Separate suggestion:

We hear a lot about how forum posts aren't representative of market interest, and we can easily see that some voices are a lot louder than others (volume of posts, strength of opinion, name recognition, etc.) I'd really like to see a brokerage/figure maker provide two website features to help mitigate this: public polls and a Q&A feature.

Public polls allow the creators to ask a question, people can respond (one vote per person), and everyone can see the result. Let's say (to use an earlier fictional example) that the creators wonder if Dawn's legs are too long. They can put up a poll, and everyone will be able to see the results, and then the HiveWire3D team can respond and say what they plan to do based on the poll results. Very transparent.

The Q&A feature is a more efficient way of addressing questions than a forum. When someone posts a new question, the software attempts to find a matching, similar question. If the poster agrees that they are asking the same question, the two questions are linked and one response is used for both. Otherwise, a new question is generated and queued up for the site team to answer. The next person coming to the site can see a list of questions that have already been asked and answered, or are waiting on answers. I think this would generate fewer rumors, be easier for customers to use, and would help customers feel that their questions have been addressed.

Even if the answer to a customer request is "no," I really do believe that if the question is answered honestly and some reasoning given, people will accept the response and know they've been heard. My experience in forum management and global project management has led me to believe that this would reduce a lot of arguing and ill-will.