ok. there has been much talk on these forums on how to go about making sharecg better. some great ideas have been sugested. there is no sign that Jake or David actually are even taking these ideas on board, or even reading them. i say this as evidenced by the sudden and undiscussed closure of fund distribution, and the lack of feedback from them on the forums.

so; what happens next? do we stay throwing around ideas while the running of sharecg, goes on in its own way, with no contact with the users? or do we at least attempt to take on some of the control and responsibility for sharecg?

my thoughts go kinda like this;

first sharecg needs an action plan. a list of percieved problems and weaknesses needs to be drawn up, and a method of fixing it as effectivly as possible needs to be developed. this is a job for jake, david, and the employed sharecg team, hopefully taking on board the ideas and recomendations that have been made here on the boards.

secondly, the needed action needs to be taken. this will need people. i have been dancing away from moderation duties as much as possible, some of us will probably have to take on some duties sorting through the mountain of assets, and taking the needed actions. i suggest all of us here that are regular users should step up to the plate, and offer their assistance on moderation duty. matrixworks, panthia, dadchamp, etc. 

i think that is what it will take to get sharecg to actually function properly. so, lets see if the powers-that-be take step 1?  the exact nature of the changes that could and should take place have been discussed in other threads. this is to see if there will be any community involvement. personally, i am sceptical. community has been given lip service when it suits, but over all, apart from the provision of a forum in which we can all have lots of fun abusing each other, there has been little focus on community at all by sharecg. thats what i think anyway

Hi Irishlostboy and others,

A few things:

1. Good idea about the action plan. We're in discussions right now about our next course of action, and we'll open up what we decide to the forums. Just so you know, I think it's appropriate now for me to mention what I personally (and not necessarily David, who I have to discuss with more before we take any course of action) like as an option:

-Create a 2-tier system. Only those on the higher tier get compensation. Those on the lower tier do not. Since the payments would be spread among a smaller group of people, we could pay much, much more.

-I feel that this group should be very exclusive, very high quality, and very committed members to our community (e.g., leave helpful comments, rate, etc.). The idea is to make it clear that if you want to get payment, you have to be very good, giving incentives to people to go for quality.

-The qualifications for entering the second tier would be (a) a high quality of work (b)  disclosure of enough personal information, somehow, to make it possible for us to get them in trouble for copyright material (c) participation in the community, and most importantly, (d) moderation duties--including deciding who else gets let in.

-Moderation will be spread among a large group of higher-tier users. They should be lenient about what gets to stay in the site, but not what higher-tier users get to keep on the site.

-Higher-tier users will get priority placement on the homepage and in each category.

-Users can only apply for the higher-tier a limited amount of times, say, once per month.

The idea, then, would be to set up a system that gives the incentives for producing high quality content, but also leave in place the ability for any user to upload anything (as long as it's legal). With two-tiers, I think we might be able to have quantity and quality.

2. About community--I look at this question differently. I don't think it necessarily means that the community has control over the website--although it might.  Nor do I think that community is the forums--if you recall, forums came later than the rest of the site.

I think the defining charecteristic of community is people leaving helpful comments on other people's work--the kind of feedback that will actually help them improve as artists. We're going to be rearranging the site, and perhaps also providing the two-tier system (with one of the qualifications as being an active community member) to make that a more prominent feature of our site.

Best,
Jake

The hard part is getting people into the forum.  :D  It took me a while to find the forum here, perhaps button or screen on the front page "look what's going on in our forum today!" kind of deal. 

Otherwise, I'm really looking foreward to seeing what you guys do come up with.   

Agreed Beatrice....

Such as, there is someone here whom has a very low opinion of Poser (and makes no bones about it), do I want that person judging that kind of content? Hell, no!

I'm with Beatrice and Kimber on this one....

Unfortunately Poser and Poser related things (such as texture creation and such) tend to get looked down on a bit by the 'true 3d' community, yet if you want views and revenue then it's a huge market to tap.

I'm not wild about the 2 tier system as a whole... but hey, it's Jakes site and his decision, so whatever....

I have noticed that views and new uploads over the last week have dropped dramaticaly, so lets hope that these new ideas are implemented soon and that they go a long way towards rebuilding 3d artists confidence in this site.

I would however say be careful of making the system too rigid, as it may scare off more than it entices (I have to admit it's scaring me a bit )

as re; the subject of poser content being scorned. i am probably one of the more vocal of your "3d elite poser snobs". but i would not choose to judge any of the poser stuff. i dont use it, thus i dont know it, so i wouldn't be interested in moderating it. there are enough experienced poser users here to ensure that the poser content gets a fair moderation. and i am sure that poser users would leave my real-time assets alone for the same reason.

although i have no love of poser, i have neither voted or commented on poser content, positivly or negativly.

the whole problem with asset creators being overly precious over their work is one that people will just have to get over. ultimately, once you put your work out to the public, you do allow others to have an oppinion on it. you cant put your work out and then say, "you cant have a negative opinion on it". decency and rational fairness is needed, by both moderators and users.

as re; the two tier system. its an interesting idea. i agree that it may promote a segragatory attitude among users. this would be a bad thing. but it has a lot of good aspects too it too.  

AGree with Irishboy on the fact that I wouldn't want to judge his stuff because I don't use it.  Atleast not yet.....But I would be capable of testing poser things where there would be no way for me to test things for say 3dmax and such.  As would a beginner. 

If no one except those in the upper level of a tier system know who's in and who's out of the upper level....and can be honest, then I think that the only people who will get their noses out of whack are the ones abusing the site anyhow.  I think that for the most part the beginners will guess who's up there but as long as those up there are honest helpful people there won't be a problem.  But my husband says I need a reality check when it comes to humans.......