TSR IS A SUCK-ASS SUCKY WEBSITE

[Minolia]

I wonder if the rats are deserting a sinking ship over at MTS.  Bad publicity thanks to Lyric Lee et al?  Something is going on over there--the quality of stuff has gotten largely worse (not all of it, but a lot of it) and certainly sparser lately.  It also seems as if Delphy doesn't care too much anymore (although who could blame him?)

Things have been a bit quiet at MTS2 lately but I'd like to think it may partially be due to the fact that it's exam season at the moment - I know it's stopped me for one from having the free time to make stuff. But not to watse precious revision time here, I blame pescado!
Of course I may just be feeling wildly optimistic. :?

[PutanginaMo]

ive just recieved that fucking letter from TSR. I read the article about the interview on FA's and Moderator. and guess what? They interview "spladoum". anyway, i dont know him or her. and i dont fuking care about ewhat was happening looking every minute in thier lazy forum.
anyway, the last question about him was this.

"Thank you for taking part in this interview for the TSR Newsletter, Any parting comments you would like to add?"

then he fucking answers....

"Those of you who are dying to know what my username means, send donations to my slush fund. I take Paypal. ;-) (Seriously, if you want to know, I'm a PM away.)"

thats a big wow! wow for your fucking username....

a money for a username? are you fucking crazy!!!!

im so gonna hit him if we met. :x


ahthan.lliella.com

[Mac_in_Black]

What's even funnier about that interview is it's a repeat. Yep. I don't remember which newsletter it was in before. It's been awhile, but it's a repeat. spladoum is female I believe. She's a mod in the forums.

Last month's interview was... ssshhh... Atwa.

[PutanginaMo]

you see its a repeat, that spla.. blah blah really needs money for food, and a house. Cause she said shes from florida, am i right florida? she must have been hit by a hurricane. aww.... how great!

[Mac_in_Black]

Hey, there might be some chitluns out there we don't know about too. Help the chitluns! Send money! PayPal works! Wanna know my name?!

[Scratch]

Just a quick question.... When someone is "hired" to be an SA or FA on TSR, is there a contract?  :?:   What does the contract say?

[Mac_in_Black]

There is a contract but I'm not sure of exact details. There is a quota they have to shoot for. Regular, steady submissions are a must. I think FAs have more rules to follow than SAs.

I'll have to see if I can dig up the info Thomas posted at one time.

Edit: Here's something on SAs.

[Scratch]

The reason i was asking... I ran into an old teacher of mine the other day... I took a business administration course and he taught business law... I eventually got around to the controversy with the sims and mentioned TSR and he reminded me " the courts won't enforce an illegal contract"... because if the creators don't own the "rights" to their creations then they don't have any rights to sell them either.

So if the "creators" don't own their works, then TSR has no recourse if a "creator" decides to break the contract and put their works somewhere else... Has this ever happened? What was TSR's reaction?

This is an interesting angle... the teacher mentioned that the only legal contract that TSR could enter into would be with EA... :twisted:

So i'm curious what the contract is with "artist" and TSR...

Thanks for the linky Mac...

[Jojoba]

Scratch that is an interesting way to look at it...would be great if some of your questions were answered.

About this contract - is working for TSR as an FA or SA an actual job? Do they pay taxes? If they dont then its part of the informal sector of work and is illegal...also means that, for example, you wont be able to put it on your CV or get a reference from TSR  :wink: Which actually screws the FA/SA....

[Paleoanth]

SA's don't get paid as far as I know.  Sherrie would know better as she is a former SA.  They just get the benefits mentioned in the page Mac in black linked to.  It looks like more of a status thing than a business thing.  I also think they can post their creations at other places.  I know for certain that I have seen one or two SA's post both at TSR and MTS2.  

