Pimp My Sims

[photo]

thanks.... that was a definitly not needed headache..... i still can't figure out whose side he was on....

[Aquamarine]

I don't think he was really even taking a side. Oh well. I swear I've seen his pic somewhere before, though.

[avic]

I agree, AquaMarine.  It seemed to me as though he was trying to present both sides of the argument, and also as though he's somewhere in the middle regarding his personal feelings about it.  As for his pic - I've seen it on TSR and also MtS2.

[Surelyfunke]

Regardless of Solander's affinities (or lack thereof), I've personally always enjoyed his site, especially the part of it that says his site will always be free, and that the Paypal donation button is there solely for that purpose, and you will get no "gifts" in exchange. That is how you run a site, IMO.

[idtaminger]

Yeah, he's pretty good looking.

But you know who was really hot? Gunmod, if his avatar pic is any indication. Talented too. Too bad he left. :cry:

[Aquamarine]

Come to think of it, I have quite a bit of his content via MTS2. Looking at his site now, I can see that the overall quality is pretty consistent and I'll likely be replacing a lot of the current custom sets I have with these. It's non buggy, nothing clips, and tastefully done. This is generally what I look for when donating (in the real sense, not the paysite sense) to a site.

Of course, the fact that's he's not a raving lunatic always helps. :p

[Stitches]

Maybe it was cold when they took the picture, so scarves are practical?

Well, y'know, heaven forbid that someone not dress like the fashionistas in SoCal dictate, no matter where they live or what season it is. Eyeroll.

I just thought I'd point out that scarves are very "in" with the SoCal fashionistas of both sexes, despite lacking any real use for them other than to look good.

[Solander]

Well, maybe i should post a short summary of my posting at my blog to make my position clear:

I don't agree with people sharing donation stuff for free. In my eyes, the creator of the stuff has at least the copyright on the mesh or texture (if he did it himself), so you are free to share the package, if you remove the mesh first

But i do understand people getting angry, if everyone starts offering donation stuff and leaves only poor quality items for free. Especially, if even the quality of donation items drops.

Thats it.

And my picture can be found at MTS2 as well as TSR (i have been the evil himself when being a FA  :twisted: ) as well as in some other profiles on several sites, including Pimp my Sims.com.

And i really thought about offering donation stuff in the past. I skipped it, as i think, my creations and those of my co-workers at Pimp my Sims should be free, but success can be quite expensive. At least, if someone wants to run a site like mine.

I use a content management system to handle the hundreds of files, relations ("show recolors for that item"-functions, credits) and i would like to run a website being as fast and easy to use as possible. This means, I now own the largest dedicated server version, which my provider offers. With high bandwith, no traffic limit, high end processor etc. 15,000 visitors and more visitors per day made this necessary, as previous servers simply could not handle such a traffic. Each day, about 200,000 pages are viewed and per month, the traffic sums up to more than a terabyte.

This does really cost a lot (if you buy all EPs for the sims 2, which have been and will be release, you won't reach the sum i pay per month), so I do understand, why some people charge for their creations(i don't say, they just pay their bills, there is something left for sure). I do not, but if i get mails from users flaming about "slow download" (at saturday night) or "the server was off for 15 minutes", i get really pissed. Most users don't even say thank you.

I mean, if you get everything for free and if the downloads are at least average or good quality, you can at least leave a short "thank you" message at the guestbook. But out of 1.5 million visitors since march 2006, there were only 468 (right now), who left a message. Lets assume 600 feedback messages (including those received by mail), you get a feedback ratio of about 0.0004%. In my eyes, this is damn low.

I'm not crying about his, but most users simply don't care about the poeple creating the stuff, paying the webspace and running their websites. And that's what makes me angry from time to time. If everything is for free at our page, downloaders could at least leave a message.

Hope, this posting is easier to understand than the one at my blog.

Solander

Edit: Could anyone please translate "SoCal fashionistas" for me?

[jesserocket]

That make sense, and is very much on the intelligent side of the counter-argument...*nods*

I believe what is meant by SoCal fashionistas is...fashiony people from Southern California (i.e., not the real world...)...but I may be wrong.

[BlueSoup]

I think Jesse is right with the SoCal fashionistas - Southern California (aka LA) people who are so fashionable and trendy it almost hurts.

[Solander]

Oh, i'm not a SoCal fashionista. This picture was taken on a photo shoot for a friend, who studies "making photos" and i had to stand 3 hours at 1 or two degrees celsius in a windy horse stable. The scarve is the only reason i'm still here and can write  

Solander

[avic]

Ouch!  Living in the South (USA) I really, truly hate cold.  I define cold as anything below 40 degrees.

Oh, and a thank you for sharing your content :-)

[Sherry]

I don't agree with people sharing donation stuff for free. In my eyes, the creator of the stuff has at least the copyright on the mesh or texture (if he did it himself), so you are free to share the package, if you remove the mesh first

This is not true though, when YOU enter the mesh into the .package, you bind yourself to EA's terms and conditions.  They own it, you can modify it, but they will own the resulting product.  I work as an RA in a psychology research lab.  After (months/years) of work (research), articles by grad students, professors get sent to journals, once the journal accepts it the journal owns the rights to the article, and can edit out parts of the article as they see fit.  Not always fun, but that's the way it works.  You want your article to be published by a respect journal, for the glory, for the fame, (all for free btw, journals don't pay you a cent) you have to accept the terms.

EA gives us consent to share their .packages, we can share them whether or not you choose to put things you've worked on in them.

The only point of your argument that to me makes sense is the idea that perhasp we should give more respect to the people who work on the meshes.  To an extent I can agree, but I am the type of person who is likes being grateful.  

Yet, I am also the type of person who doesn't like being taken advantage of.  I feel disrespected by some paysites who are clearly violating EA's terms of use just because they can make, buy or illegally download a mesh (ahem simbellas) and add it to a .package.  EA's terms are non-commerical.  PERIOD.   I create too, if I can accept the terms, why can't they?

You mention on your blog, that if EA cared about paysites (enforcing the non-commerical requirements of thier EULA), they could, yet they haven't, so therefore they do not care.  But that logic is circular, because I have been at a very active filesharing site for 4 years now (simsfilevault), dating back to TS1. EA knows about us, dozens of creators have written them, and they have no made moves to stop our distribution either.  All we learn form this is EA doesn't want to make a move either way, as neither side is really effecting them.

Costly, It can be but that is your choice.  If it is something you like doing, and or doing for others then it is good for you.  When I started creating I didn't expect people to fund my purchase of new expansions.  Think about if eveyrone had to pay for every creators EP's, what next then, should we buy them computers too?  Further, there are plenty of costless way to distribute your creations.  I don't have any of those things you mention and somehow people can still download my work.   I hate to say this a million times but if the *costs*, whether they are monetary, time and effort, or gratification related are too much for creators then it is probably seriously time they stopped.

Lastly, I haven't downloaded any of your creations, I don't download much now that I create, but I do appreciate and respect your decisions to give them away for free.  So thank you for that, for what it's worth.

Edit:  Typos, yep there are probably more but I need to start dinner.

[BlueSoup]

i feel very sorry having caused headaches for some of you. Should anyone still experience headache or something comparable, please drop me a line and i can try collect some donations for you.

Am I the only one getting a seriously good laugh out of this bit?

Huh, that reminds me, I'm almost out of Excedrin.

No I thought it was funny too.

Solander, does Pimp my Sims accept donations from people who want to give them?  I know you want to be a free site and I think that's awesome, I fully support free sites.

[Surelyfunke]

I'm pretty sure he does, Bluesoup.