After 10 years of running PoserDirect and running Sparkyworld since 2001, I won't be renewing the hosting for PD this year. So around the 19th of October 2018, Poserdirect will be closing down.

Obviously, respecting the rules here, won’t be discussing anything commercial, there’s info on the site about that. But I can say it for a while it will affect the over 300 freebies that are stored there (it stores the ones on Sparkyworld and some for R'osity) . Over time I will be adding the freebies to other 3D/Poser sites, but that won't be a quick process

Why ? We've recently had the bereavement of a close family member. Dealing with this, and increased hours as a carer, has meant I've not been able to give the site & content creation the time it (and the 3D community) deserve.

On an artistic level, "Traditional" Poser imagery just isn't tickling my artistic funnybone anymore. Instead, when time permits, I'm getting greater pleasure when using 3D in convergence with other materials, such as 3D printing, card, clay or wood.

Paypal and Googles (understandable) insistence on SSL is also an issue on technical and financial levels. Browsers and search engines are starting to flag websites without as insecure. Plus some hosts charge as much for the SSL certification as they do for the hosting! Many, like my current one, don’t allow the likes of services such as LetsEncrypt. Which after a funeral bill, doesn’t help.

So grab some goodies while you can and finally thanks for using the sites over the last 17 years. Though it’s not a total goodbye, I will be still around here and other places.

Condolences to you and your family on the passing of your loved one.

Thank you for your wonderful and sometimes wacky creations. I know that I will miss your store. Glad you will not disappear totally into the ethereal.

Sincere condolences, mate.

Many thanks for your generosity and creativity over the years. Don't be a stranger - well, stranger than you are ;) - but always put your needs in RL first. I'll send you a PM in the next few days; something to consider if you're up for it.

Sorry to hear about the loss of your loved one, but Sam's right, RL comes first, and thanks from me as well for your creativity and generosity all these years.

My deepest and very sincere condolenses. Sorry to hear about the closing but totally understandable given the events and real life.

My condolences to your and your family.

Thanks everyone, yea gotta admit this year hasn't been the greatest, actually at times just plain surreal. For instance as any brit knows, we've had a heat wave for months - something brits don't do - we need rain. It's traditional :)
Then yesterday we got hit by flashflooding - fortunately only the garage that some of us in this apartment block uses to store/make stuff in, (luckily we keep things up high), but still had to spend the evening making sandbags and clearing up. So later on I will come back to this thread with some thoughts.

My condolences to you Mr. Sparky. And as Miss B can tell you, the 3DContentDirectory has just been bitten by the same SSL snake. Fortunately, Dreamhost does provide Let's Encrypt, but if they ever force me to pay for the top Certificate, I may have to find some way to monetize the site in order to pay for keeping it up myself.

Once again thanks everyone for your support and sympathay, it actually means a lot.

As for the questions and thoughts some of you have, sorry if I miss anyone out and if this is the same post on most sites. Just got off a 14 hour shift and I'm fried. So excuse the virtual dribbling :)

Bascially the plan is, stuff the commercial side of things come October, but the freebies are something thats important to a lot of you out there. I hear that and I'm going to talk to various people to see if we can come with some ideas so that the majority can be saved. Possibly enmass.

Condolences my friend on your loss and white healing light to you and yours. Take care!

Dude... that sucks; I wish you luck and condolences. It's been a long ride.

Awful turn of events. Condolences.

Thanks everyone. Yea 2018 hasn't been our greatest year, but I figure once the roller coaster of life goes down it can only go back up. So I;m hoping we can do something in the future.

Condolences. I hope that 2019 will be better for you.

My deepest sympathies my friend... I know we've not spoken much in some time, but I will always value the help that I got from people like you and BeyondVR when I was just starting out. I've enjoyed working with you as I have... My best to you and yours and my sincere condolences!

Thanks Chris - yea there's been a lot of good people in poserdom over the years who've worked to make the concept of community a reality.

Indeed Mary at Fantasy Attic (sorry can't post URL as it has a store) has kindly offered to host the PD freebies (PD also hosts the ones on sparkyworld). Which is great news as it means the freebies can carry on going. She's certainly interested in yours as well. If you IM I'll give you her email.

Sadly most everyone I know has either already left or is leaving... and the community is a lowly shadow of what it used to be. I am very happy to hear that Fantasy Attic is willing to host your freebies, it'd be a shame to lose it all from the community!

My condolences and I hope the future brings you better times! Thank you for your generosity - such a treasure cove you gave away there!

Chris: Yea things are way different from when I started, which was originally under an different name, seemed to be lot more communal. Then either P3 Or P4 was the new kid on the block so we needed to share things, so maybe technological improvement isn't always a good thing.

hmatienzo: thanks and hope you enjoy them. I'm also intending to make good use of those contributions by some of what's raised for a community workshop. Then if there's anything left over I hope to get Mum a small headstone. Churchyards are strange places, really strict rules about sizes and who supply things like that. So not cheap, but sometimes you gotta do the right thing.

Way different now than it was when I started out back with DS 1.5 and an old copy of Poser 4, hard to believe it's already been 9 years since I started making content (and over 10 since I first started tinkering in this stuff)!

P2 - courtesy of a magazine cover disc - and those really weird figures was where I came in poserwise. Though I'd been doing CG before on the Atari ST. Did try to find some of the P2 stuff on my external, without luck, but did find some Atari - Degas Elite all 16 colours and done on a TV! 320x200px according to Google.

At work we had a monochrome ST monitor, so it was stuff like this....

...wasn't Degas, Maybe GemPaint ?

I also found this...

...Yep that's one of the 1st ever versions of sparkyworld! The links where to some of my 1st community and commercial sites. Sites done after dropping out of uni. The uni I was at reckoned the web side of the internet would never take off, instead they insisted we all learn ADA and high end calculus. Which I failed royally :)
Though I did return to a different much nicer place and get the degree in the end.

So anyone else got any old/classics they'd like to share ?

My very first digital art (2D not 3D) was in Deluxe Paint and Microsoft Paint, back when Windows was still a DOS command prompt program on the 286 and 386 PC's back in the day...

Update: My host has given an short extension (20th-21st October). Site will close Monday and be "parked". So please grab any freebies etc that you want this weekend.

The site is now closed. Future undecided as yet. Won't deny well f**ked off right now.