Hello! As today the site is very slowly again(I took me about 10 minutes to upload a image with broadband connection). Under thumbnail of that image I see 4 comments and 2 viewings. Renderosity must do something with speed.I will not spend hours to see what I like here. First- useless ranking should be removed. Images are eiher excellent or not rated at all.This is radicoulus.And I think it has something common with speed. Second - comments should be annonymous.This way we could have them more constructive,honest and with on obligations to wright one back to commentator. Three-casual viewers should not be forced to register just to see images.Curently 99% viewers are people who also post images.This is not real life,it is a ghetto. Greetings......Wojtek.....

A lot of what you mention has been discussed at length with no agreement in sight (and I am sure will be discussed now yet again) but I am curious about one statement you made. "Images are either excellent or not rated at all....And I think it has something common with speed." How are the ratings related to the speed of the website??? Everyone has a choice whether or not they want rankings...I think that should remain an individual's choice, but how does that relate to the speed of the site? Just curious. I'm not the best and brightest around here.

I'm with you, Wojteg. Been getting a lot of 404s and 504s when navigating this site. I got DSL about a month ago, and I swear, the old Rosity with dial-up was faster than the current Rosity with broadband. I like the idea of anonymous comments. Or at least, letting people have the option of posting/allowing anonymous comments. And I really, really, REALLY wish the gallery was open to the general public. A lot of times I see a pic that I want to show my non-artist friends. I'd also like to show my parents my gallery. But when they have to register to view the images...well, they aren't going to do it. Assuming they can even figure out how to do it. I gather that having the galleries public caused some kind of server trouble. And given the problems they're already having with bandwidth, I can understand why they've restricted the galleries to members only. But I really wish it weren't necessary. A gallery where only other artists see your work seems awfully incestuous.

Communicating with our programmers. Thanks for letting us know. ------------------------------------------------------- randym77 - you can send your gallery link and an image link to non-members... It has to have your name in the link. So if I wanted to send my gallery to a non-member, I would send. http://www.renderosity.com/gallery.ez?ByArtist=Yes&Artist=tammymc You get this by going to Member Options on the top sidebar dropdown and selecting My Gallery. If you send a link to a direct image in your gallery, then it still has to have your name within the link. http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=369565&Start=1&Artist=tammymc&ByArtist=Yes You can get this by going to your gallery via the sidebar link under Member options and then selecting an image from your gallery. If you give the link..... http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=369565 They will not be able to view the images unless they are a member. tammy

Second - comments should be annonymous.This way we could have them more constructive,honest and with on obligations to wright one back to commentator. I disagree. If they are annonymous then there will be more leeway to post flames and the like. I think everyone here is pretty darn honest and open. Knowing who said what hasn't made them any less so. How are the ratings related to the speed of the website??? I'd like to know that one myself.. As for the 'becoming a member in order to see images'..I think 'Rosity did that to keep some harvesters from just running thru the galleries snagging images. {I could be wrong tho ;)} As Tammy stated, there are ways for friends and family to see your images...no sense in opening it all up IMO. sigh There's another 2 of my cents ;)

I agree on the idea of letting the public view the images, except those that might be objectionable. Our problem is that we have 50,000 - 100,000 artists competing for attention, and no non-artists to serve as their respectful and awed audience. Once you let in John Q. Public, I think you'll see more appreciation for the artists. You'll also get trolls who will attack, belittle and act like juveniles, which is not good for the artists' self-esteem, but at least it would be a more realistic sampling of public opinion. It's a chance for the artists to receive praise from some guy who has never seen these images before, instead of being ignored by other artists who have seen thousands of similar images over the years.

The problem we had with the public gallery was scripting. We had no good way to stop this and it was affecting our servers and slowing the site down.

Gee, look what happens when I get to Atlanta... Tracing route to www.renderosity.com [65.244.140.3] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 19 ms 18 ms 18 ms wbar8.sea1-x-x-xxx-001.sea1.dsl-verizon.net [x.x.x.x] 2 18 ms 18 ms 18 ms x.x.x.xx 3 20 ms 20 ms 21 ms ge-6-0-0.mp1.Seattle1.level3.net [209.247.9.41] 4 36 ms 37 ms 36 ms so-2-0-0.mp2.SanJose1.Level3.net [64.159.0.218] 5 35 ms 34 ms 34 ms so-7-0-0.gar2.SanJose1.Level3.net [64.159.1.78] 6 38 ms 37 ms 37 ms so-7-0-0.edge1.SanJose1.level3.net [209.244.3.142] 7 36 ms 45 ms 36 ms bpr1-ge-5-3-0.SanJoseEquinix.cw.net [208.173.54.53] 8 37 ms 39 ms 39 ms dcr1-so-4-3-0.SantaClara.cw.net [208.173.54.66] 9 94 ms 95 ms 95 ms dcr1-loopback.Atlanta.cw.net [208.172.66.99] 10 95 ms 94 ms 97 ms agr3-so-0-0-0.Atlanta.cw.net [208.172.75.10] 11 95 ms 94 ms 94 ms acr2-loopback.Nashville.cw.net [208.172.114.62] 12 98 ms 97 ms 98 ms renaissance-application-facility-llc.Nashville.cw.net [208.172.113.146] 13 97 ms 98 ms 97 ms ve1.sw1.bna1.rentech.net [65.244.143.249] 14 97 ms 98 ms 97 ms ge1-2.fw.bna1.rentech.net [208.138.126.229] 15 98 ms 98 ms 98 ms 65.244.140.3 Trace complete. I did this three times, these are the best results. I tried this one hour ago, timed out from Atlanta on.

