Lyric Lee ... is a interesting case, she was a administrator on MTS2 and their offshoot S2C until she seem to done something ...

From the FAQ:

Oh yes, I remember that ... it was when the objects code was "cracked" and TSR claimed they did it, it was funny because since it was just been cracked early objects had a lot of issues and TSR end up having in the uncomfortable position of having to provide support over something they knew nothing about it.

TSR is funny in so many ways, anyone remembers when someone created a similar program to SimPE and they tried to push it?

There is always whois ...

http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=+adult-sims&tld=com

Its still quite common (after all who would do it? the only forums that I know being with paid staff are or were WotC forums), also remember you are very limited to what you can do about a BBS or a forum and keep in mind you do sign a Terms of Use when registering.

Moderators usually are locked from the sensitive information, they are usually limited just to edit and delete posts or close and delete treads, the serious stuff is usually left to administrators, of course there are loopholes but they are not ever going to be able to see your EA account since it can have your credit card information.

They are simply moderators, they lack the power to delete SimPages since they are now connected to a EA master profile and there is that issue of then NOT being employers of EA and so NOT allowed to preview the site members privileged information.

Of course the administrators likely can do it and the fact the page is still up and the downloads not been taken down indicates there have been some "failure of communication" as in "they banned you but do not inform the administrators so their ban not is overruled".

Is because of SimMasters and the like that I have a natural distrust of any site moderator.

I am sorry but you do understand SimMasters are simply moderators that were picked from the BBS userbase.

Its pretty common companies not giving a damn about their official forums and just make some of the people that post there moderators, what is also common is such people going into a power trip and screw up the forums and other general idiocy.

The Official site is and always been pro-paysite because SimMasters are pro-paysites, EA legal department on the other hand ...

Its clear that Maxis and EA never cared much about the official site, they are still using a BBS were everyone else pretty much stop using then in the end of 1990's.

I am not surprised.

A lot of "SimMasters" are TSR fangirls ... ever wonder why TSR is listed first and MTS2 is not even listed?


I tell you want, if you want something done complain to the administrator.

I was around before 2004.

Many of paysites did not started as such, TSR was once free as well as SimFreaks and many other sites that were paysites when TS2 was released.

Take SimSkins, when SimFreaks and 8DS pretty much cornered hair (and head) meshes with the 800 and 900 series they were a free alternative until they started to switch to more donation items and one day they started a subscription system.

Sure they did not moved very well into TS2 (like SimFreaks) but they were a example of what happened, there was a transition and as there are certainly people that started with a paysite I believe the majority started as free sites.

I do hold TSR and SimFreaks responsible for it, they were community landmarks and the moment they realized they could make money out of the said community members they sold out, I know there was payments during TS days before that situation was exposed in TS2 days.

In fact in the end of TS days I heard a rumor, the rumor was EA was considering hosting some sites but who they invited? TSR and SimFreaks ... its any wonder about that never materialized?

I am sorry but I do not think we should group TSR and Peggy outside the "subscription paysite".

TSR is run by a company, if you look at their staff page you can see how many people are being employed to just run it.

Peggy on the other hand is pretty much one person show, we might not like her (even if she did some interesting things on TS days) but at least its not a school of remoras as TSR is.

Also TSR did some rather ... unethical things during the first days as MTS2 established itself (I remember those), even SimFreaks that are as much to blame as TSR in the state of affairs and operates in a similar fashion cannot be put on the same level as TSR.

Reason is price range, if one site changes $5 then all sites will go to that range.

Never mind the fact paysites prices were first set when hosting was more expensive, TS and TS2 files are small compared to other games (take Oblivion, if you download a texture replacer you are looking at downloading something around or over 100 MB) and costs for Sims Sites are likely going down because you are getting more storage and more bandwidth without changes to your hosting package deal.