PMBD

What can people do to avoid having their accounts hacked?  Besides have secure passwords, I mean.  Anything?

Why is she listed as banned?

I am presently receiving reports that the hacker who hacked Buggybooz was none other than Thomas himself, it seems. BEWARE! And NEVAR FORGET!

If there is proof of this, can't Delphy or HP (Hi HP!) press charges? 

Public ridicule in the community seems the way to go here.

With regards to keyloggers, etc, from talking to buggy, that wasn't the issue.  Suffice to say that having the same password on both sites was the reason - which indicates that TSRs passwords are either stored unencrypted *or* the admins have a way of viewing user passwords, which is a HUGE breach of security.

With regards to keyloggers, etc, from talking to buggy, that wasn't the issue.  Suffice to say that having the same password on both sites was the reason - which indicates that TSRs passwords are either stored unencrypted *or* the admins have a way of viewing user passwords, which is a HUGE breach of security.

Could we point people to this thead as a way of getting the word out, or is that a big no-no?  I really could care less about TSR, but the tactics they continue to use just astounds me!  Exposing information, stealing, hacking OTHER sites!?!  WTF?  

I believe public humiliation is a good idea, if any humility exists in Thomass.

As for the hacking, I agree with Palo, that we need proof. Cause right now Thomass could release a statement and it would become he said/she said.

See Sims Community, um... shortly.  Proof is coming soon. They could still potentially go, "It's all lies, they just Photoshopped the whole thing!1111one" since it's all screenshots, but they've got motive, means, and opportunity, and we have pretty freakin' conclusive proof.

This is just nuts.  What we have happening here is Buggybooz makes nice stuff.  T$R wanker copies said pretty stuff.  Buggybooz gets upset, tries take action against The $hit Resource.  The $hit Resource gets petty and vindictive (which is nothing new) and viciously hacks Buggybooz.  At present we have no evidence on hand to rub in the face of The Shit Resource, meaning Thomarse and Co. could come back with a whole "who  innocent sweet, little me . . . aw paw wickle Buggybooz type attitude."

*Edit.  But the good news is we can now at least shove the finger up at them.  Congratulations TSR you have earned yet another shiney nail for your rotten coffin.

See Sims Community, um... shortly.  Proof is coming soon. They could still potentially go, "It's all lies, they just Photoshopped the whole thing!1111one" since it's all screenshots, but they've got motive, means, and opportunity, and we have pretty freakin' conclusive proof.

I am rather curious as to how TSR will handle this one indeed.

Well, either they'll lie unconvincingly, or else they'll lie even more unconvincingly.
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Ohh Cala! Nice to see you.  ;D Since coconut has those pictures, hopefully they will be up on her blog sometime soon. Just to beat TSR to the punch. Then they can't discredit anyone.


This much I figured, but I'm wondering how they will do it, just to plan ahead for how hard I'm going to laugh.

I can confirm from coconut that Shakeshaft stole it, and that TSR have no intention of removing it, in fact they based a full chat on how they can discredit any 'accusers'.

Shakeshaft is a disgusting pig, uh?

Paleo, I see you posted on the BBS. You might wanna SS it just in case Steve still has his SM powers and should decide to login and--OOPS!--accidentally delete it. ::)

I used my snagit, hehe, so got it! If they delete it, I'll be happy to re-post it.

Coconut should be careful about posting anything. MTS2 has provided more than enough evidence, and this may just be another sceme to flush out Coconut.

Coconut should be careful about posting anything. MTS2 has provided more than enough evidence, and this may just be another sceme to flush out Coconut.

For what I have read on the BBS, people are really disgusted over this. I have not seen any support for TSR what so ever. I think Thomass has sunk his ship this time. Well, maybe not totally, but it would be nice if it did.

I personally think the green and the purple slivers need to be smaller, and a 'changing hues on maxis meshes' should be added in

Someone wanna gimme a quick summary of the Coconut thing?  I don't keep up on the drama like I used to.  From what I can get the gist of, Coconut is an... unknown TSR insider posting shit about them and somehow flying under their radar?  Was the DOT tutorial thing on spotting faked screenshots to try to discredit Coconut's stuff?  Yeah, I know, search moar, whatever - someone wanna type a couple sentences to help a lazy bitch out?

But the Maxoids aren't really EA employees, they're TSR employees.

There weren't even any site rules broken. This is ridiculous. They are definately being paid by TSR.

*Passes Darqstar a cookie* The ban sting will go away soon! LMAO..wow the nerve they have. You posted nothing but a well stated opinion that never broke any of their posted rules. I guess they should let the community see their supa sekret tsr handbook rules...

Here's Drea's newest sticky: "It would seem some of our community members don't have anything better to do today other than post off topic threads and hijack old discussions that happened earlier in the month. We've spent the whole morning trying to keep the boards clean.

Please do not post Off Topic threads or hijack existing threads. Continuing to do this will result in a temp ban.

But if the maxoids hadn't deleted the threads I'm sure the TSR cheerleader of the BBS AussieKoala (god I don't know someone else on that forum I've wanted to strangle more) would have derailed them.

Neriana, are you serious about Maxoids being TSR employees and not EA employees?  If that's true, the relationship EA denies having with TSR must go back a long way.  Very discouraging, really.  I'm more and more convinced, especially in the last couple days, that there's not a damned thing we can do to change EA's business practices with our petty little complaints.  They've got a way of being in place, and they're way beyond seeing reason.  I've recently begun to think they don't give a shit for long-term business because they see the ship sinking anyway, and perhaps Riccitiello is counting on one last bit of pocket lining with the Sims 3 base game before the whole thing goes under. 

I reposted a link in the fansite section. I know it's a dead subsection but hey, let them try and tell me I'm offtopic there

And if I'm right, than one of the offended parties happens to be a former simmaster?

I thought most people would've waken up to TSR and the EAxis of Evil working together when half the creator camp people were TSR FA's. Can't even link to Coconuts journal on BBS anymore

Sorry to go back some pages, but you still can link to the blog. Use http://www.tsrcoconut.info/ instead of the original link. It's just a second url which forwards to the main one, but at least you can't get banned for posting that link ;)

From reading Manga_Moons's posts in the Featured Artist forums (copied and pasted straight from Thomas, as they have the exact same writing style as Nohead in the old paysite debates on s2c), they already have an excuse/explanation prepared. They will simply say the following, in short:

Delphy and Buggybooz used the event of Shakeshaft stealing Buggybooz's textures to prepare for this giant scam. BuggyBooz has deleted her own creations with the aid of MTS2 admins to slander TSR's Thomas's name. All evidence is doctored by Delphy and cannot be trusted. It is not real evidence.

Also you can probably guess that Manga_moon is aiming to be the next new FA.

To Manga_Moon: doesn't it feel nice that you can decide to delete your content from a site you don't want it at? BuggyBooz didn't have that option with the stolen stuff on TSR, dear. Neither does any other artist. These are the people you choose to believe over Delphy and Buggybooz. Good luck.

We can't see your post, Scurvy - some of us are banned - and my second post was titled to hide its intent - but failed - I guess sarcasm wasn't lost on them.

but I do own these funny things called 'fingers' which I often use for activities such as typing.

Hypocrite much? This whole website is illegal...

@Nouk - If Shakeshaft had stolen from buggybooz, the 'people' who I choose to believe will not have had anything to do with that.

@Whoever wants to read, I flounced because I know where I'm not wanted, and it seems illogical to have my stuff there, too, if I'm not going to be there. What's happening to my stuff? It's going onto TSR, of course! Because as the words came out of the whores horses mouth, 'TSR Is where my home and dimes are, I want the monies'. My MTS2 content will be staying free on TSR. As for 'throwing my toys out of the pram' again, you don't move house and leave furniture do you.
As for my future in the community, if any of you care, quite frankly it's none of your business. Don't need to explain anything for anyone.

Hypocrite much? This whole website is illegal...

@SnarkyShark - Fuck me? Fuck you, carry on following like the rest of the sheep. And you have absolutely no right to judge me just because I decide to upload my 'unwanted' stuff at TSR.