Not all artists want the galleries opened up to all viewers...the harvesting of graphics by mass downloaders is an issue. No one should download graphics without the permission of the artist (just because you can doesn't make it the right thing to do)....it's bad enough that community members do that to each other but why would we want to make it even easier for strangers to suck the galleries dry and then post the stolen goods, without credit, onto other sites? There is also an issue of direct linking draining bandwith...talk about an idea that would slow this site down even more!!! Open galleries just make it that much easier for the art and bandwith thieves....what part of that is a plus? It is very easy to register, it's free, and I think if someone is so lame they can't do that little step then they aren't really serious about viewing the galleries, and why should that kind of limp interest be cared about? And it is also very easy to let someone from the outside view your own gallery. I don't see the great advantage to making it a free for all, when no one is charged the price of admission in the first place. But I still want to know how rankings slow down the website.

Oh, yeah, this is where someone will post: "lighten up." So I've done it for you.

I think having the galleries public might actually discourage thieves. The unscrupulous who find this site think they've discovered a goldmine: tons of free images that are unknown to most of the public, and can't be found via a casual Google. The solution to piracy isn't to keep your art from view. It's to make it more public, so any theft is more quickly discovered. To me, art is meant to be seen. By the unwashed masses, not just the elite. It's expecting too much of non-artists, to make them jump through hoops to look at an image. I suspect many of Rosity's artists got interested in Poser, Photoshop, etc., just because of one image they saw while they were casually surfing the net. I did. If you never show your art to anyone, no one will ever steal it. But then, what's the point of doing it? As for the bandwidth issue...obviously, that's a problem. But other sites have found ways to deal with it. The free webhosters (Geocities, Fortune City, etc.) must have just as much traffic as Rosity does. They handle it by blocking remote linking and mass downloading. I don't know how they do it, but they do, so it must be possible.

It's glacially slow for me; up to 4 minutes to change pages. Having difficulty trying to post comments at images too.

I don't know what the scripting problems are for public access, but if it's bandwidth thieves, then you just put an htaccess file in every image folder, and you have the htaccess script in your cgi-bin. It will deny remote linking of various filetypes like jpg, gif, swf, html et al. If it's scripting problems to deny public access to some objectionable or private images, then those go into the password script you use, meaning they're blocked unless the user has logged in already. It would be tedious to have to update it, but maybe you could pay some gopher to do it daily, using the incremental receipts asociated with allowing the public in (since some percent of them will buy prints, t-shirts etc.).

Since we can point anyone to our own gallery there really is no need to make it public. "I think everyone here is pretty darn honest and open. Knowing who said what hasn't made them any less so." That's simply not true. Though I believe comments should not be anonymous (unfortunately leads to abuse) I also have felt disinclined to offer even friendly helpful suggestions. There have been times I've wanted to point something out, but after 5 minutes of trying to find the right way to phrase it I've often given up. At the same time I don't think it's a big deal. There's a friendly community feeling in the galleries and I see nothing wrong with that.

I'd like to be able to point people to images in other people's galleries. Yes, there are trolls and thieves out there, but 99% of people, even people outside this community, are perfectly decent folk. When I point someone to an image, they aren't going to steal it. They're going to admire it, perhaps even offer the artist a job. I'd like the comments to be the way most guestbooks are. Let the artist have the option of moderating any comments before they are posted. Also, let the artist have the option of allowing private and/or anonymous comments. It might be easier to take criticism if it's offered privately, not publically. And letting the choice rest with the artist means that those who want honest criticism have that option, while those who don't won't be subjected to it.

Actually anyone can comment or criticize in private now if they want to ... that is the beauty of IM. That people don't do that is the nature of the beast. As for the open galleries, I wish I had any confidence left in the honesty of people, but I live in California and what I have seen lately at the city and state level tells me that people have learned to try to get away with anything they can if they believe they won't get caught. My gallery won't be a great lost when it is taken down. But I've seen galleries of beautiful work removed from this site and others because of thieves. It doesn't take more than one to destroy a person's confidence in being able to post here. There are many people not posting here now because of the stolen images. The current system isn't secure...open galleries would certainly be worse.

