I just got an email from David at ShareCG regarding the imminent termination of the 'It Pays to Share' program. I'm quite saddened at this decision but, as explained in the email, I cannot blame the small but intensely dedicated staff at ShareCG to have to make this unfortunate move.

It's a shame that a few *bad apples* have to rot & stink up the rest of the barrel.

I'm a disabled mom who continually tries to recover enough to get back to even part-time work but my conditions are extremely resistant & I am as yet unemployed, against my will. Using the 'It Pays to Share' option here on ShareCG was one of my key mood-lifting activities which made me feel that I was contributing, as an artist, to other artists, which I thoroughly enjoy, and also making a few cents here & there which really does count for us. 

Very disappointing news indeed

I'm not particularly happy about this either. I engoy rendering and making models, and this scheme gave me a real incentive to up the quality of my work.

It also gave me some spending money to pay for new models and such like fom other people.

Rather than sitting here and complaining I think that we - as users who are contributing to this site - need to do something.

I think that this site could maybe take a leaf out of the book of other community based sites, like Wikipedia, and have a team of volunteer users with a "little more access" who could go through the site on an irregular basis and find the bad apples. So that they can be earmarked for the site's paid admins to look at.

It might only take a couple of dozen volunteers with this additional access an hour or so each weekend to root out the people who are messing things up for the rest of us.

Maybe the site's admins could consider this?

OK, let me rephrase. Please could the site's admins consider this, or any other solution, as an alternative to scrapping the scheme.

I'm not exactly making big bucks, but it's nice to have a little more mad money every few months that I can spend on new models or whatever.

I was rather shook when I got the letter this morning.  I am extremely low income.  I have been scrambling for income, have been alerted that the more stable part of my income is going to be taking a dive, and had been planning on creating more freebies (which are as nice as I can make them) to share as a way to have a few dollars from this source to fill some of the gap. Then this. 

Yes, I know I need to get some professional packages out there, I'm planning to do that, too.  It'd take awhile for that income to cover stuff, and bluntly, I think I might have a little ways to go before making successful professional packages. 

Is there any way to just delete the accounts of anyone abusing things by doing the extra clicking on ads or making massive messes?  Something to only punish the evil doers instead of those who'd like (or who need) a few extra dollars? 

Thank you for listening.

Sounds like a good idea, BadFaerie~ I'll second that motion. I can volunteer time~

I can also volunteer time to inspect entries.  I don't make a lot - but I know a lot of people depend on this income and I know a lot of content makers will disappear the moment that the share program disappears.  This will impact ShareGC, you guys know that.  It did before.  

We should also make a thread or forum to discuss models or textures or art or whatever that we're not certain of, and allow the original poster to explain themselves.  Because as Bad Faerie said in another thread, she wasn't certain what the usage was on particular models that she was suspicious of, so said nothing.  

With a forum for this, we can put up an entry that is suspicious and several eyes at once can figure it out, and the original poster will be able to have their say as well - it isn't unusual for several similar models to be made, after all, totally independent of each other.  But this should do a lot towards cleaning this site up - not that I think there's much "theft" here, but those that have occured have been very ugly.  

I don't have the words to express my contempt for the kind of people who would abuse a good system like this. All I can say is that I understand and support the decision that has been made. It's sad, for me personally it will probably mean that I stop sharing freebies. Trying to improve and create better models actually became more fun with that extra incentive added, however modest the reward.

Again, I fully understand if the program is terminated for good. However, might it be possible to add certain conditions to joining the program? Like, you have to have been a member for at least a year, or have so and so many downloads? That could maybe weed out the most obvious scams like duplicate accounts etc.

Another good idea here~ I agree. Surely there is something that we respectful members of ShareCG can do to help the admin staff? If anyone else has ideas, bring them~

I would love to find that we've figured out a way to keep this incentive program going. I think it helped us artists raise the bar on our own skills as well as provided decent content for other artists/creators, plus the little perk of actually getting some cash for our efforts, although nominal, was a positive feel-good factor for me being unemployed due to long-term illnesses.

Again, I am willing to get involved and volunteer what time I can to help.

I'm real sorry this program is going under, too, although I never got around to joining, it was nice to know the option was there.  It was a way to make money from modeling, without going the vendor/submission/etc route.

Maybe the folks at ShareCG will reconsider.  Couldn't some safeguards be put in place?  Such as...one can only download one's own models X number of times, for dl checking purposes?

And it is a shame that some people will abuse a very good concept.

Jan

As one of the original members who "Took their toys and left" the first time they cut off revenue sharing, I feel your anger and pain but this time around I'm leaving my content here. I don't expect them to reinstitute Revenue sharing again, nor would I even encourage it at this point. It has proven to only attract the lowest form of scum out of the woodworks and caused the workload to the site owners to be more than it should be for a site with income as low as it generates. As long as the hosting remains free, my stuff shall be here.

I express myself through Google language tools
the It Pays to Share I had not understood at the outset. I thought it was for free mit online, generate a stream of advertising for the site .. (What surprised me was the request of a Paypal address??
  but I received a transfer and there was light (° _ °)
yes it is sad that this system falls. Personally I've always shared my creations for free. Being asked to do so without compensation does not encourage me to botch the job, I would say the opposite! It is my pleasure to the fact or to live or for any glory. So if the site needs to happen to this system so I can continue to offer my work I said OK. Information for Facebook went public with the result that I got out of Facebook. I have a feeling that the decay of a good idea starts with its monetization
I hope the Google translation will not change my mind about

To all my friends.

