For the most part I stay out of these kinds of discussions as to me they often seem like a breeding ground for anger and needless hatred amongst users, however as I have seen this issue flowing through the forums and other places for at least four months now? I see it as time to speak up and it saddens me that four months on it is still an unresolved and largely untackled concern for many passionate long-term users of Renderosity.

At first when I saw this discussion heading up posts in the forums I didn't so much discredit the people who had raised it but more saw it as a transitional phase as the world of AI art became a mainstay of Renderosity (There is a strange irony in that concept alone) the gallery is often so overloaded with images of largely the exact same thing where quite often our own work is so submerged beneath a wave of images that there is very little point behind actually taking the time to share work in here. This isn't entirely down to AI art, indeed I quite openly welcome the inclusion of it and the new ideas and concepts that may subliminally influence or inspire others to create, in my mind no-one that considers themselves an artist whether they are a full time professional, an aspiring amatuer or hobbyist would willingly take a means of creation from anyone else. However as this discussion has remained a consistent point within the forums it becomes obvious that something deeper is at play and strangely enough something rather sweet in some ways, as what I'm really seeing is a growing collection of users who have been loyal to Renderosity for vast amounts of time who now are increasingly concerned that a site that they love and cherish is fading into it's own slow and self made oblivion. 

During December I decided to reduce the number of outlets that I use to portray my work, I wanted two sites where I could show not just the imagery, written element and scenes that I produce but also show the work that goes into building those scenes for which Renderosity should have been perfect as with the multiple images options should have been perfect for me as a Blender user, as I can show the work behind the scenes that goes into an image, the physical building stages of a scene, all those little props and things that are made from scratch, I love that feature and yet still it isn't enough to make me want to post anything at all. Make no mistake I'm no professional writer and work full time so the time that I invest into using any site to me is valuable and yet during December I decided that my post on New Years Eve would be my last for the foreseeable future, now I'm not openly chasing my own vanity and nor do I have much interest in that either but I see little point in putting such time into a post only to watch it be buried beneath a countless wave of the same "close the site and try again later" inducing stuff. 

As a writer (which I know that Rod and Wolf are too) it often takes hours to produce a single image and body of text, indeed yesterday I began writing a piece for my latest novel and thus far I have spent around two or three hours writing it and it probably needs another three hours to be ready to then type up, then I will spend around the same timescale writing it up and reconstructing it before I even begin assembling a scene to suit the piece, by the time I have done so, written it, composed it and the rendered it the timescale is likely to be around 30 to 40 hours just to make a single piece only to see it become buried and unseen, that is neither an incentive nor an aspiration of anyone of similar ilk to myself. While part of me wished to use this site alongside ArtStation to show the "How it's made" side of my work, deep down I just couldn't justify that investment of time and effort for very little or indeed nothing in return, I recognise that sounds incredibly shallow and in many ways it truly is but I love my work, my characters and the stories of them which I tell, in a strange my characters are like my children and just as any parent would I expect and indeed demand that they be portrayed in the best light and being strangled beneath nothingness is not befitting of neither them, their stories nor of myself at all.

While I am keen to avoid reducing the number of images someone could post over any given time period I also despise seeing galleries filled by the same thing, as that is neither inspiring nor a motivation to actively bother even looking beyond the first page and I would like to think that if I or anyone else posted the same image four or five times at bare minimum a question would be asked why I have done so? especially given that multiple images can be featured within the same post? Yet daily this almost ritualistic posting dump takes place without so much as even a single feather being ruffled? That for me poses yet another question which Is "How long will you just openly ignore your users questions or requests?" Maybe I am completely wrong and the question has been in an open and long running debate, yet four months later here we all are with the same question being posed in the aftermath of little or no decisive action being taken? 

I recognise that running a site like this amongst multiple moderators and users poses intricate challenges to keep the peace as such and in a blunt way I guess Renderosity is rather like a trainset and well if it's your trainset then you can do with it as you wish but those users who are raising these concerns if you wish are like passengers on that train, those users are entitled to get off at any time they wish, with many users like myself largely stay out of the forums, choosing to remain silent and out of sight and yet the risk posed is great as these people will never tell you that they are leaving, they will simply leave without uttering a single word to you, but then if you aren't really listening or at bare minimum making any noise that is conducive to you doing so, then why would they bother raising their voice to you at all?