Rant: Wish you were here...

[Bellsey]

I would go with that, this is pretty much the only real working Softimage forum right now, and he has kinda replaced the old Softimage Community site. Although that site didn't die because of the acquisition, as such. It was more to do with the shortcomings of the AREA.

The Softimage Community site was launched in '08, on the back of GDC. We realised that although the XSI community was strong, it didn't really have a common place to really go. xsibase had been the main site, but it wasn't being maintained (for various reasons), and CGtalk wasn't really a viable alternative. XSI didn't really have its own place that it own and ran, so the community site was born. The idea was to let it build gradually and gear up to the impending launch of XSI 7 at Siggraph that year. The format was simple and basically followed a similar template to CGtalk. It was thought better to follow a similar looking template to a site that people knew, rather than create something from scratch.

Following the acquisition, Autodesk obviously had the AREA as its comminuty site, so it didn't make sense to have two. The problem was, both sites were really chalk and cheese in terms of look and functionality, so when data was transferred over things just got messy. All of the data from the old community site in terms of posts and compounds etc is actually still there, but just impossible to find. Which is really one of the main flaws of the AREA in general - its general navigation and usability.
But the AREA is here to stay and it is being sorted (slowly but surely). It hasn't been that Autodesk doesn't care, but there's just been so many problem to overcome to get the AREA into a state whereby we can actually start fixing stuff.

The uploading of compounds and the AREA downloads section has been mentioned before and this is something on the 'to do' list. Personally my main thing would be to get the downloads section sorted so people can actually find stuff, then see about the upload bit. Mudbox has a community upload/download feature that hooks into the AREA, so the logic is there. (netview anyone?)
The problem with uploading data from within an app, is that some studios might have a problem with it due to firewalls and protection IP etc.

[SamHowell]

Has anyone given any thought to the emergence of Vimeo as a place for the exchange of ideas and resources for Softimage people? I know there is no forum in the usual sense but the use of groups and channels for Softimage is very active. I get the feeling there is a whole hidden flow of information via personal messaging on Vimeo that is helping people to engage and share inormation.

I for one have contacted and been contacted many times regarding problem solving and the sharing tools and ideas. It's the first place I log on to when I fire up my PC in the morning.

As for standard forums, it's good to have a mix. Some kind of all powerfull, monolithic, uber-forum doesn't sound healthy to me. Different strokes and all that.

Keep it Soft people.

[EricTRocks]

While vimeo is great for finding vids and resources I think its "forum" features are lacking for a larger community. I honestly rather leave vimeo alone. Its great for what it is. Video posting / sharing / finding site. I find that the bigger sites like FB and MySpace and the like start getting bad when they try to be too much. Smaller core features start to suffer and fall by the way side.

I think one of the only things that would make a true community site work that encompassed forums and resource downloads is a site where there is an active team maintaining it who are getting paid to do it. Anything else hasn't been successful to date. One could argue that XSIBase did but how old and out of date are the resources on there?

AD is doing a huge letting down their M&E customers by having the AREA in the state that it is. Only having 1 person maintaining it on even a 50% of day to day work basis is not going to cut it. 2 full time folks at least is what I think it needs. Also don't code your own software or highly customize it to the point where it becomes a herculean task to keep it going or pass it on to someone else.

Graham I hope you're right in what you're saying about it getting better. The faster the better. Though seeing AD's progress over the years it'll be slower than a snails pace.

[gustavoeb]

Wow, 1 person? Half time? Are those numbers right Eric? If so, it does sound ridiculous and the current situation of the Area is understandable... One would think the powers that be of a company that big would "get it" about the importance of internet communities nowadays.
I fell like comparing it to its competitors, but Ill have to resist, in order not to derail this thread anymore...

[EricTRocks]

Was just an example and more of how it feels currently.

[Hirazi Blue]

As sort of an afterthought I have decided to respond to mister Rousseau’s personal attack earlier in this thread. The only thing I want to address here is what mister Rousseau in a brilliant move of rhetoric called my “defining the narrative” of the si-community, citing my high post count as his “conclusive” proof.
I have been an active Moderator/Administrator here since day one (day two actually). Taking my near daily active attendance into account might make my 2.5 posts per day seem slightly less shocking. Most of my post were centered on tasks like trying to answer people’s questions, pointing our users to interesting news items, announcing si-community related forum stuff and a little bit of actual moderating. And some of my posts indeed were/are/will be critical of the company and the way Softimage was/is developing. I wouldn’t call that “defining the narrative”. To degrade all the work I’ve done for this community by merely pointing out that my post count is too high seems somewhat shortsighted.
And now I’ll be quite deliberately killing this specific narrative by closing this thread. ;)