I know how to braid this way, it's not that hard.
And it's not Xandher who fails but Marko who is responsible for the mesh and uploaded it to TSR without texture.

My guess is that Xandher textured it this way because astandard braid would look silly with that mesh if the mes doesn't match the texure.
With this kind of braid there isn't that much structure to notice.
That doesn't make the hairstyle look good, but the other one doesn't look any better.

Wow - dearest Open Ass Jack is using my hair recolors. He's downloading them at Simscave - doesn't that make him a pirate as well?

On topic: Is this a toilet? It looks horrible, I'd never buy something like this if I can avoid it...

Agreed Just thought I'd point it out because someone said some pages ago that Helga never was pay which just isn't true...

Now I have a question: is this thread about
- comparing items that are free to items you'd have to pay for
or
- comparing items from free sites with items from paysites, no matter if the item in question is free or pay?

I always thought it's the first. That this thread is about comparing one free thing to a similar (in looks and (seem-to-be-) quality) pay item. I know that some people don't download from sites that have paysets, just because of their principles, and for these I'm glad about every alternative. But for all others IMHO everything that's free, no matter where it is published, should be considered.
So nobody needs to pay for the XMSims hair, but to have exactly the same style at Peggysims you'd need to pay. While the CS style is indeed similar it's not as similar to the pay hair as the XM hair is.

Well, enough said. It's just my own opinion, ignore it, bash it or whatever you want to do. I just thought I'd point it out.

Tchan, that was what i was thinking from the begining, but was hesitant to say. This thread should not necessarily show some ugly things compared to shiny free things, this way it could be turned around by paysite lovers to compare shiny pay things with crappy free ones (no need to neglect that, they really exist, crappy free as well as nice pay sets). The purpose should be to give alternatives - compare Buggybooz' kitchen with one that has a similar style but is pay, find a free alternative for the holy simoly tranquility kitchen etc. Same with hair - find very similar styles in pay and free. If the two items are indeed the same style might be in the eye of the beholder(?) every now and then, but at least we can try to find items as similat to each other as possible, only this way the goal (to tell people that there are free alternatives) can be met.

The problem I had with some of the pics shown here in addition to the things said by Tchan is that sometimes very old things from the beginning of meshing (and for example hairtexturing) have been compared to pretty new stuff, and although the style might be similar nobody might bother getting a sub just because of that one very old set, and why do you think did Rose make her first 15 paysets into "gifts"? Because nobody would spend money for them anymore.
Also comparing some object set to a set by Buntah, a hairstyle to a set by Chaz cannot be effective because we all know for sure that there are better things out there.

And to have something to compare:


Hairstyle by Peggy

vs


Hairstyle by Flora (Yes, XM is still a pseudo-paysite, but I still adore their hair, and they are still saying they want to release their sets for free, and don't forget that Helga had a payset, too, and is now loved by everyone...)

One is pretty new, one was made a year ago, but they are that similar to each other that time doesn't matter.

Thank you, Malle, for translating it for everyone to read. I couldn't have written it any better.

Seems like Sasi is making the right decision - once in a lot of years.

Hm, I was just thinking about registering at the simforum, just to clear something up without using words like legal, illegal or any not allowed linking...
But it is really interesting that they still claim that the Eula has changed...

Malle, linky please? I'd like to have a look at it myself, but I despise searching that forum for it, there's so much crap going on there...

Just so can everyone interested can read about it again: Ren and her skins: http://phorum.mustnotbenamed.com/index.php/topic,1130.msg45935.html#msg45935

Her site is on the "liberated" list, and according Hecubus isn't a paysite anymore.

That's true, quite some of their most recent hairs have more than 10,000 polys:
f81-13,326
f77-14,820
f76 (free)-11,124
m35-11,780

To me it in the end doesn't really matter if it's 11,000 or 20,000, too much is too much.

Yep, that's for sure: The Raonsims hair has  9892 polys!!!

VS

I've just read it... wow, just wow... Now those who participated cannot deny it anymore.
Thank you, Calalily, for posting the link!

Sorry, you thought wrong. They switched from subscription to "donation per set". As if this was less time consuming than subscriptions...
Also this is old news, this was the message which started all this...

Just on a sidenote here: My brother in law and some of his friends as well as my boyfriend are computer scientists and have been involved in computer games for years, maybe even in modding one game or the other.

Now my boyfriend knows about the Sims CC issue since I registered at SFV first which was nearly 3 years ago.

On my sister's wedding last year some of my boyfriend's and brother in law's collegues were invited as well. Now there was one computer scientist there whom I already knew since I was a child. I asked for some advise concerning an own Sims-CC-site, and the first thing I was asked was how much I'd charge!! Some others surrounding us were interested as well, so I had a nice audience while explaining why it's wrong to charge for Sims CC. You should have seen their faces when I explained them how big the Sims community is (they'd never have imagined that many community members) or when I told them how much some sites charge per set or month (they could multiplicate that themselves to find out how much money people like Marcella or Peggy make)...

I still don't think that some of them understood by now what it's all about or how wrong it is, even if it's just "normal" for other games not to charge.

If you want the rosehair with the fake-braids removed look at renegadesims.com. Of course this isn't technically a free hair, still an edited pay hair, but renegade inproved it a lot with reducing polycount since it's a mesh edit, not just an alpha edit...
If there's a similar free hair I'm sure it will be posted here...

And to make this post a useful one:

Updos with curls at the back
Peggy:

VS
Helga: