Hey everyone!

As of today we are starting a new approval process for all freestuff items uploaded to the Renderosity Freestuff Section.

Please check the freestuff upload page, and you will see that there is a new notice that will inform providers of the new limits on uploads and approvals per 24 hrs per provider.

The new limits and approvals are as follows:

Upload limit: '3' per 24 hrs, per provider
Approvals: '1' per 24 hrs, per provider
All uploads received above upload limit of '3' per 24 hrs will be deleted.

I also want to touch on some points that have become an issue of late, regarding our freestuff area, and its abuse.

We have been seeing quite a few duplicate items being uploaded to the freestuff section that have been previously approved, that lead to the same files over at ShareCG. This is not allowed, as it is an abuse of our Freestuff Section.

We request that providers check their already approved items to make sure that they are not uploading duplicates. All duplicate items found will be deleted.

If you have any questions about the new limits, feel free to post here, or Sitemail me or Bobby, and we will be glad to help you.

Thanks!

~Jani

~Jani

Renderosity Community Admin
---------------------------------------

Thats a good thing ... i dont think people should make bad use of the freebee section here at R'O to make some cash on a other site..
Making cash from it is ok but do it on that site and not true here.
Hopefully this new set of rules does make a end to the CGshare-SPAMMING of the freebee section.
The freebee's here was always about quality and lets hope it will renturn to that .

Thnx R'O !

Chris

 

IF YOU WANT TO CONTACT BAR-CODE SENT A  PM to 26FAHRENHEIT  "same person"

Chris

 

My Free Stuff

Ups! That means I will need at least as twice as long to announce here what I allready have in stock, because I just decided to give up my own freeware server (and I better stop making more free items). I planed to upload 2 or 3 a day for the next 3-4 weeks. No SPAM, really not.

Maybe Rendo users better look directly into shareCG to be sure not to miss something :)

---

How unfortunate that everyone is penalized for the actions of some who show no self control and chose to abuse the free area in order to make a few pennies on a freebie site that encourages people to spam in order to make a few pennies off of the hits and downloads.

Was there no other options or alternatives that didn't penalize everyone? Perhaps set a limit for those who host on a server like ShareCG which encourages spamming to get the maximum uploads and money.   And allow more uploads for those who are hosting on  free or paid sites that aren't paying for hits/downloads?

It's really those who are hosting on ShareCG  that is the problem. Anyone using another hosting site be it free or paid are uploading their items for the sake of offering freebies, not for the sake of trying to make pennies off of their uploads.

Also, I don't understand the reasoning behind allowing 3 uploads in 24 hours but only approving 1 of those in the same 24 hours. Why not just allow 1 upload and 1 approval in 24 hours? The way it is now someone could be uploading 3 items per day everyday which is 21 items a week and only having 7 of those approved during that week. That's a backlog of 14 items just for that one person.  That's going to lead to a huge backlog of items awaiting for approval.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

I didn't know they were submitting the same item here more than once. I recall in the old days, when they switched servers that held the freebie, they would sometimes resubmit it. but I reckon this means they were resubmitting items without actually moving them from sharecg. possibly resubmitting the same item to sharecg, but it'll be a nitemare for sharecg to go thru all that stuff on his server and check for duplicate fotos, renders and other 2d stuff. adp, we'll keep an eye on yer page there. and thx fr the nice v3 helmet armour item.

For me what shareCG pays isn't of mutch interest. On the other side, it is a good and fair system. But the problem - we see it all - has to be soveld on shareCG's end.

The new rule just leads to multiple accounts per SPAM-user.

---

shareCG should be able to check his server records to see if the same IP address is associated with multiple usernames. then he could delete all of 'em, or maybe all but one of 'em.

Quote - shareCG should be able to check his server records to see if the same IP address is associated with multiple usernames. then he could delete all of 'em, or maybe all but one of 'em.

Same IP-address? I didn't have the same IP address for long. My provider hangs up the line at least once each day and provides me a new "dynamic IP". This is standard in most countries for most users.

Nobody is able to detect if a user opened several email accounts to use them with registration. This is normal allready with many other services :)

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Acadia, we are not trying to penalize everyone, but the backlog in the testing area was getting way out of control. {wayyy above what you quoted up there} Some items were so backlogged till they stay for days if not a week, and more were coming in everyday...

We talked about doing 1 item approval and upload per provider, but that sounded pretty harsh, so we are allowing 3 per provider as opposed to the 5 per day like it was.

Also, we are not going to penalize those providers who use ShareCG..not everyone there does mass uploads.

Hopefully, with this system we can eventually cut down on some of the mass uploading as time goes along.

@MissNancy:

We discovered the duplicates while in the testing phase..we download each item uploaded here, and in the case of users on ShareCG, sometimes its pretty easy to spot if a provider has uploaded one file to Rendo more than once, by looking at the providers portfolio over there, and cross checking what has already been approved here....very time consuming, but one of those things that needed to be done,  in order to keep the abuses to a minimum.

Then sometimes we have those who have so many items, they are not aware that they have actually uploaded an item they already had gotten approved...so by doing all these cross checks, we can really cut out the needless duplicates, clutter, and sometimes abuse of our freestuff area.

@ Adp:

We're not going to cut out anything that has already been approved, this is all going forward..so if you have anything in the testing /pending area over 3 items, we will let you know ;) You can still upload 3 items per day, but only 1 of them will be approved per 24 hrs.

We will check the dates on all uploads, and if anything over 3 comes into pending in a 24 hr period, it will get deleted..so let's try to keep it at 3 if we can.

Hopefully, again, this will pan itself out..if it doesn't we'll, do something else until we get this monster under control :)

~Jani

Renderosity Community Admin
---------------------------------------

I know I am rather sick of single backgrounds being uploaded. I love free things as much as the next person, but why not link to a gallery where we can pick and choose the free item instead of seperate links for all these backgrounds?

Quote - I know I am rather sick of single backgrounds being uploaded. I love free things as much as the next person, but why not link to a gallery where we can pick and choose the free item instead of seperate links for all these backgrounds?

