Renderosity Free Stuff.

My guess is Virus was talking about Era free gate. Only problem with the 'my site won't let you link' defense is that several of Era's items have the real file instead of readme.zip file. I don't want to knock Era, cause I d/l his earlier walls and they are great but I didn't like the bait and switch much either. Especially since I went to his site twice before opening the zip.

More than one site. One with remote linking but limited bandwidth. I did not anticipate how much bandwidth a 12K thumbnail on Free Stuff would use. A zip with a readme text is probably microscopic. The one I did with an HTML page with a link was 0.5K . My ISP perk space could stand that, although not too many thumbnails = 250meg/mo. It is not what I used. Even this may not work with Geocities. Duane Moody says he has lost his site until Oct. because a bot did not like his amount of usage. He was using Renderosities remote linking trick - lets hope this was what triggered the bot. If direct page views are what they are after then high traffic at the site should be the point. However, downloading zips does not constitute page views. My paid site has a usage tracker which reports page views and bandwidth. Could be a bot was set to look for an imbalance at Geocities. Christmas may soon be over.

(I was kinda wondering about that as well cookie.) ------- Or, R'osity could once again reconsider allowing FS links to html pages. (Ok, same song, 157th verse - sorry RC)

We cannot link to Renderosity, that is why I try to give a direct link in my posting here at the forums, to go to our web page that hosts the freebies. We loose alot of people by being restricted this way and are hoping to find a better way for people to access the freebies page. Also, it is bad because there are some forums that really, really frown on us doing it that way. They said to us that we are taking up valuble space of formums by posting info regarding freebies that are not hosted here. We actually are a little nervous about posting freebies for fear we will get another nasty letter. Sharen

That's actually something I love a LOT about this forum. Aside from a strict anti-warez policy (Glad of that, for that crap would DESTROY the forum for me!)and a gentle reminder now & again, to keep discussions in the proper forum, I haven't seen ANY attempt to restrict posting content. (If there is any censorship, It's invisible to me). I appreciate the oportunity to read postings by outside developers about their new products! It fosters a greater sense of freedom, of sharing, of community here than I have seen ANYWHERE ELSE on the net among poser/3D sites of any kind! I like having basically a one-stop clearinghouse for nearly everything relating to Poser! Bravo Renderocity Admins!!!! (Boy, talk about O/T postings; sorry if my appreciation bubbled over a bit there, but I Honestly enjoy this site, this forum, more than anywhere I visit on the web.) I LOVE this! Render On! ;-))

It did not happen in this forum, but it did in another and we got an email to boot. Sharen

now that was just palin rude Sharen. considering that the products you make are very well thought out and modelled, and you also offer free models that are every bit as good as the purchasable ones. perhaps the person that wrote you was a disgruntled online store person? though why they'd take it out on you I'll never understand... on behalf of the rest of us.. thank you and Mike very much 8 ) only the best for thee and thine

Thanks Wizzard, we appreciate your words, but that happened in June....long time ago, we have all but forgotten the nasty words, we have not forgotten the act. That is why we won't let that happen to anyone else. We love to encourage others in their models, morphs, textures or mats. Let's face it, this is not actually the money maker of the world, it is Art, that we all love, and as far as linking to others sites, tracking down freebies to download, time is not of the essence. In the wake of Sept. 11th, we feel, we should all slow down and enjoy every second of everyday, and enjoy each other. Sharen :)

Not to be pushy, but at 3-D Arena it is set up so that you can link to html pages instead of zips... With of course the stipulation that if you link to spamming pages full of adds or porn your item will be dropped. That solves the direct linking issue. Thanks to April for her work to make that possible!

Changing FreeStuff so that Renderosity is hosting the thumbs, and you can point to a web page will be implemented soon. We have a large list of new features we are working on. Please be patient.

Excellent news Russ! Thanks for that!!

Makes sence to me, Bandwith is worth alot now days and bandwith providers are very selfish about it when the bandwith gets clogged up with multiple downloads.

Mesh, remember, we have to pay for bandwidth too.

What?? you mean I'm going to have to learn a new song? Great news RC!

Jaager: GeoCities does NOT pull your site for a month. Rumors of my death have been GREATLY exaggerated. At most, the Toybox goes down for a day or so. Think of it this way: GeoCities is entitled to allocate their fair definition of total bandwidth. If my site starts hogging it, they're entitled to see to it the other sites get their fair share. I can't complain about that. Much.

Sorry Duane. Their time range is shorter than I guessed. They are kinder than an ISP would be it seems. I am glad to hear this. You have a lot of thumbnails out there linked to Geo? Although it is worse on the first day or so, still a large number can add up. You done much with MOR donors yet? It really works great for faces and characters.

My thumbnails aren't on GeoCities but another server. I'm debating moving the actual files there as well, since the other server hasn't complained about the thumbnail traffic. The site will in all likelihood remain where it is, and if it has to move the clik.to/dtoybox URL will remain the same. MOR donors? I have no idea what you're talking about.

Hi, Well, I've never had a problem with opening the file, etc. You can usually tell anyway, as the download box tells you the length of the download, (and the time taken to download is another good indicator :) OK, so it's a bit annoying, but you're getting the model for free anyway so... Whatever makes it easier for the creators is fine by me :) later jb

You can now link to web page in the Free Stuff section. Thumbnail hosting should come in the next few days.

Thank you. I really appreciate this and I'm sure others here do too.