LOL @ Paden... may I remind you that without the 'fucktards' this website wouldn't even exist. You think you look cool saying things like that? Seriously, people like you are the scum of this community, in fact, this whole website is. You can throw judgements around all you like, LOL, small-minded imps with curse words as their vocabulary don't particularly bother me.

You can all live your lives bogged down about paysites, something that'll never be resolved, or you can fucking get on with it and do what you want to do like I am. You're all incredibly nieve to think that I actually care what you think? Yep, you guys have fun spending the rest of your lives here getting ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE, and good riddence to you all when you finally get some common sense and give up this sharade.

Make ya kind of wonder what else the Manga does for the money. Wait, did I say wonder or did I mean it makes ya gag at what they do for the money... Oh well, it's pretty much the same: Manga SUCKS!

LOL @ Paden... may I remind you that without the 'fucktards' this website wouldn't even exist. You think you look cool saying things like that? Seriously, people like you are the scum of this community, in fact, this whole website is. You can throw judgements around all you like, LOL, small-minded imps with curse words as their vocabulary don't particularly bother me.

You can all live your lives bogged down about paysites, something that'll never be resolved, or you can fucking get on with it and do what you want to do like I am. You're all incredibly nieve to think that I actually care what you think? Yep, you guys have fun spending the rest of your lives here getting ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE, and good riddence to you all when you finally get some common sense and give up this sharade.

may I remind you that without the 'fucktards' this website wouldn't even exist.

@Whoever wants to read, I flounced because I know where I'm not wanted, and it seems illogical to have my stuff there, too, if I'm not going to be there. What's happening to my stuff? It's going onto TSR, of course! Because as the words came out of the whores horses mouth, 'TSR Is where my home and dimes are, I want the monies'. My MTS2 content will be staying free on TSR. As for 'throwing my toys out of the pram' again, you don't move house and leave furniture do you.
As for my future in the community, if any of you care, quite frankly it's none of your business. Don't need to explain anything for anyone.

@Nouk - If Shakeshaft had stolen from buggybooz, the 'people' who I choose to believe will not have had anything to do with that. And you can say that I coyp and paste from Thomas all you like, but I do own these funny things called 'fingers' which I often use for activities such as typing.

@SnarkyShark - Fuck me? Fuck you, carry on following like the rest of the sheep. And you have absolutely no right to judge me just because I decide to upload my 'unwanted' stuff at TSR.

You're all incredibly nieve to think that I actually care what you think?

*YAWWWWWNNN* Oh. It's still posting. I thought it didn't care.

You can all live your lives bogged down about paysites, something that'll never be resolved, or you can fucking get on with it and do what you want to do like I am. You're all incredibly nieve to think that I actually care what you think? Yep, you guys have fun spending the rest of your lives here getting ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE, and good riddence to you all when you finally get some common sense and give up this sharade.

Serious. A boring sims content creator that trolls in it's spare time. DOT must be rubbing off on it already.

You're all incredibly nieve to think that I actually care what you think?

We'll I guess you've all been told. Who was that Manga person anyway. Do we know them?

Just a mammal of low merit. (I'm totally yoinking that insult from Paleoanth for future use.) I'd never heard of them before.

Hi All,

I've spoken with TSR regarding this matter, and they informed me that they had a security breach about 3 months ago that may have left subscriber accounts vulnerable. If this information is indeed correct, it's possible that a third party could have logged into both buggybooz and Thomas accounts.

It's also entirely possible that other accounts have been compromised, which is why it's strongly advised to change your passwords anywhere where they are the same as at TSR. While the initial evidence indeed pointed to a TSR-owned account on MTS2 being used to initiate this attack, no actual hacking was done on MTS2 itself. The information supplied by TSR is worth thinking about, and indeed, I will be the first to admit that - at the time - I was annoyed about the whole thing and thought that this was a new low.

When this attack happened, my first concern was for how it happened, and then for restoring any damage done to buggys account. I worked with her for hours today in chat, as I mentioned in my first post, and we went through and restored everything. It was only after this was done that I decided to post up up this thread.

At the time, we believed that, given the evidence at hand, this was either a (very stupid) TSR sanctioned move, or one by a TSR staff member with access to the accounts. Given the lack of evidence to point elsewhere, I felt that, as this was a seemingly direct attack on a creator on *my* website, to get as much information out publically as possible. It is, however, with this new information about a possible security exploit, not 100% clear that, indeed, this was TSRs doing. Obviously neither I nor anybody else here knew about the alleged vulnerability, and the information to hand strongly pointed to a direct link.

I am willing to consider the possibily that this was not TSR sanctioned, but this raises other questions, particularly about the timing of the attacks and access to information that I simply don't have answers for right now. The evidence itself, however, remains unchanged. The IP addresses and screenshots are only edited to blur out any other users details and contain the real information as gotten from the MTS2 backend - and the validity of which is not disputed in any way by TSR. Regardless of the evidence at hand, there any many more questions that need addressing, and precious few answers right now.

The issue of the stolen content is still one that I, personally, would like to get cleared up and from comparing the downloads, there is some issue about the source textures, UV mapping and mesh for the Featured Artist to answer. I hope that TSR investigate this as an urgent matter.

For now, though, lets assume that this may not have been, indeed, a TSR sanctioned move - and I think we all agree that this would be a particularly stupid thing to do. I have to wonder as to the motivations and reasoning behind this apparent attack. What would somebody have to gain by deleting only a specific creators uploads, especially since any and all details would eventually come out publically? This entire thing has left a bad taste in my mouth, and while I don't like the idea of paysites, I also don't like the possibility of my being used and looking stupid.

Regards,
Delphy

Another question: Howcome this third party has used the same ip as Thomas has regularly used for Thomas's account on MTS2? Even if you breached it, that should not be possible.

Yeah, right.  I'm TOTALLY convinced these "hackers" (if they exist) held on to this information for 3 months, and only chose to use it now.  And I believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and the goodness of EA, too.

EDIT TO ADD: Oh, and way to go TSR.  If you did have this alleged security breach, why didn't you advise your members at the time so that they could take protective steps if they were foolish enough to use the same password elsewhere?

LOL @ Paden... may I remind you that without the 'fucktards' this website wouldn't even exist. You think you look cool saying things like that? Seriously, people like you are the scum of this community, in fact, this whole website is.

Heh...that's sort of the point, isn't it?  We wouldn't NEED to exist without paysites, and the community would be a happier place.

I'm pretty sure that it was before my surgery, which was beginning of february.

Bingo. If there 'were' a security breach they should have notified all parties involved about possible info theft. It would have been slightly more logical (not saying they have any...) to say it happened the last time they tried to say someone hacked into TSR. (windkeeper bs etc...) That was what only a month and something ago.... ::)

You're all incredibly nieve to think that I actually care what you think?

Paden, who is this "Anutty"? 

And the timings are way off.  Why choose *now* to do this attack if you've had the logins for *months*? It doesn't make any sense.  The timings are way off, and are very suspicious.
 

Delphy, could you check for yourself (if you don't want to share) from what countries besides Sweden this account was accesed before the deleting, and when? if this account was shared and/or accessed from different countries before, the "It wasn't me"- excuse doesnt fly that easily.

You're right about the weird timing.
The lack of reaction towards BuggyBooz's accusations aside from the deleting of all her stuff is very suspicious.
Also, Coconut has told us that they were aware of the theft, but it was decided to take entirely different action.

Last but not least, unconfirmed, but isn't this the same IP address implicated in the SimSecret hackings? Someone doublecheck 70.85.179.186.

Of course, this means there is no actual way into the server that isn't secure. Therefore, there is no way a "hacker" could be randomly using this service. No true hacker would ever pay for a "secure" proxy service knowing it would leave a paper trail back to him, and so many free "open" proxies exist on the Internet. This sort of service is only paradoxically used by those who don't understand privacy at all AND have money to throw around. Who do we know that fits that profile?

