Ok, I'm postulating an idea and am wondering what people would think of it. It sounds a little counter-intuitive at first, but hear it out first... Basically the premise is that I'd like to make 3D stuff available for free but with some type of way of charging for its release to the general public. Something like "Here's a model, and if I recieve X amount of donations it will be made available for download at no cost or restriction." Wikipedia has an article that may provide some more depth: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_pledge_system

](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_pledge_system)Now I've heard this is an idea that works ok as a business plan in relation to some open source software, and I don't see why it wouldn't work for 3D content as well. The other reason is that money's tight, and as much as I like giving stuff away it would be nice to have something help ends meet. Asking people for donations as thanks for a good quality freebie doesn't seem to work as good as one would hope.

Also has anybody ever considered a non-traditional brokering model that would make such a process convienient (ie: donation tracking, and some form of QC to ensure something is as advertized when the amount has been met), or what the legal aspects would be involved? Is it possible to split the difference between Free-Stuff and the Marketplace? Would it be considered more fair to have an ability to sell the item in a more traditional way, but have automated movement to freebies once a certain goal has been met?

Alternately, I wouldn't mind if there were a variation with 3D bountys. Somebody posts a bounty on desired such-and-such, and if the requirements are met the artist gets paid and the model is made freely available.

Quote - Asking people for donations as thanks for a good quality freebie doesn't seem to work as good as one would hope.

It doesn't work at all as one would hope...lol.

Good luck to you :o).

Laurie

In the end, it is still somebody paying you to make a model.

Who would actually go for this? As Laurie says,

Quote - It doesn't work at all as one would hope...lol.

I'd simplify that statement to "It doesn't work". I had a PayPal donate button on my site for some time, and the total sum received was precisely $0. I don't need the money, so I took it off.

I'd say that if you want to be paid for your work - and there's nothing wrong with that - then just sell it. This scheme seems needlessly complex to me. What will happen is that people will hold off donating, hoping that someone else will do it. Most freebie downloaders are packrats, who are collecting stuff that "might come in handy later". Unless they have an immediate (and probably commercial) need for what you're offering they won't pay for it - and when they do, they'll know that everyone else is now getting it for free so they won't even have exclusivity to show for their outlay.

If something is free, it should be completely free..asking for a donation to get a freebie imo sounds deceiving....and 3D artists will pick up on that thought immediately...If you want to make money, then sell some items, and offer a freebie to go with it as an incentive for buying the product....a completely free item with no strings attached.

sharecg allows you to have a donate by paypal button. I disabled mine after a thousand downloads , 0 donations.    :(    You can also try turbosquid, they let you set the price and it can be 0.

Its been my experiance that people hate the idea of paying for something thats then made free. Daz has done it , and people hated it.

Quote - sharecg allows you to have a donate by paypal button. I disabled mine after a thousand downloads , 0 donations.    :(    You can also try turbosquid, they let you set the price and it can be 0.

Its been my experiance that people hate the idea of paying for something thats then made free. Daz has done it , and people hated it.

I have had about 3-4 donation from sharecg & all except 1 where from complete strangers i.e. I don't know of them from here or DAZ. I  also use the donation button myself if I come across something particularly helpful.

People surprise you sometimes, & it is nice when it happens. I don't expect it though & people are free to use it or not.

To the OP, I think any restrictions like that, however will make people resentful & will likely backfire.

I don't think that plan is going to go over too well. Judging by how things have been going when you see a vast majority of people holding out buying anything until coupon days (these days). They'll buy what ever it is for sure but for as little as they possibly can which I suppose is understandable to some degree.

You should just put it up as a marketplace item for the lowest price. And if you don't really need the money donate it to a charity or use it to support other artists here at Rendo (for instance) especially after a time if you felt you'd received what you thought was a fair enough compensation for making it. You know like buying products from other vendors. What goes around comes around kind of thing.

Software I think is a completely different thing since it's the kind of thing that has long term usage (in daily activity) where 3d items have a tendency to come and go in their usage depending on what that might be. Depends on how multifaceted it is in how it can be used.