Hi Everyone I am pleased to let you all know that we have heard you, and we realize it was a mistake to take away the links to Freebies and other sites. We apologize for the upset this has caused you all.

Part of our previous reasoning was to protect you from accidentally opening harmful files or being led to sites that require you to sign up for access, causing potential harm there as well. The other part was in hopes more people would upload their art here and others would come here to view it. Instead, it drove members away.

We hope you all start posting and sharing more. We look forward to seeing your art and more activity around the Community.

This is a Community and I would like it to be as strong and supportive as it can possibly be.

Here is what is allowed:

*Links to tutorials on Youtube and tutorials on other sites in the forums.

*Sharing things going on in the 3D world in our Industry News forum. This consists of software releases, contests, software that went on sale, etc.

*Links in your signature that go to your personal site as long as the site DOES NOT have a Marketplace.

*Links from your Freestuff products as long as they DO NOT go toa competitive Marketplace. (Daz, CGTrader, etc.)

*If someone wants to know where to find a certain product we do not have and you know where to find it, you may provide a link to it. However, if we do sell it here or the link goes to something else other than the product, it will be deleted.

Here is what IS NOT allowed:

*Any links that take you to a competing Marketplace (Daz,CGTrader, etc.)

*Anything that appears to be an advertisement

*Anything that may have the potential to harm someone's system

*Any links that take you to anything that would need a content advisory on our site

Thank you all very much and if you have any questions, please let me know.

As always, I am here and listening.

Me right now. You've worked so hard on this, Kristi.

Thank you for all you've done and a special thank you to all of the moderators, coordinators, and members for your valuable input!

And this, is how it should have been done.

Good work.

What about links to outside galleries?

Was thinking about linking to Artstation, as they allow Marmoset, and could showcase products that way.

Great great news!

The exception being of course for "Forum Coordinators" with "sponsors" with the affiliated ad links going to ads on pages "red-flagged" by WOT.

No dice.

Have no idea how come or for why it was/is allowed - or "just happened" for some, but my stuff is not going to get such ads placed with it.

The ad displayed [because I'm more than a little tired of being insulted] is for "Cool Dudes Productions".

And if this offends anybody, my sincere apologies. But really.

@boudicca36 I will send you a sitemail and follow this up with you. It is actually part of the reason they made the decision in the first place

Thanks!

You are very welcome everyone.

Thank you BionicRooster Linking to outside galleries is fine as long as it is not a site with a competing marketplace.

I got up in the wrong universe again....

Wait...huh? The links get ads injected into them???!!! I'm confused. Could someone please enlighten me?

Laurie

@LaurieA At times people may only see the end result and not the cause, In this case even the WOT warning is secondary. I have written to this member and explained how they arrived at the point they did. All I want to do is remove the link because it is pointless being there.

If a member comes across a link that does not head in the right direction please let a moderator know and we will check it out.

But that doesn't answer my question Johnny :). I'm still real confused. LOL

Laurie

I doubt someone with your intellect gets confused easily Laurie but just to settle things I am going to try. A link gets you from point A to point B. Point B is where things can head south for a browser that is not adequately protected. However masking/redirects do step in between point A and B therefore the jury is still out IMO. Now if you consider that to get to point B you have to start at point A, if I was to place an ad at point B then by stealth technically I have indeed injected an ad into a link. Now I am off to see my psychiatrist I hope this has helped.

Trust me. I'm confused. LOL I'm not up on web technologies ;).

So, is Rendo doing this? Or is this being done nefariously? I'm hoping it wasn't you guys but was another entity doing some sneaky stuff - not that that's good either. Just best if it wasn't the site ;).

Laurie

No Rendo has nothing to do with it. We should not be getting confused with the WOT warning and where the link leads. Many members here may have a personal website and domain names. If for some reason they close their site then I am sure we have all seen the Error 404 code which indicates the page cannot be found, the page/site could have been removed from the host. Sometimes the owner may have held onto their domain name for the future so this divert seen here would not happen. There would be hundreds on this site alone where this could happen given the length of time the site has been here and links placed. In some cases a host will supply the domain name however a site such as the one in the image buys and resells the domain names. You buy and point your externally registered domain name address to your hosting company where you house your site, which is their IP and a number they have provided which leads their servers and then to your webpages you have set up. If you don't pay for your domain subscription ie annually/3-5 years and it lapses then companies such as this example may add it to their inventory and resell it. They do this in bulk and it is is a legitimate practice however some appear to have happier customers than others (That is not up for debate here) but obviously caught the member by surprise. Behind the pop up it is simply telling you that the domain name ie freddyblog.com is availble and is for sale. Unless you actually spontaneously buy it there is nothing to fear. Whenever a domain name is let go there is every possibility you will end up on a domain resellers site. Now with the masking that adds another element I might for example purchase 5 domain names and use them, but all end up at the same main website yet you won't notice because the browser address will show the name you have chosen. A redirect is where you have not hidden the fact so the address link will change as you are diverted. Neither indicate anything sinister but like with everything web or otherwise there are certain individuals that see some potential. A good antivirus and eyes in the back of your head is all it takes to survive the web Laurie