Unfortunately that's against the Renderosity Freestuff rules. Each item MUST be a direct link to the page the item is on. I already link to my gallery when I announce a freebie in the freebie forum and with every post I make via the link in my signature. Unfortunately, it appears that a HUGE portion of the freebie downloaders do NOT read the forums.

Believe me, those of us who are providing models and meshes to ShareCG are just as disgusted by the situation with backgrounds and textures being spammed everywhere. I wish I knew the answer to fixing the situation.

My guess about the duplicates is that some people are trying to get their freebies back to the top of the list so people will find them and that is abusive.

My Freebies

Some of the freestuff links to websites, like the recent V4 free jewelry, where you can pick which free item to download.

This is true, but in all those instances they link to the page the items can be found on. This can't be done for ShareCG items because the page numbers change as new items are added to each member's freebies gallery. This makes it impossible to link to the page an item is on at all times.

My Freebies

Devil's advocate time:

You obviously haven't got enough people working on it, bad management is not the freebie makers fault. Don't penalise the people potentially putting money in your pockets as they'll start staying away, put enough people on the job to get it running properly.

Windows 7 64Bit
Poser Pro 2010 SR1

Oh.. dear.... and here I was going to try and upload my first freebie. I have know idea where to start and don't have a web page or anything like that. All I wanted to do was give my texture to the freebies area.

Quote - Oh.. dear.... and here I was going to try and upload my first freebie. I have know idea where to start and don't have a web page or anything like that. All I wanted to do was give my texture to the freebies area.

 

Thats not to difficult at all
1 You! have to find a place where you can store it.
2 read the info on the upload page of the freestuf..
3 Do what you read and upload your thumb nail to R'O
4 wait and see when your stuff hits the Freebee section

These new rules dont affect you and 98% of the others who upload freestuff.
And when you dont know what to do after reading the info etc etc you can always IM a R'O mod for help...

I hope this helps you

Chris

 

IF YOU WANT TO CONTACT BAR-CODE SENT A  PM to 26FAHRENHEIT  "same person"

Chris

 

My Free Stuff

Thank you Chris. I'm still trying to put all my bits together and have worked out how to make a zip file, so that's a start. As I have only .png and .pz2 files to worry about, it shouldn't be too hard now that I know where to look for help.

still wating on an answer to this:

*Upload limit: '3' per 24 hrs, per provider
Approvals: '1' per 24 hrs, per provider

you can upload 3 but only 1 gets approved. whats the point of this illogical setup? you are creating a backlog for yourselves straight off and creating more work per day per provider.

can you explain the logic behind this decision?*
*(since it can't be to prevent a backlog... the system you are describling would inherently create a backlog!)

Quote -
Hopefully, again, this will pan itself out..if it doesn't we'll, do something else until we get this monster under control :)

Yes, time to do something.

I just wished I started my planed upload orgy earlier :)
With the new rules it will last a bit longer until I have anything published. That's all. I can pretty well live with this.

Maybe a prominent note on the freestuff page about the freestuff forum may be a good thing.

---

LTD, part of the issues we had, were too many people working on it, and we ended up tripping over one another, and sometimes more got approved that should not have been...so we've cut back on the amount of people working on the freestuff approvals, and it should be ok. Only time will tell ;)

Khai,  what the plan is, is to cut out so much mass uploading by a few providers, and my thoughts are that after some time, the mass uploaders will realize that they will not be able to abuse the system anymore, and will cut back on their uploading habits....if they only get 1 approved per day, they will eventually not upload more than that because it will not be worth the effort.

We could have gone the '1 upload, 1 approval, per 24 hrs' route..and we still could go that direction if this plan doesn't work...one way or another however, this abuse of the freestuff area has got to stop. We're trying for the easy approach first.

This way might still backlog us to a point, but it is not going to be anywhere near the backlog it was before we did this.

Let me ask you all while I'm here.....would you all prefer 1 approval, 1 upload per 24 hrs?

Adp, Good idea, I'll look at getting something placed on the freestuff page ;)

~Jani

Renderosity Community Admin
---------------------------------------

I would actually prefer that the guilty uploaders be asked to knock it off. It's not like the approval folks can't tell who's uploading 12 freebies or however many they are a day. That's just me.

But if you're only going to approve 1 a day, I see no point in allowing more than 2 uploads a day. The reason I say 2 is it allows the uploader to upload the next day's upload before their 24 hours is up and thus free's them up from having to watch the clock so much. The only point of a 3rd upload is to give them three days off from uploading.

My Freebies

Normally I don't have too much to say, but having only recently begun to share things with the community this is in general relevant to me. 

There is no doubt that something has to be done because while I might be new to submitting free stuff I am a long time beneficiary of downloading them and I have seen the horrendous flooding of the area.  And since some folks seem sadly unwilling to police their own habits in this respect I would say this plan is as good a place as any to start in curbing the problem.

I personally wouldn't have any issue with it being limited to 1 upload and 1 approval per 24 hours, as this would logically guarantee that you didn't have a backlog problem.  But that is probably because, as a beginner, I'm a bit slow. When I upload one, it takes me a day and sometimes two (depending on what I am working on) to finish, test and package another one for upload.  In fairness to those who have backlogs of unposted items and those who are quicker than I am you should probably allow either two or three uploads every 24 hours so these folks aren't playing a clock watching game just to share something with the community.

Just my two cents worth which in these inflationary times is probably worth about half a cent. :)

3 uploads/1 approved a day is fine, IMHO. As Barcode said allready, most providers aren't affected. The other ones will get a kind of timebuffer.

@MatrixWorkz: A few providers have to pay the bill for whats going on. And because we can avoid something must be done, we should support it. Cut off these abusers throat :)

Perhaps things are turning back to normal after a while.

