this is just an idea, and maybe it's already around here somewhere and i've just missed it, but how about a sticky for each software platform that has offsite links to free stuff - plugins, renderers, models, textures.
so like, if you needed anything - HDR images, rigs to animate with, fire plugins, - anything at all, you could go to one single thread and see topics like "Free HDRI" or "Free Rigs" or "Free textures" or "Free Whatever".
I know there's some around here, I'm just thinking to maybe organize it into one big "free place", and make them platform specific, so Max users won't go chasing around for something only to find it's only available for Maya.
just an idea, might be a dumb one. free stuff is good, and the internet is good for free stuff.