What happened to the massive threads of Japanese freebies? Has all of that just disappeared?

Off site references and links are not allowed any more . . .

Well, that's a really brilliant way to shut down traffic on this site.

Well this was implemented months ago but then they proceeded to delete all the threads where people complained. For some unexplained reason this one is still around https://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2901926 so it will give you some idea what happened. Their main argument for doing so was to protect us from going to another site where we might potentially catch a virus as "some people" claimed it happened to them. Of course they also admitted they wanted to drive more traffic here instead of driving it away to other sites but that would assume if I didn't find any reference to the Japanese creators I like and to their latest offerings I would then shop here instead for something totally unrelated. :)

Well that explains why I can not find most of the stuff that was originally ere a couple months ago!!!

Actually, offsite links and references ARE allowed, just not to "competing" sites, such as those which sell 3d models or textures, or sites that provide 3D models/scripts, textures, Photoshop/Gimp brushes, etc. for free. Nor are you allowed to post a link to file locker sites, file sharing sites, or non-trusted sites (basically, anything that is not a notoriously known and well-trusted site, such as one's personal domain name)
You are allowed to post links to well-known "trusted" sites such as Youtube and Amazon.

To be fair, as much as I loathe these rules and hold them, and the so called "logic" behind them in the uttermost contempt, I can see the logic and fairness behind banning links to file lockers and file sharing sites (and ONLY them), as these appear to be among the most commonly hijacked sites by malware attackers and warez squatters. A couple of years ago, the most commonly used file sharing site used on Rendo at the time was hijacked by The Pirate Bay (to be specific, the URL had become the page of Pirate Bay's blog)

Seriously? They just delete those japanese-related threads? WTF Also doesnt help that i dont see any japanese vendors here anymore besides one who does clothes

It's because they decided to purge the forums of "all the negativity". Unfortunately, "negativity" was included in the links threads when the topic creators closed them.

SeanMartin posted at 4:29PM Mon, 05 September 2016 - #4278120

Well, that's a really brilliant way to shut down traffic on this site.

Ironic as rendo's other three-letter-named competitor has a measly free stuff area, yet it's doing magnificently as far as traffic and ranking.

Guys, if you search by departments in the Freebies, you will see more than one page of stuff.

It is archived, items were never deleted from the freebies by us...the only way actual items were deleted is if the creator decided to remove the items themselves.

We are going to be working on the Freestuff section at some point however we have to prioritize and wok down the list.

How do you reach the board archives? Also, what does "work down the list" mean?

There is no "board of archives" all I meant is they are still there, you will find them if you search by departments.

It was originally set up this way because the what's new section is newer products...anything over 90 days is not really "new" anymore.

I agree there should be an easier way to access older products and it will happen.

Work down the list means things that are more important (actual bugs, broken tools, etc) come first. We go from needs to wants.