Since not everyone might read the Community Ideas Forum, I've decided to post this here. As you all have probably heard, we are looking for ways to keep this site from further draining the personal resources of Jack and Ed. Many of you have asked to make donations. Unfortunately, monetary donations don't feel like the right thing to do, so we asked for other ideas. Steve Shanks (of PoserWorld fame) and Rena (the FairyWoods goddess) came up with one of the best so far. "How about a load of us make a model or two and put it in the store at 100% profit to renderosity, this way we can help out and not worry about contributions, heck if you really want to give the site some cash you can buy 3 of the models :o) knowing that all the profit is going to the site.anyway you have my 150% support and if its a go Rena and I will will work our hardest to produce a kick ass piece that everyone will want ........come on I'm hyped up and raring to go what do you all say........Steve" For those of you who would like to donate a model (or texture, set of poses, etc) for sale in the Community Support section of the Online Store, we've set up a thread in Community Ideas to keep in touch about what everyone is planning to do. That way we will avoid duplicate efforts. http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12375&Form.ShowMessage=116621 Bast and I will be coordinating getting your donations into the store, so please let one of us know when you have something ready. Bast can be reached at hbg@kreative.net You can reach me at DTHUREGRIF@aol.com I'd like to thank all who plan to participate in advance for your support. Diane

I also wish to thank all in advance for your efforts to support the forum and it's overhead. Diane and I will work closely with each contributor to ensure that your work is the most desirable and salable it can be made to be. I am willing to give any help to any of you that my technical skills cover in working on your donation projects. For a very short idea of our current submission process (though Diane and I are working to get a more carefully detailed submission process posted soon): 1) Send Diane and myself both a simple and not too large rendering from 3 or 4 angles of the proposed piece by email to hbg@kreative.net and DTHUREGRIF@aol.com. This begins the submission process. 2) We will within 24 hours confirm that we have recieved your proposal and renders, and within 72 hours attempt to send back some response, suggestions or even just ask you to go to the next step, which is sending us the files for testing. 3) At this stage we arrange for you to send us the actual files, even if they are in a stage where you may need to make some suggested modifications, so we can begin doing some testing on both our machines for basic usability, since we wish all items in the store to be of only the highest standards of quality for our purchasers. 4) Once the model or contributed project is in a satisfactory condition, you will be contacted by Jack and Ed to work out any details needing still to be worked out, and we will begin moving to getting your product on display in the store :) Here to help in any way I can! Liz Birdsong hbg@kreative.net

How about a $5-$10 registration fee per year per member to post artwork, freestuff and forum messages?

no, I don't think there should be a yearly fee, no matter how trivial I know that sites that charge for membership just turn me off, even if it's a trivial dollar or two. And if we loose the talent on here we'll lose much of the community just my opinion on that but I'm all for jack and ed making back the cost of running this site, as well as some sort of profit for all the work they put into this I really like the idea of donating models to the store for renderosity's costs =) Will these models be marked in some way, so people wishing to support renderosity will know which have been donated? (not that I can afford to buy any anyway) SewerRat

Yes Sewer Rat, all donated models to support the cause will be featured not only in the regular section, but in a special contributors section as well, and if I get my wishes, flagged in some special way so they stand out, perhaps with a small Icon I am working on :) I also wish to make a special page recording the names and giving credit to those who have donated lavishly of themselves and thier time to keep us afloat and cover overhead costs.

i think the way to make (by - at my poor talent) is the best way for all the members how want too live this site and family. i will by for 30 too 50 $ at one year (its mean 60 to 100,- DM) too give my tribut at this family and membership! leeroy5

Another odd idea... You could have one "item" to "purchase" which could be a contribution, or even several levels like (USA) $5, $10, $50, etc. so donations would be funneled through the shopping cart process, for which you would simply get a thank you instead of a model. Or you could have a trivial model with a high price to support the site. Just some thoughts!

The idea of a "token" product to purchase has occurred to me also Cornerstone. Perhaps a small but lovely icon (I am working on several in Illustrator and Photoshop) that one might place on one's website, merely stating "I am a 5.00 sustaining supporter of Renderosity.com" or something, with the amounts varying from 5.00 in small increments upwards to 50.00. Rather like the cute "I Gave Blood - Be Nice to me" buttons that the Red Cross gives out. Though I know Ed and Jack are staunch in their belief that you should get value for your money, in the form of working models or other things that you CAN use. Sometimes though you know? Folks would rather have the button ;P I will see how they feel on that one :)

Cool Idea... I was working on a dragon/fantasy-snake-model. I hope it is good enough for the sales-department. I would like to donate it to renderosity... Joerg

Glad to hear it Joerg! I look forward to working with you! It is support like this that will bring us all together as a community of neighbors, and also help to cover the overhead of keeping our community here for us all :)

We cannot all be modelers, and indeed the store wishes to carry alot more than models! Textures, cool morphs of existing models we all have that came with Poser, cool morphs of Vicki to make her a hottie, or not a hottie, redos of those rather drab clothes to make them hot stuff, Tutorials on how to do some neat trick we always wanted to know how to do... etc. At this time due to lack of storage space, we wish to confine the community sale items to electronic merchandise however. That means no coffee mugs or mouse pads (that is for next year), but things that can be shipped over a modem :) The store should carry not only all the things it takes to create lovely art, but also INFORMATION, since what makes our community so unique is the vast stores of knowhow we have in total here.

OK, but not every little bit of information or every little morph should be commercialized. In my humble opinion, many things should stay freestuff and only the best or most work-intensive models should be sold. The community might die off, if we start to sell everything. And tutorials should remain freestuff. Sorry, I don't want insult anyone - I just don't think ist is a good idea to make everything paystuff. But I have no problem if my seaserpent-model is sold for 5,- Dollars to support Renderosity. Joerg

Believe me, nobody wants to see everything here commercialized. We are just trying to find a way to support this place, and the people who work so hard to bring it to you, so that we can continue to offer this wealth of information and free stuff. There will still be free stuff as long as people are willing to contribute it. That is up to the undividual members, as is any donation of items to the Community Support area. Thank you for your support. I, too, look forward to working with you. Diane