Folks, the pointless bickering about a simple subject is well...pointless. The issues are not complicated:

         There is a "limit" on uploads - it has not been enforced in some areas. Moderator issue.
         There are some EULA violations - must be dealt with appropriately. Moderator issue.
         There is a lack of communication between moderators of different areas. Moderator    issue.

All the different threads distill down to the moderators needing to address enforcement of site policies, which they have indicated is being done. Once a problem has been brought to the attention of the designated moderators it needs to be left alone for them to handle. Repetitively rehashing the same points is an exercise in futility and only engenders hostility.

My opinion on copyright infringement and flooding a site with "tons o' crap" is fairly clearly stated in the ShareCG forum under "Open Discussion" thread "Site Issues". The greed of some and the childishness of others is making me consider putting both sites on MY banned list. I have opted to refrain from uploading anything further unless the issues are resolved on both sites. I am a proponent of packaging items where applicable as the pittance generated by ShareCG views isn't worth the animosity being generated by multiple uploads of similar items. 

The best way to avoid any question of EULA violations is to ONLY UPLOAD YOUR OWN CREATIONS. If your are using someone else's material you can not ethically sell derivatives unless you have their WRITTEN permission to do so.

Congratulations to the winners, good photos all.

....wait... what's this... a vision... 200  ENTRANTS IN JULY!!!  :tt2:

Well for some reason I can't upload or send mail here on Renderosity all of a sudden. I get FORM REQUEST DENIED to either attempt. I'm really hoping it's my ISP. 

Anyway, uploaded a couple of things to ShareCG. I hope they will be useful, I'll put more out after I track down the upload problem.
 
Thanks again to everyone who took the time to assist me.

I've just one thing to say to you.....write more tutorials!  

I checked out your tutorial on softbodies and I found it to be well written and informative, very clear. The section on setting the IPO curve clarified it's usability. 

Good job and thanks for posting these tutorials.

Yep, that's the one that will drain the children's college fund! The EF USM's below the 1200mm are pretty high also. Have you tried the macro with built in ring light? If you are interested in macro photography it will tempt greatly. As noted Cannon high end lenses are very good.

Re:Jumpstartme2
Well your post is exactly what I needed to know. I bet it will help a few other people too!
I noticed your name pop-up in the new ShareCG forums...guess I should have gone straight to you for advice. (ie. note previous guru *comment)*Can you tell I'm a huge Douglas Adams fan? So Long and Thanks for All the Fish is a wonderfully witty satire, shame about his passing.
I liked that license idea too when I came across it in connection to a really good Blender tutorial by the person known as Otto the Cleaner.  (I wonder if he still cleans shower doors during commercials on German television?)
Given my background, I'm for the post, test, then release flow the Freestuff section follows, Not much point in giving something away if it isn't going to work properly, none of us needs extra frustration. If anyone does I've a couple of teenagers I can lend out.
Thanks for your help and expect to see something within a week. :)

Cannon's high-end lenses, like the EF500 mentioned by Nameless_Wildness, don't suffer from the quality issues  of the mid to lower price lenses I mentioned in a previous post. A great many wildlife and sport photographers use the EF USM lenses in 600mm and up. The high end lenses are fast, quiet, and about the price of a decent car. Next time you watch a sporting event  check out the photographers, chances are that's a Cannon lens mounted on the monopod.
As Nameless_Wildness pointed out they do hold their value, better than most products you buy.

And when all the tech talk has your head twisting, take the X700 loaded with film of choice and hit the great outdoors! Something to do while your brain assimilates the information. No compression, noise, etc. to worry about, just focus, framing, and composition.

I have found the lower end Cannon lenses to exhibit noticeable focal fall-off, a degradation in focus as you move out from the center of the lens. 
If the center portion of your photos are acceptably sharp and progressively blurred toward the edges this is the problem. The effect is most noticeable in wide angle shots.
Autofocus can have difficulties determining focus in certain situations. The program has to have a clean edge to focus on. Have you tried a comparision test on a subject using auto and manual focus?
The advice by Inshaala is spot on, fixed focal length lenses will give you the sharpest results.
Also the first thing I do with anydigital photo is use a light unsharp mask filter in my image processing application to account for the digital format effect Inshaala mentioned. Unless I'm looking for a soft focus then I skip that step.
Try the test I mentioned and unsharp mask filtering in post processing. If your results are negative then post back and I can go through a few other things with you. 

