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.