Thast George Clooney kept a pig in his bum!?!

Well, sure, because he's a cat. We spend probably hundreds of dollars over the years for fancy toys for my family's cat. And what did she decide to play with? An old ping-pong ball that she found god knows where (we've never had a ping-pong table) and my dad's used earplugs.

This is her by the way:

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/9190/muffinsleepingcn2.jpg

But I don't know if she fits the necessary spy criteria because she's not exactly a kitten in this picture, and because she had to be put down a year ago due to kidney problems. (My mom insists that she was a victim of the tainted food fiasco. The time fits, but she was also sixteen years old so it may have just been her time.) But can I be a spy if I play my sympathy card?

(edited for clarity)

And even if they can't copyright the actual furniture designs, they may not be happy with their catalogue images being used to sell something not endorsed by them.

I once opened an account for a Mr. Sik On Yu. I'm sure it's a perfectly normal name in Korean, but sounds terrible in English. Granted, that was the man's actual name. Unless Atwa is a diminutive form of Anita (like Masha/Mariya), it doesn't seem like Atwat can use that excuse.

I don't think Celligirl ever said free sites should never ask for donations, just that she personally wouldn't if she ran one. (She did say that if you're a CC creator and can't afford to run your own Sims fansite, then maybe you should take advantage of MTS2/WNF, but I don't think that's the same thing as telling them to close up shop.)

Okay, I know this is a bit late in the conversation to go back to this, but I've had a really busy day today. (So there!) Glasscigarette mentioned Piggi's Sims earlier today, and how a while back there was a sudden spike in bandwidth usage and they were close to having to shut down. Now, I love Piggi's Sims, I download a ton of stuff from there, and if I'd heard about this at the time I would have helped them out. But at the same time, I have to say that I really don't think they're doing everything they can to decrease the amount of bandwidth they're incurring. The big thing that stands out for me is that I very rarely want more than a handful of recolours (or even just one or two), but the only option is to download the entire set and weed out the ones I don't want. Since a good percentage of these sets have twenty recolours, I end up wasting 75-95% of the bandwidth I'm using nearly every time I download. As much as it's convenient to me, as a downloader, to be able to grab all the files at once, splitting those zip files up would be the first thing I'd do when I noticed my bandwidth usage spiking.
(I'm not trying to pick on Piggi here, just referring to this as one example. I've seen similar things on other sites - clothing meshes being included in every file instead of just linked to, for instance.)

*fake edit*
Luna, if you want I can PM you with a few reasons why that sweater may have turned out so big. I'd post here, but there's been far too much knitting talk in this thread already I think.

And Cala, I think you meant megabytes, not gigabytes. I'm pretty sure my computer would blow up if I tried to play a 48GB lot!

By 'comforter' you mean soother or pacifier, right? Because I immediately thought 'blanket', but can't imagine you shoving a blanket in some poor kid's mouth.

Okay. That'll be a $200.... donation.

Well, if she was going to get in trouble for the scarf, it would come from WB or J. K. Rowling, and I'm pretty sure you're correct in assuming that you can't copyright green and silver stripes.
Knitting, and I assume crochet and sewing, copyright rules are actually kind of complicated. You can't copyright a stitch pattern for a cable or certain texture, for example, because there are only so many things you can do with two sticks and a piece of string and most of these things were first 'invented' when our great-grandmothers were children, if not earlier. But you can copyright how the pattern is incorporated into a larger work, and even how that stitch pattern is written down. Which means I can't photocopy a page out of a stitch pattern book and include it with my pattern for a hat. I could go on, but we're not here to talk knitting!

And while bandwidth isn't an inherent part of creating CC, sharing these creations is what makes this hobby fun for a lot of people. And in that light I think that comparison is valid. (Besides which, the amount of money spent is really similar.)

Celligirl, I just have to say great first posts! I wish I'd been able to comment yesterday; I read your original post right before heading off to work and didn't have time. I think the comparison to fanfic is incredibly apt, as is your point about expecting other people to fund your hobby. I don't know anyone who charges people to, for example, come downstairs and look at their model train set, and charging for custom content is pretty anomalous in the gaming community from what I understand.

I figured I'd throw out another example, since a few people seem stuck on the 'writing/hosting fanfic doesn't cost a lot' thing.

I knit. Boring and 'grandma' aside, this is a hobby which can be extremely expensive. For example, I decided last year that I wanted to make this sweater. I paid $6.00 for the pattern (pretty reasonable) and approximately $120 for the yarn (again, pretty reasonable for a sweater's worth of decent wool). I spend many, many hours working it up, and at the end of it all, I can't sell it. Not even to recoup the cost of materials or to raise funds for starving orphans. Why? Because someone else owns the copyright to the pattern. Only she is allowed to sell sweaters made from the pattern. The only exception would be if I had express permission from her to sell it. To me that's not much different from Sims CC creators trying to sell the stuff they make.

That said, I have no problem with people asking for donations as long as they're not holding content hostage until they receive money. I'll happily donate to free sites, especially ones that provide hosting for other people's sites/creations. I do realize that sites like MTS2 and WNF use far more bandwidth than any 'cheap' host can accommodate, and I understand how terrifying it must be for the owner of an independent site to receive an email from their host telling them to cough up more money or close down. I don't think asking for some help in these situations is a bad thing at all. But regardless of how much your hosting costs, or how many unexpected bills have suddenly come up, or whatever the case may be, it's never okay to sell Sims 2 content just like it wouldn't be okay for me to sell that sweater because I don't have enough money for more yarn.

And I'm going to stop preaching to the choir now.

I agree, the Notepad looks great for a natural paint texture. And I think Canvas would look fantastic as office walls or something.
They'd both look about the same in my game though.  

I imagine the site owner is suspicious of anyonw right now, especially if there are a lot of requests coming in all at once. This is a small site that most of us here had never even heard of before you mentioned it - half a dozen password request in a couple of days can't possibly be the norm.

I suggest waiting a while (a week or two, maybe longer) and then trying again, with a new email of course. If she's still around that is.

Have you seen this? It's not Carla Niven.

Mom and Dad went to Hawaii and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. But at least I'm not wearing Carla Niven.

(I know, that's not even remotely funny. By the six-year-old in my head thinks it's hilarious, and I needed to get it down so she'll shut up about it.)

God, I can't believe they're still making you guys miserable. (Well I can actually, this is TSR after all, but it pisses me off!) I used to jokingly refer to them as a cult, but the more of these stories I hear the more it seems like the reality, what with the threats of what will happen if you leave, the harassment after you leave... But at least you're out of there. And you've found a bunch of people who see TSR for the toxic community that it really is (which is sad, because it seems like there are a lot of really nice people in there too, floating around in all the filth). I'm tempted to say just ignore them, but that just sounds insulting coming from someone who's only ever witnessed this stuff from the sidelines. But I will say nolite te bastardes carborundorum, because it seems to fit. I'm sorry you fell in with such a petty and spiteful crowd. I'm sorry that your break from them wasn't as clean as it should have been. But hey, you're out now - it can only get better from here.

I just popped by the site again and noticed that they've changed their TOS to include the following:


*sigh* My love for them just grows and grows.

[/fangirl]

What're you talking about, 'necro'? The thread wasn't dead. It feels happy. It thinks it'll take a walk.