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Edmond said on 19 Jan, 2006:
Blender is a fantastic application, but in my short experience the community leaves a lot to be desired. Is there a Blender forum for professional users? In my experience, Elysiun is not a very pleasant place to hang out and learn Blender - the tone there seems quite negative. I would have a hard time recommending students to visit there. For a lot of commercial applications you can find a tradition of excellent, professional support even among the regular users.
If there is another, better community out there I’m sure I just missed it (please point one out if you know of one). Best of luck with the project and publicity.
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rubbleman said on 19 Jan, 2006:
Well you right there Edmond. Most Elysiun posters are about 15-25 so maybe less maturity in words there than pro people accustomed to. They all keen Blenderers though and knowledgeable and helpful - just conversation wanders a bit into youthful thinking at times. In part too this because place is under moderated for more public consumption now Blender arrive on bigger stage.I make small noise about my thoughts for Blender to get more organised like this to important types there before.I am 82 and place does not suit me that well either - but of course I am very small minority of users) so I am not pushy about it. Trouble is because Blender advance so fast things that ought to happen are trailing behind some.Also Blender is army of enthusiastic volunteers and not as structured and customer focused as business world. As Blender is more and more successful I think you see more effort put into presenting for pro people to be more at home but maybe always has unique open source flavour when come visiting. Maybe have to meet expectations about halfway somewheres.
I think if you keen on Blender - and will be great releases coming soon- you just hang in there knowing people working in that direction as time and resource permit. More learning resources are in the making along with more up to date and complete manual. Everyone who uses Blender is enthusiastic to share ideas and experiences with others and make ever better cg works.We can all find way to talk to each other through the common language of Blender.We like you to be welcome. We think Blender is fantastic too.Too good to miss out on in fact)
I'm thinking of starting one.
What would you like to see there?
How would you discribe the user? (what audience to aim at?)
An idea could be to have a job pool, where programmers can offer their time to create paid features that animation studios might need.
Special teachers area, to get good blender teaching material.
Pitfall reports when upgrading.
NDA gallery. Share work that is still secret.
Maybe charge a small fee to keep kiddos out?
Is the time right to start a website like this now?