I read the profile of nearly every port I visit. I want to know about the artist, whose work I am viewing.  I see comments about how "...not here to make friends." On the profile... I can certainly respect the desire for some to use their space here to primarily facilitate setting up gigs, paid or otherwise, however I have made some valued contacts, both professional and personal.  I think it is very possible to enjoy safe, appropriate, sharing, growing-Artistic relationships within our community.  Any thoughts

I think of MM as social networking. Some of business is social in nature. Some is professional.  If one is in business solely for the professional part, that's fine but I think one is limiting themselves because there are people one meets socially who will patronize their business just because they like a person.

For instance, if a person is a model photographer, they can choose to do that their whole life and possibly do well doing it.  If, however, they open themselves up to the social aspects of the business, they may well meet a model who is getting married and needs a photographer. Since they are already familiar with the work (since they've worked together) ... it works out. In other cases, maybe that same model (who has clicked the "paid assignments only" box) is looking for a photographer to photograph their child and looks to MM for someone to actually pay for this since they'd have to pay someone, anyway.

This is also true for all the other artists here on the site (not just models and photographers). A person is free to do things however they see fit but it doesn't necessarily make sense to me.

ETA: Even if there is no chance of working together (perhaps a person is the same type artist you are, ie 2 photographers or 2 models, etc), sometimes there are tips or tricks a person uses or used to improve their craft. Skipping those relationships because they aren't "professional" means one loses out. Also, if one is an older photographer and the other a newer one, the older one might have equipment they don't use anymore and will give or sell it cheap to a newer one who can and will use it. One never knows what possibilities exist.