**The off-site linking has gotten ridiculous as they decided to change the rule from "only links to sites that have marketplaces are prohibited" to "no off-site linking to freebies because we want people to upload freebies to Rendo instead" This new rule was posted JUST TODAY.

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2899703**

Agree, wouldn't consider this a very clever move either, most of all, because in general I understand why Renderosity doesn't want "commercial" links to other sites. But that is one thing. I personally don't think it makes any different whether someone make a direct link to a given site or whether its done the following way "Go to X-site and type Bike in the search field and it will be the first one in the search result". A direct link makes it slightly faster, but the end result is the same in either case.

Where it makes sense to not allow links is those that makes them with the only purpose of directing traffic to another site, with the clear purpose of trying to compete with Renderosity.

However freebies site should not be considered being in direct competition with Renderosity, instead it would be a much better approach to make a list of sites which have freebies and link directly to these. Make it so a person who offers freebies on there site can contact Renderosity and they can have a look at the site and if its not considered to serve the purpose of directing traffic then it should be added to the list with a direct link. This include all the other major sites like Daz3d, ShareCG etc.which also have freebies sections, again everyone know these sites exists, not linking to there freebies as well is simply trying to prevent something that is not possible. Even Daz3d links to Renderosity as well, so simply not acknowledging each others site, seems like a waste of energy to me.

I also share Poisinivy view, that if he/she have a site with freebies that clearly isn't in competition with Renderosity, but might make some income from ads etc by giving away freebies it shouldn't be of great concern to Renderosity. And even if they do have a small range of items they sell, I would probably not see that as a huge concern either. And if it is, it could simply be arranged that the prices on their site ain't allowed to compete with Renderosity. So there are lots of ways to sort that out.

I think it would be very wrong to assume that people having these freebie sites, would simply agree to move all of them here, because you think its a good idea and as IceEmpress, not that i hope it backfires, as its of little concern to me personally, but im pretty sure that it will.

In addition, we fear that any off-site links could be harmful to other members and could potentially give off viruses. For that, we'd be held accountable because we allowed them to be posted. So, we're also protecting ALL members in not being spammed or given a virus.

I don't think this is a valid reason for not allowing offsite links as you are not legally responsible for such thing. If that were the case and someone made a link on your site and before you could remove it, someone went there and downloaded something, Then in theory this person would then be able to hold you accountable for it which is absurd. If you are concerned about such things happening, you should copy the way all other major sites does it, which have forums. Which is simply to make the user aware when they click a link, that they are about to leave Renderosity and enter another site and they do so on their own risk.