I'm with randyman77 on the gallery issue. I post to 3dcommune only for the reason that I can send links. Sometimes I upload to my site but since it needs an overhaul, I don't really do much there these days. the complexity of figuring out how to send a link to a friend is not that easy and some of the folks I send to won't bother trying to figure out a glitch. 3dcommune is effortless. I like that.

Plus, 3ds has a black background for the gallery which I really like (none of this one armed paper hanger color change nonsense). I do try to post here when I post there, but lets face it, 3dc has the edge on gallery posting for non member viewing.

I also have felt disinclined to offer even friendly helpful suggestions. There have been times I've wanted to point something out, but after 5 minutes of trying to find the right way to phrase it I've often given up. Yeah, I have been there too Spit, but it doesn't mean you're not honest and open..it just means you'd rather not have to argue over the way you phrase things..I too have given up alot of times, because its either going to be ignored, or flamed for the way its phrased...not worth the effort most times. ;) And I agree with Dialyn on the gallery issue. Its one of the reasons I took mine down..its not missed by a long shot, but still...

Eric, thanks for the tip. I didn't realize 3dCommune had galleries, actually. I'll definitely check them out. The people at 3dCommune seem very knowledgeable and very nice, but I don't spend much time there because navigating the site is such a pain. It's cluttered as heck, and they use java way too much. That's one thing Renderosity does right - better than any of the other sites I've visited. The interface is fairly clean, and navigation is easy. For example, I really dislike the way 3dCommune displays items in a narrow column, so you have to scroll down to see them. And I hate the way items are viewable only in javascript windows. That means you can only look at one item at a time -- heck, one picture of one item at a time. At Rosity, I can view as many items as my screen will hold. And I can right-click on pages and images on pages, so I can look at one page/image while others are downloading in the background. It keeps me from getting bored waiting for a page to load, which means I'm more likely to browse, see an item I like, and buy it. According to WebPagesThatSuck.com, the ideal web site is the one that sucks money from your pocket the minute you click on it. Rosity comes closest to that "ideal" for me. :-) Er, not that this has anything to do with the topic. But I don't want to only complain about this site; there's a lot that is good about it.

Actually, 3DCommune hasn't used JavaScript to launch gallery view pages in a year or more... and you can launch 100 seperate pages if you so choose, and you don't need to use your right mouse button. You just click a thumbnail, and that image opens in a new window, then click another thumb, and it loads in another window, and another, and another... (and you can specify what size window you want launched in your Account Options)

Also... "For example, I really dislike the way 3dCommune displays items in a narrow column, so you have to scroll down to see them." If you're talking about the menu, you can collasp the menu into 5 drop-down lists... This is also an option in your Account Options. :)

Eric, you can do custom setings here... I have a black background set for mine.... I hope I'm not being stupid and this is a mod only option... :-) Even tho, I'm a moderator here, I still post at 3Dc too... hell, I came in second in a recent contest there..(and won Poser 5) Some recent improvements here seems to have made a difference in site speed for me, and I'm on dial up.. One problem with anonymous comments, is that some people will take it to be a way to flame others with no repercusions... From my own experience, if you soften a critisism, with a compliment, people are more inclined to listen... Something like, "the sky is beautiful but, the shadows look to hard" This usually works better than..."dude, those shadows SUCK" I've been raked over the coals for comments too...lets face it, some folks just want to hear nice shiny things... I have trouble uploading images at 3DC in with any browser other than IE...The thumnails aren't loading properly.. I was told my java wasn't working right. :-) No big deal, I just switch to IE when I go there... Image links... personally, I don't have a problem with the current system here..This has already been mentioned.. It's very easy to join It's FREE We have enough problems with image thieves as it is... Bruce

Attached Link: http://www.annsartgallery.com/coca

Randyman77, yeah, I don't cruise the forums there, just the galleries. They do the gallery right and the forum "wrong". I agree that Osity is just reverse on this. Plus, I have some loyalty here because I've learned so much with the forums at Osity. Faders, I sent an IM. I am aware of how to change the colors. Like I said, I have a color calculator up to let folks pick their color visually with sliders and produce the code number. But I use defaults because i know the majority will do the same and I want to try and structure my art to work on the walls in the gallery where it is displayed.

gd, I wasn't talking about the galleries. I've never actually seen the 3dCommune galleries (though I plan to correct that this weekend). I was talking about the store. There are some great items at 3dCommune, but shopping there is so frustrating I rarely buy anything there. I haven't even downloaded many of their freebies, just because it's such a pain to browse there.