---

Quote -
@MatrixWorkz: A few providers have to pay the bill for whats going on. And because we can avoid something must be done, we should support it. Cut off these abusers throat :)

Well I'm aware of that but it's certainly not fair to those who don't abuse the system. I'm not in the habit of uploading 12 items a day. I've done at most 5 a day and that was when I'd finally decided to link to the freebies from freestuff instead of just the forums.

For the first three months I didn't link from the freebies section at all and only posted links in the forums so when I did finally decide to link from the freebie section I had a few months of backlog to get uploaded fairly quickly so I did five a day. Now I'm lucky if I do 2 items a day. It's still just sad that some people have to be penalised for the behaviour of others.

My Freebies

Please don't lump all who use shareCG in the same basket, some of us are responsible & don't abuse the system.

Don't blame us for the greedy, shareCG seem to be working on the problem, but I think Rendo needs to be responsible too & also address/disipline these people, not penalise those who are doing the right thing.

The best & most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor touched... but felt in the heart.

Helen Keller

My Gallery                       My Freebies                        My Store

Matrix, although I see your point and also agree on most aspects of your argument, some points just aren't logical! Although the rosity team COULD notify all current abusers as you have recommended, it still doesn't put a stop to new user/abusers! Rosity would have to wait for them to abuse before they could be notified to stop said actions, creating an endless and useless process of repeatedly notifying people to stop abusing the system. (Take into account that repeated abusers are probably by nature not very honest ppl, and therefore probably don't care about the wrongness of their actions!)  Also, using such a system allows too many loopholes for the abusers to use to get around the admins! So, rosity would be forced to overwork themselves in and endless endeavor to be overly forgiving! Yes, I admit that it is not fair that the regular (and honest) users of such systems should be punished for what others are doing, but that is how life works...if you allow dishonest ppl a way to be dishonest, they will simply follow their nature! But with this new system, it will EFFECTIVELY stop the abusers! Rosity's other option, of course, would be to put an end to the freestuff section, which I am sure that none of us would want to see happen! Again I will point out that I DO agree with you that it is not fair, I would say to give the new system a try and be glad that the system is still there for us to enjoy, albeit with a few limitations! Just my two cents, hope you take it into consideration! 

"I cannot escape from myself,
I am never alone!"
                -Jesse

Dal I understand why it's being done. I'm not taking my toys and going home. I'm simply stating my opinion on the matter. I don't really see that there's anything for me to consider, other than to play the hurt child and take my balls and go home. I'm not blaming the mod's for having to do what they've done either. As I said, it's not really cutting into my current upload rate all that much. I just wish there were another way to moderate the abuse without penalising non-abusers.

My Freebies

Purging abusers of all things good from the earth would be nice, eh?  But I guess thats not very feasible, is it?  We can only hope that they all drop from the face of the earth, or become inexplicably computer illiterate or something.....I know, I'm dreaming! But it keeps one's spirits up to keep firmly in mind that all things are possible!  :-)

"I cannot escape from myself,
I am never alone!"
                -Jesse

Quote - Please don't lump all who use shareCG in the same basket, some of us are responsible & don't abuse the system.

Don't blame us for the greedy, shareCG seem to be working on the problem, but I think Rendo needs to be responsible too & also address/disipline these people, not penalise those who are doing the right thing.

Let me just second that... I think many many of us who use Share CG to upload their free stuff try to make good work  and give their best to provide the community with nice free stuff. But as beeing one of these people I really think it is a good thing that ReRo now takes stepps to quench the flood of freebie spam like that single backgrounds ant the likes. I can only hope it works...

Well, for me 3 uploads and one approval is ok. My rate is much lower as I can't even dream of finishing a, lets say, decent clothing texture set in one day!

Didn't I hear somewhere that tim (the owner of this site) also owns shareCG.

I do understand the reasoning of this change...

But how smart is it to do just before the christmas freebee givaways season? Bet ya didn't think of that!!!

*"January 3rd my santa sled is approved- it was held to make room for a cyclorama background"

*No--this is just another example of bad, cheep and self-serving management.

Dont know where you heard that Geo, but I know David and Jake own SCG.

Also, we were not thinking about any particular freebies, in any season..including Christmas freebies.

Quote - "January 3rd my santa sled is approved- it was held to make room for a cyclorama background"

• Who exactly are you quoting here? :huh:*

~Jani

Renderosity Community Admin
---------------------------------------

I'm actually disturbed to find that most of the cyclorama uploads were made from free photos already on the internet at this site: http://www.fontplay.com/freephotos/

I emailed the owner of that website only to find he was somewhat disturbed that someone was making money off of his photos.

My Freebies

Ummm,  Im not sure about all the Cycloramas you are talking about Matrix, but if the guy was disturbed because someone was making money off his photo's,  then he should not have placed this in his terms of use:

"These are free photos that may be used by anyone for any artistic endeavor,

personal or commercial without having to give credit or a link etc. Terms of Use:

Use these images at your own risk. I can only assert that the photos were takenby me and my friends, and we don't mind if you use them."

Do you know which images were used?

You might post in the copyright forum about this as well ;)

~Jani

Renderosity Community Admin
---------------------------------------

Quote - Didn't I hear somewhere that tim (the owner of this site) also owns shareCG.

.

 

Well if you did you certainly heard wrong, lol....That is why rumors are so unecessary because they are just that RUMORS, no fact at all.

Just want to clear up that false rumor as Tim or anyone at Bondware/Renderosity has no affiliation with ShareCG at all. 

Quote - Just want to clear up that false rumor as Tim or anyone at Bondware/Renderosity has no affiliation with ShareCG at all. 

Bad news ;)

---

JSM, I sent you a PM of the email I got from Dennis Hill about the images in question. He does request a link back to his website as credit. Whether he means a clickable link that people can follow to support his own website  with it's ad revenue is something to be discussed with him. The link's given in the descriptions of the above mentioned items are not clickable and do not direct people to his site so that he get's his own revenue. In anycase, He's aware of the issue now as well.

My Freebies

I never heard that rumour, either. one would think that if folks are gonna try to start rumour-mongering, they'd at least be plausible :lol:

I don't see the problem is with uploading backgrounds - as long as those are valid - like someones put some effort into making a background or taking a good photo.

