I've just caught up with this thread after being gone all day yesterday, and because of how I spent my time yesterday, I wanted to add something to the sub-thread topic here in this post of Renderosity as Family.

Over the years I've hooked up in person with twenty people from Renderosity. That's 20 people I'd never seen before in my life. Some of them I've been fortunate to meet more than once.

Yesterday I went with my husband, Bill (aka bmac62 here on RR), for an outing. For those of you who don't know us, Bill and I met here on Renderosity. I was living in Washington State and he was living in Kansas. We were friends here for a couple years, started talking, and five years ago we got married. It was the best decision of my life. He's every bit as wonderful as he appears to be here on RR. So there's one vote for RR as family, right?

So Bill and I got together yesterday with Denise (MrsRatbag) and Lucinda (myrrhluz) and Lucinda's son, James, all people we had met before and like immensely. We spent the day wandering around some spectacularly beautiful parks, and we also went to my brother's house for lunch. My brother, Trent, and his husband, David, have met a few Renderosity members in the past, and they seem to enjoy meeting our artist friends. So my RR family and my blood family have blended over the years. There are people who have no connection to RR who follow our galleries, and I have a lot of RR friends who know my "real life" friends and family at least by name.

At this point I can't separate my Renderosity family of choice from my "outside" family of choice. Those of you know I know here on RR have become an integral part of my life.

That's why I've been in the Forum for the past week, keeping track of what's going on, being as reasonable and helpful as possible, trying to stay positive, working toward a smoother operating website. Not by programming, of course, but by reporting bugs and making requests and hanging in.

This place is part of my life, and it's important for me to participate in this process.

Tara

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough."  ...  Robert Capa