If you find you are continually being diverted from links and/or not ending up where you should then this is a different story and you need to do some serious housekeeping on your computer because there is every possibility your browser has been hijacked.

K, now I get it. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't Rendo that was doing the redirecting ;). And yes, I have a good antivirus (two, in fact). Dunno about eyes in the back of my head, but I don't usually end up with nasty things on my computer.

Laurie

Rendo have no interest in redirecting anyone anywhere other than on occasions to approved affiliates etc. Which would be mentioned in the post. If a member spots something dubious we would appreciate it gets reported so we can remove it to help keep everyone safe.

....nope. still in this universe.... where's the one where I'm rich.....

Oh you are looking for that other universe Khai. It is a long winding road and is very difficult to get to.

If you want to "prevent" the sites links before click in them, you can use https://www.virustotal.com , that site scan files or sites with many antivirus at the same time, and you don't have to click in them if you don't want.

Great news, thank you !

Good news - links to useful stuff on other forums and links to ShareCG are allowed again!

Thanks Kristi

This is very good news. Thank you Kristi for bringing back some common sense to Renderosity.

You are very welcome 3Dcheapskate and fivecat

So glad you are happy about it :)

thank you for all your efforts and willingness to find a compromise on these issues, Kristi!

You are very welcome Giana, thank you and others for your patience while I worked on this and continue working on some other things behind the scenes

At least!

Hoewever, you need to add additional specifications. The examples you cited are primarily 3D sources. Sites that primarily sell 2d graphical content such as seamless textures and Photoshop/Gimp brushes would also fall under the "competing marketplace" rule, would it not?

Also need specifications on where the line is drawn in the case of off-site advertising of competitors. The majority of free 3d content sites out there that ARE NOT THEMSELVES marketplaces usually have link banners to marketplaces or have 3d commercial content sites links in their links page.

Also, jusrt my two cents, but I would prohibit links to file-sharing sites. This is because

1. Some file-sharing sites are plagued with illegal content. Even if the file in the link is legal, it will be super easy to find illegal content if it is widely available on the file-sharing site.
2. A couple years ago, ShareFile or ShareIt or whatever it's called was hijacked by Pirate Bay's blog for around 6 months (or was it 3?) meaning that Rendo freestuff downloads that led to a Sharefile now redirected to The Pirage Bay blog (which hosted a direct link to The Pirate Bay itself) ShareFile eventually took its site back, but all the old downloads were lost. This should NOT apply to file locker sites such as Skybox and Google File Locker.

By your logic, we should ban Google, Bing, etc...

Because you can find illegal content on them. Just because some users use a service for bad, does not make the service bad. Plus, you have to be given the link. You can't just goto the hosting site and search....

Alright ppl. Khai is right. We even see the ads on this site via Google/other providers and that is very different than landing in a competing marketplace. The members are expected to place safe, secure links to sites that are not full of illegal content. I am sure the members will call it out for what it is if anything suspicious comes up.

The examples you cited are primarily 3D sources. Sites that primarily sell 2d graphical content such as seamless textures and Photoshop/Gimp brushes would also fall under the "competing marketplace" rule, would it not?

@ IceEmpress That would have to be followed up but as it stands I would assume it would be a competing marketplace.

To be fair, it just looks like the site in boudicca36's post only had it's registration run out; so, as any expired domain, it redirects to a page letting you know it's available. It's nothing malicious, just an issue of non-payment for whatever reason by the registrant. It's common.

@IceEmpress - To be fair, I just listed 2 of the bigger sites and did place Etc behind it so people knew it was more than just these 2 sites that are not allowed.

It does state "any competing marketplace" under "not allowed" so any type of competing marketplace would fall under this rule.

Thank you! A step in the right direction!