The real problem is that SINGLE idiot who keeps uploading photos to ShareCG under the guise of "cyclorama" backgrounds. Lets face it, it's not for the good of this community it's soley so they can rack up a few extra dollars over at ShareCG. 

Which is NOT fair on those guys = ShareCG do a brillant job of providing a home for 3d stuff, giving us a chance to download stuff we may not get the chance to get because the creators can't afford to run a site.

And then idiots like this come along and abuse it. I say theres a simple solution to this problem - ban that single idiot from uploading anything to freestuff. 

:)

Pinky - you left the lens cap of your mind on again.

Quote - ShareCG do a brillant job of providing a home for 3d stuff, giving us a chance to download stuff we may not get the chance to get because the creators can't afford to run a site.

And then idiots like this come along and abuse it. I say theres a simple solution to this problem - ban that single idiot from uploading anything to freestuff. 

Applause.

---

The issue has been resolved between the owner of the photos and ShareCG and the uploader. He's made the credits to the original site clickable links and all three parties are satisfied.

My Freebies

It's a pity that the actions of a few people have caused all this trouble and worry for everyone else.

Very true.

Moreover, the action taken does not stop "newcomers". Actually somebody uploaded plain JPEG pictures as "Poser Backgrounds" to shareCG. Maybe a missunderstanding. Maybe the beginning of a new SPAM attack.

But this is no longer a problem Renderosity is involved in. Thanks to the new Freestuff-Provisions :)

---

I'm with Anniebel and Varnayrah, there are many of us trying to provide quality content. Our intent is not to get rich, at least not be the ShareCG method. LOL! But the extra $5-10 dollars does help pay for the yearly email account, a stack of blank CD-R's and a few pots of coffee. We have also made requests to improve the uploading procedures, clean up the content, and we are assisting in anyway possible to help them with this task. Let me say thank you to all that shared their content, also thank you to all that have downloaded textures or models from me. I appreciate all of the kind gestures, comments, and new friends this has provided. Evolving is not a painful process, stopping the process is.

I used to upload around 7 items at once - because I could only upload at the weekend, not having access to the internet for uploading during the week.

I uploaded textures - I try my best to ensure that these are each time different from the last one - because I take photos of different things, like no two walls are the same, no two roofs, different types of sand, gravel, concrete, carpet, etc etc.
I then spend quite a lot of time making these images into seamless tiles so that when put onto a 3D model the repetition is either negligible or as near as d&mn it that I can get it.

I do not consider this is spamming.  If I took an image of the brown carpet, posted that and then posted that same image but colour adjusted to red, yellow, orange, green, blue etc etc  Now that would be spamming. 

Especially if they are not tiled and thus require a good deal of work to get them useable.

I think that measures to cut down on this sort of thing is a good idea - but I'd prefer an allowance of 7 per week - obviously.  Lol

I do not like the idea of 1 per 24 hrs - please!

The PTB at ShareCG are also trying (at last) to curb abuse of the system - I hope they manage it.

They do do their best.

Measure your mind's height
by the shade it casts.
Robert Browning (Paracelsus)

Fran's Freestuff

http://franontheedge.blogspot.com/

http://www.FranOnTheEdge.com

I was also concerned about the fact that only one per 24 hours would be permitted. I normally get the weekend hours to work on uploads as my weekly schedule include business travel and sometimes long hours. But I have just given up on this issue that we could have more than one upload and approval in 24 hours. I asked if we could have a monthly quota of 30, when we hit that we are cut off. This way we could still upload easily with our silly schedules, allowing Rendo to take advantage of the content we share. The one per 24 hours will definitely curb my uploads and reduce the overall content that I share at Rendo, not so everywhere else. I am interested in making a better system, just losing the energy to fight.

Vkirchner, The upload limit is 3 per day {21 per week} and 1 approval per day {7 per week} You still have 28 approvals per month this way, so Im a bit stumped what you are asking for?

Are you asking for 30 uploads and approvals just whenever during the month? If that is so, that would throw us right back off where we were..mass uploads and a backlog that won't wait, because we would have to allow that for everyone.

~Jani

Renderosity Community Admin
---------------------------------------

I understand your problem, I do not have a solution for you.  I am only commenting on the fact that I can only upload on weekends, weekdays are too busy with my work schedule because of travel, so this will severely limit the total number of uploads and approvals.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Quote - I understand your problem, I do not have a solution for you.  I am only commenting on the fact that I can only upload on weekends, weekdays are too busy with my work schedule because of travel, so this will severely limit the total number of uploads and approvals.  Nothing more, nothing less.

If you upload three a day on Friday, Saturday & Sunday, that's 9 uploads per weekend. Times 4 for the month and you've actually gone over 30 uploads for the month at 36 uploads. I don't see the problem here. If you only upload on Saturdays and Sundays that's still 24 uploads a month. Hardly an issue if you ask me.

My Freebies

So your saying that they will pass one a day until all are approved, if that is the case it will work fine. It just seems a little difficult for them to keep track, but it's okay by me.

I'd like to commend the admins for tackling this issue.

They won't get it to everyone's satisfaction, but the difference is clear for all to see - not least in the fact that the principal offender is reduced to one upload a day rather than his/her usual seven or eight. Freestuff is already looking far less cluttered and less of a chore to wade through.

Thank you.

Thanks Steerpike :) Its looking alot better in the back too

~Jani

Renderosity Community Admin
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I figured this would break itself eventually :/  I feel bad for the modelers and texturers like Matrixworkz, Varnayrah and others who invest tons of real work into putting out a valuable freebie, as opposed to these others mooching from the ShareCG payout with a steady stream of junk.  Good luck with that!

My Freebies

I would also like to commend the Admins for doing something about this issue. I would ask that if an Item is simply JUST a picture that isn't necessarily created for Cyclorama then It goes to the 2D section with all the tubes.

