Nails60 posted at 6:37PM Tue, 13 August 2019 - #4358977

Why do people keep saying get rid of,,, just because they don't use a feature. EClark said get rid of the face room. Well I use it, so why do you want to remove a feature that some people find useful just because you don't. I've never understood this. It's not as if these features get in the way. What is the logic for removing them?

While I'm generally against removing features, there sometimes actually is a logic to it. Certain features only work with certain figures, but are often listed as "features" of the program. A user buys the program and finds the feature is useless because the figure, whether too old, too new, or too obscure, isn't supported. It makes the program look bad and can lead to arguments over whether the feature should be included or updated and if so at the expense of whatever features might be planned in the future. For example, new users are still instructed to download a large content archive. And Poser's advertising has frequently touted the number and variety of supplied figures. But these figures range in age from relatively recent to, in some cases, pre-dating Poser 4. These figures could be updated with weight maps and proper skin shaders, and many users have indeed done this countless times, but instead are included in their original form with little warning to a new user (who doesn't know which features were introduced in which versions) that they'd be better off to just leave them alone. There's hardly any reason for anyone to use a stock Posette figure except as a start to a time-consuming updating. That figure's clothing can be converted to newer figures and there no one thing about that particular figure that's superior to numerous figures offered since. In my mind not only are these figures a waste of time and bandwidth to download (aside from curiosity) but that more time is wasted by people trying to use them and the discussions about where they are lacking and how to improve them that often follows. I'll admit not knowing much about the faceroom, but it does seem to have become a neglected feature. If it has fallen behind the times and isn't used by a large percentage of users, then it should be updated or less prominently displayed. Blender just retired its legacy renderer for similar reasons. You'd think something like that could be included indefinitely but it turns out that when you update a program significantly those changes can affect the entire program, even parts that aren't specifically being improved. At some point those things actually can slow development.