[RaysOfLight]

i just reactivated my account after having forgotten about it for a very long time, and it's actually the first time i'm really looking at this site as a learning resource and also as a means of offering back to the community that feeds me knowledge.

I'm no great lightwave master, or anywhere near being that, but i do like to throw a small tutorial at people from time to time, aimed at complete beginners since i am one myself.

so i ask you, what benefit would i receive if i made a tutorial and put it in the VIP section, as compared to the Free section?
it's a base principle of mine, that knowledge should come at a price, BUT, not a monetary one. the price you pay should be the time you spend learning.
so what is it on this site, that makes the VIP tutorials worth paying for when you are a beginner, as opposed to going out and buying a full and proper book on the software you use?

excuse me if i don't make much sense, it's getting late over here

i guess my 2 questions i mean to ask are, what's the point of uploading to VIP as opposed to the Free section, and second, can one gain points in ways other than paying or winning contests?
because to win a contest, i suppose you have to be the best. how can you be the best though when the knowledge that could empower you to be the best is locked behind the VIP points system?

[RaysOfLight]

oh yeah, one more thing completely off the topic.
isn't there supposed to be a link somewhere that takes you to the page with all your membership options and all that somewhere on the top menu bar? could someone please point me to that link, wherever it is?

[RaysOfLight]

oh! and where is the FAQ? i heard it mentioned somewhere, but i couldn't find heheh
okay, i'm done for now, i think i've said all i had to say

[David]

Originally posted by RaysOfLight so i ask you, what benefit would i receive if i made a tutorial and put it in the VIP section, as compared to the Free section?

You can't upload a tutorial to any section. The people that create tutorials for us get paid wages. Thus allowing them to do such trivial things as buy food. This cost is then passed back to the customer.

Originally posted by RaysOfLight so what is it on this site, that makes the VIP tutorials worth paying for when you are a beginner, as opposed to going out and buying a full and proper book on the software you use?

Most people find it easier to follow a series of video tutorials than they do to follow a book (although if as you suggest knowledge was free there wouldn't be any books to buy). It's horses for courses if you find learning from a book easier, I can recommend several good ones.

Originally posted by RaysOfLight it's a base principle of mine, that knowledge should come at a price, BUT, not a monetary one.

It would be nice if the world worked this way sadly It does not. I pay out 400$ ish USD a month simply on bandwidth, I have to eat fairly regularly, as well as pay staff (funny thing of mine i belive people should be paid for the work they do), cover the cost of phones ec cetera. The people working here are already doing so at massively discounted rates. I can't ask them to give up there time for nothing.

Also even if knowledge was free the delivery mechanism for that knowledge, most certainly is not.

Other people do it different way I.E they have people work for free, then cover there sites in advertising and make money that way, but this is the way we have decided to do it. I don't like advertising and people should get paid for there hard work.

If you feel you want to create videos, give us a shout, we will ask for a video test first. If you work for us you get paid for it. (Although not a massive amount) We pay for the stuff that goes in the free section also, our users don't, are we not nice.

If you feel you can cover the costs of the simply sites around 4k a month gimmie a shout and I'll be happy at that point to give everything away free.

the User Controle panel is here. http://forum.simplylightwave.com/usercp.php

The FAQ is here.
http://www.simply3dworld.com/faq.shtml

Welcome to simplylightwave.

David

LOL

[Mark]

Has anyone noticed how vocal David gets whenever the "why isn't stuff free" question crops up?

... and he's normally so mild tempered...

[K Dawg]

Ok my 2 cents to the topic.
I can understand RaysOfLight and David too.

On the free side, I would also prefer the free tuts. I have no chance for creditcard Payments or Paypal. Also I don´t have the spare Money anyway for the Pay tuts.
sorry to say this whats coming so direct, but thats how I am.
The Tutorials are great for free stuff, but honestly, i woulnd´t Pay for em.
There are a few things that I find disturbing. Don´t get me wrong, I realy like the idea making the vid tuts to help others. Thats Great and the Pic and sound quality is good. it´s just, why should I pay a vid tut for a head model that ain´t worth it for excample. Like I said. don´t get me wrong. It´s nothing personal to the makers.
It´s just, some tuts are in a way, that is to fall asleep or so. Kinda like, no interest from some makers of the vids.
But maybe thats only like that on The free ones.
But the idea itself is great.

On the Other Hand I can understand David and the other Admins verywell. Myself is an Admin on more than one Board and webmaster. i know what the traffic and work etc. meens. And for the guys you buy the vid tuts from, I can understand the problematic with the costs too. especialy the Traffic.

But the total is RayOfLights.
We can be Glad that Phil, Peter and the others make these Tuts in the Firstplace and we can be happy about David, Kevin and the other Webmasters to give some Tuts away for free.
I have all Free Tuts and just a few are like, it could be more info than stoping after 15 minutes and kinda like forcing to buy the other parts (thats one of those things I meen with disturbing) but even those tuts helped me a lil bit.

Keep the good work up Guys. And stay loyal to yor sense of simplylightwave.com