To: Radlafx

I have used the 30D and I had no complaints at all about it's functionality. I am sure you will be very pleased when you get it!

Many of Cannon's EF lenses for film cameras are suitable for use with the 30D and can be purchased for a reasonable amount on the used market. The main drawback to Cannon's mid to lower price range lenses is the amount of focal fall-off. With awareness of this factor and it's magnitude in your particular lens you can frame to compensate and get quite acceptable quality. I don't remember what the size of the CCD array is in the 30D but if it is smaller than standard 35mm film then your film lens focal length will actual be extended in proportion - a 200mm film lens might end up with an actual value of say 220mm when used on the digital body. The scaling factor equivalency is available from Cannon. 

I'm glad to see not everyone falls under the MAXIMUM MEGAPIXEL MADNESS sales hype. I agree that lens quality is paramount for picture quality, it always has been! If you don't have good optics you can not take a good photo, period. Aside from quality optics important areas to look for in a digital camera are: speed of autofocus, accuracy of focus, physical manual focus, color rendition and the big one most overlooked after lens quality - lag time! Compact digitals are prone to high lag times, resulting in missed shots. This being said not all compacts are bad. You just have to test before you buy. If your shop doesn't allow this then buy eleswhere. The main reason to try first is most retailers are very strict concerning returns of electronics. 
Pentax has a compact that even surpasses some of the highend digitals in the area of color resolution. I have an Olympus XA film compact that is about the size of a cigarette pack that has the best lens quality of any camera I own except for an old bellows style camera with a Leica lens.
Anyway as with any product ignore the hyperbole and examine the item in context of your personal needs.

Thanks alot Jumpstartme2. 

I meant "bother" in the sense of not adding to your load when there is a large repository of knowledge available to draw from for answers to questions like I posted here. I was going to put you at the end of the list to ask, or at the top if you look at it the other way around. 

(As in, Oh guru of the mountain I have climbed the heights to seek your wisdom. Tell me, what is 42 )

Since Rederosity only hosts thumbnails, where do I put the actual files? I need to know how to go about setting up a place for the items to be readily available for anyones usage. All my previous upload experience has been in direct links to clients. I work with a number of proprietary files so I've never set-up a centralized file location with outside access.

My webserver uses a filtering system that can be a bit odd about what it allows through or rejects so for functionality I need to put the files somewhere else for accessibilty.

Hey Tablesaw,

Thank you for replying. No need to apologize, I get rid of files I don't use too. Makes organization a bit easier! :) I have one of the pictures I mentioned already processed as a texture for another project. It is a face carved into a tree. Could you use it or would you be interested in trying it? I envisioned a tree like yours with a bit of moss hanging down, set in a swampy area, etc. 

Re:EnglishBob
Thanks for the idea of organizing and bundling similar photos into zip files. That's precisely the type of insight I am looking to receive. My intent  is not to make money only to provide some interesting texture possibilities for general use. The money matter is on my end regarding lack of excess funds to maintain a website. I used ShareCG only as an example, if I were to go that route the funds would be plowed back into generating more things for eveyones use. I should have mentioned I intend on using Otto the Cleaner's IDCL license. It stands for "I-Don't-Care-License", signifying that what you do with anything under that license is up to you and your conscience. Experience dictates that wealth is ephermal while kindness grows and spreads to others.
I'm not real clear on the amount of data Renderosity allows you to upload to the FreeStuff before you incur a charge or if you do. I am hoping that someone familiar with Renderosities policies can assist. I don't want to bother the moderators with every little thing so I put this out for the community to provide feedback.

Selective coloring is acceptable  when it is subtle. View hand tinted portraits popular in the 40's and earlier to see some fine examples. With the advent of quality color papers this skill became much less prevalent. When revived through airbrush and digital image processing the technique at first suffured from limitations related to the mediums. Many artists with the advances in available tools have achieved results on par with the best of traditional hand tinting. So it comes down to taste and the quality of the artwork plus it's intended purpose. For instance an advertisement for lipstick would have a different focus than a portrait or pastoral scene. View art in it's proper perspective, decide what you like, then make something that suits your taste better than what you didn't like. Afterwards share it with the community and don't worry about opinions too much.

Acck! I'm starting to sound  like I'm stuck in "presentation" mode! I'm going to take a long lunch for sure.....maybe until tomorrow!