Hey Guys...

To put a little clarity on your questions:

1) Yes Simply3Dworld is still ongoing and should be online and up and running soon. There has been a lot of trouble with the Databases and the recent accident at the Data Centre didn't help matters either.

2) I am not too sure what is going online, but I think there will be a gallery section online for finished peices. Check Out here for more info on what was planned to be added.
https://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...=Simply3dworld
and
https://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...=Simply3dworld

3) Portfolios would be a good idea and I do not have any confimred information as to the status of that and if it is/will/would be added.

4) We have a section in the Forums for Resources that hold links to resources like Blue-Prints (https://forum.simplymaya.com/forumdis...?s=&forumid=58) the big issue here is copyright problems. To hold and display information you need the permission of the owner of the blueprints. It could be more costly and time ineffective to host on S3DW, so I think links work well...

5) Dave did put out a call for anyone who thought they were able to do tutorials, but the main call were for those who have skills outside of Maya. I can't find the link for that, but it was announced, the announcement came at the same time for Moderators.

Hope this clears some bits up for you