There are so many times when threads start in the Poser forum, and then they start to border on being product promotions. Before you know it, the threads get moved to the Product Showcase forum. Now, here's what I'm wondering ... we can flag threads and gallery images for nudity, so that they can be filtered out from viewers. Can the same thing be done with product promos? The reason that I bring this up is that once threads are moved into the Product Showcase forum, it seems that they fizzle out and die. Flagging the threads might be a better solution ... the threads will get exposure, and those who don't want to see product promos (threads or gallery images) can filter them out. Thoughts?

Hi Deecey. How are you? sorry I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one. The Market Place is a small part of this community. One of many small parts. There is a separate forum just about for everything including product showcase. If people want to know about latest developments they know where to go just as they do if they are interested in Fractals for example. There are a lot of us particularly those of us who are not involved with Poser who use this site as the community that it was origionally set up for and don't want product reviews etc cropping up in the other forums. There is the Product Forum, most of the home page, the pruct showcase gallery, the Market place and all the banner ads for products. It's nice to have a few areas that are ad free.

Well Deecey
I think thats a great idea :)

I remember way back when when this site wasn't so tightly (reads tight ass'd) controled that it was fun to visit. It gave the merchants a chance to get actual feed back and made a LOT more freebees available as promotional tools.
Many of us would follow an items evolution if the threads where visable and mixed in with everything else. But don't have the inclination to wade through a ton of promos in the product forum on the off chance that a thread was posted in the products forum.

Plus- In each forum is our CUSTOMER BASE-these are not just random vistors, it's not like we'd be advertiseing Poser products in the Photoshop forums. These people DO have a vested interest in the product lines available.

Message edited on: 07/29/2004 13:24

Thanks for the idea. However it was the community that wanted the Product Showcase forum so we introduced it as requested. The reason was the "Learning" forums were getting over run with product promotional posts making it hard for the members to weed through stuff they were not interested in. The Product Showcase forum provides a single source for any and all 3D artists or stores to post product promotional information. Keep in mind this forum is not restricted to Renderosity or MarketPlace items. Its an open forum for any product announcements. It also gets a LOT of traffic. Not as many reply posts as one might expect but the posts are viewed a LOT in this forum. I just wanted to make sure that it was understood why the Product Showcase forum was originaly introduced. Clint

Clint Hawkins
MarketPlace Manager/Copyright Agent

---

All my life I've been over the top ... I don't know what I'm doing ... All I know is I don't wana stop!
(Zakk Wylde (2007))

---

The reason was the "Learning" forums were getting over run with product promotional posts making it hard for the members to weed through stuff they were not interested in. I can see this being a problem, yes ... but my question was if there is a "promo" flag assigned to a thread, or to a gallery image, could it be configured so that those who did not want to see product-related threads can turn the "master switch" on or off? Isn't that how the Nudity flag works?

Yes - Good idea. Its been discussed before. It might happen in the future but right now the Product Showcase forum is serving the purpose. Clint

Clint Hawkins
MarketPlace Manager/Copyright Agent

---

All my life I've been over the top ... I don't know what I'm doing ... All I know is I don't wana stop!
(Zakk Wylde (2007))

---

Clint, I'd be very happy to see this introduced. It would, possibly, bring more money to the store and to the merchants in general, and would show customers some of the great work we do. The products forum may get a lot of hits, but it's hard to know what people want if it's a WIP. Under the current rules, if I made a post about my Dhara character and asked what people wanted for her, it'd have to be moved, because it'd technically be an advert...

Kreations By Khrys

The world is full of adverts. Why do we need to flood every corner with them. The market place, the product showcase gallery and forum are free space for advertising, advice, feedback etc, that this site gives to merchants why do we need more. Perhaps if the merchants made more interesting use of the space they already have then they might atract more interest.

Because, frankly? The merchants are paying the bills. If every single merchant took their products out of the marketplace, Renderosity would have a /very/ small income from outside sources buying banner space, and that's it. If you could turn the flag off anyway, why would you CARE? And how do you expect us to MAKE 'Interesting' use of the space when we can't even get feedback in the forums?

Kreations By Khrys

"Because, frankly? The merchants are paying the bills. If every single merchant took their products out of the marketplace, Renderosity would have a /very/ small income from outside sources buying banner space, and that's it." Well I'm not sure how to take that reply. I hope it doesn't mean what it sounds like which is, frankly, a threat. "If you could turn the flag off anyway, why would you CARE?" Read ClintH's response above "it was the community that wanted the Product Showcase forum so we introduced it as requested." And how do you expect us to MAKE 'Interesting' use of the space when we can't even get feedback in the forums. Well you are the merchants. Work out what your customers want. Maybe the merchants can get together and work out some ideas on how to pull customers in. Regular freebies that are add ons to existing products might work, competitions. There are many ways to market yourself just lets keep a little sanctuary please.

Hardly a threat. I need the money, and limiting exactly where, how and WHEN I can advertise is downright stupid, because Renderosity makes more money from it when I make more money. I know a LOT of people would prefer the flag. And as for figuring out what our customers want? Most of them won't tell us. How, then, are we to find out? I don't read minds. Two very similar products can do very differently in the store.

Kreations By Khrys

Yes but some people think there is more to this site than buying, selling and making money. Anyway I'm passing on this one now.

Yes but some people think there is more to this site than buying, selling and making money

The membership is (if I remember correctly) over 200,000 strong now. It takes a LOT of equipment and bandwidth to keep all of this data and gallery images pushing through to that many members.

Opening the marketplace served two purposes, I think. The first was a solution to the vendors that couldn't afford to pay bandwidth to provide free stuff. But at the same time, it was also a viable solution to keeping Renderosity afloat. Bandwidth costs money, so when you take into account that half of the vendor's proceeds of Marketplace sales go toward the expenses of maintaining the site, it does directly relate to what you feel are the more important areas of this site.

It's unfortunate that many of the "free providers" have gone the way of the dinosaur ... because of that, there are many people who can't afford to give stuff away any more. The Marketplace is a by-product of changing times that we have to live with ... and my suggestion was an attempt to make it a little easier. Personally, when I see threads "banished" to the Product Showcase forum, it feels like a little kid was punished by being sent into a corner. I only tried to offer a solution that would be palatable for everyone.

Message edited on: 08/01/2004 20:35

Ditto, Deecy. I, personally, resent that I can't start threads about the new product I bought that I /love/ without having it banished. But crap like 'Sara Sucks' and 'Vicki Sucks' get left there for some reason.

Kreations By Khrys