Greetings and salutations! I appreciate your taking the time to introduce the new team to the community. This is an important and helpful step.
Something the old devs hopefully made you aware of is that as SI users, we really do have a community of mutual support and mutual respect that centers around this mailing list. Some of us have been on this list and its prior incarnations for almost 20 years, dating back to before XSI was even in development. Don't be amazed by the passion expressed by those in the community. Passion is a necessary attribute (along with pigheaded stubbornness) for anyone who wishes to succeed in CG. It's that passion that inspires one to restart, reload, and retry until finally, a solution is found and the day is saved. As Softimage users, we have always felt the underdogs. For the most part, we don't have the 500-artist studios with the internal RnD departments, and intranets with Q&A and support. All we have is each other, on this list and a couple of forums. And over the years, having devs and reps at the mothership who would go out of their way to talk to us was an important factor, a security blanket (whether real or only perceived), that helped stoke that passion. One of my main concerns when Autodesk took over the reigns of Softimage was not about what they would do with the technology, but rather *would they continue to talk to us*, or would they be consumed into a distant posture more typical of the mega-corporate culture. So don't be strangers. You have no idea how important it is to the well-being of this community. -Bradley