Its not just the piracy that has sour the good apples on this site .. but the one star raters, haters  & trolls that take well reviewed Models , Art work and Animations and down-rate them into oblivion, so the good reviews stuff gets lost and buried into the Abuss of not so good stuff.

This has discouraged me not to share my work on this site any more, for I am tired of reporting them to the Share CG Admins to have the Perpetrator removed, But unfortunately the bad rating remain leaving the work still buried

I am a front end raphic web design artist. and this kind of behavior  from these trolls has really taken a toll on my donations and contacts on this site. so I had to move stuff to other sites like renderoucity and  Digtial artzone  that have Active moderator and Ignore Buttons to stop these type users dead in their tracks, share cg offers no such tools to block these bad apple. which in my opinon is a must on sites like this maybe even IP banning offending users.

so I now only post a few graphics now and then on here. Sharecg needs a "User Content Manager"  to moderate what is uploaded on this site and who interacts with the users. There have been more than a few times a download has had viruses included in the zip file . So as a warning to  you my friend please down load into a sand box before adding your content to  your runtime file.  this would be a safty practice. if nothing else.

I think a ignore button and a team of Community volunteers as Bad faire has suggested  is a great Idea

I really enjoy this site and the contacts I have made on here. But on the other hand its not worth posting here if everything you do hampered, harassed or is Illegally to use because of copyright infringements.

Just a friendly reminder to all the artist who share their work here. Please make sure you list  your copyright Intent Information in/on your files . maybe even a include a written licenses  would be good if  you intend your work to be shared under the creative common copyright license or if it a restricted license.
making it clear what others can and can not do with your art,animations and models.

with my rate  said. 
 I want to thank all those who share their hard work with the rest of us on here.. some of us users really do appreciate  your efforts  and talents  that some of lack.
This  just saddens me to see this site being abused in such away by no talent hacks.

Sincerely

Ivy Summers

I've been here since day one and suffered the first upheaval when the cheaters thought they could prosper. I have said and have always said that having it based on screen impressions is the wrong way to do it. It should be based on downloads and then a random text code generator to enable a download could be introduced to thwart the bots that are used to artificially inflate view numbers. I'll keep posting here as it has generated a few commission jobs for me. But I won't be posting near as much as I have in the past. 

A note of humor I have just read the translation of my translation I understood nothing

and the me who write

I too am one of the original members when this site first started. After the first revenue sharing was nixed, I had the initial anger of course because of how things worked out..{sharing splits were not distributed fairly..don't even get me started} also very good ideas by members were put out there, but nothing was ever taken into consideration by the admins...and they won't take anything into consideration now either..so don't waste your time or breath.

Gradually my anger faded, and I just chalked it up to a lesson learned...I still have items here, most likely won't move a majority of them...some I will move to my own site which I haven't had the time to do anything with yet.. and will begin soon my own product lines to sell.

After discovering how the system was designed to allocate the shares, {and after tirelessly advertising for SCG back when they started,} it's no wonder there aren't alot of pennies being made here, and no wonder in these hard times people try to game the system....it's not set up for reg members to make more than the sites admins...its just not.

My advise, to myself and others,...make low cost models, textures, etc and set up a store yourself and generate your own income...give some freebies away to draw customers etc...you'll make more money that way than you would for a few hundred views you'd need to generate a couple bux here.

It is a shame to see that the It Pays to Share is being terminated - just as I've figured out that if I bust my butt to create and post new freebies, I can earn my 3D content via the same program.  Frankly, I don't know if my models are good enough to try and sell (as others have suggested in this thread).  It is disheartening.  I hope that the admins can come up with a different solution (there are a few good ones above! :))

I think I understood you. ;D  

I am VERY VERY HAPPY to see the ass end of this program, I always thought it was a terrible idea and wide open for abuse.  I hope it stays gone for good this time.

Imho, it was a great idea, poorly managed.

Administrators could choose between two options:

1) Continue to share revenues with artists, and increase the staff devoted to monitoring or implement new verification mechanisms.
2) Leave everything as is, and get all revenues generated by our work.

Obviously they have chosen the solution number 2.

This is really sad, for the fault of few troll, the most part of honest users must pay.

I hope that ShareCG Admin will change idea and policy about it.

"I am VERY VERY HAPPY to see the ass end of this program, I always thought it was a terrible idea and wide open for abuse.  I hope it stays gone for good this time."

Given that this scheme didn't harm you in any way, and it being decomissioned will not only mean people having less incentive to put up high quality models, and less income, I don't see how this can make you  "very very happy", unless you have another angle that you're not telling us about.

Ad supported community based schemes like this should be the way forward. Content creators get paid, and regular joes get stuff for $0. It's the next evolution of capitalism. It has all of the benefits of socialism, and none of the drawbacks. The people who want something for nothing get it, and the people who put in the effort and who have good ideas are rewarded for it.

Scrapping this scheme will discourage people from putting up high quality models for free, which will make model\IP piracy more likely.

Actually, Badfaerie, you are witnessing one of the major drawbacks.

People gaming the system. However, expecting to get paid for a freebie is one of those things that bothers me about the attitudes involved. I've seen how the financial outlay was an incentive to improve on the quality of the work. I've seen it preached that this is the new way of capitalism...

No, it is not...

And to have people steal other people's model and then monetarily benefit from that as well. (Please see the threads on Dalamatier.) Yeah, no. Better the program be terminated. If the Site cannot adequately police itself to protect against the abuse of such systems, then it should not be run. It is only going to hurt people like you in the long term.

A few bad apple have made it clear that the system is too flawed to be run in it's present state.