If we're talking about a resident TSR fanatic going that extra mile to try and undermine coconut, my guess would be either padre or DOT. Neither seems particularly tech savvy and both have demonstrated an unusual desire to "get" us. Remember padre's failed attempt to perform an attack on the booty? How about DOT's totally senseless tutorials?

What's the name of the company that owns TSR?

If we're talking about a resident TSR fanatic going that extra mile to try and undermine coconut, my guess would be either padre or DOT. Neither seems particularly tech savvy and both have demonstrated an unusual desire to "get" us. Remember padre's failed attempt to perform an attack on the booty? How about DOT's totally senseless tutorials?

And who is the logical person to blame?  Coconut.  Because Coconut has the motive.  And, from the screen shots, it's known that Coconut has access to TSR, higher access than other people. 

Same service. The configuration is identical and everything. Probably another exit node for their network. We can thus consider the SimSecret hacker and the Buggybooz hacker to be the same, entry vector, also the same. It's confirmed to be TSR, and refutes Thomas's "3 months" claim because the SimSecret break is nearly 5 months old!

Hmmm... Nouk, are you saying that maybe TSR did all this in order to blame Coconut? 

If so, that's pretty freakin' clever of them. And risky as hell too.  They hack Simsecrets, then use Buggy's complaint as an excuse to hack her site.  They leave a lot of calling cards to draw attention to the fact that it's TSR, and everyone goes, "Those bastards!" But some of us wonder, how stupid do you have to be?

So, TSR comes forward and says, "We wuz haxed!" 

And who is the logical person to blame?  Coconut.  Because Coconut has the motive.  And, from the screen shots, it's known that Coconut has access to TSR, higher access than other people. 

EDIT to add:  Also, I think all of us would agree that Coconut is pretty intelligent.  He/She has to be clever to get away with everything they have.  So, I think even Coconut would know not to leave too much evidence that it was Thomas, if Coconut was doing all this damage.  But, if you were Thomas, and wanted to make sure that TSR would get the blame until they could claim they were hacked, he'd make sure the evidence was as crystal clear as possible, so there would be no doubt that the hacker wants to frame TSR. 

But Coconut doesn't have the motive.  Coconut is doing just fine with bringing down TSR's reputation already by reporting on stuff that TSR already do.

Why would Coconut need to contrive something like this, when TSR are already handing out plenty of rope to hang them with?

Same service. The configuration is identical and everything. Probably another exit node for their network. We can thus consider the SimSecret hacker and the Buggybooz hacker to be the same, entry vector, also the same. It's confirmed to be TSR, and refutes Thomas's "3 months" claim because the SimSecret break is nearly 5 months old!

If anyone should want more evidence, here (http://"http://pics.livejournal.com/sinthe/pic/0000pga6") is the screen I took of my LJ's logins after it was hacked. The entries with blue dots next to them are not me.

Sinthe, the link isn't working.  http://pics.livejournal.com/sinthe/pic/0000pga6 (http://pics.livejournal.com/sinthe/pic/0000pga6) <-- This one does though  ;D

I showed Delphy's post about what happened to my husband (who does not play Sims at all) and he agreed that what they did was low. I still say it is TSR and they are blowing smoke to obscure the facts.

Why choose *now* to do this attack if you've had the logins for *months*? It doesn't make any sense.  The timings are way off, and are very suspicious.

BTW. has anyone else noticed that TSR just hung Manga Moron out to dry?  Since they are now claiming that MTS2 was hacked by someone who hacked them, they are, therefore, not going to go with the "they did it to themselves" excuse.

BTW. has anyone else noticed that TSR just hung Manga Moron out to dry?  Since they are now claiming that MTS2 was hacked by someone who hacked them, they are, therefore, not going to go with the "they did it to themselves" excuse.

I'm to assume that "rapidswitch" is a proxy of some sort? Sorry for the somewhat OT, but I'm just attempting to wrap my meager brain around the ins and outs of IP jargon.

@Whoever wants to read, I flounced because I know where I'm not wanted, and it seems illogical to have my stuff there, too, if I'm not going to be there. What's happening to my stuff? It's going onto TSR, of course! Because as the words came out of the whores horses mouth, 'TSR Is where my home and dimes are, I want the monies'. My MTS2 content will be staying free on TSR. As for 'throwing my toys out of the pram' again, you don't move house and leave furniture do you.
As for my future in the community, if any of you care, quite frankly it's none of your business. Don't need to explain anything for anyone.

LOL @ Paden... may I remind you that without the 'fucktards' this website wouldn't even exist. You think you look cool saying things like that? Seriously, people like you are the scum of this community, in fact, this whole website is. You can throw judgements around all you like, LOL, small-minded imps with curse words as their vocabulary don't particularly bother me.

You can all live your lives bogged down about paysites, something that'll never be resolved, or you can fucking get on with it and do what you want to do like I am. You're all incredibly nieve to think that I actually care what you think? Yep, you guys have fun spending the rest of your lives here getting ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE, and good riddence to you all when you finally get some common sense and give up this sharade.

Hey, now, it's been quite some time since I blew up on a troll that bad, I've behaved myself rather well. Gee, nothing like knowing that people only see me as a repository for cussing terms... I wanted to use simple words on the fool because I figured it would be too brain-taxing for them to dig out a dictionary to look up words like "pusilaminous" or "chicanery" or even "thieving liar"... Hmph!

Now just a reminder to all our friendly new pirates:
Don't throw away your current TSR subs! Let's put them to good use! Yes ladies and gents, donate to the booty! Get in touch with any of the booty and staff and find out how you can help out today! Still got 5 days left on your sub and don't give a fuck if your banned? Get some bleach and go on a TSR downloading spree! Coordinate with our booty staff to make sure every last penny you paid to TSR, goes towards making them cry like little bitches!

Posting the links would help get the simmers who have not heard of paysite debate/PMBD over here, but we really don't want an influx of 12's. It would probably be safer to direct them Garden of Shadows since they just as acidic to TSR as we are, but can be concealed better. My whole point with what you quoted though, is that if your currently paying to download from TSR, instead of doing something dumb and getting banned, help out with the cause. Booty isn't free ya know.  ;)

Anyway, my point was (as I'm sure has been stated to death on other forums about this) WHY are TSR determined to be such tools?

Subs are dropping, and they think they're being clever. Plus, they have to put paid to this stuff before Sims 3 or they might lose more money.

Hey, now, it's been quite some time since I blew up on a troll that bad, I've behaved myself rather well.

After that garbage that Prism went through a few months back, Trey has my sympathy with the Sporum. No matter how big or small, no site deserves to be hacked..

I have seen just as many dumbfuck men as I have women. This behavior is not isolated to females of various ages.  ::) Men can be just a petty and stupid as women, it doesn't have anything to do with reproductive organs; its lack of brain cells.

Well, lookie there. We got the same browser string, and one of these IPs is, surprise surprise, Thomas himself dating back to olden times. We can clearly see our h4x0r wannabe trying, and failing, at using proxycondoms, probably because noob how-tos don't cover how to configure Furryfox, and as a result, BUSTED.

In other words, it sets up a scenario that they had problems with the security of the accounts and that anything prior to 3 months ago could have been compromised.  But for me it still leaves questions about why whoever did this waited till now - months later - to do this attack on MTS2.  Not many people know how much information we log, and didn't before yesterday, so I really don't think that whoever did this really thought it would go public.  I suspect it was more simply a way to make buggybooz look bad and to try and discredit her, rather than any specific attack against MTS2 as a whole.  So then it all goes back to timings - who knew about the stolen content, and who would have the motivation and technical knowledge to pull this off?

Why choose *now* to do this attack if you've had the logins for *months*? It doesn't make any sense.  The timings are way off, and are very suspicious.

I can tell you only that TSR anti-freesite related activity has been picking up in the last couple of months.

Sorry Delphy, but you are being lied to.
- The Proxy Service is definately and specifically linked to TSR Thomas
- He has apparently used the same ip's on unrelated sites, being Thomas
- The same method of getting the info needed to break in has been used, all on an administrator level
Are you telling me that poor Thomas's computer has been hacked, and the hacker is the one that coversated with Atwa and gave her the ip's she needed to return to TSR and do all kinds of other crap? Because you realize that that story of Thomas buying her ip's  has been confirmed by others besides Coconut? Because, Atwat couldn't keep her mouth or her behaviour in check?