I still remember the days (not so long ago) when the quality of the items in the free stuff section was very high and in step with the rendering technology of the time. Now it seems that quality is still at the Poser 4 level though the technology is incredibly higher.

And very few items are of the "Premier" type. You don't see things like Zippy's castle models for free that much anymore. Now it's just texture support for the most part. It was nice then to find something of a Market Place quality for free. I guess people, for the most part, just want cash nowadays. Even items that I had gotten for free then are now baring price tags.

Attached Link: Computer Art by Charles McChesney

i kind of like sharecg. i think there are a lot of sites that have problems with cheating even if it's for unpaid hits. it seems that sites that offer free sevices whether it's chess, showing art and video, free websites and then offer some paid services too; all seem to wind up with a lot of cheating going on.

Computer Art by Charles McChesney

Doran - Ouch, I thought I was providing Premier Items.  Never did I consider selling them, that is why you do not see my face in the Store or on the cover of the web site as VOM.  Everything so far has been provided free to anyone that wants it, I thought that if it did not suit your tastes, you would not download it.  The money that is made from ShareCG has not even paid for the gas I have spent to travel and take texture photographs, don't even consider the time aspect.  If this sounds too much like complaining, maybe I like others are just starting to feel a little unappreciated for all of the effort we have put forth.

cmcc - Yes, I like ShareCG also, it provided a place to host the files, it was also a young site that I could possibly grow with and meet new friends.   Jake and crew from ShareCG have been very easy to work with, much like the Admin's here.  That is the main reason I started to participate more in the forums.

I have about a dozen models in the works and was going to upload half at once. The 1/3 policy works in my favor though. Now I can release the first two or three then spend a day polishing the remainder one by one. Eventually I'd like to texture and rig my models as original characters, so theres no need for me to rush. Supposedly, the money you make from ShareCG web hits is a joke so I'm not even going to bother setting up the PayPal thing with them. I'd like to put up my stuff just to see how much people like it. If the ratings are good I'll make more. I really admire guys like Mapps and Spacebones, who make quality items that anyone can use for free.

"I really admire guys like Mapps and Spacebones, who make quality items that anyone can use for free." I do also, they are one of the reasons that I have been trying to improve the quality of my models and textures. LOL, I am working on my second million at ShareCG, it should be easier than the first. :-)

vkirchner, I didn't name you as a person who made poor quality items, did I? I simply think your type of items should be in the 2D section. If they are simply pictures that can be used for any purpose then they should be there. It doesn't mean they are poor quality, it just means they are 2D and not specifically related to any particular model. And labeling any 2D picture as being for Cyclorama is a joke. That’s like saying that all paint is for cars simply because cars are painted. However, this is not the case for texture “maps” which are model dependant and vise versa. Also, My statement about people trying to make a buck in no way was towards you. It was towards a whole different bunch of people. To start naming names I'm sure would get me in trouble but I could mention quite a few... No... so don't ask :) 

In closing, this has gone off topic in my opinion but I simply felt that you deserved an explanation concerning my point of view. However, it’s nothing personal. No ‘ouching’ intended.

Doran, Yes, my items are listed in the 2D section under textures, most are provided with normal maps and have been adjusted for tiling and made seamless. There are a few earlier ones that were uploaded as images only, they were added at the request from specific modelers. Yes, we both know what people you are speaking about without naming anyone. Matrix made the comments about Cyclorama, I do not even know what that is so I would not be of any help with those comments. But as far as I am concerned, we're cool.

Rather than inconvienence the majority of honest uploaders maybe RR could give the offenders onetwo warnings then if that isn't adhered to can they flag their account and restrict, blackban them or something for a period of time?

First off, thanks so much dogbite1066 and vkirchner comments like your's really do mean alot to me :-) 

I'm not sure how long Spacebones has been cranking them out, but I have been building 3D stuff since 1990, I still have Poser 1.0 (not installed though). It shipped on 3 floppy Disks...lol Sooo, I do have a bit of practice, 17 years of it. Man that just screams...Hey dude you're getting old...lol

As for the new policy for watching over the free section I think it is a great idea. Now mind you of late I am doing well to get 1 new item uploaded per month, and when i do upload something it is something that has just been finished, so no chance of it having been uploaded before.

One thing to keep in mind is the free section is the starting ground for most merchants and free downloads are often only free to the person downloading them, not the people who provide them.

The only reason I went merchant was to help cover the costs of my freebies. My free section was costing me $55 a month to host the files so they were free to everyone except me. These days it costs me $25 per month to host my free files.

It is not unreasonable to expect some to try and cover their costs by moving items to market. This is done by putting your better items in the market. Some do jump the gun and start trying the market before they are ready and others wait till long after they have the hang of it. This does effect the quality of the free section.

So ya consider it costs me $300 per year (not complaining, just using myself as an example) to give my stuff away, many others bear the same costs, or can not bear the cost but still want to contribute some how. My market pays for the cost of my site, so those who support my Renderosity Market actually support my Renderosity Free section. Now mind you you can get free websites to host files but they are rarely large enough. My site is 2 gigs of space and 200 gig of bandwith, ya can't get that for free. So many folks that would be happy to give away all there stuff can't because it is to expensive to do so. In my humble opinion it's hats off to any and all that are willing to post for free downloads. 

I also send thank you letters to all those folks i downoad free items from to let them know how greatful I am for them sharing their hard work (you'd be supprised how few thank yous you do get).  Overall I do pretty good in this area, I get 1-2 letters per month. I suggest if there are those that you do like to download from on a regular basis to send a quick "thanks" via site mail, it s good encouragement. You'd be supprised how many free stuff contributors are encouraged to do more knowing that their suff is truly liked.

This sort of thing does effect what will show up in the free section. Me my rule is simple, if it took more than 50 hours to make it will head to market 80% of the time. But about twice a year it will go to the freesection.

