Shouldn't we start a Maxwell and Thea SubCategory?

thomthom

Yea - most rendering concepts can be transferred between render applications. So it could make the learning area better.

Mike Lucey

@jason_maranto said:

I'm all for a rendering forum -- but I'm not really crazy about each application having it's own subforum. I never check the V-Ray subforum but I have learned alot about many other newer applications thanks to the threads that have popped up in this common area -- if everything was compartmentalized I would never have seen those threads.

Maxwell has its own excellent forum (my favorite by far), and I've always tried to direct users asking Maxwell questions here towards it -- but obviously things are a bit more complex now that a free version exists.

Best,
Jason.

Yeah, and I understand the complexity is that Maxwell don't cater, forum wise, for their free users!

jason_maranto

Yes, users of the full Render Suite demo version are also not allowed to post either -- only registered users are allowed to post, though anybody is free to read... and there are quite alot of valuable assets they can download as well on the forum.

I was a read only member of the forum for nearly a year before I finally purchased, and that year of reading was still extremely valuable to me. One of the other forums I was on had the mantra for newbies as "read more, post less" -- mostly to avoid endless repetition of the same questions... and I tend to agree with that philosophy.

Actually (as I have said elsewhere) I wish Google would implement a similar strategy for SketchUp Pro license holders -- I intensely dislike being lumped in with the non-paying users when it comes to bug reports and feature requests... my feeling is if I am paying to support a products development then I should have a larger share of the developers attention than somebody who is simply enjoying the benefits.

Nothing comes free -- you know that better than most with the advertising driven nature of this forum -- you are essentially selling the users of this forum as a product to the advertisers... in the same way radio or television program viewers are sold to advertisers. The Maxwell forum has no advertising because it is a paid service -- as license holders part of what we pay for the product also pays for the forum (software, bandwidth, upkeep).

Best,
Jason.

Mike Lucey

@jason_maranto said:

Nothing comes free -- you know that better than most with the advertising driven nature of this forum -- you are essentially selling the users of this forum as a product to the advertisers... in the same way radio or television program viewers are sold to advertisers. The Maxwell forum has no advertising because it is a paid service -- as license holders part of what we pay for the product also pays for the forum (software, bandwidth, upkeep).

Best,
Jason.

I totally disagree with you on your 'Nothing comes free' comment. This is a Google SketchUp Forum. It was founded to offer free help to SketchUp users and continues to do this. It has no financial support from Google or Google SketchUp.

As regards your comment that, '.... advertising driven nature of this forum' goes. Again, I disagree on your perception of this forum. We are most definitely not advert driven. Advertising revenue goes towards partly covering overheads but for the most part the background work is completed for no remuneration by SketchUcation Directors and Forum Moderators.

I find your third assertion, 'you are essentially selling the users of this forum as a product to the advertisers', quite insulting to SketchUcation management and again could not be further from the truth.

We only allow banner advertising that we feel would be of interest to forum members. We also try to make sure, in so far that we can, that the Adsense adverts are relevant.

We have a general policy, clearly stated in our Terms of Service, that we do not allow 3rd party commercial product vendors to promote their wares without support advertising on SketchUcation. This I think is most reasonable and the vast majority of 3rd party commercial products vendors totally accept and actually welcome the opportunity to highlight their commercial products.

We are continuously coming across commercial vendors that devise ways to try and circumvent this policy but I normally ferret them out in the end and they either 'toe the line' on a equal footing with other vendors or desist with their promotion. I wish I did not have to continuously do this job but its only fair to our commercial product advertisers that do things properly, that we make sure there are no free rides on their or our shirt tails.

Mike

jason_maranto

@mike lucey said:

We are continuously coming across commercial vendors that devise ways to try and circumvent this policy but I normally ferret them out in the end and they either 'toe the line' on a equal footing with other vendors or desist with their promotion. I wish I did not have to continuously do this job but its only fair to our commercial product advertisers that do things properly, that we make sure there are no free rides on their or our shirt tails.
Mike

I agree with this and as a potential advertiser with you I don't have any illusions about what needs to be done to keep a place like this open for public use -- I was only pointing out that those things are not part of the Maxwell forum landscape because the revenue is acquired through other means.

One way or the other these things have to be paid for.

Best,
Jason.

Mike Lucey

Believe it or not Jason, there are folks here that have no hidden or otherwise agenda other than to offer and provide help to others for no other reason than kindness!

jason_maranto

Maybe so, but a company like Next Limit has to watch the "bottom line" to stay in business.

I think you may be losing sight of the fact that the point I'm trying to make isn't about SketchUcations policies but the Maxwell forums... I only used SketchUcation because it is an expedient example of "free" online service versus paid online service. And that only because you involved yourself in the conversation (and directed it towards that point) so I felt you would get my point better than most, due to your personal familiarity with the principles I'm outlining.

I could have just as easily used Google Earth or Facebook or any number of other "free" services that users actually pay for (partially or fully) via advertising dollars.

I'm hardly intimating you are doing anything duplicitous (far from it) -- this is just a "you understood" fact of modern society.

Best,
Jason.

Mike Lucey

Oh, I understand what is going on perfectly Jason. I've been around for too long not to

mwm5053

I for one agree with Mike, the purpose of this forum is to help people who are interested in sketchup and as for the advertising lots of it is helpful in expanding the sketchup realm mainly rendering which takes SU to a whole new level. As for render forums for different venders maybe the forum should be for rendering in general as there are forums for most if not all render products that are specific to that product. So I say let SCF be SCF and let Rome be Rome

Lobster

For me Rendering in general is a good idea, software specific is not really nessecary.

At the moment the way this forum is set up allows you to access information fast without trawling through endless subsections for support information. Kudos to the team

The only subforums that would assist this for me are a separate place for 'whatever versus whatever' threads and a place for polls and discussions of polls both of which are surplus to my own search requirements.

Oh yes and wise words Mike....

Regards

Sam