Going one step farther, I still also think that allowing links to competitor's sites would be a benefit to Rendo rather than a drawback; . I believe there's less harm than you think because this is a small community and we'll all probably be going back and forth between sites anyway. We all have our 'more favorites' of sites, and some vendors, like Wolfie, make products as add-ons for things on other sites. It's been a pain in the butt when I go to her store to have to manually type in a product requirement that may be in another site other than Rendo. It's not going to stop me from going, it just slows down my decision to purchase the wolfie product along with (or to see if I already have) whatever is the relevant hairstyle required base. I feel you've been working too hard to corral people who most often would rather be here anyway.

Remember the famous scene in the Classic Black and White Christmas movie "Miracle on 34th Street"? There were two competing Department stores in New York in the 1930s and 1940s, Macy's and Gimbels. The Santa Claus hired on at Macys started telling customers to go go Gimbels if Gimbels had what the customer wanted and Macy's didn't. As a result that policy drew in more customers to Macy's rather than less. Customers knew that by going to Macys first they could find what they wanted even if it wasn't at Macys. While it is a fictional story, I believe it is based on a truth in practice; it holds true as long as the links are honest links not schills (SP?) or advertising. I rarely go to Content Paradise, for example, primarily due to their expiring download policy. Or worse, their download extension 'tax'. Having a link to CP is not likely to make me become a bigger customer there, though it might allow me to buy a specific product that I'm looking for. If Daz has something good I'm going there anyway because when I sign in I typically check the major sites to see what's new and what they're all doing.

Just something for you management types to consider.

Hi consumer573 -

I stated that if something cannot be found here, they can link to it wherever it is available.

The only way it will be deleted is if we have it too...in that instance the person looking for the item will be linked to the item here.

Soooo does this mean MY thread to MY FREEBIES on my personal website THREAD is back in good standing??? I could not find it, but I'm getting ready to convert my mil cat freebie maps over to the new HiveWire cat, and they will be FREE, on my website .... and by your rules the only thing you would not allow is a link TO the HiveWire cat that my maps would 'require' ?

I've been sticking it out here, but in a VERY VERY reduced way. I hardly shop here either with the market being 90-95% DS, but that's another story. It would be nice to have my freebie thread back and as a sticky! That goes a long way toward making me feel better about this site.

Thank you,

Lyne Lyne's Creations

Yes, you are correct Lyne

Thank you for sticking it out. This will only keep looking up from here

Confused...I can't find my old thread with all the links/pictures at/on my web site... so do I have to start a new thread for my Freebies?

Thanks...

I looked Lyne and I do not see them, would you mind starting a new thread?

OK, Kristi, I will start a new thread for me... I have a super new freebie coming soon too. :)

Done... any chance of making it a sticky? I have hand damage and can't update as much to keep it available, but I AM still creating new freebies new and then!

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2906816

I did one even better...I made it an announcement

So happy to have your items back in the Freebie area

Congrats KristiS , on beginning to bring back the community we all love very much !

So, I'm a little unclear. One of the rule states that the secondary site can not have a marketplace. What if the secondary site links to or displays ads from another marketplace but is not, itself, a marketplace? I read the post, I don't see this particular circumstance cited.

Don't get me wrong, this is a good idea, not siloing yourselves and perhaps this will take a few nails out of the coffin...but, this is way overdue.

Thank you OonaTheWild I am trying very hard and hope this is the first step to people knowing just how much I care and appreciate the Community.

evilded777 - Just about everywhere runs ads so it is fine. As far as it linking to another Marketplace, it really depends on the context and what kind of Marketplace.

I do realize it is way overdue however I was not in the Community until the beginning of June and there was quite a bit of things to fix.

Kristi I'm glad to see you back. It's obvious how much you care about this community.

Awe, thank you so much my Dear

I really do and I am so happy to see you back as well. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of you and your beautiful creations!

Kristi, I'd like to link to a contest site I am involved with that was started by a group of ex Worth1000 members who weren't happy with the transition when somebody else bought the rights to the name. I'd like to check to see if it is permissible before I do it. It has photoshop, illustration, comic, and 3D contests, membership is free, and we don't sell anything (no marketplace). The name of the site is Daggerbay, with the usual www and com pieces. It's been in live beta for almost a year, we are going to have the grand opening in January. The site is up and working if you wanted to take a look, we have some pretty impressive artwork there.

Hello,

I will have a look and as long as there is not a Marketplace, there are no rules against it

Thank you and I look forward to seeing the site.

Happy Holidays