I'll quote from my Merry Christmas thread which I started to try bringing some light socialisation to the forums here:

In reply to:

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All I want for Christmas is a job and for anyone with an IQ lower than 70 to DIE and rid the world of it's useless baby factories! ... kicks at the dog ... BA HUMBUG!!! >:(

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If that's what you call keeping your anger in an appropriate area you're worse off than I thought. I was TRYING to excuse your hostility because of your posted situation, not rub your nose in it. I'm sorry you are having a hard time but you do not need to vent it all at anyone who disagrees with you. Frankly I've been in your position and when my anger filtered into the forums and I was asked to chill, I did so. All I ask is that you try doing the same.

I think we're all pretty tied to our own ideas about what will work and what won't..... and we're getting a bit ratty because we can't see why others can't see why our own ideas work.... all that is perfectly natural. There are pros and cons to every idea that anyone is going to offer up, it's up to the admins to decide wich idea has the least cons to it and implement it.

That being said, I read through this thread and the one in Open discussion and had a good think overnight about everything everyone's been saying.

I'm still tied to the pay per download way and registering at the site before being allowed to d'load too.... what's the problem with that?

Let's not forget that you have to be a member of just about every site out there before you can avail yourself of their freebies. Rendo, RDNA, DAZ,3DCommune... all the biggies and we all joined them without a murmer (I'm assuming.)

Another idea I saw mentioned was typing a number in before you can download an item (I don't know the technical term), that too seems like a good idea and will also help to weed out the naff content (as would say, a 10 second delay before you can type the number in as is done in a few other places)If somebody can't be bothered to move thier fingers over a keyboard 4 or 5 times to get a certain item, then they can't want it too badly...

Another thing that I have to admit has always puzzled me is the lack of moderators here. We badly need them. Idealy each section should have a moderator who is familiar with the genre theyre moderating... I'm not saying that the mods should necessarily decide on the quality of items, but they've always been needed here to weed out the spammers or to tell people to bundle textures etc.

Whatever is going to happen here I suggest that for their own sakes at the very least the admins should move quickly on this issue.

As the word starts to get around that there's no money to be had here the site IMO will start to find it's revenue from views slipping drasticly.

Whether we like it or not, a lot of the incentive for people to come up with new stuff has now gone, and if people start removing the items that are already hosted here, then the rot really will set in.

I'm still going to stick around for a while.... the idea of this site was a good one and I'm hoping that this mess can be sorted out quickly and relatively painlessly..

As long as this sort of hostility is allowed to continue unabated no useful discussion of anything can possibly take place.  I'm here because this is my hobby and I enjoy it.  I'm not here to put up with a load of nonsense from immature posters who have nothing better to do with their time than attack me personally simply because they disagree with my ideas.

I was asked for suggestions by the admins and gave them freely.  In response I was insulted and demeaned, and the only response from anyone here in authority was that they were not going to get involved until they felt the best ideas were presented.

Sorry, Sharecg is not getting anymore good ideas from me and probably not from to many other people, not if they are going to continue to allow two or three people to totally dominate the discussion and shout down anyone that doesn't agree with their views.

You don't ask people for help and suggestions and then allow them to be treated so ignobly.  It's very bad form, and it leads me to wonder how on earth they will ever get control of their content if they cannot even institute some common sense guidelines for how people should be treated in their own message bases.

My offer still stands to the admins here - despite everything I'm still willing to offer my assistance to them in any way I can.  But I will no longer discuss this in a public forum in which this sort of childish nonsense is allowed to continue unabated. 

Edited by Stepdad on 01/08/08 11:35 PM.

Don't stop posting your ideas, yours are just as good as anyone elses, and that goes for everyone else.

I think we all want this place to succeed, but we need to learn to listen to one another, instead of attacking each other. If you don't like what someone else comes up with, disagree, and state why, but don't resort to attacking and insulting..that goes nowhere but down.

At the Admins: I think you seriously need to get some type of moderation on this board. 