This is TSR trying to pin this on an 'inside hacker', namely Coconut, and you're just being used to slowly get there.

Also, can anyone do a C&P of the BBS thread Shiny posted?  First because it'll be gone soon enough, second because I'm banned from the BBS and can't see it.

Delphy, Thomas is laughing at you. You've been duped. You fell for his lame excuse.

8. We promote honesty on our site both in the forums and in terms of creators using other peoples work and crediting it properly.

Oh, the BBS thread is beautiful. This is becoming a true shitstorm.

You've trusted his excuse too easily. I guess I've just seen people duped so much by TSR and what goes on there that there's no way on earth I could ever believe anything that they say anymore. This comes from a long-time simmer who ONCE had a sub to TSR during Sims 1 days. Wolves in sheep's clothing eventually forget to put on the full costume and expose themselves. ;)

I fail to see how posting the information that TSR told me *and then questioning it* is "trusting" it.  Just becuase I don't instantly go "TSR fail! Death to Thomas!" doesn't mean that I believe everything they say.

I am curious as to who knew the details about the theft of buggy's work before the hacking.  If we are to believe that it was a coincidence or that the hacker seized an opportunity to exploit the Buggy theft then they would have had to know that the complaint was even made.  This all happened pretty fast and most of the details of what happened went on behind the scenes with Delphy and his staff and then the reporting to the TSR staff.  Most of us (the greater community) didn't get the details until after or near the same time as the hacking.  The hacker needed to know that this was happening in order to take advantage of it.  

Guys, let's not outcast Delphy just yet. All he is trying to do is find out all the facts before he jumps to conclusions.

Yes, Delphy is simply asking questions to get details before reaching a solid conclusion

Coconut has proven her integrity by being careful that the information released doesn't harm anyone innocent.

 Also, if the hacker would have had to get the info over 3 months ago (since the vulnerability was supposedly fixed then) they would have had to get every password on TSR and been storing them waiting for a reason to use them or they would have had to coincidentally just get the exact right ones (like Buggy's and the Hamilton one and be lucky enough to have them actually match at MTS2).

they informed me that they had a security breach about 3 months ago that may have left subscriber accounts vulnerable.

I missed the "subscriber" part.  Was Buggy a "subscriber"?

Secondly, the fact that it affected subscriber accounts. Why were only these accounts affected? Why were they so easy to breach? Does that mean all admin staff have access to subscriber account passwords, and other details? Why were subscribers not told that their details may have been yoinked? Again, shows that subscriber info is far from safe with TSR.

Well, lookie there. We got the same browser string, and one of these IPs is, surprise surprise, Thomas himself dating back to olden times. We can clearly see our h4x0r wannabe trying, and failing, at using proxycondoms, probably because noob how-tos don't cover how to configure Furryfox, and as a result, BUSTED.

I am no longer a member, but we have enough spies/people who still have accounts there.  Can anyone verify if TSR has ever asked them to change their password, or put up any type of notice/warning/suggestion to change their password in the last few months?

I seriously doubt there ever was a security breach besides the one in Thomas's head.

I seriously doubt there ever was a security breach besides the one in Thomas's head.

Also, adding to the list of WTF questions, why would a hacker change Buggy's policy?  ;) What would a hacker, who is not connected to TSR or the gaming community, gain from that and why would they even have an interest in changing her policy? Why 'yes to paysites and anything you want' if you were a mere hacker and not aware of the paysite issues and Buggys recent problem with a paysite?

Absolutely, Raebchen.  And in addition I think we should ask Thomas to 'splain this "security breach." Has anyone tried to post in the TSR forum about this? I'm dying to read the non-response.

Absolutely, Raebchen.  And in addition I think we should ask Thomas to 'splain this "security breach." Has anyone tried to post in the TSR forum about this? I'm dying to read the non-response.

You will be supporting their lies, though.

OK, I've just pm'ed an admin to ask all omgwtf about the "breach."  Let's see if I get an answer.

You will be supporting their lies, though.

Or exposing them.  

Them using your complaints about breaches to support their claim it has really happened...

My BBS thread is gone now, but it was up for quite a while. I thought perhaps the mods were turning a blind eye...fat chance.

I don't see how that confirms it.  I think the idea is to say, "Hey, we heard you're claiming a breech in security that happened several months ago.  Why weren't we informed?  Why weren't we told to change our password?

If TSR says, "Noo, there was no breech," then they'll be also admitting they lied to Delphy.

if TSR says, "Well, there was a breech..." then they still have to explain why none of their valued customers and members were given any instructions on how to keep themselves safe.  TSR asks for a lot of personal information, if they were hacked, they have an obligation to warn people so they will know to change passwords and any other sensitive information.

Yes, telling them to change personal information after a hack is rather like locking the barn after the horse escaped, but telling them to change their password to a new one is not and is the only decent thing to do after a breech.  They didn't do that, they have some 'splainin' to do.

As TSR you will look a whole lot better as the victim that tried to hide their shame, than the agressor that hacked several sites. But that may be just me.  :D I'd rather be seen as an irrisponsible loserish fansite that can promise to do better in the future, than a hacker. Don't underestimate puppy dog eyes and pity :P

*snippy snip*

The date on the IP address usage on Thomas' MTS2 account was a few hours *after* the intrusion on buggy's account.  1.So whoever it was logged into buggy's account *first* and then logged into Thomas' after (not the other way around).  This could be for one of two reasons: Either they wanted to check everything out from a "normal" users perspective to make sure everything of buggys was gone, or they wanted to deliberately create a link between the two.

With regards to the security thing, and the timings, I do think that it's *very* suspicious that somebody would keep ahold of user account logins for *months* and not use them and then only use them now and *also*, at the end of it all, change buggys profile to a pro paysite friendly one.  2.This last act is the one that suggests it's more personal, rather than general.

3. Also as an update, according to Steve they investigated the item, confirmed it was the same, and have since removed it in the past couple hours.  Since I don't have a TSR account I obviously can't check. :)

As TSR you will look a whole lot better as the victim that tried to hide their shame, than the agressor that hacked several sites. But that may be just me.  :D I'd rather be seen as an irrisponsible loserish fansite that can promise to do better in the future, than a hacker. Don't underestimate puppy dog eyes and pity :P

As TSR you will look a whole lot better as the victim that tried to hide their shame, than the agressor that hacked several sites. But that may be just me.  :D I'd rather be seen as an irrisponsible loserish fansite that can promise to do better in the future, than a hacker. Don't underestimate puppy dog eyes and pity :P

 anyone who messages the tsr will probably be ignored unless enough people do it.

Don't message TSR. Eesh. That's like calling the thief to ask him to please return what he stole.

Message Paypal. Report TSR to better business sites.

Except that as an irresponsible loser-ish fansite that allows personal information to be shared and then gets "hacked" and more personal information is acquired by someone with malicious intent they become someplace that even more people would need to protect themselves against.  The idea that they may have hacked someones profile is despicable but may not cause a big hit to their pocketbooks but if they once again cant be trusted with personal information then maybe that would be the angle to exploit to get people either to not get subs or to try to cancel current ones.  I mean people can be appalled about the behavior and not act on that but if your passwords and personal information are not safe then that seems like it might spur more action on the part of the "on the fencers" than something that only effects other people.

I agree, but I don't know if the less computer savvy people - and that's a huge chunk of the populace - will be worried enough, especially if TSR apolagizes and promises to do better/ take care of it. They could feed them anything.

Going back a little, I can think of two reasons why a non-TSR hacker might pick Buggyboos stuff to hack.  To "punish" Buggyboos for being "cruel" to Shakeshaft, or because their idea of fun is "Oh, look a hornet's nest!  Let's throw a rock in it."  In the latter case they're probably sittling at their computers howling with laughter and getting their tiny little rocks off.

