On 3-11-2016 17:30, [GDS|Enropy] wrote:
> Wow no comments huh? Lol... I thought someone would have something to say
> at least.

Well, my answer as Devil's Advocate above was not considered to be 
trivial to me :-) as I raise a practical as well as a moral issue, all 
good faith intentions being acknowledged of course.

>
> This just motivates me more to personally take out strategic bounties for
> stuff that might make Pov more attractive as a 3rd party rendering plugin
> at the least...whatever it takes to keep it alive...it looks like our
> community is in trouble...not nearly as active as the early 90s...not much
> new blood, not much new in the way of IDE/Modelers...

Why is our community in trouble? It seems to me that over the last 
couple of years at least there has been quite a lot of activity by our 
respected POV-Ray developers.

>
> Im going to need to think about what to offer payment for.
> I am not rich but I am willing to do my part in thanks to those whose
> efforts have given us all, freely, what I feel is one of the most
> interesting, useful and beautiful rendering packages out there.
>
> Maybe a gofundme or patreon page for pov would stimulate dev work and
> attract new devs, and with certain features maybe attract new users.

Maybe...

>
> I have seen a huge drop off in activity over the decades and want to affect
> change. Bounties is the best answer I have come up with so far. For me
> Glows are just the start. I am going to invest in this, by damn.

There has been a drop of activity, mainly on the users side, with the 
old guard turning away to other activities for instance but maybe also 
because of age. Maybe that was due to the state-of-the-art of POV-Ray, 
maybe not; I seem to remember some discussion about this in the past. 
However, there has also been some new additions to the community, and I 
think that - coming out of the "experimental" (?) stage - images have 
become more complex/involved and/or needing more time and thought to be 
composed. It certainly has evolved for me like that. And talking of age, 
my own POV-Ray production is slowly dwindling over the years and that is 
largely due to those same years accumulating on my shoulders. At 
seventy, I am not as productive any more as I was twenty years ago.

>
> Pov **cannot** be allowed to slowly wither; it is responsible for my entire
> 23yr career in software engineering (I'm now a VP), my meeting my wife (in
> art appreciation class due to death-metal, a presentation on Gilles Tran
> Pov work, and a scene I made in Pov) and supporting my family (because Pov
> taught me to code)...I *owe* Pov and team...

Again, I am not convinced personally that POV-Ray "slowly withers" but I 
would like to hear other opinions on that.

>
> Who else feels this way?
> How has Pov changed your life?
> Has it introduced you to programming, helped you visualize your thesis, got
> you into a career in 3d art, or what?
>
> I cannot be the only one for whom Pov has opened professional, artistic and
> intellectual doors.

To me it has opened several artistic doors as it gave me the possibility 
to express almost perfectly what I dream about.

>
> Ian
>


-- 
Thomas

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