3dcheapskate opened this issue on Apr 01, 2016 ยท 20 posts
3dcheapskate posted Fri, 01 April 2016 at 7:56 AM
Thanks Johnny, that makes a lot of sense, but stills leaves a lot of questions.
Your comment that staff aren't seeking out threads and locking them seems true. I'm inclined now to believe that the idea that threads were being locked because of offsite links was down to one specific case (I See Why People Complain Here) and a frustration in certain quarters (I include myself in that) over the New Direction With Freestuff Area. That view's reinforced by the fact that locking a thread because it contains old posts with offsite links would serve no purpose that I can see, except as a vain attempt to consign it to oblivion. The offsite links would still work, and although the thread couldn't be bumped there's nothing to stop a new thread being created with a link to the old thread.
Your suggestion about not commenting on specific threads is good advice. However, I'm specifically using the thread I linked to in the OP as a sort of acid test.
I used the phrase 'blanket ban' because that's what this bit of the Terms Of Service - "Additionally, offsite linking to other marketplaces or freestuff sites are not allowed within the forum, gallery, or forum signatures. For example: Links to competing stores like Daz3d.com, RuntimeDNA.com, etc are not allowed. However, links to non-competing stores like Etsy.com or Ebay.com are acceptable." sounds like to me. If we accept that it's not actually a blanket ban, and that there's an element of admin/moderator discretion (which historically has always been the case, whether officially sanctioned or not) then your distinction between a link to a marketplace product and a link to a tutorial/info sheet is clear - that example is the black and white as it were.
But what I'm really concerned about is the huge swathe of grey inbetween. If you're amenable I'd like to go through a few specific examples of offsite links from the thread I linked to in the OP, and maybe a couple of other old threads of mine ?
Cheers, Pete
The 3Dcheapskate (also available in DAZ and HiveWire3D flavours) occasionally posts sensible stuff. Usually by accident.
And it usually uses Poser 11, with units set to inches. Except when it's using Poser 6 or PP2014, or when its units are set to PNU.