Wowza. Makes the nasty e-mails I've recieved seem really tame, and they had me considering pulling my stuff. ^_^;;; Fyre's point 1: These people need to remember that 1) freestuff was here first. The marketplaces came later. 2) There would BE no marketplace without freestuff. Fyre's point 2: If these people are depending on Poser sales as their sole means of support, and they're capable of another line of work, then they're bloody fools. I talked to a couple of merchants when I was considering switching, and the best, top ranked ones were only making a few thousand a year. It's supplimental income at best, something to support your Poser habit, not a livable income. Fyre's point 3: Something they should consider is that I, and I imagine many others, think more highly of a vendor who gives away freestuff. If I'm borderline on a product from a vendor I haven't purchased from before, I'll check for freestuff from them. It gives me a chance to see if I like their work or not, and also a rough measure of if they're in this for love or just money. If there's nothing there, I'm probably not going to buy the product I was looking at, AND I probably won't hit their catalog again. (I also look at the most vocal complainers whenever a freestuff argument comes up. If they don't have freebies posted, then in my book, they don't get a vote.) Fyre's point 4: I, and I'm SURE many others, have a personal "don't buy from" list. People I've witnessed being rude to their customers on the forums (yup, seen it), people who've prowled the galleries and harassed those who posted work using a product under a different SN than they purchased (that is NOT why vendors are given the names of buyers), and people who do stuff like this. This certainly does explain why the general quality level of freestuff has gone down over the past few years. There's still great stuff, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't seem like there's as much of it, and when I go through the marketplace, a lot of the stuff there looks like what I would have found in freebies two or three years ago. To my fellow freestuff providers, success is the best revenge. By pulling down your freebies, you're giving people like this exactly what they want. They don't care about the bad name they get as an anonymous group. From a practical standpoint, in many e-mail programs you can block not only individual addresses, but all e-mails except specific ones from certain domains. So, for instance, you can block all hotmail accounts except a list of people you know. Now, I think I need to go finish up my Martial Artist's Coat and Calico Catgirl texture set and see if I can tork some of these people off myself.