Going back a little, I can think of two reasons why a non-TSR hacker might pick Buggyboos stuff to hack.  To "punish" Buggyboos for being "cruel" to Shakeshaft,  

or because their idea of fun is "Oh, look a hornet's nest!  Let's throw a rock in it."  In the latter case they're probably sittling at their computers howling with laughter and getting their tiny little rocks off. 

TSR sniffles and says how sowwy they are that they got hacked and hope and pray that people will forgive them their transgression of not informing them of when they were hacked.  Sympathy rolls in, sympathy and a hopeful jump in subscriptions and everything is just fine.    Sure, TSR is still a paysite, but at least they aren't going around HACKING and STEALING things, no, they're cool, they're just off being TSR.  

See, I don't see this happening.  I think only the stupidest of the stupid continue giving personal information to a website that continuously puts that information in harms way.  I think people get mad if someone hacks someone's site but people get scared if thier info is compromised.  I think scared might elicit more of a reaction to make changes than angry.  If I didn't know much about all of this but someone kept showing me proof (or at least planting the seed of doubt) that my information was not safe and then the site itself admits that it knew my information was compromised and didn't tell me so I could protect myself, I would certainly not give them more info or more money. (even if I believed them and felt sorry for them.)

edited because only the quote showed up-- sorry

Unless I've missed something (if so, please give a link!), they've not accused Coconut..yet. They've not given any details to their suspicions of said apparent hacking third party.

They've also not even said that this third party was not connected to TSR in any way or means. Atwa, as a random example, is no longer (publically) TSR staff and so does not represent them, so she would be someone who they could label as a 'third party'.

Have any of those FA's been recorded at Simsecret, Modthesims2 and Naturals sims with the same ip's?
I think it's Atwa, being helped by TSR.

IP's at the time Buggy's stuff was deleted
 buggybooz    70.85.179.186                                                                              
 Hamilton        70.85.179.186
 leftywillnot     70.85.197.178  

All three used exacty the same browser versions, plugins and settings.

IP's Atwa has used on Natural Sims

 same as leftywillnot     70.85.197.178  
                                78.129.197.69

Ip's 'hacker' has used on simsecret
                     78.129.197.69
                     83.142.228.139

Atwa is connected to all three cases. She has no access to TSR's userdatabase. Also she has no reason to keep hold of the logins of BuggyBooz fro months on end.  However, someone with admin access provided her with

1. the proxy server ip, and
2. the passwords used to get into both accounts
3. the knowledge about the theft

Do we think that Atwa would have the capabilities to read and try out some passwords? - sure
Do we think that Atwa has the knowledge to hack into TSR? - Fat chance.

lefwillynot has the same ip Atwa used on Naturalsims. They are from the same service Thomas has bought to hide atwa's ip from staff members on TSR.

Johan:
- What are the chances that any of the people who buy that service, know anything about the sims 2 community?
- What are the chances that any of the people who buy that service, care about what was posted on Simsecret about TSR?
- What are the chances that any of the people who buy that service, would break into TSR?
- What are the chances that any of the people who buy that service, use the ip's that have been linked to Atwa on a different site than MTS2 and LiveJournal?

Thanks for clarifying that Anouk, do we know anything else abut this user? For example where it stands in the paysite debate?
I don't want to get into discussions right now, i am trying to collect as much information as i can about this for our own investigations but to answer your questions:
We see A LOT of trouble makers on TSR using this service!
And you can't link such an IP to a specific user as anyone using the service can get that IP.
I'm not 100% sure that you can select a specific IP but if you can you could even use that to make it look like you are atwa for example if atwa were seen as "connected" to that IP.

I get that, but do all of these random annoying people have admin access? Acces to personal info used to break into accounts on other sites, apparently to support TSR in some way? And is it just a coincidence that Atwa really really really loves tsr? ;)

Atwa is not part of TSR and i have nothing else to say about her other than it don't look like it's her based on our own investigations.

Johan- Can you explain why no one was ever notified that their private information such as passwords may have been compromised and if that is not the case, why Thomas or Steve would tell Delphy that it was?

In all the time that Atwa has been a pain in the ass for TSR, NOW is suddenly the time to tell the community that she's not involved with TSR. Hehehehehe.

It seems Delphy jumped to conclusions or got the wrong idea. I wasn't in the chat with them so i don't know exactly what was said but no, our users login details were not compromised. Some FA accounts were compromised a while ago, if you remember blaming us for hacking ourselves? This is the incident i think they were talking about.

It seems Delphy jumped to conclusions or got the wrong idea. I wasn't in the chat with them so i don't know exactly what was said but no, our users login details were not compromised. Some FA accounts were compromised a while ago, if you remember blaming us for hacking ourselves? This is the incident i think they were talking about.

One thing I can't figure out is if Thomas really was hacked and somebody used his password to use his mts account to do this to Buggybooz, how come he's not screaming bloody murder about it? If somebody used my name and my account like that I'd be reporting that IP myself and working with anybody I could to get to the bottom of it. This service that lets you have any IP you want, don't they have records of who they gave that IP to? It seems to me it's an illegal use of their service to use it to hack a site under someone else's name. If it's a US company there must be laws that will make them turn over those records. If I was Thomas that's what I'd be doing, not blowing off all this just saying "Nope, wasn't me."

It seems Delphy jumped to conclusions or got the wrong idea. I wasn't in the chat with them so i don't know exactly what was said but no, our users login details were not compromised. Some FA accounts were compromised a while ago, if you remember blaming us for hacking ourselves? This is the incident i think they were talking about.

Good points, but Thomas MTS account was not used to do this to Buggybooz, Buggybooz account were used. What should we tell in the report, that we got the blame for something we didn't do because someone was using their service?
I doubt this company would reveal any information if you just ask them but if anyone have a chance to get the information it would be Delphy since he is the one who got "hacked".

SO according to you, Delphy was not told by Steve that there was a vulnerability that was rectified 3 months ago that may have resulted in passwords being compromised?

I hope my posts are coming off in the tone I intend.  I appreciate you staying long enough to answer a few questions and only intend, at this moment, to have a civil conversation with you to understand some of what is going on.

Edited for clarification.

Thanks for being civil!
As i said earlier i was not in the chat but since this didn't happend i highly doubt that he told Delphy so. It is probably a misunderstanding. Some FA accounts were compromised about 3 months ago, i think this is what he means.

Thomas's account was accessed from the same ip right after it happened. If so, and it was not Thomas as you say, then it definately was compromised. I still agree with you and say it wasn't, but for very different reasons. ;)

I suggest you talk to Steve and make sure that TSR representatives tell us all the same story...

Johan, talk to your boss (Steve) then. :)  Becuase he said this: "...for Tom's login, it *is* possible it was obtained from his end... thats a loophole we fixed just after Christmas".

Chatting with Steve I don't think I "got the wrong idea" since we where talking *specifically* about security of accounts and logins, etc.

I would suggest that, before you go around trying to discredit me, you first check your own source.  "No our users login details where not compromised" does not tally with "thats a loophole we fixed after Christmas".

I'm sorry if you got the impression that i was trying to discredit you, that was not my intention.
I don't know exactly what he meant by fixing the loophole but we don't have any reason to believe that our members login details have been compromised.
 

I know Thomas has a brother named Johan, helps run TSR too.  From what I've seen, apparently Steve and Johan are the more intelligent crooks.

There have been so many things that seem to need explanations and the TSR admin dont seem to be very forthcoming with information, not just about this but many other things in the past as well.  It is disheartening to be confronted by so much negative information about your site and only get the response from your side that it is all lies.  I used to frequent your forums (under a different name) and I can say that the censorship of your members and activity of your staff without recourse makes your credibility as a site come into question.

I would like to hear your opinion of these things as well as some of the other things circulating around the net right now such as what exact kind of relationship deos TSR have with EA/Maxis?

I would like to give answers, that first post i made was actually serious, exactly what are we accused of doing?
PayPal info sharing, DDos attacks, closing other fansites?
It's getting late so i will not be around to answer it now.

I don't know exactly what he meant by fixing the loophole but we don't have any reason to believe that our members login details have been compromised.

