Quote - Hi KobaltKween. Sorry you have been given that impression. I'm not sure why that is.

There is a marketplace showcase forum here on Renderosity, specifically for Renderosity vendors to show their latest products. Granted, it doesn't seem to get much traffic.

There is also a general Free Stuff forum, for the same purpose.  

You are right, they don't want the Poser forum to fill up with ads for the market place, because this forum is intended to discuss Poser and its functions, and because there is a forum already for ads to the marketplace.

There is also a general free stuff forum. I don't visit it but it is there.

I thought I mentioned posting in other forums.  Sorry for not being clear about that.  The problem is that those forums don't get traffic (as you noted). Those forums don't help because no one goes there.  It's like banning promotion in New York City and saying, "Here's place in Antartica for you to let people know about your work."

This is the most trafficked forum for Poser.  For positive interactions between content creators and users to happen, content creators have to be allowed to approach users.  Right now, we can't share our work.  We can't say, "Hey!  I'm working on something I find really exciting!"  Or, "I'd like to make something for Halloween.  What would you like?"

Or at least, we couldn't before.  I've seen many people told to take those threads to one of those other forums, where no one participated in them.  I appreciate that you personally encourage it, but it would be good to have some official clarification on that issue since that hasn't always been the case here.

Quote - Mr. Sparky posts threads about his latest freebies here in the Poser forum all the time and has been doing so long before I became moderator. I've never had a problem with that, or with anyone else who wants to show their threads on items they've created. I've never been told it's not allowed and no one has ever complained to me about it, from the user community or from admin.

I can't speak for what previous moderators have done.

Yes, people like Mr Sparky who have a reputation from before those rules got made have been consistently given a pass.  And some random people seem to get through every now and then.  But I remember when most content creators, including freebie creators, were consistently censured (politely and nicely, but censured) for posting about their content in this forum, including WIP threads.  Granted, not since you've been a moderator, but to be honest, I don't hang around here as much as I used to.

Quote - And if you want to link to your Renderosity store in your signature you can do so, as far as I'm aware. You just can't link to your store at DAZ or RDNA, or some other site.

Oh, I know.  And that's cool, but that's promoting yourself and not types of products.  It doesn't help us let people know we're developing something niche, nor help us act on feedback during development.

Quote - And if someone has asked (or complained) in a thread about the existence (or non-existence) of an item that you know exists, you can post about that as well. We do that all the time in this forum. If it doesn't exist on this site, then the link is only permitted when it is specifically requested.

Right.  Sorry if I wasn't clear, but I tried to acknowledge that already.  Point is, the problem already exists by then, and has already caused vendors to stop making that type of content.  By the time someone says, "Hey, why isn't there any...?" the answer is pretty much always, "I tried it, and it doesn't sell."  

Not to mention, since we can't really communicate with customers until they complain, well, it makes this forum a pretty negative experience and drives away content creators.  It's thread after thread of sticks with no carrots.  Vendors are people, too.

Quote - To be sure, I will check on some of these specific points that you bring up and will get back to you, but as far as I understand it right now, I don't have a problem with you or anyone else posting about your active projects here in this forum. There are many people who do that already. Some are vendors, some aren't.

To be safe, you could create your own sketchbook or wip thread (as I have done here, over 2 years ago, long before I became moderator, and no one ever told me I couldn't, or removed the thread). I think this would be fine, and would help to generate more interaction between our users and our content artists, which is what I feel that we need.

Let me talk to admin about this, (because I wasn't aware this was an issue for vendors until just now) and I'll get clarification on what is and is not acceptable. But really, I think the primary reasons are to try and keep the forums more structured and organized, not to try to stifle vendors or content artists. That would be rather self-defeating, IMO.

Thank you very much for checking.   I really appreciate it.  If I do post a thread, I'll wait for an official response.  Even if things are a bit different now and even if you personally got through, I saw admin and mods repeatedly forbid such threads.  When I see a rule repeated several times, well, I like see something official before breaking it.

You're right.  It has been self-defeating.  The policies have stifled vendors and content artists, whether that was the intention or not.  When both commercial and freebie posts were allowed, when the rules were less strict and more permissive, there was much more traffic, more people posting regularly, and many more positive positive posts.  I'm not advocating reverting to the old rules. There's no evidence that would improve the current state. But I have seen a correlation between stricter rules and fewer and more negative posts.  I've seen fewer and fewer content creators post, more people leaving either silently or publicly, a more uniform market with fewer niche products, and seen all but a dozen or so of my 200+ favorite artists stop posting even gallery images.  In the gallery, I see a much lower ratio of renders to photographs and 2D work, which indicates most of the loss of traffic is in the 3D community.

Nowhere has this change been more relevant than new figure development and releases.  I wish it wasn't true, but it really doesn't matter how good you make your figure and how many people think it's great before it's released (the ideal is always better than the actual).  If there isn't a steady positive, proactive, and visible support in the Renderosity community, well after the initial push and promotion phase, items for him won't sell enough for vendors and there won't be enough items for users.  Post hoc assessments will list flaws without comparison to the control (V4's flaws are myriad).  Considering M4 isn't supported well enough to avoid the "Why do vendors refuse to make M4 content?" threads,  I don't believe it's possible to make any figure, male or female, that so immediately dominates the market that its content won't get lost in the steady flow of mainstream releases once a special promotional period is over.  Its content would have to become the new mainstream, and I honestly don't think that will happen ever again.

DAZ came up in a vacuum and defined the content market.  Vicky's only competitor was Posette, which Vicky's creators had made themselves.  Anyone releasing a figure now has every artist and group that made a figure in at least the past two years to compete with.  It takes time to build a full library of supporting content.  And it's been a long, long time since the community was positive enough to foster independent innovation like it used to.