The thing is dadchamp, internet is not the USA, no matter wether this is a USA based company. Internet is the whole f*&$king world and that's the market they are aiming for. And being so transparant as it is with being as leak as it is there's no way in hell I'm making my social security number public.

I'm from the Netherlands, if I make my Social Security Number open to the public like, let's say I give it to someone else, then I'm comitting a crime in my country just as much as if I would fake one or steal one. It's agains the law here to give your SSN to another person. Because in the Netherlands your SSN is your identity with every single authority, not just the taxes. If someone has my SSN they can get all sort of social benefits on my name and expense since we have everything from the government like an ID-card or Passport, or social security incomes like unemployment. They arrange everyhting down here by that perticular number. Taxes in my country are not paid for small amounts, people are allowed to earn up to a single amount taxfree next to their income. It's diffrent down here. When people get their salary, income taxes are allready paid since they take it out of you paycheck before you receive your salary. We don't have to fill in taxforms unless we choose to ask money back.

Do you see my issue now? I know what you're trying to say and I understand where you're coming from but I don't have to deal with your federal laws or IRS and my own scares me enough thank you... But it's diffrent in every single country wich is the market they are aiming for. That's what you get when you are a ".com", the whole freaking world. I'm sorry, I don't mean to rant at you. It's just that I had this same discussion a while back about people placing their whole entire private life on a open forum and I had to tell them "Dorothy, you're not in Kansas anymore"

Stepdad, I know what you're saying and you do have a good point there. But a great benefit I think with a login is that you do have some sort of admission control and you'll get at least some sort of choice who you let in. Plus people have to want to be here and do some effort for the free stuff they're getting.

I understand your hesistance to give out information and you should keep that up. That's a healthy thought on the internet. But like I said I also have a site with an open forum, everybody can post after registering. But you can read everything before you register. That kind of open means a pain in the keester for me like all those pill and [censored] people who come in from they the USA but their IP traces back to Russia, probably with an office in Hong-Kong. I check it every day for new members and I have allreay a zillion e-mail adresses, IP's & usernames blocked and banned. Being a small forum I don't mind but if it would grow really large I might change that.

This is a commercial oriënted site with a social minded crew. Those two hardly ever rhyme but it could be done. I know I'll stay for as long as they'll have me, I'm their guest in a way with room and board rent-free.  Whatever they decide is fine by me. I'm just saying they shouldn't be scared to run a tight ship  with their rules because in the end of the day it is their ship.

Greetz Pommerlis. 

Sorry about the censored part, forgot about that USA based thingy where you cannot say certain words in public. I ment to say people from the let's have it all hang out for everybody to see industry.

 Greetz Pommerlis.

Internet or not, you are being paid by a US company and they have to abide by US tax law! And US law requires reporting of income paid to ALL people inside the US or outside the US. No one is exempt unless there are special tax agreements between the two countries and then you have to provide proof of that.  And, collection of a tax number would not be public information. It would be handled privately as any ID requirement they would ask for. So what are you afraid of? Are you one of the scammers?

My SSN is available to Jake and Dave anytime they ask for it!

Like I said before, I'm Dutch. If I give out my SSN I'm committing a felony in this country and I go to jail for that. I don't have to pay income tax to the American Government as far as I know because I haven't been paid by this company. Furthermore I'm not on their payrole a an offical employeé so which income are you talking about.

I'd gladly give any other ID that they want to see or have but not my SSN. Privately doesn't exist on the internet sweetheart, you're being very naïef. Everything you type on a forum online stays online for all eternity and any two bit hacker can get that info. I know those people, they get hired by banks and I think even the CIA has a few on their payrole. You can even get info as "how to hack a hotmail account" form the internet if you google for it. So what do mean handle it privately? Internet isn't safe enough for that, no matter how trustworthy Jake and Dave might be. The whole world is watchin' honey, not just Jake and Dave.

And then again, they may be trustworthy, they may not be. I don't know them, now do I? Have you ever met them face to face? Talked to them? Personally know them? I haven't and even if I meet someone face to face  I'm not giving a stranger, or even my family, my SSN, that is in my country considered classified info. Because like I said, the SSN over here is not a tax-number but my whole social and legal identity.

You think I'm one of the scammers? With an earning of $ 4,69 in december and $ 6,12 in January and 674 vieuws so far this month? Yeah,..right.

Greetz from Pommerlis.

