I'm gonna miss R'osity (& I assume R'otica) as they were: largely quiet, damn nice place to see some fantastic artwork and share it. Now that the big tree's (R'osity) getting shaken apart, and everyone's arguing about who is precisely the true root(s) of what makes the thing grow (gotta secret: there are a lot of people that go into it), there's a lot of dirt that's coming to the surface that was better off WAYYY underground (my, that's a pretty good analogy - pat pat pat). A lot of people saying "finally J & E get theirs", "so-and-so's a traitor," "no, THIS is what really happened way back when"...pretty sordid stuff. Who cares? :) I didn't visit the forums very often: I'd rather see what people do than what they talk about, so I checked out images, dl'd the freebies, bought a couple of props or whatnot. I've got too much going on to be much of an integral part of the creators here; I opt to be one of the people the artists do the work for. :) Someone in one of the threads said that life is change (think it was Ed - and I did go outside and check out the sky. Great weather in Chicago area tonight...). Well, it's gonna be some time before things settle down and get mellow again. A lot of shit is gonna get flung in the meantime: I recommend to most people that they just take cover and wait for the shells to stop falling. Overall, it's pretty sad. It's been my experience that good things (yeah, the two sites have been good to me - let others say what they want - but I've always loved the sites, probably because I never got into the politics!) don't last too long. People - notably Americans - are just too frenetic. Constant stress from pushing and pulling...after a while, some of the good things collapse, while others last but have noticeable scars. I will miss the teapot whose tempest is now escaping. It was a nice place to rest, you know? I'm quite sad to see it go. I believe that people will ultimately go where the heart (the art) is. I expect these sites to fragment, to wage some tedious wars between each other, for people to go different ways, for new sites to develop. Some won't be as successful as others, and there will be more bitterness. The majority of the people probably won't have any direct relationship to the issues in these fights (kinda like they don't right now), so they'll wait for the noise to stop and go where their most comfortable. Nothing new. So, since it really isn't anything terribly new, I propose this: Take 5 giant steps back, 4 walks around the block, 3 square meals, 2 nights of sleep without asterisks (attached issues), 1 day to spend with someone you enjoy, and wait for the whole damn mess to straighten out. With luck, none of this will effect the release of any new Poser stuff to a significant degree. I think it will effect it to a degree, but hopefully not a substantial one. With luck, not too many newbies will disappear from the forums entirely - they just happen to have bad timing (believe me, it's rarely this unpleasant). And with luck, the powers (Posers?) that be will get their acts together and go back to doing what they want to - which, I assume, is get back to being ARTISTS again. Me? I'm going to bed. I'm gonna wait until Hell has gone back to its city limits, and pop my head up when the weather's a little more friendly. I've got more important things to do - like wait for Thorne's next model. THAT'S worth living for, folks. :) Daniel P.S. This is by no means meant to pressure Thorne, either by implicit or accidental suggestion. It is not my intention to cause Thorne undue frustration, consternation, aggravation, irritation, crankiness, melancholy, paranoia, god complex or upset tummy. P.P.S. See youse guys on the flip side.