I have no idea about contracts and FA's.  I can only extrapolate from what we already know.  They do get paid, but I don't know if they "sell" their creations to TSR.  It almost seems like a comission thing if they are getting paid per 10,000 subscriber downloads.  Once EA legal comes out with a statement, if they ever do so, that will clear it all up.

[Bigtruckgirl]

Scratch that is an interesting way to look at it...would be great if some of your questions were answered.

About this contract - is working for TSR as an FA or SA an actual job? Do they pay taxes? If they don't then its part of the informal sector of work and is illegal.

It is and isn't "legal" if for any reason they were caught they could claim to be an independent contractor or Self Employed (if they are here in the US) and claim that they made less than $600.00 per year. This would mean though that they would have to have some sort of print out to prove the dollar amount was $600.00 or less OR Thomass gives them a 1099-Misc. showing the same with the box checked for $600.00 or less.  

The tax thing to me is a sticky situation though. When we were thinking about investing in a business in another country we had to look at the tax laws for money earned in another country. For some countries, you actually get a tax break for your investment and the money earned is not taxes as high because you are considered "helping" the country to develop. Sweden was not on the "under developed" country list though. It was mostly Eastern European, former Soviet Block countries for Europe.

It would, for those in the US, boil down to how much an FA/SA actually makes in a year. A good rule of thumb though to be on the safe side, for those FAs/SAs in the US to keep in mind is that any money earned is taxable/reportable if you are over a certain age (whether it be a "legal" job or not). Now whether they claim it as "self employed" or "Independent contractor" is up to them, but they should be claiming one or the other.  You still have to "claim" it, it is just if it is $600.00 or less it is not "taxable income."

As far as a resume, I doubt any employer would look at the time they were "self employed" or an Independent contractor" for TSR in very high regard. On that point you are spot on.

[Mac_in_Black]

Bigtruckgirl is right. Here in the US they still have to claim it. Somehow. And no employer over here will give a rat's ass if they worked for TSR. They'll be like, "Who the fuck is TSR? And what the fuck are sims?"

Unfortunately I haven't been able to track down FA info similar to the SA stuff I found. I don't think Thomas has been as "open" with their "rules".

I do think they can upload other places. Some do to MTS2 and some have their own sites like NeptuneSuzy.

I have some FA friends, I suppose I could pick their brains. I wonder if each FA enters into a different contract with TSR.

[SoggyFox]

I know that Windkeeper still posts the occasional thing on MTS2, because that's where she posted the CAS and YACAS object hacks(?).

[Hecubus]

Windkeeper last updated at MTS2 in November 2006, and at TSR in February 2007.....so unless she's hiding her content elsewhere....we're not seeing much. Wonder if she's still drawing a paycheck from Thomas?

[Scratch]

It is and isn't "legal" if for any reason they were caught they could claim to be an independent contractor or Self Employed (if they are here in the US) and claim that they made less than $600.00 per year. This would mean though that they would have to have some sort of print out to prove the dollar amount was $600.00 or less OR Thomass gives them a 1099-Misc. showing the same with the box checked for $600.00 or less.

I don't think these artist realize what kind of trouble they could get in if the authorities started doing some investigating of the whole TSR business... If the artist were to actually claim an income to pay taxes then they are admitting that they are "selling" a product that they don't have the rights to sell... if they don't claim the income for taxes then they could get in trouble for tax evasion... That's what they did in the '30's to get some of the mobsters... i think it was Al Capone that went to jail for tax evasion.

If i was a FA i'd jump ship as soon as possible before EA started getting involved... if EA did get involved and published all the names of the artist, i'm sure all the governments involved would want their share of taxes owed... Goods and services taxes as well as income taxes...

Maybe a couple of quick questions to some of the governments involved would cause a little more attention in TSR's direction  :twisted:

What if Thomas's wife were to suddenly want out of the marriage and wanted a piece of TSR, Thomas could take the money and run and the "artist" couldn't do a thing about it because they have an illegal contract with him... I'm sure Thomas knows how legal/illegal the contracts are....