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"Provided you are still in control & enjoying the pastime it is not an issue in itself." That's the crux of the matter, I was not enjoying it any longer and I felt I was on a slippery slope to obsession.
"I just socialise with those that are sociable & leave the remainder to their own devices." Indeed, there are some great people on this site.
Thnaks for your words of encouragement. I responded quickly to your first question yesterday. I was just about to go out but thought you deserved at least something of an answer. Now I have more time, let me expand.
Let me start by clarifying that I am not giving up because of the toxic atmosphere that has developed on ZoneGFX. This was the final straw that catalyzed a decision that I should have made some time ago. The root issue is that I no longer enjoy using Daz (in fact, my only use in the last three months has been to have a quick look at something new after I acquired it). At the same time, I have been investing way too much time in hunting for stuff as an end in itself, and this was increasingly becoming an obsession. I felt that the only solution would be a clean and irreversible break. I already deleted everything from my own system. Cleaning out my presence on Daz is actually the last step in the process, as I felt this had to be done slowly to give other people a chance to fill any gap I leave.
If Daz (and ZoneGFX) were still important to me, I would not be walking away, I would be trying to inject some leadership to get the toxicity rooted out. However, given how little interest I have had in Daz latterly, I don't feel this is worth my time or energy. I would be giving up Daz sooner or later even if everyone's behavior on ZoneGFX were perfect (although I might not have got the push I needed to do it now). I do suspect others will start to drift away from ZoneGFX and find (or start) alternatives, and this site will die sooner or later. That however, is not my problem.
There is nothing sinister. There have been threads in the past about addiction, and while I won't go quite that far, it is certainly true that I have devoted too much time to Daz. There have also been threads about people becoming collectors of content rather than users of Daz, and this has also happened - finding and acquiring stuff has become an end in itself. As part of the collector lifestyle, I used to enjoy this site. Even that is no longer fun because of the frequent pissing matches between certain repeat offenders. The latest eruption last Saturday was what I needed to convince me that it is time to pull the trigger, go cold turkey and get my life back.
Last chance folks! Grab your items now before they go away forever. Tomorrow (Sunday), I will delete this post then delete all of my files from Mega.
I have already deleted all of my blog posts, so you are free to create your own blog posts for any of these items. Of course, you need to copy the files onto your own Mega account. Don't just point to the files on my Mega account becuase these go away forever tomorrow
LivingPixels makes a very good point. It is not clever to advertise that Zonegfx is the source of other site's content, this really puts this site at risk. How about serious points fines for anyone caught doing this?
Thanks for flagging this to the community, @tundrauk. I also stumbled over this yesterday, and downloaded it to give it a try. I played with it briefly yesterday evening, and I am impressed. I have tried a number of Daz to Blender integrations and this one is the first to add substantial value to the sculpting/modeling work flow.
The download links have options to use your gfxok membership or to get the items from DazPoser.net. The latter is a known rip-off site (pay your money then get banned). I would treat gfxok as very high risk if it is associated with DazPoser.net.
I think your plan makes sense, and I think I have to agree with your "maybe" unfortunately. Let's hope it works, this tool could be so useful ...
Let's start witha disclaimer - I am no expert on metadata, I don't use it on a regular basis, I only imported it in this case to see if it was what was needed to make the converter work.
Click on the "Content Library" tab to make it the current tab then click on the menu drop-down (the four horizontal lines at the top right of the tab). Select Content DB Maintenance from the menu. A dialog comes up with check boxes. Check the "Process Metadata Queue" and "Reimport Metadata" options and hit "Accept". (I think stricty you only need one of the options, but I don't understand the difference, so let's play safe). Another dialog comes up with a long list of products, but just check "All Products", then hit "Accept" on this dialog. Daz then does its thing.
Now, you mention "I have ... moved around item and folders many times". If you have moved characters so the files are not in the location that the metadata file expects, thye will be ignored. If, for example, you have followed eelgoo's approach and put each vendor's products in a seperate folder, this would be enough to break the metadata. That said, you might get lucky and at least some of your characters might still be in the vendor-expected location.
If the import doesn't work (or only partially works), I expect the converter won't work (if my theory that metadata is needed to drive the converter). That said, even this is a step forward )in a prverse kind of way). At least you know you probably don't need to spend any more time trying to figure out how to make the converter work
I imported the metadata and this seemed to fix the problem, but this was all guesswork, there is nothing in the documentation.
@creationz, I would agree that posting an item without the original donor's consent is certainly very poor etiquette. There are good reasons why donors ask that an item is not shared, not least of which is that the donor wants to post the item him/herself after the private share to requesters offering points.
However, please don't follow your own suggestion to "not fill any more requests". Everyone on the site would lose becuase of the actions of one individual. I would ask the mods to take down the rogue post and replace it with your own.
Oh, and the format of a DUF file is documented at:
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/dson_spec/start
The Object Definitions link at the bottom of the page takes you to definiitons of each element of a DUF file. (A DUF file is a type of the more generic DSON file, by the way). You will not learn how DUF files work from this documentation, there are too many "The xxx object defines an xxx" statements (that is, circular assumptions of knowledge), but once a picture starts to form in your mind, the documentation can help to clarify or confirm it.
The best tool that I have found for DUF files is DSON Editor, available here:
https://zonegfx.com/dson-editor/
DUF files are basically JSON, a form of Javascript, so any editor for Javascript will work. However, unless you need such a tool for other heavier-duty work, it would be overkill to install one just for DUF files. And, in fact, DSON editor has some nice DAZ-specific features that a gerenal purpose JSON editor would lack. For example, I use Microsoft Visual Studio frequently for other purposes. I would consider myself to be very proficient in its use, and it has a great Javascript edior that can be configured to recognize DUF files as Javascript. Even so, DSON EDitor is my go-to tool when I want to work with a DUF file
OK, now I see your point, Ulysess. I thought we differed at a philosophical level, wheeras I am pretty sure from your last reply that we are aligned philosophically. You are pointing out an important practical argument and I now see a big hole in my argument.
It is important that we can piggy-back on each other's threads both to reduce the number of threads, and to have one large pool of points for an item rather than multiple small pools. Unless everyone buys into my position (and why should they?), I break this.
I will take a more pragmatic position. I'll pay out even for non-shared items to facilitate sharing requests.
A good discussion! We have covered a lot of ground, aired some very diverse opinions, but ultimately converged.
We are 100% aligned, Errihl
- "where the sharer asks that ... wait at least a few weeks, so as to avoid immediate “oh, HE did it” from the asset creator." This is entirely fair, and is the third special case that I forgot to mention.
- "Some asset creators are also very much going for takedowns of any shares they spot". I mentioned "sensitive items that should not be shared". This is what I mean by a sensitive item, I just didn't want to spell it out quite so directly.
- And I could go though the rest of your comments point by point, but let's just say a blanket "I agree"Ulysses, I agree that "it’s 100% up to the sharer. I would never accept a share and then post it if the sharer didn’t want me to." I am not saying that I think it is OK to share things publically that have been shared privately. I am saying that I will no longer pay bounties for items that will not be shared (except in the special cases). This is not brow-beating or shaming anyone. Someone wants my points? He/she can have them if he/she shares or lets me share. Someone doesn't want the item shared? That's equally OK, but that is a choice that also means that he/she will receive no points from me
