seems a bit of a contradiction to have a paying site for free shared products, especially when the artists themselves get nothing. on the other hand, i can understand that when a business goes belly up, it's either they go down and the site disappears - to our big dismay - or somehow money has to be generated.

10$ isn't that much (especially compared to the VIP memberships on Rendo & DAZ!!), i'm pretty tight with my budget too but i could afford it, which i can't with mentioned VIPs. BUT until a while ago, i didn't have an international ccard nor paypal, and if this had been a pay site, i couldn't have joined, even for the only 10$.

so i think what could be done is leave the site free as it is, but offer VIPs, though to under 50$/year...