your 100% right for example : i would make a thread in the offers and requests section , making 5 free ava's ... 2 members out of that 5 would say thanks and appreciate you giving them free stuff the other's just take take but no thanks .... this might sound a bit childesh but its nice to leave a quick thankyou!!
There is always a demand for renders, people just go else where now. Maybe if this site got rid of or lowered the 60 second limit for searching, and got rid of the outdated render topics. People can get renders here. But that wont happen. Other site used to copy of GR, but have now evolved into something else. I think this new "GR" coming will just be a copy of those sites.
Your entitled to your opinion, but you are entirely wrong. GR v4 is being entirely custom coded, from scratch on nearly every modification we plan, as its never been done before on any site I am aware of. Renders are not in demand amongst anyone except for newer artists, most of the experienced artists expand into stocks, their own vectors, manips, etc. and not renders, they are hardly high in demand, which is why the new GR will focus more on the professional side of graphics and not the beginner form, hopefully becoming an art site and not a signature site (at least, that is how the staff would like to see the new GR). People got selfish, no one thanks anyone for posting renders, no one thanks anyone for posting free resources, no one does anything like that, and as such people lose motivation to continue contributing, people start selling instead of giving, etc. Also, there are very, very few sites, even still in our 'inactive' state which are more active than Gamerenders in terms of page views and unique visitors a day. The largest issue is the 'community' is gone from this site, and its all about the marketplace and the lack of contributions to the resource section, which are 2 things the staff have little / no control over (or it would have been fixed, believe me, its a constant issue in the staff sections).
I dont think its that its inactive, theres always a buttload of people on when i look but its more that they are registering just to get renders and tutorials and resources rather then posting. Maybe post up some competitions or things to get people coming.
Sounds a lot like s3, digibliss, and 2ndart. Will you guys get a new domain as well, I mean it doesnt make much sense to have an "art" site with the domain gamerenders.com, wish will still associate the "new" site as a render based forum. And the way you described the new version, it sounds like you are adjusting your site and copying those who had it first. Which is why I said this
A new domain will not be of the likes of Game Renders. I know what you mean by having an Art community segregated with a domain like Game Renders, as it should be mostly based on the domain name and the description of the site, but sometimes when life gives you lemons you can't make lemonade and must get some extra sugar to make that lemonade taste sweet instead of bitter. I know that Llamaman had a hard time thinking that over but I doubt it. I am not going to go into a depth about name and or site, as I see sites like CozmaGFX, BlindmanGfx, InnovativeGFX, TouchGFX, etc etc. that have nothing to do what their site is actually about. So as for the domain it is a no no, as one it will be easy to transfer everything from here to there, but then all the links will be needed to changed, everything on the site will be needed to change to match that one particular change, thus I say no to that. Just upgrade these like they are doing for v4. What do you mean by others who had it first?? Zain
You mean, those sites copied others around before them? GR is in no way going to copy them, at all, I haven't even been to any of those sites since their opening, I don't have an account on any of them. As I said, what we have planned for GR is a LOT of new features I have never seen used before on any site. The ONLY thing we'd have in common is a focus on art and not sigs, at which point they would be just as guilty as we would be for copying someone else.
ARE YOU CHEATING ON ME, DEM?! Just because the market place has seen a decline doesn't mean the forum has gone kerplunk. That place used to bustle with many people back in the day when people churned out a lot more on there. Hell, I used to spend lots of my time on GR in those sections too, but I'm falling out of sig-making now and my GFX work has taken a back-seat to my music. A lot of people have moved on from signatures and such.
This forum was the best in 04-06 when sigs were just developing and people were discovering new styles and everything was super active and fresh
From what I seen with these gfx forums, they fall in certain categories: The site focuses on one area. The site has something, that no other site has. The site is a friend based gfx sites(the sites made the most) The site has established itself as a gfx forum(very hard to do) There can be others categories but I try to fit them into these categories. No offense to the owners of Cozmagfx and the other ones you listed but I would list them in the friend based category. But Cozmagfx has been doing good, and has potential. __ As I said before sigs are still in demand. The majority of the members on this site still post in the sig section and tutorials. For an example, http://www.gamerenders.com/forum/index.php?showforum=9 I dont know a good majority of those people, and that section is probably the most active section. And go to other forums besides the common gfx ones. And you see people still make sigs and heavily rely on renders. I am talking about Gaming forums, clan forums, anime forums, and etc. Those members still use renders, and the majority have no interest in large art or a graphic career(yet). __ I wonder how many uniques this site gets from search engines. With them typing in the word renders in there searches. For an example game renders, video game renders, etc renders.
GR v4 won't focus in particular on ONE area, but it will have a large focus on art work and professional gaming. I spoke with Shaggy regarding game servers, possibly even supporting professional gaming teams if we end up breaking enough traffic for him to support that, and I personally, as do many of the staff members, want to see this site move towards a respected art community, for obvious reasons. We won't be getting a new domain, no, we still will have renders, yes, we will still have the signature section, we will still have a form of the marketplace (but its undergoing major changes) and above all, our look will be MUCH more professional than our current skin.