I see what you're saying but I don't see a contract with my signature on it. And I think that even in the USA there would be a matter of proof, even for the IRS. And I haven't been paid yet, I'm here only two months now.

The fact that haven't asked for such information should speak on their behalf. I know it's common for USA citizens to give a SSN number for income tax, I know it has a diffrent meaning.

But here an SSN number is your whole social and legal identity. I would be open to identity theft, do you understand what that would mean if I would to take such a risk? And if I would get in that kind of serious trouble and the police here would find out I had given my SSN to someone in the USA on the internet, boy, I'd be looking trough bars on top of that.

Greetz from Pommerlis.

Quote from adp_ : "A business site shouldn't look for the best solution at all, but for the best solution solving the actual problem. From a business point of view. To mutch is wasting money, to less is dangerous for the whole business."

Fair enough, but if you make it so people have to register to download, what happens to your business?  Sure, the folks that are already here and know sharecg won't mind much.  But the folks just coming in who don't know anything about sharecg might mind a great deal.  Everything that makes it more difficult for them to download increases there annoyance level and decreases the likelyhood that they will come back and browse your site.

So what makes more sense from a business perspective?  Well, I'm sure you'll agree that casino's make money hand over fist.  Ever had a blackjack dealer demand to see 4 forms of id and have you fill out a bunch of paperwork before he'd let you in the game?

Nope.. why?  Because a casino, a business that knows a lot about security, knows that the way to do it is to put the emphasis for security on the administration side, not the client side.  If you ask for 14 forms of ID and a blood sample from everyone and compare that to a database of DNA samples from known cheats and you'll never get have to worry about getting cheated at blackjack again - of course your casino will close down shorly thereafter because all your players will simply go to a friendlier casino instead.

Now granted, Sharecg has a slightly different business model, but the principle is the same - if they want revenue from ads they need to keep the site friendly and inviting.  Hard to do when you expect people to fill out forms and jump through hoops before they are allowed to do anything.

On a site where your planning on participating in the message bases or being active on the board it makes sense to sign up for an account.  But if your just the average joe off the street who wound up here by clicking on a download link from another site (which I'd venture to say is how most of the current client base found Sharecg to begin with), it gets pretty irritating when you wind up at a brand new site with the promise of a free download, only to be told that first you need to sit down and fill out a bunch of forms.

My response?  Why?  Why should I give out a bunch of information just to download one prop file I could probably make myself?   I think you'll find a lot of other people feel the same way, that if Sharecg had not have been as easy and friendly to the downloaders they never would have stuck around long enough to find out what all it had to offer.

A guy I used t work for had what he called the "30 second" rule.  He worked a lot in sales, even started his own company.  He could sell ice to Eskimo's and have them begging him to bring a refridgerator with him on his next trip up so they'd have someplace to store them.   He used to tell me, "Look, when it comes to getting people's attention or interest you've got 30 seconds, and not one second more.  In 30 seconds time you need to form some sort of connection, something that attracts there interest.  If you haven't done that in the first 30 seconds the rest of the time you spend trying to sell them is wasted, they never started listening to you in the first place".

So honestly if sharecg wants to continue to have revenue to share I think that first 30 seconds is the key.  If they can continue to attract downloaders because the site is easy to use and friendly to the downloader they'll do well.  If they lose to many in that first 30 seconds then the site fails, and there will be no revenue to share.

Well, there's been a few sites mentioned that have similar problems to overcome, TSR, Gaia, the [censored] sites (that censor amuses me NO end!), and we have a lot of ideas here that can be made to work. 

True enough, the site belongs to the owners, and I also don't think that running a 'tighter' ship would be bad.  

I'm just curious what the owners of the site are looking at today.  :D  

Personally, I'm good with registering to download, or registering for a "quick" download, or maybe if you download, you can get a "shopping cart" to place all your d/ls into to do them all at once.  

I'm good with a return screen prompt asking you to rate your items, and I'm good with a verified Pay-pal thing.  Since there are people from all over, what is good ID in the USA wouldn't be in other countries.  

My father in law used to say that a lock wasn't to keep anyone out (a theif will pick or break it), it was to keep honest people honest.  I believe that for the most part, that the sight of security is enough to keep things even.  The people with the sledge hammers can be and should be caught and booted out.

(not just a response to Stepdad, it's the last post up :D.  I may even figure this style board out someday!)