One of the keys to running a successful business is to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Just because everyone else is doing something doesn't mean it is right or the key to success. Those who try something audacious are often rewarded handsomely. Look at how much money RedHat makes around Linux, an operating system that is available for free and may be copied and redistributed as much as you like.

Agree it can have value to differentiate yourself from other, but this is not black and white meaning that you have to do it no matter what. Renderosity could also give all there products away for free, which would make all vendors angry, but would have great value for non vendor members, now this would of course never happen, but such change would ruin the site as well. And personally i have no problem with links to other sites, but i fully understand why Renderosity won't like it. Besides that people already make lots of suggestions in post to whether people have checked some of the other sites for a certain product. For instant just yesterday if you look in the poser forum, the thread called "Deadpool" someone suggested the OP to check Deviant arts and ShareCG for what he is looking for, there are no links to any product on these site, but still it help the person looking for a given item. Now that thread haven't been closed, And this is just one example. So your argument rest on the fact that the thing that "ruins" Renderosity is the lack of a link in such post, but it makes very little sense. Most people already know these other sites exists and are still being made aware of them, so they can just type it into google and they can go there and have a look. They don't need a direct link to a product on another site for it to have the same useful value for the community. If your argument rest on the fact that other members should take the effort to provide links for people unable to search these other sites them self when given the name, then i find it to be a very poor argument for why this would have such great value and im not having a go at those asking for products that they can't find, but if they truely hit a wall in there search for something when not given a direct link, i highly doubt they will be able to even buy and install the product should they find it.

As i already pointed out, Renderosity differs from for instant Daz3d in regards to DRM, is that good or bad? and do you see that as having value for there members?

That Redhat have success using there approach cant be compared to Renderosity as Redhat is opensource, where as Renderosity makes there income from vendors and Ads. How would you suggest Renderosity to convince there vendors to apply there products for free? So the Redhat business model work because they operate in another market than Renderosity does. So if you should make a reasonable comparison you would have to compare Redhat with Microsoft and don't think anyone disagree which of them have the greatest success when comparing income.

So if im not mistaken your issue with Renderosity primarily rest on the lack of members being able to make direct links to other sites? because I have mentioned other sites several times already in these replies, so that is no problem. So you problem is not with them not using DRM or not allowing bad behaviour.

If none of them appear to provide value, we will choose another activity entirely that provides value to us, such as spending time learning a 3D modeling package, going for a bike ride, or hanging out with friends.

Im sorry i dont understand, what you expect from Renderosity, its a company making money by having a community of members that shares a passion for making art, 3d, 2d, photos etc. as a service for there members they have made a forum for people to get help and a marketplace where people can buy items. And regardless of what initiatives Renderosity makes for giving values for there members, you can and should still go for a bike ride, hang out with friends or learn a 3d package if that is what you want. That doesn't mean that you can't enjoy coming here and spend some time as well. Of course Renderosity is competing with everything else, all companies does that if you take it to the extremes, but then you might as well argue that you think Renderosity should compete with whether you should go on holiday or whether you should spend your time on there forum....im sorry but it makes very little sense to me.