WOW sorry for the long winded responce, guess I am rather fond of the Free Section :-)

mapps - Thank you for sharing your thoughts and background on your web site finances. This is exactly the problem I have run across, and why I was happy to use the ShareCG site for hosting. I cannot agree with your more on the comments and thank you's that are received. Every message gets a response, it also prompts me to go and look at their work to obtain insight into what is important to them, what programs they use, and what their skill set is. This usually creates more questions that I can direct to them which hopefully develops into a kinship of modeling and respect for each others work. Thank you again for sharing.

Yer welcome, Most of my lasting friend ships I have made here are peolpe that either worte me a letter of tanks or had a queston. This is a community, we learn from talking to each other. :-)

Your point is rather interesting Mapps. I thought when I first got some freebies to thank the artists (not you, cant remember who exactly though)  as I was so stunned to get them for free......I never heard back so I thought I had done something wrong and didnt do it again.  I will give it another go. I will start with you as some of your stuff looks familiar and after a HDD crash I need to download them all again. :cursing:

I always try to credit them though. I will try again as I think it is great to offer these things to people and I am slowly trying to get to that stage myself one day. Jen

Well one thing to keep in mind is some of the providers here never check there site mail :-) I sent out a couple of letters months ago I i see they still have not been read :-) I think it is most important for new contributors, with out encouragement they can get fustrated and give up, not realizing peole were actually enjoying what they made. If you onlt get a few downloads on a item it doesn't mean it was no good jsut not very many people were looking for taht sort of thing. So for new contributors it can make the difference between continuing and giving up to hear that those who did download liked it. For folks like me, spacebones, lupadgds, EvilInnocence, adamthwaites, plus3d, bosseh, TrekkieGrrrl, etc we are in the top downloaded list, we know folks are having fun with our stuff, though I personaly still enjoy getting letters :-) When i fist started downloading I never sent letters of thanks, figured I didn't want to clutter their mailboxes with yet more fan latters. It wasn't till I was in the top 50 that I realized that 99% of free contriburots don't have that problem :-) And that is when i started making sure I sent out letters of thanks.

Thanks mapps, I will keep your experience in mind as I reload my hard drive. Jen

No problemo :-)

Attached Link: Rose

> Quote - > Quote - Oh.. dear.... and here I was going to try and upload my first freebie. I have know idea where to start and don't have a web page or anything like that. All I wanted to do was give my texture to the freebies area. > >   > > Thats not to difficult at all > 1 You! have to find a place where you can store it. > 2 read the info on the upload page of the freestuf.. > 3 Do what you read and upload your thumb nail to R'O > 4 wait and see when your stuff hits the Freebee section > > These new rules dont affect you and 98% of the others who upload freestuff. > And when you dont know what to do after reading the info etc etc you can always IM a R'O mod for help... > > I hope this helps you > > Chris

I thank you for posting this.  I have yet to upload my first "freebie" but its good to know at least how to do it.

I also wanted to add that I am new to the CG Share site and am learning about that site as well.

But I can't wait to upload my first "freebie"!

blush Oh dear, I've got a few words as well hehehehe - to be honest to start, I'm not at all sure what's gone on with the 'shareCG freebie incident,' but I did see things in this other perspective tonight, bear with my long windedness please and thank you :-)

Quote - Freestuff is already looking far less cluttered and less of a chore to wade through.

:-) Just wanted to comment on the fact that free stuff is a privelage - It's like getting "free money, vs working..." If you have to work a little harder to get to the stuff you'd deem 'good' and 'worth it," then why can't we have to somewhat work for it? Earn it?

I just imagine, let's play with math here for a sec: Let's say an approximate average of 50 artists create 1 free item in 1 day, and all upload them - All our tastes and styles are going to vary. Let's say as a 'not so avid' free stuff page checker, makes it to the freebie page approx. 1 every 2 weeks.

--> 50 artsists x 1 item / day = 50 items / day times 14 days = 700 items. If it took approximately 2 hours to create, that's nearly a solid 24 of effort put into creating these free items for public use - the artists ask nothing in return.

To me, it feels like works of art in the art gallery buildings: let's say, like a paining, I would rather wander past 20 or 30 portraits that I feel (to my personal taste) aren't as visually pleasing, to get to a few spectacular pieces that really reach out and touch my soul (being, heart, etc "insert enlighted" part of me here etc). Part of it is respect for the artists hard work and providing us a free gift of sorts - asking nothing in return.

Think about one more thing: if we were to continue arguements like "the one solid background pics" etc [which by the way don't always float everyone's boat :-) but it's good to keep in mind if we ever come into a project where we might need that type of texture/etc/it is there, for free use], and how this specific trend of opinionated pieces should have quality / quantity control, we're only going to see ourselves starting a new trend of "asking for items only that suit our tastes." Thus creating the revolutionary "Top Sellers idea, gone free section."

IMHO, might I kindly suggest, a use of the "Top Sellers" system? To start, how long do free items stay in the freebies section? Maybe instead of concentrating on how many are being brought in, but seeing as well (as the MP works), see which items are not being downloaded, but in a realistic time frame.

*Heck, there could even become a "clearance freebie" option, where (I just thought of Mapps :-) groovy duds by the way, I'm a big fan ... no I'm not brown nosey hehe) -- an uploader with amazing quality items could be within the "Top Uploaders" section that for example *won't have items go into a clearance area to get removed from the free area.

• Each piece was carefully crafted where these item deserve a certain amount of respect - maybe a "ranking system" would work. ;-) That way if majority doesn't like the 'said spam uploaded items, or whatever the issue is there," those [spam] items will eventually remove themselves from the freebie section.

Doesn't it work well enough for you guys with your 'top sellers?' To be perfectly honest, I started recently documenting EVERYONE'S user names on the Renderosity web site, so that I can go and visit everyone's store, and I've alphabetically been catching up on "what I've missed." Items have been in sale here longer than I've been a member. And just because something isn't considered "top selling for the moment," doesn't mean it isn't worth looking at, and potentially purchasing.