Why do all of your responses seem to start with "I don't know"?

I've pretty much been staying out of this thread because I'm not one of the "insiders," so to speak. I just don't have all the information on everything, so I'm not sure how relevant any of my comments are. You seem to be in the same boat, Johan, so I'm not sure what it is you're trying to do here.

Why do all of your responses seem to start with "I don't know"?

It's quite possible that in the end of all this, Thomas will be 'thrown to the wolves' and retire to his second home, while TSR continues undamaged, rid of the 'blight' ready for Sims 3.

tsr.mustbedestroyed.org

Knock yourself out. We're talking about something else.

It's quite possible that in the end of all this, Thomas will be 'thrown to the wolves' and retire to his second home, while TSR continues undamaged, rid of the 'blight' ready for Sims 3. If you can do it for Atwa, you can do it for Thomas! ;)

I thought we were pirates?

Thomas can walk the plank  ;)

Because based on all the information I have, it seems like Johan really is as clueless as he claims to be. Based on his position within the organization, they probably don't let him out of his cage much.

Damn straight we are pirates. But you can't tell me the admins didn't know/agree with Thomas while he did these things. Getting rid of the 'bad guy', the 'scape goat', will put TSR in the clear. Thomas gets to retire with a bag of money and TSR will continue without any justice.

I would be interested in finding out what your information on me might be?
Did you looks at the IP's and that user agent by the way? I thought it looked very interesting and I'm sure it's in all our interest to bring forward any additional information that can help us get us to the bottom of this.

If i'm not sure about something then i don't pretend to be, hence the "i don't know"'s
You can call it clueless if you want, i think i'm just being honest.

I would be interested in finding out what your information on me might be?
Did you looks at the IP's and that user agent by the way? I thought it looked very interesting and I'm sure it's in all our interest to bring forward any additional information that can help us get us to the bottom of this.

If i'm not sure about something then i don't pretend to be, hence the "i don't know"'s
You can call it clueless if you want, i think i'm just being honest.

Oh FFS enough already.

Johan what exactly is your position at TSR. Why are involving yourself in this? Why do you care? It's all getting incredibly tedious so put up or shut up.

I've been trying to read up there but it's very hard to tell what parts are speculation and what are supposed to be facts.
Are you saying that everything posted there are serious accusations?

If you whois TSR, there's a "Johan" listed as being the "Contact" (Registrant, Billing, Admin, Technical).  I'm guessing that this might be the same one...especially as details match some stuff known about Thomas.

And its I'm Fixing a Hole.  Recorded in 1967, written by Paul McCarthney....can't remember which album though I can find out by searching my albums.

I don't get why you're over here Johan, I really don't.  At least you're honest about who you are, but I find it either disgusting or very amusing that TSR has sent someone to wade into enemy territory to search for facts, especially considering that facts don't mean a whole lot to TSR. 

Oh, is that any good?

Anyone see this? Someone on the BBS started a thread urging everyone to change their passwords on all sims sites, but was quite careful not to spell out why to avoid the instant delete. The thread went on for awhile, until MaxoidDrea locked it, saying this:

"Thread is now locked. I think everyone is sufficiently warned now.

Although we've never had any issues with our account database being hacked on this site, we appreciate the reminder that frequently changing passwords is important for internet security.

However, I want to remind everyone that if you've had problems with your personal accounts on other internet sites, it's important to take it up with those site administrators, not start a panic here."

Yes, it's important that you trust everything the other site administrators tell you and under no circumstances should you warn others to prevent the same thing from happening to them.
 

This.  I don't get it either.  Why would you go to a site that is against everything you stand for in order to get them to help you?

"I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in, and stops my mind from wandering..." First one to identify that song quote gets the first cream pie to throw at the idiots expecting us to believe they didn't do anything. ;D Sorry bout the off-topic, just thought it would be fun to riff for a moment...

I would like to think Johan means well, that he might actually be convinced by evidence.  I'm waiting to see what he does, but I'm not hopeful.  Would Thomas risk letting Johan come here if Johan were even the least bit likely to rectify or expose the wrongdoing at TSR?  I doubt it.  The theory that Johan is here to make it look like TSR are making a good faith effort to catch the Phantom Hacker sounds more plausible to me.

While Pescado can be an absolute, grade A donkey's rear, he's still one of the best at what he does. That's known and can't be refuted, no matter how much they might hate the guy.

He did make a request of Pescado, quite a few pages back, he wanted Pescado to check some numbers.  I thought that was really weird. 

That was an April Fools joke on me - I thought to myself - "Fuck - when did I write that?!?!?"

ETA: A page of Cala avi's. Too funny.

IP's at the time Buggy's stuff was deleted
 buggybooz    70.85.179.186                                                                              
 Hamilton        70.85.179.186
 leftywillnot     70.85.197.178  

All three used exacty the same browser versions, plugins and settings.

IP's Atwa has used on Natural Sims

 same as leftywillnot     70.85.197.178  
                                78.129.197.69

Ip's 'hacker' has used on simsecret
                     78.129.197.69
                     83.142.228.139

Atwa is connected to all three cases. She has no access to TSR's userdatabase. Also she has no reason to keep hold of the logins of BuggyBooz fro months on end.  However, someone with admin access provided her with

1. the proxy server ip, and
2. the passwords used to get into both accounts
3. the knowledge about the theft

Do we think that Atwa would have the capabilities to read and try out some passwords? - sure
Do we think that Atwa has the knowledge to hack into TSR? - Fat chance.

I had semi retired from the public and had left the maintenance of the blog to one of the very capable admins here, until such a time when TSR did something that would be more newsworthy then their tiresome and persistent hiring, firing and rehiring of Atwa and her attention seeking antics. Recent public events and heavy inside intel have prompted my return. I am, at present, awaiting some evidence to be sent to me for my next article and I will be returning shortly.

My eyes! that avatar is everywheres!  Tinfoil hat no longer working, must use metal mixing bowl!

Because this thread already deals with the new TSR contraversy I need to ask a question just incase it is related, and not some annoying April fools joke on MTS2. What the hell is up with all those annoying fracking questions popping up? It is like a ritual for me in the morning to sip my coffee and browse MTS2, and a few other sites. The pop-ups make it impossible as I refuse to click on anything without knowing it's origin.

Has TSR removed Shakeshaft's (fucking thief) crap? Has anyone apologized to Boogy for stealing them?  ::)

I think my new TSR password is something along the lines of thomassucksass.

What the crap is this? (http://www.thesimsresource.com/articles/myths) :goes off to hurl:

It's that easy to manipulate people into believing something!

What the crap is this? (http://www.thesimsresource.com/articles/myths) :goes off to hurl:

There's nothing interesting to check in those numbers that haven't already been checked and reported, plus the Phorums don't collect much info due to privacy concerns. All the IPs in question correspond to either former Thomas/Atwa IPs, or public proxies.

Looks like an April Fools joke to me.  :D
Ninja'd by Kutto!  ;D

If our information is correct we actually know who she is, and given that she once wanted desperately to be an FA at TSR but didn't get it, we think it explains quite a lot about her bitterness towards us, don't you?

So show the proof.  And why is "she" still having access.

We are still investigating it and until we are done we don't want to put out any names. Pieces are falling into place though.

No mention of 'shape'...I guess they didn't get DOT to write this statement.

I'm really more of a lurker but I've been following this since it started and I just read the TSR statement, which left me with a few questions:

1. Does anyone know what buggybooz's account name on TSR was? I've searched for both the name buggybooz and the names of her items on TSR and found nothing, which leads me to believe she used an entirely different name there. In that case,
2. How did this supposed hacker who stole the FA database connect buggybooz's account on TSR with the account on MTS2? Also,
3. AFAIK buggybooz is not an FA at TSR, so if only the FA passwords were stolen the "hacker" could not have gotten hers.
4. How did the hacker connect Thomas to the Hamilton account on MTS2?
5. Why would Thomas use his TSR password on MTS2 as well?

