If people are speaking to you in a manner that constitutes a flame, then report it to the site administrators as it is against the site TOS to do this and it is the DUTY of the site admin to put a stop to it - regardless of their personal feelings on any subject they are bound by their own TOS. I see some worried people in this thread but I don't see a flame, coupla sparks maybe. :) What is happening privately, as I said before I am not privvy to nor am I interested. That does not concern me. I am part of this thread and other than one warm moment above I have not flamed you, neither have many others. A generalisation again and I misread it to mean "here" not "in private". Sorry. You have not stated you were leaving, but you gave a strong indication you were. A place to go, a place where... and similar phrases used by you and Dmentia (who seems to speak with some authority so is presumably involved in forming this guild). You mention "controlled, operated and managed" and "that no fees are planned yet", surely you can see how these phrases and the overall tone of your posts about being fired for your ideas, unhappy with certain people would indicate you are leaving and taking as many with you as will follow your banner. That's what started me worrying. We've seen enough silly politics and site splits over the last couple of years without watching another one occur without trying to stop it. Sheesh, some people just can't step away from those splits and they keep on cropping up in comments and conversations all over the place. So the arguments, bitterness and spite is still very fresh in the minds of some people who can't let go of it yet. I for one don't want to see it start again, I'm heartily, thoroughly sick of it, so sick that I will probably hunt down and personally exterminate anyone that tries to do it again. :) I appreciate that you can't name names. That would start a whole string of insults, condemnations and provoke the very thing I want so desperately to avoid - a site split. I also appreciate that you can't voice any favouritism, for the same reasons. No, honestly I do understand that. But the generalisation of "poopie in the stores" is just as harmful and likely to get certain backs up in defence of those stores. It's probably safer to drop the "poopie in the stores" bit to be honest and actually focus on the guild purpose. You have elucidated that part of the reason for the guild's creation is to prevent the growth and spread of low-quality (does that sound better than poopie?) items through the community (see you don't need to mention stores or freestuff) This will be achieved through reviews, testing, tutorials and knowledge sharing. That's a good aim and it's being done now by many people in the existing forums. Your guild could continue to do that in a much more focused manner, again, that's good. No need for a "guild" though, not for that. Quality control. A group independant of the stores and the sites. Now this is where my ears perk up. There are already in place, people who work very hard to make sure quality goes in the stores. There is a matter of personal pride, which quite obviously you and Thorne have in abundance, that you would think would make people do the "best they possibly can" for their customers. It is my opinion that there are such artists who do that, and some who perhaps have a more vested interest in dollar return than value or quality. This comes down to a more personal thing than the store. As has already been mentioned, you can go into K-Mart, 7-11, Woolworths etc etc and browse around pretty much knowing quality from poopie. The quality items don't appear overnight at the say so of a group of marketing executives, they are established over years of hard work and customer evaluation. People recognise quality by brand name. Mercedes or Rolls Royce compared to Ford or Subaru, Jeep and Land Rover compared to Suzuki and Isuzu. And so on. Some vendors in the stores have built up a reputation over time for quality and excellence. People like PhilC, Steve Shanks, Renapd etc are known for the quality of their work, a stamp on their goods would make no difference whatsoever. None. You could turn round tomorrow and say "PhilC poser stuff sucks donkey breath" and nobody would believe it, because they know better. How is that achieved? I've known Phil, Steve and Rena to be extremely conscientious, unbelievable helpful and generous, and regularly see them helping people in the forums, I see copious amounts of free stuff from them too, so there's a base to judge their work from. They put as much hard work into their free files as they do their pay to get files. I use those three as an example because they're almost universally known, but there are many others who also fit that bill. There are also people who, 10 minutes after joining the community, asking a couple of "how do I" questions, hit the store bandwagon to make bucks. This doesn't mean their goodies are any less viable, they might have been working with other applications for years and only recently discovered poser and it's marketplace. There are many who need help, who desperately want to produce stuff they can give back or sell back to the community, but aren't getting that help except from a few people who are thinly stretched and hard pressed. Now, to be rude. All of a sudden you are going to form a guild of people who are going to change this situation. That's wonderful. Where were these people before? If they're already out there doing it, what are the benefits for them to joining a guild? Why would they need to? Why not just carry on as is? Why... Oh wait, I'm sorry, I said I wouldn't ask anymore questions yet. Ignore that lot. :) Again, I will state for the record. (and this is in reference to the guild "quality approved" thing and your references to "a place") Quality good, splitting of community into elitist sections bad. There's that word that Thorne has such a problem with. Yet "the best of the best" = elite. A panel (guild) of judges will determine what is worthy of a seal of approval and what is below standard (really amazingly great gets badge, other stuff doesn't) Granted that's a gross oversimplification but in essence it's like "Good Housekeeping" or the British "Kite" mark. It means "this is a quality approved product". But it also means - "that stuff that doesn't have this mark is utter crap, it's cheap, nasty and horrible." This could be messy in a place where there are so many fragile egos. Double blind is good, but what happens when a "top" artist is rejected? Have you seen Radarts scathing rant on elitism when he was told "you're not good enough" by a panel of self elected "best of the best"? Or the comments from artists when someone questions the quality of their goods? Some threads in the archives are still smoking from the heat. :) Quality is good. EVERY SINGLE CUSTOMER DESERVES IT. Ever vendor should do their best to provide it. But who is to make the judgement? And are the judges worthy? I'm glad I'm not you Mehndi. I really am, I can say that with all honesty. Because you are exploring a can of worms that has a nuclear device on the bottom controlled by a mercury trembler switch. One error, just one error and it could all blow up in your face. I sure as heck don't envy you that responsibility. Well, as to settling down and letting you get on with things. I get the drift. I've been told to politely "shut the heck up" before. :) I'll try. No really, I will. Look ---> shutting up now. G