;-) A bit of hard work, sifting through, visiting and exploring, making new friends, learning new styles ... but to me, it's worth it :-) and I've been scrambling to try to hit up as many stores/galleries/and check out artists as I can in a day, so that I don't miss a chance, just because something "non top selling quality didn't prove worthy in a specific period of time." Clearance is silly in my opinion - when you think about it, established artists/modelers/etc have been around FAR longer than the time it takes to discontinue an item.

:-) But that's just my 2 cents. Oops .... erm ... <;-) I mean, "can anyone break a $20?!" blush hehehehee :-) hugs G'night, all :-) Take care of yourselves before stressing over this kind of stuff ;-) :-)

*hugs*
-Jen Dyck

Actually items of mine that are not downloading much i remove myself, but I do leave them on my web site. So although I have 112 downloads here there are between to 130-140 on my site. That being said if you view the free section first by what's new and then by most popular you will avoid the items that are just not getting downloaded.

That's a good call, Mapps - kudos to removing items if they are not going - that's responsible of you :-)

*hugs*
-Jen Dyck

I too am about to be removing some of my 'yuk' stuff....might start clearing it out every 6 months or so.

~Jani

Renderosity Community Admin
---------------------------------------

Eeeek!!! I haven't hit the "J"'s yet in my alphabetical vendor/member search O_o I'll need to get over to your page super quick if that's the case heheheheheh - I admit, I was checkin' out your freebie stuff at work yesterday :-) I totally wished I had my key drive with me! It is awesome! Well done ... grabs keydrive runrunrun hehehehe

*hugs*
-Jen Dyck

LOL Thanks ;) It'll be a few days yet, but I dont want to clutter the freestuff area with stuff thats not getting used or downloaded.

Im getting better at making texture sets with Poser, so soon I'll be putting some of those up and need some room :D

~Jani

Renderosity Community Admin
---------------------------------------

Well, I went on a wicked downloading spree earlier hehehehe So no, no :-) Thank you!!  hehe! 
That's really cool! I have to admit, I have something funny to share, regarding the "free stuff area" -- I've been pondering lately how, true, one can't become a good vendor by good products alone - one has to really get to know the community .. yup I came to that conclusion all by meself :P I don't get out much hehehehee (kidding ;-)  -- But it was at that point I'd really asked myself, "Why do you want to be a vendor??" 

I think it's hilarious that, when I think of the potential interview I'm going to be given at [applied for college 2008 fall] - they're going to ask the same thing - "Why do you want to be a part of this program-- What is digital multimedia to you..."

The cute part is, I actually have more of an answer to the "vendor" question :-) *I realized I enjoy creating things that people can use - tools that folks can take, and work with, to help them in their own doings...

*:-) That's when I realized I couldn't care less if I tried "selling stuff" anymore, and came to enjoy the thought of just offer my creations, freely.  .....  Then I found out about the new "freebie/limits" hehehehehe O_o; If irony had a butt, I'd be reaching for my steel toes right about now hehehehehe :-) 
There I shared my story. sigh Back to laundry hehehe big hugs Hope you're all keeping warm out there tonight too - brrr Canadian night :-) PS Sorry I sit here and ramble <:-)

*hugs*
-Jen Dyck

Hey there, all... I myself am incredibly new to the whole freebie providing game.

I went to shareCG because they weren't asking for money. This is a Good Thing, at least in my mind... I avoid(for now) the complications of having to tackle a monthly bill on an already taut budget. 

So far as thank-you notes, I was always of the opinion that the really popular folks would have a huge backlog of such things... 

Until a few days ago. I started posting freebies, and whilst some of them have garnered the occasional comment (and a couple of them some fun conversations on the DAZ forums), some have gone nearly unheeded.

Oh, well... Can't please everybody, I suppose. Not sure where I was going with that. Hrmmm.

Mapps, I for one will thank you for assembling some very nice pieces and offering them up free. I've more than once gone looking for a prop or a shader, and headed for your site first.

Those things tend to come in very handy.
 
Me, I'm kinda wondering how the AEON Ferret poses came out more popular than the A3 OR V4 poses.

Back on topic, I think I would rather see a 2:2 or 2:1 upload setup... Upload three and approve one seems to lose me somewhere along the line. I can produce one pack a day(sometimes two, depending), but I'm trying to figure out what I have and haven't uploaded at this point. (I should have two in the queue as of this writing. Not sure, but it should be Freak and ChibiBel. Simon went up earlier than anticipated, for sure). I'm probably going to have to wait until the others post before I upload new ones.

So far as "Cyclorama Texture Boy," he's starting to irritate. I've been avoiding freestuff the last about 18 months unless I really needed something. Wading in through all that dross to find what I need has me climbing the walls in a hurry. If we can put a stop to him, that'd be very nice.

Let's just hope he doesn't get it in his head to try being a merchant. I don't think my head could take it.

In the meantime, I'll be good, and try not to Spam :)

I appreciate the effort you all go to, even if I am rambling.

JSM, my thinks to you for not only posting the freebies, but leading me over here. Saw one of your posts in another forum, and thought I'd drop by.

I'm going to get off my soapbox now, and let you get back to your day

Welcome BlackSpartan! Good to see ya here :) :thumbupboth:

~Jani

Renderosity Community Admin
---------------------------------------

Nice to be seen... At least every once in awhile ;)

I'm going to get off my soapbox now, and let you get back to your day

Since the issue of spamming the freestuff area was a direct result of some people's greed in trying to make the most pennies that they could from ShareCG, no longer seems to be an issue since ShareCG stopped making revenue payments, can this decision to limit uploads and the amount approved per day, be re-evaluated?

The freestuff area didn't have a problem with spamming prior to ShareCG and people finding out they could make some money from them. So now that there is no revenue payments, there should be no more spamming of  the freestuff area.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

We'll see how it goes ;)

Right now Freestuff isn't cluttered, and hasn't been since the limits were put into place. The uploads haven't stopped, surprisingly, since SCG stopped revenue sharing btw. Odd, but true.