There's also the matter of simsecret and Sinthe's account being hacked into.
6. Does Sinthe use the same account name on TSR and LJ?
7. Was Sinthe an FA there?

What the crap is this? (http://www.thesimsresource.com/articles/myths) :goes off to hurl:

we don't have sick game hacks in our databases and we are enthusiastic about the game and custom content.

We are still investigating it and until we are done we don't want to put out any names. Pieces are falling into place though.

When TSR says "enthusiastic about the game", do they mean "we don't point out how buggy it is and don't fix it because we don't know how"?  Do they mean "we spray our pants over every new EA item, no matter how broken"?  I would say those who write free fixes are passionate about the game.  They clearly care about the game.  TSR clearly cares about moneez.

Oh, look johan, I found a clue! -

*snippidy doo-daaa*

You can have it. Now, do us all a favor and quit playing fucking mind games like you do with what's left of your unfortunate subscribers. By the way, have you sampled the booty today?

We are still investigating it and until we are done we don't want to put out any names. Pieces are falling into place though.

If our information is correct we actually know who she is, and given that she once wanted desperately to be an FA at TSR but didn't get it, we think it explains quite a lot about her bitterness towards us, don't you?

Myth: TSR is "in bed" with EA and have some kind of business relationship

TSR: Accusations, Lies, Bullying?

TSR has been on the receiving end of countless slur campaigns recently.... actually going back quite some time now, since the establishment of the Pirate site and the rise of Coconut. We haven't been very public about our opinion of all this and haven't been running around denying each and every lie because to be frank, it would be fruitless in many cases. But the recent accusation that TSR was responsible for gaining unauthorized access to MTS2 and deleting content is an accusation too far!

So, whether you as a reader believe any of what we are about to say or not, this is our response. If you have no intention of believing it because you are on the Pirate bandwagon then you are wasting your time continuing, nothing we say is likely to change your mind as you will twist it to suit yourself. But if you are actually in two minds, or have the sense to see that these constant attacks on TSR must have a deeper, underpinning issue, then you might take something of value from it. In any case, this is our side of the argument.
Myth: Paysites are illegal

The story: The Pirates want the pay content but they don't want to have to pay for it. It's in their nature. Read their forums, they openly pirate Expansion Packs and they intend to do the same with Sims 3. "I'm going to Arr Sims 3" means they will steal it rather than give EAxis as they call them, any more money. They hide behind an Asian host because they know that what they are doing is wrong and that any Western host would remove them (that used to be a brag on the home page). They hide behind the game EULA which originally stated "non commercial use". This is the game EULA and does not relate to custom content tools which have their own EULA. EA have been quite clear that they have no objection to fansites selling custom content. Many of these sites have been invited to events at EA and are wholeheartedly supported by them.

The Fact: Paysites are not illegal, otherwise EA would have done something to stop them, not encouraged them. This is from the official statement composed by EA Legal (not a forum moderator as the Pirates like to claim), as posted by EA recently:

"...Whether players choose to share their original artistic creations with the community is up to them: some custom content creators design work for a fee; some host their works on sites that organize, store and serve an enormous amount of content for subscribers; some artists request donations; and some artists allow all players to download their creations for free. These artists set their own terms for how they want to share their talents with the community at large. Those terms should be respected by other players."

This is from the company that hold all rights to Sims game code. Does that read that Paysites are illegal to you?

Pay content is about choice, if you want it, and can afford it, then buy it. If you don't want to or can't buy it, go for the free stuff. Piracy is theft. Theft is illegal, selling CC for The Sims games clearly isn't! Anyone with any ability to see sense can work that out for themselves.
Myth: TSR shares PayPal information

The story: Initially it was claimed that TSR and other Paysites shared subscriber's credit card details between themselves to create bogus accounts and take payments for them without the card owner knowing. When we pointed out that PayPal handles the transaction and the service provider never sees credit card numbers, that part of the accusation got deleted because it was realised for once, that someone making something up didn't actually constitute a fact.

The rest of the accusation came from a screenshot of an internal TSR discussion. It contained around a dozen names and addresses taken from our TSR member database that members had provided on signup. Nothing from PayPal. It was just assumed that's where it came from by someone not knowing that we actually take that information from members who offer it. So, are we allowed to have private discussions as staff? Yes, of course we are! Did we share that information publicly? No, you can thank Coconut for that, for half-heartedly blurring a little bit of data and then posting it for all to see for their own sense of power and satisfaction. This information was obtained unlawfully, without the permission of TSR, and distributed without permission also.

The Fact: TSR has never and will never share PayPal information. We don't even use it ourselves; we use our own member database. Further, more of our payments are taken by a Credit Card handler than PayPal.
Myth: TSR place trojans in their downloads to gain information

The Story: In the early days of the Pirates and pay content file sharing, we put watermarks on the files at the point of downloading. This simply applied the TSR user ID, IP and time/date to the .package file of the downloader, so that we could take the files from the booty and see which user shared it. This was done server side, our end. It gathered no information about the user once they downloaded that file. This hardly constitutes a Trojan or virus.

The Fact: TSR, as a professional business, has no desire to add malware to its downloads and takes no part in such activities. The Pirates didn't like that we were on to them so cooked up this story because at the time they didn't know how we were catching them. They hated it even more when they found we used their own shared files against them! Of course they now know, but wont retract their claim because it adds too much value to their smear campaign.
Myth: TSR attacks other sites and tries to take them down

The Story: The latest such case was the take-down of the Reflexsims forum (which later turned into another forum). Apparently, Thomas decided to take down their forum on his own and simply did so by telling them to shut down.

Fact: The owner of Reflexsims approached Thomas privately about the growing piracy situation, asking for advice on how to deal with it. Thomas' first advice was, quote: "you need to stop allowing them to trash paysites in bigforums such as yours". She tried just this and in return got kicked out of the very forum she started! What happened after this had nothing to do with Thomas nor TSR - the person she gave the forum to a long time ago was the person who pulled the plug on the forum as a courtesy towards the previous owner. To try and blame TSR for this, Coconut faked a photoshopped "forum post" where Thomas seemingly does a countdown for the forum to go down. It's that easy to manipulate people into believing something!
Myth: TSR hacked an account on MTS2 and deleted content

The story: Delphy initially accused Thomas of gaining unauthorized access to an account on MTS2 and deleting content. This was based on 2 IP addresses and screenshots were posted as "conclusive evidence", claiming that they are Thomas. In fact, both these addresses are used by 'Hide my IP' cloaking software and also appear in TSR's member database hundreds of times, over several accounts. An account on TSR used those same IP's the same day on TSR using the same browser details as the screenshots posted by Delphy on MTS2, we know that these are cloaked IP's and are not enough to accuse anyone. After several discussions and cooperation between our sites, Delphy is no longer sure that TSR was involved and has retracted his allegation. We continue to investigate the source of the attacks on both our sites.

The Fact: TSR had nothing to do with content being deleted from MTS2. We have had someone gain access to FA accounts and delete their content several times too (fruitless, as we just restore them from backups). We didn't go accusing anyone of it even though we have a pretty good idea who is behind it. We don't play offensively, we aren't out to damage the Sims community, we try and keep ourselves to ourselves and act professionally! We will continue to work with MTS2 to resolve this if we can.
Myth: TSR's security breach has compromised everyone's account and identity

The Story: This is the newest one, and a direct result from my chat with Delphy. He informed his community that TSR was subject to a security breach early this year. He doesn't know the details and never actually claimed to in his post, but it has been twisted and turned into the "fact" that all TSR member accounts had been compromised and that TSR did nothing to inform or protect them. Its now even suggested that subscribers credit card details are included.

