I always appreciate creators who put the polycount in the item description.  That way as I am placing it (or them in the case of multiple things like dining chairs or outdoor plants.) I can decide whether my lot is "poly heavy" and limit how many I use.  I have a lot of CC and I forget even if the creator posted it when I downloaded it.  I will even skip over a higher poly item if the poly count isnt in the description with the item because I know I will forget.  My computer is much better now than it used to be but I still prefer to have my game run as good as it can, however I dont mind using higher poly stuff as long as I know what the count is (and the item is pretty enough to justify it.)

So, our own Saraswati has posted a recolor of the flamenco dress from Freetime already!  Yeah.  I wish she would come over here and let us know just what is borked now.  I have heard that all custom bookcases and T.V.'s will need to be updated to include new menu options (like fridges in seasons).  Also Pes will be busy trying to get townies and others to stop ringing the doorbell at 3 am waking up the entire house.

Thanks.  That is exactly what I mean.    I love that now, with her recolors I can use any table with any chair or any door set eith any window and not be bugged by the lack of matching woods.  ALso her fabrics and things make it easy to match things and make them sets when clearly Maxis thinks nothing should really match.

Paden- I feel the same way and have recently gone to only my favs of cc (blakes sofas and such as well) but I have gone around the community and gotten quite a few "completer sets" from various places that take the maxis thrift store finds and turn them into actually sets.  Also, I have almost a complete set of the recolors from Piggys (www.piggis-sims.net) so that all of the woods are consistent and everything is more mix-n-match friendly.  My game is quicker and loads in minutes and so far i havent really caved in to hew stuff. 
 


ETA thanks to samantha for the correct link.

I love www.piggis-sims.net/ for recolors especially since so many people download specifically to get matching sets.  She does both maxis and other mesh recolors but seems to stick to the most popular meshes out there and uses the same set of textures to do all the recolors so everything matches easily.  Free of course!

I still cant think of any translator (no matter how bad it is) that would have confused "put together" with "fixed" so I still tend to believe that a bad online translator is still better than the scam she is running that she is blaming on bad english.  I would rather have to deal with a bad translation than be fooled by a bad excuse.  (not that I would pay for anything she made)

The truly frustrating part is that it probably wouldnt take lawsuits at all.  Really we just need EA to make a statement that paysites are wrong and threaten to take action then the sites that continue to charge for content (which will not be many I am sure since many have said that if EA ever said you cant charge then they would stop and the threat of law action would encourage small sites for sure) could be dealt with much more easily.  

If they would just get a backbone and say "No More!"  we could all just get back to sharing nicely like we did in the very early days of sims 1.

(btw- hi netseeker!  I have been at TSR since the beginning of Sims 1 and have loved the things of yours that I have downloaded.  I am sorry to hear that you too have become a victim of thier crap but I am glad you are free of them now.)

Hecubus,  your ability to always find the perfect Macro for any post always amazes me.  :lol: (especially since I have no ability or knowledge to even attempt to attach an avatar much less understand how to insert a macro) :lol:

I think this is admirable.  I think I saw that you posted this once before on another forum.  Maybe you could PM Hecubus about adding a link to "Money Better Spent".

I dont have a site but I will say Thank You for those who need help like this.

But they arent the charitable organization.  They are simply collecting for the charitable organization.  They need to disclose the amount they are donating ( percentage of total donations) and allow people to decide if that percentage is something they are willing to accept and then they need to show proof that that is the amount they have actually donated.

If they only want to give 10% of what they are collecting they can do that but they should have to tell you that is the amount of your money that is actually going to the charity.  Other companies and organizations will tell you that this percentage of your purchase or donation will be given to the charity so you know whether you still want to have that item or give that donation.  If it were something you were going to buy anyway then it can feel like a bonus to have a portion of the price go to a charity (even a small part.  I mean if a restaurant wants to give a portion of my dinner price to feed the needy I am all for it.) but if you are only buying it because of the charitable donation I would expect a larger percentage to be donated as would many people, I would think.

I defined sex to my children as any part of your genitalia touching any part of someones elses body or any part of their genetalia touching any part of yours.  I explained that any combination of these could result in transfer of an STD so whether it is genetalia to genetalia or not it is still sex.  I defined intercourse as what it is and said it a part sex but not only part.

I remember that story on dateline and I also remember using  it as one of those "teachable moments".  I remember a story also about teens who were having oral sex because they were trying to listen to their parents and not have sex so this was an alternative because no one had defined it as sex to them.  I think we sometimes stop short of giving kids all of the information they need because it gets uncomfortable for us (having to explain the concept of oral sex to my teenage daughters would fall into this category for sure-but I did it.)  or we take for granted that they know things that to us seem obvious but are definitely not things you are born knowing.

I did the same thing about religion also.  I told them these are my beliefs and these are my reasons.  I tell them whatever they want to know and find out the answers to the questions I dont know.  They have been to different churches and have explored different religions and I think have a healthy respect for peoples different beliefs.

As for sex, You wouldnt believe how many parents simply tell thier kids "dont have sex" without telling them what it is.  How can they make a decision about something that imortant without any information about what it is or why the shouldnt or reasons for these decisions?  

"Okay, I wont have sex.  Ohhh, I didnt know that is what you meant.  I thought sex was something else or maybe I could have listened to you." :?

I was also there this weekend and my antivirus also screamed at me about a trojan.  I actually still go there often because I help out some in the tech forums (though much less now than I used to).  I have never had anything like this happen before until about 3 weeks ago when I also had a warning but I had my computer stacked on frames and I didnt know which site I was viewing that had prompted the warning.

I am glad you mentioned this because I was about to accuse my daughter of going somewhere wierd with my computer since she was on just before me looking for my space layouts.  I really didnt think the problem really came from TSR but now I know better.

I have four kids.  Two daughters, 17 and 15, as well as two sons, 15 and 9.  Our "talks" have been ongoing and constant.  Anytime they have wnated to know something we have been honest and answered then (with an age appropriate anwer that allowed them to understand our family values.

The advice I can give is dont wait to have "The talk".  First, there isnt ONE talk to have, there are many.  Find teachable moments,  I remember when my youngest daughter was about 8 and we were watching 7th Heaven on TV and the episode was about someone finding a condom in a wallet.  My oldest son said "what is a condom" and my daughter proceeded to tell him "You know, its where my dad lives".  (at the time my Ex lived in a Condo).  We all had a good laugh and then a great conversation about what a condom really was.  

As they have gotten older our conversations have remained age appropriate and they now know about every STD I can tell them about.  I have shown them pictures of what these STD's look like (nothing like showing your teen pictures of herpes sores or a brain ravaged by syphilis to make them think twice about unprotected sex.)  At this point none of my teens have decided that it is worth the chance and all are still virgins.  (whew).  They have told me it just isnt worth it for now.  

The best part about it is that it has opened a great line of communication between us and since they can see that I can talk freely about this then they seem to trust me to talk freely about other things in thier lives.  My 9 year old thinks it is totally normal to talk to your parents about everything and be able to ask any question you want without your parents freaking out and getting all wierd and when his friends are surprised he doesnt get why thier parents arent the same.  (he tells me he is glad we arent like that.)