Hi!

ssgbryan posted at 12:19PM Fri, 17 August 2018 - #4332190

It has gone off topic because we can ALWAYS count on DS users to come into Poser threads to tell Poser users that they need to jump on DS cash merry-go-round.

Not gonna do that, promise. As far as which tool you want to use, I refuse to argue the merits for or against. You do you. I do however want to provide a touch of perspective and a couple of corrections about, well, stuff.

Daz made the decision to support DS through content because no one was willing to pay Poser prices for a software product that had no documentation and most of the features were still beta (and would not run on a lot of machines, since they used an older version of Qt to compile the UI). It was free for 30 days, then a “limited” time to free (and the basic & advanced versions slid down the memory hole).

Not really true. Version 1.0 (released in late 2005) came with a 350-ish page user manual in PDF format (...how do I know this? I wrote the damned thing, that's how.) That user-manual format was later dropped in favor of a wiki (long after I left), mostly because finding technical writers is a ball-biter, to say the least (and because the one we had for 1.0 got flaky, so it fell on me, because apparently writing curriculum somehow meant I had the most experience in the joint, and the deadlines were a comin'. I had to divvy up the time between writing code during the day and writing that manual in the evenings. Did I mention that Adobe Framemaker blew goats?) Anyrate, that was not the greatest idea they ever had, because nobody there (or in the community at large) really felt like filling it out. Live and learn, I guess...

Poser has been “dying” since at least Dec 2004 that I am personally aware of. I am not too terribly concerned - how many times has Daz3d been sold now?

Nah, but I bet it's pretty much on life support at this point, and a priest has been notified. I say this not because the the application (which appears to have improved greatly from my outsider's viewpoint). Nope, it's because it's stuck as a red-headed stepchild in a disconnected division of a company, run by financials-obsessed unartistic morons who, incidentally, couldn't manage their way to get laid in a whorehouse with a fresh Amex Black stuffed in their pocket. Seriously... Poser needs a better caretaker, full-stop. An actual graphics company buying it would be a nice start.

Oh, and yup, Daz changed hands a lot since Dan Farr semi-retired (okay, got bored) and Chris Creek decided to make a go of it alone shortly thereafter, but thus far, their succession of owners have been smart enough to pay attention to it, and not hack-and-slash with layoffs every time the NASDAQ farted.

Poser isn’t dying - Poser Vendors are dying off, but that is due to their decision not to support any figure not made by Daz. The fact that they compound this by not diversifying isn’t the customer’s fault.

The vendors are the only collective entity currently keeping the Poser alive, so be nice to them. SM could be nice to them too, by giving them better support (yes, the Fitting Room, yadda... I don't mean that thing, I mean better documentation, better support from company staff, better promotional visibility, maybe a tool or two to automate the inbound workflow...)

Back on topic - SM has a new development team that seems to understand some of the long-term issues. They are soliciting the end users for issues - unfortunately, most folks here would rather whine in a 3rd party forum than use the system SM has set up. Because, reasons.

Reasons like the fact that the SM fora and intake system was a ghost town for at least a decade or more? C'mon, I get that SM had a sticky relations wicket what with Rendo here existing (and heavily trafficked), but maybe they should've taken the plunge, taken charge of their own destiny, and, oh I dunno... bought Renderosity? No sense crying over spilled electrons, though.

Go back to the OP’s comments - they really do believe that SM should adjust their feedback system to accommodate their laziness.

The customer isn't always right, but they are still the Customer. Anger enough of them and suddenly you have no income to speak of.

(note: This isn't coming from a customer, but...)