And I also think as the leaders of this community, you should be actively involved in these discussions. It might help if you were to put some of your own ideas into the mix.

And with that, The Evil Sith Queen is out.

A possible suggestion for helping with the dowloading issues. Perhaps one that is simplier than entering letters. I was roaming the net downloading stuff when I came across this little beauty - Sentinel++ - at http://dsplus.sourceforge.net/ . A free script aimed at preventing spoofing and leeching.

 To download an item, you click on the link as usual, but this throws up a new page which you need to click on to get your download. I have pop-ups blocked and I had no troubles using the feature. More info is at the addy above.

This could help if the system is changed so that it is download numbers and not page views that generate the hit count of items.

Just a suggestion. 

I can understand the pro's and cons to the "Login to download" idea.

It's a first step to security on your site but it's an effort on the surfer's part. The fact that it works for Rendo, RDNA etc. is probably because they allready have established a name for themselves. For any bussiness that's the hardest part to do. You don't want the fly buy's, you want the stayers.

Now I don't mind having to login or to register as a user. It gives me as a user the faint illusion of safety, the idea that this site is checked, looked after and screened in a way. And lately people seem to prefer that I think.

But the thing is, I know this 8 year old boy who is born in this modern world of cyberspace and he has been breathing in this digital world. he speaks the binaire language of every little gadget that can be hooked on to the web and he can hack, crack and stack anything that consists of I's and 0's. I'm proud of him but his generation does warn me though.

I can understand the hestistance, really I do. It would be lovely if internet would be the place they created it for in the first place. Open to everyone, share and share alike but humans don't work that way. And I really think Jake and Dave need to work out first what they want this site to be. Then you build around that and of course get knowedgable about the legal issue's.

Anyway jake and Dave, I wish you all the wisdom you can muster 'cause after I read this thread  you're gonna need it... Just kiddin' people.

Greetz from Pommerlis.

Moderators would be good, though there should be a clear and distinct method for discussion with them when there is disagreement and dispute. (Which face it, will happen.) This isn't difficult thing, there's guidelines for mods all across the web.

The type in a code before d/l is a good idea too, I know there's people who can get by that, but there will ALWAYS be someone that can get past things like that. The idea is to keep it to a minimum.

I'm also convinced that there will be a distinct drop in views once it becomes apparant there's no money to scam here. Ouch for the owners, but this is a good time to make sure that you're selling actual advertising veiws and not just holding the door open for some dishonest person. ;D

I think being able to show a reasonable level of security that's providing live people per view (as opposed to a bot) to the advertisers would be a nice selling point.

And finally, I have been a moderator for a few sites for a good while now, I'm not volunteering, but I will toss out the rules I've usually brought with me to sites:

#1. Respond to the POST, not the POSTER.

#2, 3, and 4, are the same.

#5. Never forget there is a person behind the post. Your manners still apply even if you never see the person.

#6. Keep to the topic.

#7. Angry posts get angry posts. Watch your "tone" as much as possible; if necessary, spell out your tone if you're not sure it's getting across. "I'm not mad, I'm just really formal" for instance.

#8. Keep It Simple. TL;DR (too long; didn't read) means you didn't get your point across.

Anyhow, not responding to any one in particular, just hitting reply on the last post of the thread! :D *Waves to Pommerlis*

Jake,

Your silents is came accross as no interest. So I stopped responding.

I hold onto the queue idea because it will slow people down on loading up junk because they know that someone/thing is going to say yea of nay. 

Also you could have a moderator rating system since they would be more critical and hopefully most truthful. Just like Cnet's download people give their reviews more wieght than users.

Just this morning I was searching for Carrara models every item was subpar. IMHO

The flat pay, can also be teired so that works the moderators think are high quality can get high per view rates.  This would also encorage developers to actually but some serious effort into their work. 

 Also I think you need to have a PRo's area, so that people know right away were the best work is hiding.

 Here' another thought that most people wont like.  Memebership with a small fee where the membership fee's can be pooled and devided up between the content providers. 

Just thoughts