We have enhanced the Gift System in the MarketPlace. You can now purchase Digital Downloadable items for your fellow members very easily. When viewing a Digital Downloadable products promo information in the MarketPlace look just below the Products Feedback section and you will see "Would you like to buy this as a gift for someone?". You can enter the username of the gift recipient here. When you press submit it will try to find that user. If the user has been found, you can use the add to cart button above to buy it for them. Please keep in mind that usernames are case-sensitive! We recommend using copy and paste on their name to avoid errors. Enjoy. Clint

Hi Clint, long time no talk!! LOL!! Not to be a PITA (Pain in the ass), but I have a question to ask ya. Having posted a picture to the galleries, I included a product that was purchased for me by Diane. The vendor contacted me after seeing the image and accused ME of getting their product through illegal means. I wont tell you or bore you with how un-nice I was after getting a site mail from the vendor. Suffice to say that after around ten e-mails back and forth, the vendor apologized (as did I) and thanks to Diane we were able to set her mind at ease when we proved that it was indeed a gift from Diane. Being honest, although I managed to get things worked out. I was more than a bit peeved that I was accused of being a thief and even though her and I worked things out (behind the scenes like it SHOULD be done) will never buy one of her products again. With that said, I am wondering if this new Gift System is going to bring more of these sort of situations to the forefront. How are vendors going to know who bought what and from whom to protect their assets. I ask this, because if someone buys me another gift, the last thing I want is some rude ass e-mail from a vendor who feels the need to accuse me of being a thief before looking into the facts or even asking for the facts. Also, let's say someone buys me a gift, or I buy them a gift, what if I want to do so as a "secret admirer"? What right of privacy would I have being a customer in your store? Is there a way that I can keep my identity from being noticed (without a need for a clone account) so I can properly flirt without worry of being discovered by a boyfriend or hubby? wink Like I said, I don't mean to be a "PITA", but I don't want to spend another week long arguement some vendor (trying to be nice here without breaking the TOS) who notices a product in one of my images and accuses me of being a thief, but at the same time keep my own privacy. My spending trends in the online stores is really no one's business but mine and the owners of the store. The way I look at it... Tide doesn't need to know who bought their product, only the store (say K-Mart)that sold that product needs to know who bought it or how. Tide can feel free to ask me if I want to participate in a survey to see if I bought their product, but it should be up to me if I want to participate in it. In the same regard, there has to be a way to protect the vendors to minimize the amount of warez of products that hit Peer2Peer programs, without them feeling the need to go through the galleries and then attacking and accusing the artist of being a thief because that artist has the product in their render. Jack

Hi Jack, Good points. We will be addressing this soon. Merchants will know who the gift was purchased by and for. There isnt any privacy in the gift system. The merchants are having a hard time with the peer 2 peer networks and Warez. They also have customers that purchase under one name then post gallery images under a differant name. This makes the merchant feel that the product was abotained illegaly since they dont have any record of the member that posted the gallery image purchasing their product. I will be working on better Gift System reporting to help in that area. Sorry to hear you were accused of obtaining a product through illegal means. Thanks for the information! Clint

I bought a couple of items for someone (who was WAY generous with posting terrific free stuff that I found incredibly useful) off of their public WishList. I meant it as a kind of "Hey, thanks from all of us" - type gesture, and was a little surprised to get a thank-you from them. I had somehow expected such gifts to be anonymous. I don't think it's a problem by any means, but I think an "anonymous" option would be desirable.

Anonymous? You guys gotta be kidding! I mean, if there's an anonymous feature, how am I gonna keep all the women straight? If I'm like, "Got your gift, betty ( example ), thanks!" but she wasn't the one who bought it for me, it's going to be hell explaining my way out of that. Additionally, if I buy a gift for person x, how am I going to enslave their will to my evil politico of "favors" if they don't know who I am?! Paul P.S.: Jack, this is all your fault for bringing the "plague of commercialism" down on this site. Bwahahahhahahahahaha! ( j/k, to anyone who's watching... reference to a much earlier joke )

On a side note, I think this is a great idea, and would also support anonymity for both purchaser and recipient ( and, in fact, all customers in the store ). I think all the merchants should be able to access are the records of how many sales were made, not who made them. I personally have seen a few merchants use bullying tactics and purchaser lists to cause trouble, and it gives the many honest and fair merchants a bad reputation within the community. Just my $.02. Paul

Actually, now that I think about it, that might screw up customer support... so how about this. A merchant can find out if someone is on the buyers' list, but only by looking for that particular name. i.e. If a person asks for help with a product, and the merchant wants proof of purchase, they can go to their accounting page and enter the name, and receive a simple confirmation or denial notice. A bad merchant could still go after people, but the effort required might dissuade them.

Oh, yeah! In case you haven't noticed, I tend to ramble... sorry about that. =)

"A bad merchant could still go after people, but the effort required might dissuade them. " By bad I mean one of the few merchants mentioned in the preceding post that use bullying, etc. By no means is this indicative that a merchant who goes after warezers of their product is bad... It's not. Futile, probably, but fully within their rights and not bad by default. Of course, if aforementioned imaginary warez-hunter-killer merchant were to go after the aforementioned imaginary evil warez nastard with illegally obtained information, then they would also be classified ostensibly as "bad".

And, of course, any merchant who jumps the gun to go after a non-warezer due to their obsessive need to track and hunt every single person who may ot may not have stolen a 10 dollar product from them, is probablly going to also qualify for "bad" status. Paul P.S.: I apologize for the complete lack of clarity in the preceding ramble. I've done nothing but right and stare at a computer since 3:30 a.m. and it's affecting my central nervous system I think.

Sorry for the typos, too. =P

Thanks Clint, awesome option!!!

Maybe I'm just dumb, but how would said recipient know they had received a gift from someone? As far as the anonymous feature, how about the info being anonymous to the recipient (if the person sending the gift wishes to be anonymous), but available to the vendors/admins for quality control purposes? That makes everyone happy.

Angelus_Fate, You can notify them via E-Mail or INstant Message .. It will also appear on their Gifts Received page. Clint

Thanks Clint!

IT'S MY FAULT!! IT'S MY FAULT!! IT'S MY FAULT!! IT'S MY FAULT!! HEHEHEHE!! I DID IT!!! HEHEHEHE!! NO ONE CAN STOP ME NOW...IT'S ALL MY FAULT!!! MMAAAHAHAHAHAHAH!! This running gag is brought to you by the same individuals that brought Commercialism to Poser for the benefit of a hard working individual who should get some sleep sometime SOON! :o) Jack

Umm...yeah. Right.

Hahahahahahaa!! He's finally admitted that he's an evil profiteering nastard!!! Now you will be forced to suffer the fate of those who have gone before you, Jack, like Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs! Commercializing computers. Bah. I'll have none of it. ;) Paul

Ahhhhh how sweet Jack and Paul are gonna buy me gifts! snicker Seriously though, If your going to keep track of whos getting what and for whom its going to, you should keep track of Real names and not just the screen name of the person whos getting the gift. Because not everyone who gets gifts are rostiy members. I mean what if someone wants to give a friend a gift but they dont want to become rosity members? or they dont have internet access? They would need to download it and burn it for them. And so long as they are not keeping a copy for themselves would not be "illegal" if Jane Smith buys a gift for John Doe and he makes some images using that gift and at a later date gets internet access and posts the images to a website he creates, or he becomes a rosity me member later on and starts posting, We dont want anyone to be screaming thief. So like what Paul was saying above there should be a search that the merchant can do using the person who gets the gifts name. Ok now Im rambling incoherently... Ill stop... waits for gifts grin