The Fact: The only accounts affected were FA and staff accounts. All FA passwords were immediately changed by us (even Coconut posted about that happening). No user accounts were compromised and therefore no announcement was necessary. We know this because of the information that was obtained. Nobody's credit card details are at risk because, wait for the shock.... we don't get credit card details from our "secure payment service provider" (the clue is in the name).
Myth: TSR is "in bed" with EA and have some kind of business relationship

The story: TSR has been invited to all of the fansite events at EA in Redwood Shores and on the odd occasion, to other events and meetings too. We have a great working relationship with EA, as do all the other sites that regularly get invited to these events, TSR is not the only one! I can't explain why we get along so well, but I can guess that it's because for the past 9+ years we have encouraged and supported the Sims community to grow, we have supported EA in what they do as any fansite does, and we act professionally in what we do. We don't allow bashing in our forums, we don't have sick game hacks in our databases and we are enthusiastic about the game and custom content. Like all those other sites that get invited back, we are a fansite supporting The Sims games. That's all.

Fact: EA does not sponsor or endorse TSR any more than it does many other fansites. We have the same "not endorsed by or affiliated with" disclaimers on our site as any other. We don't pay EA backhanders, we simply talk to each other, and that's the extent of our professional relationship.
What about the rest of the rumours circulating?

There are other accusations of course which are not covered here. That doesn't mean to say that they are true or that we have no response, we just find it absurd that we have to spend our time on such stupid, ridiculous lies that quite frankly, anyone with any common sense should be able to see are unfounded. In most cases, TSR have neither the influence or motivation to do what we are accused of and that includes closing down other sites forums. Really.. It's pathetic.
So what about this "coconut"?

Someone who attacks TSR for being dishonest and being involved in shady activities. Someone who, through unethical and probably illegal means, gains access to areas of our site where they should not have been (and others as it may turn out), who reads people private emails right off their mail server, who posted our private, internal discussions publicly, who create fake so called "screenshots" in Photoshop to spread lies, who turns their own assumptions into "facts" for their own satisfaction… someone who themselves does all the things they accuse TSR of! They even have to hide now behind the Pirates dodgy hosting because they have been kicked out from all the legitimate blog hosts they ever used for breaking their terms of use. A real inspiration! Use your own common sense and decide, is this someone acting in the best interest of the Sims community?

If our information is correct we actually know who she is, and given that she once wanted desperately to be an FA at TSR but didn't get it, we think it explains quite a lot about her bitterness towards us, don't you?

TSR is a professionally managed organisation. It has been owned and managed by the same staff for almost 10 years. We have been around longer than any other Sims site and we have seen it all in this community. And now, enough is enough. We will defend ourselves against this barrage of attacks, abuse and insults.

We will also continue to do what we do. We won't be beaten down by the bully element in this community who brag about their achievements of having Sims sites closed down with their accumulative actions. Bullies are the lowest of the low, and we don't think they have a place in a Sims game playing community! We do, and we aren't going anywhere!

Myth: TSR attacks other sites and tries to take them down

The Fact: TSR, as a professional business,

Guys, have you learned nothing? I can't screen shot right now. Here is a quote.

TSR has been on the receiving end of countless slur campaigns recently.... actually going back quite some time now, since the establishment of the Pirate site

Myth: Paysites are illegal
<truncated>
The Fact: Paysites are not illegal, otherwise EA would have done something to stop them, not encouraged them. This is from the official statement composed by EA Legal (not a forum moderator as the Pirates like to claim), as posted by EA recently:

Myth: TSR shares PayPal information
The story: Initially it was claimed that TSR and other Paysites shared subscriber's credit card details between themselves to create bogus accounts and take payments for them without the card owner knowing. When we pointed out that PayPal handles the transaction and the service provider never sees credit card numbers, that part of the accusation got deleted because it was realised for once, that someone making something up didn't actually constitute a fact.

The rest of the accusation came from a screenshot of an internal TSR discussion. It contained around a dozen names and addresses taken from our TSR member database that members had provided on signup. Nothing from PayPal. It was just assumed that's where it came from by someone not knowing that we actually take that information from members who offer it. So, are we allowed to have private discussions as staff? Yes, of course we are! Did we share that information publicly? No, you can thank Coconut for that, for half-heartedly blurring a little bit of data and then posting it for all to see for their own sense of power and satisfaction. This information was obtained unlawfully, without the permission of TSR, and distributed without permission also.

Myth: TSR place trojans in their downloads to gain information

The Story: In the early days of the Pirates and pay content file sharing, we put watermarks on the files at the point of downloading. This simply applied the TSR user ID, IP and time/date to the .package file of the downloader, so that we could take the files from the booty and see which user shared it. This was done server side, our end. It gathered no information about the user once they downloaded that file. This hardly constitutes a Trojan or virus.

Myth: TSR attacks other sites and tries to take them down
Fact: The owner of Reflexsims approached Thomas privately about the growing piracy situation, asking for advice on how to deal with it. Thomas' first advice was, quote: "you need to stop allowing them to trash paysites in bigforums such as yours". She tried just this and in return got kicked out of the very forum she started! What happened after this had nothing to do with Thomas nor TSR - the person she gave the forum to a long time ago was the person who pulled the plug on the forum as a courtesy towards the previous owner. To try and blame TSR for this, Coconut faked a photoshopped "forum post" where Thomas seemingly does a countdown for the forum to go down. It's that easy to manipulate people into believing something!

Myth: TSR hacked an account on MTS2 and deleted content

The story: Delphy initially accused Thomas of gaining unauthorized access to an account on MTS2 and deleting content. This was based on 2 IP addresses and screenshots were posted as "conclusive evidence", claiming that they are Thomas. In fact, both these addresses are used by 'Hide my IP' cloaking software and also appear in TSR's member database hundreds of times, over several accounts. An account on TSR used those same IP's the same day on TSR using the same browser details as the screenshots posted by Delphy on MTS2, we know that these are cloaked IP's and are not enough to accuse anyone. After several discussions and cooperation between our sites, Delphy is no longer sure that TSR was involved and has retracted his allegation. We continue to investigate the source of the attacks on both our sites.

Myth: TSR's security breach has compromised everyone's account and identity

The Story: This is the newest one, and a direct result from my chat with Delphy. He informed his community that TSR was subject to a security breach early this year. He doesn't know the details and never actually claimed to in his post, but it has been twisted and turned into the "fact" that all TSR member accounts had been compromised and that TSR did nothing to inform or protect them. Its now even suggested that subscribers credit card details are included.

The Fact: The only accounts affected were FA and staff accounts. All FA passwords were immediately changed by us (even Coconut posted about that happening). No user accounts were compromised and therefore no announcement was necessary. We know this because of the information that was obtained. Nobody's credit card details are at risk because, wait for the shock.... we don't get credit card details from our "secure payment service provider" (the clue is in the name).

Myth: TSR is "in bed" with EA and have some kind of business relationship

Fact: EA does not sponsor or endorse TSR any more than it does many other fansites. We have the same "not endorsed by or affiliated with" disclaimers on our site as any other. We don't pay EA backhanders, we simply talk to each other, and that's the extent of our professional relationship.

Someone who attacks TSR for being dishonest and being involved in shady activities. Someone who, through unethical and probably illegal means, gains access to areas of our site where they should not have been (and others as it may turn out), who reads people private emails right off their mail server, who posted our private, internal discussions publicly, who create fake so called "screenshots" in Photoshop to spread lies, who turns their own assumptions into "facts" for their own satisfaction… someone who themselves does all the things they accuse TSR of! They even have to hide now behind the Pirates dodgy hosting because they have been kicked out from all the legitimate blog hosts they ever used for breaking their terms of use. A real inspiration! Use your own common sense and decide, is this someone acting in the best interest of the Sims community?

TSR is a professionally managed organisation.

The Fact: ... All FA passwords were immediately changed by us (even Coconut posted about that happening)...
.......
.......
If our information is correct we actually know who she is, and given that she once wanted desperately to be an FA at TSR but didn't get it, we think it explains quite a lot about her bitterness towards us, don't you?

Sounds like an American Congressperson when they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar.  "I am innoccent; they are all lying about me, so ignore their truths and listen to my lies so I can get re-elected and keep stealling you blind."

Yep, I tend to agree. And to think I still have a little over 2 months left on my subscription at that POS site. >:( Maybe I should put it to good use... ;)

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Yep, I tend to agree. And to think I still have a little over 2 months left on my subscription at that POS site. >:( Maybe I should put it to good use... ;)