Attached Link: http://www.3-darena.com

I just went to 3darena and it's gone, I've taken the liberty of copying the announcement so you can all read it. "I am sad to announce that 3-D Arena will be closing it's doors, possibly as early as this weekend. I simply cannot keep it going anymore. I am both sad and honestly relieved over this. For those of you who come here I feel I owe you an explanation, so here goes: When 3-D Arena was first started the idea was to give vendors a place to sell their items in an environment that was not prejudicial and that gave them a fair cut of their own profits. We wanted to provide reviews that were honest and gave customers a fair glimpse of products prior to purchasing. To this end we tried to provide an informative free download database (thank you April!) and news on main page. Other than money, I have poured so much time - sometimes 10 - 12 hours a day to advertising, editing, testing and basically guaranteeeing that anything the vendors here wanted they had - even for those who weren't vendors but said they would be (often times this wasn't the case). Accomadations were equally made for customers, I do not regret any of that - it is my opinion that that is how a site such as this should be run. Unfortunately the site doesn't pay for itself, and now the merchant account has increased it's fees. Nor can I ever in good conscience tell a vendor that they will make as much here as they will elsewhere. I am sad that the dream that emily and I had originally had of a place that would be fair to all and provide the reviews and news to keep visitors updated will be gone. I am also relieved that I will have extra time (not to mention money *lol*) to invest in my artwork (I have book images that I am commissioned for and am behind on) and my family. I would like to suggest that vendors and customers take a good look at 3D Commune, they offer a good percentage and are a warm and inviting community. With all of the new sites popping up there simply is no place anymore for 3-D Arena. I am only aggravated that a certain (unnamed) site will be happy to see us go. However the Freebies database will still be available thanks to AprilYSH the database has been moved to http://port3d.shows.it/ This domain (domain only) may go up for sale. I haven't decided, but if you have plans and think you can make a go of it, let me know. I will happily sell both the .com and the .net as one package to the right person. The logo however, is a different story - I like him :-), but I may be willing to part with him...."

Well........poop! Scarab

I'm wondering if the unnamed site is rosity, and Scarab does you mean it's good or bad that 3darena is gone? Rob

I don't think I ever wne there, but I still think it is sad :o(

Well, this sucks big time. And here I am with all my downloads (both free and purchased) since January gone forever and all my saved invoices/receipts gone with them (don't ask, it's a long story) and now I have to try and remember what I bought and from whom so I can track them down and hopefully get the product again? Damn, damn and double damn. sigh Kate

Kate, you need a {hug}. With news like this, we all need one. Competition is healthy. Variety is healthy. ::deep sigh:: I didn't go there often, but it was a nice place. The selfish part of me is sorry that it is gone, but the more compassionate part is also glad that LSM will have more time to create her own art. Carolly

I think that most people would agree that "poop" is indicative of bad. Scarab

I'm sorry to see an end to such a fine site, and such a dream. Every time someone in the Poser Community pursues a dream, I hope they'll succeed... It's like a part of me is taking that journey. Hugs to all my friends.

This is very sad news. I hate to see things like this happen to nice people, trying to make a go of it. I am sad, but then again happy thet you will have more free time for your family and art. I wish you well and big hugs, and a thank you for giving all of us another poser site for as long as you did. Sallie

I notice that 3darena was closed the other day. I stopped by there quite often. I even bought April's Spiral Hair some time ago. It would be nice of some of these displaced folks could band together one one site so that it wouldn't be so hard for them individually.

I never even knew about the 3d-arena, but why the lash at rosity?????????

This is indeed a sad day! Sorry to hear this, LSM, I owe you and all the 3-d arena crew a big thanks for hosting my Second Nature stuff. Best wishes for whereever the road takes you in the future. Regards- Lemurtek

one good thing I suppose, we'll still have access to the freebies thanks to April, 3-darena will live on in one form or another, gone but not forgotten! Rob

