The artists that the Secret Committee chose to allow the community to consider -- josecastello, DViL, Lon Chaney, kenbxpst850, the hankster, TBKoen, brschmidt, nitro115, Taron, crommcruac, sms, and jotaele -- do not deserve the insult you threw in their faces. Not even allowing a write-in candidate! I knew Rosity was embarrassed by genuine artists winning in the last two months, but I didn't know it was THAT embarrassed!

Leave it to someone at Renderosity to think that's a BAD thing.

Feel free to quit wasting your time with me any time now...

The above two posts got reversed, I think, because I edited my post for grammer while IB posted the response. Nonetheless I hold by what I said in despite of IB's grandstanding ("Good day to you sir, I'll quit wasting my time with you" -- oh the heartfelt drama! My empty days without Ironbear!). I was not talking to him, but to the artists who have been paying attention to what's been going on lately. I urge any artist who has received the insult of being nominated by the Shadow Renderosity to pull his or her works in protest... though I am equally sure that such urging on my part is unnecessary.

No it's not a "STILL beating yer wife" question, it's a simple question of policy, which the secret committee could answer through the administrators, someone like Audre. If, however, the Shadow Renderosity feels that it cannot give even the slightest hint as to whether they will ever allow another "embarrasing" artist to be chosen by its former community, then that is an answer in itself: namely, that the mandate of the "committee" (if it is more than one person) is specifically to prevent a candidate like Legume from happening again. You know perfectly well that this is the case, and I'm a little embarrased for you having to defend such an indefensible policy.

No, it's not the end of the world if Renderosity throws away its credibility; it's just sad. This site isn't (or perhaps WASN'T) just a corporate advertisement: for a number of members it represented an artistic online community. Those three words "artistic", "online", and "community" imply a degree of openness one wouldn't demand from microsoft.com. Choosing acceptable artists by politburo takes any shred of credible openness and throws it in the garbage. The politburo has still failed to answer the most important question: would its anonymous committee ever, ever even CONSIDER an artist like Legume, who was elected AOM by a vast margin of the former Renderosity community? They haven't answered because if they said "yes" even the least skeptical reader would see the fingers crossed behind their backs.

It is self-evident that the express purpose of the anonomous committee is to make sure that interesting choices like Legume never happen again. Otherwise, there would be no reason whatsoever for committee members to be anonymous. If Renderosity was at all interested in a fair system, they would at least allow all former winners of the AOM to be a part of the committee... but what, honestly, do you think are the odds of that?

BOO! BOO! BOO! If Renderosity was the only site on the Internet, it could get away with this. As it is, I'm sure any artist who received the insult of being selected by a committee designed to avoid controversial or interesting candidates will immediately turn elsewhere. Let me ask: would this "anonymous committee" even CONSIDER someone like a Legume or a Codini? Utterly ridiculous. If I were either of those two genuine artists, I know I would demand to be removed as AOM immediately, to avoid being put in the same crowd as Rosity's sponsors' pet candidates. If you want to have two winners, then leave AOM as it is, and add Lackey of the Month so there's no confusion between the genuine and the rigged. Gallery pulled.