It’s chock full of supplement posts and spam
What the hell happened this site? Don't they moderate it any more?
mister3d
#3
This site is haunted, a faint shadow of its former glory.
I always think, how it could have turned out if admins would behave differently back then, and many people not have left it. Maybe it would still be alive and going strong.
JordanNVFX
#4
I would argue it’s basically a living Museum or Archives at this point.
It’s kept alive because people who google for 3D Art questions are bound to come across answers that are just too niche or specific.
Like the other day, I just wanted to relearn a function related to Maya, and only a thread from 2005 had the answers to it.
jessifer
#5
True. That is how I got on it. I do still enjoy the few people who do post here, such as yourself, Cookepuss, etc. And I have gotten some help and been able to help some others with code and such. So it still has some value, but not near what it used to be.
cookepuss
#6
I do appreciate the shout out, jessifer. Just kind of a shame that this site has turned into what it has. It’s just a consequence of a changing internet.
Forums are legacy technology, “boomer tech” if you will. CG Talk is 20+ years old now. Our internet habits have changed dramatically thanks to cell phones and social media, but CG Talk remains stuck in the past. Forums as a whole are great if you like long exchanges, but they’re not built for a generation accustomed to real-time interaction.
CG Talk has, for my money, been on the decline for a good 10-15 years now. A few members such as myself saw the warning signs and brought it to admin’s attention. Fewer daily posts. Fewer new members each month. Fewer incentives, beyond a sense of community, for existing members to interact or engage. Organizational issues.
To suggest that we were treated like Chicken Little screaming about a falling sky is an understatement. “You’re overreacting. It’s a phase. It’s not even close to dead or dying. Stop prophesizing doom.” You get the point.
IIRC, there was a change in ownership for CG Society some time ago and, imo, that was the last straw. Mods steadily left and what few, if any, remain have all gone radio silent since. If anybody cleans up spam once a month then that’s a big deal. Short of trolling the board with hate speech or bullying, you’re unlikely to get anything close to a speedy response from those in charge.
CG Talk isn’t a priority for the ownership anymore. It’s that simple. While the opening CG Society page is kept (mostly) modern in an effort to keep with ArtStation, the CG Talk forums are as ancient in appearance and function as they ever were.
If CG Society’s management REALLY cared about keeping the spirit of CG Talk alive then they’d create & moderate a CG Talk Discord. They haven’t and won’t. It would cost money/time to maintain, but wouldn’t offer any returns on its own. And in an age of ad/script blockers, forums and their ilk are just money leeches.
Honestly? This if these forums are still around by 2025 then I’d be surprised. At some point, CG Talk will just 404 like many of its contemporaries and predecessors. Right now, I’d say that CG Talk is dead. It just doesn’t know it yet.
IMO, if you want any help, feedback, interaction with fellow artists, or exposure…
… find a handful of Discords
… join some FB groups and hope for the best
… start a YT channel
… tweet/insta the shit out of your art
… post to portfolio sites like ArtStation
… join one of the remaining boomer tech forums like Polycount.
The online CG community is scattered. It’s 1997 all over again, albeit with better search engines and more content from which to learn. Your options are limited.
My advice? For now, just grind. Make art because you love it. Learn how to be self-sufficient and find solutions on your own. As somebody who learned CG pre-internet… Trust me. You’ll be stronger for it. The pain WILL yield the gain.
Long term, the best you can hope for is that GenZ & GenAlpha “discover” forums as they typically do older/forgotten tech and try to reimagine it for THEIR generation. It’ll happen. When? Wtf knows. It’ll happen though. If vinyl, polaroids, 8-bit style gaming, & casual racism ( 
) can make a return then so can forums - of a sort.
cookepuss
#7
IF it’s any consolation, Autodesk’s own forums are about as sad and worthless. With the bulk of their revenue coming from studios and related support, forums (or anything) that might instead cater to freelancers or indies aren’t even remotely on their radar. From their clueless approach to community to the way they practically bury that cheaper indie license, ADSK is pretty much the poster child for how to do everything wrong.
Hexcalibur
#8
cgsociety has been outsourced by gchq and lvmh to india sabotaging industry for infiltrating hollywood with feds explaining why you find such bureaucratic troll as jospin in pixar and harry at disney