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Hey everyone,
I wanted to open a quick discussion about something that affects all of us: getting access to high-ticket addons, heavy asset bundles, and expensive tools that rarely get shared because the price tag is just too high for a single user to justify.
We all know the site relies heavily on server donations to stay alive, while our internal point system handles everyday requests nicely. However, when it comes to $100+ items, the current model can take weeks—or even months—to get resolved.
To speed up the release of expensive assets and reward the people actually doing the heavy lifting, I wanted to pitch a simple concept: a Community Bounty Pool / Group Buy System.
Here is how the core mechanics could work:
Crowdfunded Bounties for High-End Assets: For requested items above a certain threshold, users can contribute directly to a specific item's "Bounty Pool" (using crypto/BTC to keep operations safe and decentralized).
Uploader/Ripper Cashbacks: The user or uploader who steps up, purchases the official asset, cleans the watermarks/fingerprints, and shares it with the community gets the Bounty Pool transferred to their wallet as a refund + incentive.
Site Maintenance Cut: A set percentage (e.g., 10%–20%) from each completed bounty goes straight to the forum's infrastructure fund to help cover DMCA-safe hosting and server upkeep without relying solely on standard donation drives.
Early Access Perk: Donors who contributed to the pool get an immediate 7-day Early Access link before the asset is moved to the general public section.
Important Note: This is strictly a community idea/brainstorm I wanted to share to gather feedback. I have zero intention of running, managing, or handling any part of this system. If this concept ever moves forward, management and execution should be handled 100% by the staff, moderators, or the most trusted long-standing members of the Zone.
What do you guys think? Is this something you'd like to see implemented, or how would you tweak the mechanics to make it safer and smoother for everyone?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
Piracy is already a legal and ethical edge case, even when some people treat it as a harmless habit. However, expanding it into a coordinated and systematic activity could cross the line into organized crime. For that reason, turning piracy into something larger or more structured would be neither wise nor advisable.
I completely agree with you. We really are walking a very thin line between legal and illegal here, so keeping things safe and sensible is the right priority.
It’s just a shame we are so dependent on store releases. It would be awesome if we could start creating our own community addons, though I know that's another complex topic on its own. Maybe we could tie this into site contests? For instance, contest winners could win the right to pitch an addon idea, and the community's devs/creators could team up to build it. At the end of the day, we are a community—uniting our skills every once in a while to build something original wouldn't be a bad idea at all.
I think these communities are often driven more by collecting addiction than by creativity. It can be similar to endlessly watching one short clip after another on Instagram or YouTube. When someone spends hours hunting for new 3D assets and experiences a small rush with every download, there may be little time left to create anything.
Then comes the challenge of organizing everything. Hours, days, weeks, and even years can pass while sorting through enormous collections—yet the assets are rarely used. In the end, where is an addicted collector supposed to find the time to develop and express their own creativity?
@medusa, you've been inside my head haven't you?
The idea of group buys was floated several years ago, back when there where a lot of highly creative and active people. While many where in favour it never took off.
I can't see any artist or vendor site bothering with us if we did it since they don't try and take down the several subscription download sites.
The idea will always return.
Humans are self-driven, egoistic, careless in many ways. Every person entering such a system would claim to be building something for the community, for fairness, for a better future. But beneath the words, many would only search for their own profit. Their own advantage. Their own place above the others.
It would be doomed before it even began.
Criminal minds would find the gaps. Greed would become strategy. Trust would become a weakness. In the end, there would be no need for artists, vendors, or outside interference to destroy the idea. The people within it would do that themselves.
Trust no one but yourself, they would say.
And perhaps that would be the final poison: everyone believing they must survive alone.
" A Little side Story "
There was once an amusement park in the woods.
Children played between the trees while their parents sat near the fire, preparing meals and speaking quietly beneath the evening sky. Deep in the forest stood a crowned deer—tall, proud, silent. Its antlers reached upward like branches, as though the forest itself had chosen it as its king.
Then a shot fell.
Hunters had been hiding nearby. They saw not a living creature, not a symbol of the woods, but a prize. They fired out of greed, careless of the children, the parents, the fire, and the fragile peace surrounding them.
The deer collapsed.
As it lay on the ground, fading away, its eyes turned blue—clear as the sky, deep as still water. The hunters, filled with excitement, pulled the body across the park. They laughed, dragged it through the dirt, and never once looked around.
The children had stopped playing.
The parents had stopped speaking.
No one understood what had happened. No one moved. They only stood there, staring into the deer’s clear blue eyes.
When the hunters finally pulled the deer away, was the bloodstain on the ground the only thing left behind?
No.
Everyone who had seen those blue eyes would remember them forever.
Not really a fan of this idea. I know it has been talked about before. Lately I'm finding it harder to get items that I wish to buy. I'm now spending less per month on daz items than a few years ago. I do advantage of sales and promotions when I see them.
a beautiful and sad story. greed truly has no bounds. . .
I like the bounty idea. I believe many people are motivated by high points.
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