I think there is just a fundamental disconnect here between two different points of view. Unfortunately, neither side seems to be capable of understanding the other. This site is my first real experience of interacting with artists - if typing here can be considered interacting. I've come to the conclusion that they really are a different, and I don't mean that in a negative way. I think what sometimes comes across as snobbery or arrogance reflects a true (again for lack of a better word) passion about what they do. That's understandable, but I think it is difficult to grasp for those of us who aren't members of that group. Alas, I don't think they understand us either. This idea that people just aren't trying hard enough is frankly, insulting - though not intentional I'm sure. Trying to hold others to one's own standards is not only unrealistic but bound to lead to disappointment. Some people just don't have the same degree of dedication to art to spend days working on an image. They don't have the time or the desire to learn to model and see no need to do it. Some people really don't have a great degree of intrinsic ability and no amount of toil is going to change that. Is the idea that some people use Poser simply for fun so hard to understand? Is it impossible to grasp that they might not feel a deep seated need to create "perfection?" Can you even vaguely understand that perhaps your definition of good simply isn't good or fun for everyone? Or, is it simply a matter of this is our place and you don't belong here? Some artists seem to think that we MUST do better before we have a right to share this space with them and obscure their work. Excuse me, but who appointed them art gods? If you're a member of a sports team or a military unit, you have a right to expect everyone to live up to your lofty expectations. This isn't a team or a platoon, it's a website on the internet with thousands of individual people from all cultures, walks of life and philosophies. Dissing anyone who doesn't meet your standards is naive at best, selfish at worst. I haven't been here since day one so I don't know what this place was like originally. Maybe it was only artists and now they fear the barbarians have stormed the gates as they hold up their shields emblazoned with "ART," trying to fend them off. I'm sorry folks, things have changed and the ivory tower's been breached. Get used to the rabble, they're not going away. That may be a tragedy from your point of view but heck, I thought the world went to hell when Linda Ronstadt did a big band album and started getting fat. Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart. --Erma Bombeck

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken