it seems that the forums have gone rather quiet!!!!! has everyone gone into hibernation for the winter???

Thanks to the team for the 2D section. I notice that it has appeared since I have been away. I do still see 2D items appearing in other areas though. Anyone know why??

Cheers

Hi Pauline,

You're right--I was going to comment on how quiet the forums were too! Where'd everyone go?

The 2d section is new, and it'll take some time for everyone to start posting their old stuff there, and continue to post all new items there as well.... that said, I hope all members who read this do make the switch, because it will definitely help all ShareCG users find  what they're looking for!

-Jake 

Yes....I think the 2D section will take off in time. But...all this silence is very different to what we are used to!!!!

Where is Matrixworkz?????....I miss him!!! Despite our initial altercation, I enjoy his posts so much. He has done much to help everyone and certainly makes us think.

Cheers to all

Maybe everyone is working their asses off to finish for the halloween challenge? I'll take that as an acceptable response.

-Jake

LOL....of course Jake!!!!....forgot it is Hallows eve tomorrow!!! Hope the contest goes well.

Chuckles......

i always thought the forums were quiet.

mainly i think the point is people spend more time elsewhere, where there is more community. the quietness of the forum is a symptom of the diluted nature of the main site. the internet is great for making "money" and getting things for "free". this site has both. both a good idea, and a bad one.

i  know i will not be "mr popular" for saying this. i dont really care. someone has to stop being so polite. you want a "community" good reputation, and a level of quality for sharecg? well, make it so. delete the crap. delete the stuff thats there just to take advantage of the system.

i dont care either way. i dont care about the money. i just want a place to provide hosting for my free files. they are great advertising for me. selfish? yup. but why is anyone here?

yea, me = mr evil?  

Hi irishlostboy,

You (and others on this site) definitely have a point: there are a few people on the site taking advantage of the system. Of course, I couldn't tell you exactly who they are--there are some (one or two) clear cases, but there are far more border-line cases, and those I don't know how to deal with.

But I do question your connection between "junk" on the site and the "lack" of community--have you ever spent 10 minutes on YouTube clicking around? YouTube definitely is a community, the millions and millions and millions of crappy uploads nothwithstanding.

And of course, forums are not funded--a community can--and hopefully wil--build up around our forums. It's important to keep in mind how very new this site is (7 months old this month!) and how long true communities take to build.

I think that a community can build up, even (and especially with) our payment system. In fact, I think that people will tend to give us some higher quality stuff than might appear free on other parts of the web, and I think the fact that we have gotten around 2,000 free models, 4,000 free textures, and 300 tutorials, all submitted by users, and most of pretty admirable quality over the last 7 months is pretty astounding.

What needs to happen most is community policing--we need to somehow get more people flagging bad items and rating items in general. Then, perhaps we at ShareCG need to find out ways to make the good rise to the top, and the bad stay... well... at the bottom, so the good people really get rewarded. The way that YouTube et. al. do that is by measuring ratings and views; the way videos get lots of ratings and views is by people, who genuinely like the video, embed it and link to it all over the place. If we could get that to happen here with our genuinely good content, that would be for the better. Then, we might really start to see a community.

-Jake

I think what we need are some moderators who can deal with the forums with as little emotion as possible. The moderators I admire the most over at Renderosity are the ones who are the most even handed with everyone. Jumpstartme2 and Karen jump to mind for me. They are excellent at dealing calmly in emotionally charged threads with the participants on both sides.

I'd say the uploads area needs some equally commited moderators who can puruse the downloads with as little bias as possible. I know it's a huge task and before you say anything, I'm not applying. I get too emotional and am not fit for either job.

I agree with BOTH you and Jake!!! it only takes a few spammers to get a site a bad reputation but there is much quality "stuff" on this site.

After reading many of the posts in these forums, I do get the impression that the DIVERSITY of computer graphic output is not always recognised and there appear to be 'camps' who do not seem to appreciate one another.

It does seem to be the spamming that has caused bad feelings and it is in this respect that community policing would be valuable. I have had the pleasure of downloading some excellent material but it can take such a long time to plough through so many similar uploads.

I may be totally wrong in this view but, as Jake says, this is a very young site and has achieved much since it came on line. I know for certain that there are many who have enjoyed and appreciated its presence.

That's just my view and I would love to hear the views of others!!!

Cheers

"But I do question your connection between "junk" on the site and the "lack" of community--have you ever spent 10 minutes on YouTube clicking around? YouTube definitely is a community, the millions and millions and millions of crappy uploads nothwithstanding."

I see a connection. Interesting people (from this sites point of view) have a home allready "elsewhere". Being an active community member here means giving up something other. To do that, there must be a very good reason.

YouTube and other famous communities are simply big (big userbase). Impossible to stop people building "communities" if enough people are around. The day ShareCG has a certain amount of users, the same effect may happen here.

I have had a lot of private discussions about ShareCG with others. Elswhere :)

Most of them said: Good concept, a few rough edges, but we will see. The picture people has build from ShareCG is: Free hosting for freebies funded by ads, maybe a few cents cash-back, but not worth to mention (selling crap on Renderosity is more worthwhile).

Not really a good reason to become a part of a community for people sitting on content yo may looking for. On the other side, in combination with a non existing sign-in verification or other kind of protection, a good reason to attract people with "make-an-easy-dollar-with-crap" in mind. The "good people" has to compete with this kind of users - not very attractive for them.

One fact more: A lot of voices talking about problems with shareCG. From "can't download at all" to "captured a virus/trojan with the download". Bad news spreads faster and more effective than good news.

I for me try to go with a new concept for my content. I think I'm able to create reasonable attractive content with good quality relatively fast. Mostly Poser content - not really sure you like to see this. And yes, I'm interested to use ShareCG as part of my business.

From my point of view ShareCG has a great future. I'm glad that you do what you do. Thanks for that.

(Sorry, english is not my first language)