Interesting news, as is all the usual doom and gloom from some, personally I can see it as actually being a good thing, Poser content may well get a boost this way.
As usuale I'm seeing a lot of speculation and mis information, for example Daz do allow non Daz products in there galleries including the Hivewire figures.
But I am concerned about here at Hivewire from what I'm reading I hope this doesn't become the Poser forum, its been bad enough for DS users in other forums and I would hate to feel unwelcome here.
I think both Alisa and Chris have pointed out a couple times now that we aren't about to exclude users from either program. I'm a DS user myself also.
I'm not happy about the merger. I really do view it as a "buy it and bury it" because that's exactly what they did back with PoserPros, too.
BUT!! I also see this as an opportunity. Maybe it can actually be a way to heal some of the rift that's happened over the years, and maybe it can actually be a way to boost some of the Poser content. The biggest hurdle I see with that, at the moment, is not where artists can go to post (there are lots of galleries to choose from, even for the mature themes, and no I don't mean porn).
But the bigger hurdle right now, is going to be where vendors can sell the sorts of niche items that RDNA did such a great job with. There are a LOT of very PG-restricted sites, and plenty of X-rated sites, but there doesn't seem to be a lot that are in the middle ground. RDNA was great for that; it had the darker, more mature themes, but we didn't have to deal with all the x-rated fetishes or crass, overdone gore for the sake of gore, either. They were really good at pulling off the horror genre without it being "gratuitous."
I think in the long run, this has the potential to be very good for the community as a WHOLE. Not just one program or the other, but everyone. It's an opportunity, as far as I'm concerned.