Hey guys, I'm sure LSM appreciates your words, I'll have to tell her of this thread. She's busy picking up the pieces. It was special to me too, having caught onto it when it was new and developing and I found she had the "community" interests foremost in mind, which is why I loved helping out there. :) (odeath, you'll have to ask her yourself.) Thanks Rob, yep I've saved the freebies data with her permission and put it at port3d.com and I'm trying to find some time to develop port3d and announce/promote it... (I haven't done it properly yet...) I'm hoping together we 3d and poser addicts build a first port of call for browsing the diverse and increasingly numerous 3d sites. It's not gonna develop or compete to be one of the 3d sites (daz, rosity, commune, rdna, etc) but more like a what's new at the existing 3d sites, to help promote them! It's getting a bit messy keeping up with everyone but if we had someplace to post what's new at all the sites and share links and stuff then it's all at one place and hopefully cut down on the time we have to waste checking everyday. Pretty simple... I hope! :) And the workload won't be on one person, I'm writing the scripts so the general public can post and share news they find as they find it. Just gotta set it up when I finish the 6.5 days working a week patch I'm currently on... it's just ticking away at the back of my head in the meantime. :) I got StormRage's permission to add her collection of bookmarks to the links database the other day, so actually adding them is one simple goal. One step at a time :)

Hey all, thanks. It is possible that 3-D Arena will re-open in the future, there has been such a show of support for it, but who knows. I will part with the domains only for someone who I think will do them justice, so that may happen as well. Kate, if you purchased items from 3-D Arena and need help contact me at admin@pajamapixels.com and I will fix you up :-) I still have the invoices :-) What I found amazing was how many people popped out of the woodwork after it was closed down to show their support, I honestly hadn't realized that many people enjoyed the site, which is what makes me second guess shutting it down. However I am currently swamped with my art and simply wouldn't have the time to invest in the site anymore. In the future, who knows. But without teh support of vendors and customers alike, it isn't likely to happen. I am most pleased however that April has the database for the downloads, that download script proves that all the information downloaders could want "can" be made available easily.

I have to admit I never bought anything from your site LSM, I popped my head in the door every few days, but now I wish I had the money to get the site up & running again. Good luck with whatever you do in the future. Rob (not rich enough)

I was going to send you an email, LSM then I saw this thread. I was sorry to see it closing too but I understand being swamped. I can just imagine how much time the site took, I just wish I could have helped out. Maybe if you open again in the future I'll have more experience under my belt to contribute better. :)

But a great big Thank You. I really enjoyed 3D Arena. :)

I think for me the reason I haven't totally given up on the site (and think it may come around in the future) is that 3-D Arena was the only site of this genre that was owned and operated by women. This is still mainly a man's community (in regards to the communities, programs themselves - not the artists) ~sigh~ The site actually had gotten to the point of not being as time consuming as it had been - thanks to April's scripting and would have stayed open, had it not been for a lousy virtual server. I would have let it keep plugging along, but I would have had to move it again and pay the start up costs (we had been at this server only a month, but they didn't have what we asked them about and so it wasn't going to work) and that is what defeated the site. Should I find a reasonable virtual server that has what we needed (anonymous ftp that actually hides the files as we had before and referral logs) and if the vendors are still interested I may re-open the doors. I have indeed found a cheaper and more reasonable merchant's account as well as a system for accepting checks, so that is no longer an issue, only the server was the issue.

Now where can I fing Wolfgang and Lionheart? I was just looking for them, as I needed to reload them into Poser! ARRRGGGHHH!!! Lemurtek, where are they/you buddy? ;^{

Attached Link: http://briefcase.yahoo.com/drlemurtek

Hey- Currently, the Second Nature crew are between engagements, so to speak. For the nonce, some are camping out on a Yahoo briefcase. Since Yahoo doesn't allow public sharing (much less remote linking), I can't put these in freestuff, but you can access the site with the following logon info: http://briefcase.yahoo.com/drlemurtek Username: drlemurtek password: secondnature The files currently available are Lionheart, Wolfgang, Lionhearts's armor (Beta), and Guenevere (beta): lem-GuenevereBetaOneruntime.zip lem-GuenevereBetaOneTextures.zip lem-LionheartArmorBetaRuntime.zip lem-LionheartArmorBetaTextures.zip lemurteklionheart.zip lemurtekwolfgang.zip If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me: dmatthews@mccooknet.com Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks to everyone who've downloaded and used my stuff! Regards- Lemurtek