Also, we didn't put the limits into place for the sole reason of SCG and the uploads from there, the Freestuff area needed a serious over-hauling..and there just were not enough staff to cover that area,  amongst everything else they had to do..now it's managable for only 2 of us.

~Jani

Renderosity Community Admin
---------------------------------------

I want to know how the e-mail notification for this particular thread got marked by Hotmail(Micro$haft) as a phishing attempt... lol

No, wait, the rest of the ebots are reporting the same now. Sorry.

Seems Bill&Steve think that Rendo is the Great Evil. :lol:

I'm going to get off my soapbox now, and let you get back to your day

BlackSpartan hotmail is doing it to all rosity ebots, it is really starting to get on my nerves! That includes gallery notices and merchant updates.

Quote - I want to know how the e-mail notification for this particular thread got marked by Hotmail(Micro$haft) as a phishing attempt... lol

It probably has to do with the email leaks that have been happening.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2704078

Email addresses that many create for specific use on this website only, somehow end up in the hands of email phishing scammers.

The resulting phishing emails have been reported by people in all different email servers (yahoo, gmail, hotmail, various private ISP's etc). So Renderosity's data must be entangled in those emails in such away that the email client's are interpreting that Renderosity is the one responsible for sending them.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

I sent hotmail a fuming email about just this.  I doubt if they'll take the slightest bit of n otice though.

But it's edging me more and more towards getting as different email provider, I'm getting fed up of paying for crap service.

Measure your mind's height
by the shade it casts.
Robert Browning (Paracelsus)

Fran's Freestuff

http://franontheedge.blogspot.com/

http://www.FranOnTheEdge.com

While I understand what led to the policy change...

And I can see both the pros and the cons....

Might I make a suggestion?

Perhaps having a 'queue' link somewhere on OUR side, so we (as content/freebie uploaders) can double check to see what we still have in the queue? That would be EXTREMELY handy, and help avoid a LOT of the sheer frustration entailed in 'did I send this into the queue yet? Nothing's come through for two days, do I dare upload, am I gonna have to delete something and then wait another two days for it to go up??)

(Not to mention we could, theoretically by being able to see what items we have in queue, even double check how many ITEMS are sitting in that queue = less items you might have to delete??)

Just my thoughts, for what they are worth. I don't mind having the queue. The part that gets so frustrating for me, is the fact that I am a binge creator. I may go months without making a single freebie, and then all of a sudden I'm pumping them out about once a day, and when I am in a binge, being unable to know what's sitting in your queue from me tends to have me sitting here pulling my hair out and wondering which item i've uploaded and which I have not... which has led to me uploading less frequently here, and simply posting on sites elsewhere or outright sending people to the daz freepozitory links or my site itself to check for updated content.

What I'm talking about is this...

We upload an item. Okay, we get said notice that it's been recieved and we'll be e-mailed when it's approved yada yada. That's cool. But let's say I'm doing a bunch of different pose sets (like I have been lately), some are for M3, some for D3, some for V3, A3. Now I go to my freebies, and there's a nice little link at the top. "Your Queue."

Click that and get the following :

Items currently in testing :

1. {Item Name #1}
2. {Item Name #2)
3. {Item Name #3}

That ALONE... would help make the queue and approval method here a hundred percent more bearable on some of us who have screws loose and tended to keep track of what we were putting up in the past as much by 'just added this to my site, now get it up in freestuff' as we do with 'check freestuff..right .last item i put up was...'

Only now, I can't DO that. I can't go to my freestuff and go 'last item i put up was...' cause more often than not I've got something in queue and i'm afraid to upload at ALL for sake of sending a duplicate through! LOL

Sorry for the length of my post. I'm just trying to pose a potential idea that might.. maybe... help both the content providers as well as the two of you who are doing all the freebie approval. :)

~ Seliah

I second the Visible Queue idea. That "Did I upload this already?" question has gone through my mind on several occassions.

My Freebies

I'll bring it to the team for review, thanks for the suggestion..its pretty cool

~Jani

Renderosity Community Admin
---------------------------------------

Thanks, JS! Let us know what the final decision is? That would just be an IMMENSE help. ^_^

I never have that problem ... but it takes me 1-2 months to get a freebie ready ... lol

Before I came to University and had time to create freebies, I too was a binge uploader - usually 7 on a weekend - one for each day -can't do that anymore. 

But the queueing list idea would be a brilliant suggestion, as I too sometimes found I had uploaded the same one twice.

Measure your mind's height
by the shade it casts.
Robert Browning (Paracelsus)

Fran's Freestuff

http://franontheedge.blogspot.com/

http://www.FranOnTheEdge.com

Quote - I never have that problem ... but it takes me 1-2 months to get a freebie ready ... lol

LOL! That's fine with me! Your freebies are worth waiting for! :D

I' ma binge creator mostly. I'll go 4-6 months without making a single one and then all of a sudden they're coming out of my ears! cheeky grin

~ Seliah

LOL glad you enjoy the freebies :-)

I've been thinking of finally offering some freebies here. It would be my first time. Share CG seemed like a good place to use for them, as I have no site or storage of my own, and they seem to be well run. A lot of the artists here use it. I don't think anyone could get rich on what they'd make on Share CG, so I don't understand the idea of flooding the freebies section, here or anywhere else.  Anyway, I hope I'm still allowed to use it, at least til I find a possible alternative. I definitely will not use sites like Rapidshare, etc. I think they are horrible for people to D/L from because of the wait times, and D/L limits for the free users.

Sure you're allowed to use ShareCG - but they aren't paying out revenue at the moment, and there's no news of when they will - if they will - but it remains a good place to share freebies.

Measure your mind's height
by the shade it casts.
Robert Browning (Paracelsus)

Fran's Freestuff

http://franontheedge.blogspot.com/

http://www.FranOnTheEdge.com

You can also check out freewebs.com they have small websites 100% free. Great for the beginning freebie contributor. That is how I started out. I now have one of the largest, most visited site on their server. They have 3 pay sizes too, $5, $8 and $25 depending on what you need.