**Say there is a Freebie I like so I click on it, it take me to Daz or another store, I then go one step further and start looking in the Marketplace for something else to go with what I downloaded. I find a nice product that is $15.00 so I buy it.

I am now putting money in some other vendor's pocket instead of a vendor here at Renderosity.**

I don't think anyone doubt that you at Renderosity want to do what you think is best for the site and that you are friendly people etc. What people are complaining about is the rules you want to apply, because they are so absurd that they make no sense. Its seems like you are trying a strategy that if you can create a dome around Renderosity then the members will be unable to see whats going on, on the outside. Like people wont go to these other sites regardless of whether you link to them or not? Like the knowledge of these places will magically disappear when you remove the links to them. Im sorry, but for one that have worked with computers my whole life and have a degree in advanced computer science and media science its like you are completely out of touch with how people use the internet. How on earth will you justify that, upsetting most of your community for something that is most likely not even close to having any positive effect on your income, and most likely it will have the exact opposite effect as i have already pointed out.

What do you expect will happen when people stop posting freebies here and instead post them on Daz3d? How much time do you think it will take for people looking for freebies to skip Renderosity all together and just go straight to one of the other site? Then you wont even have a chance of getting those 15$. Im honestly shocked, I have seen poor online marketing strategies and even been forced to apply some my self, but those doesn't even come close to what you are about to do here and i would be extremely surprised if you have a webmaster or online marketing advisor that he/she would agreed with this strategy as being good. I mean you gain absolutely nothing out of this, except your own believe that all of Renderosity members see the site as if its some sort of big happy family. Its an illusion,

And as someone already stated you can not let personal or a very few incidents with people getting a virus dictate your whole linking strategy, there are companies making a living out of getting rid of virus, please leave that to them. Besides that, you still allow people to link to none competitive sites, so what if people get a virus from one of those? Ain't you responsable for those as well or do you have some "special" technology so you know that the virus threat is somehow only isolated to the freebies section? If that's the case you should develope virus protection instead, because im pretty sure you have a very unique knowledge then, that none of the other companies will be able to replicate. I hope you see how out of touch this sounds and that you argument for why this will increase the protection for your members are completely from another world.