I was around the Sims community when Livin Large was announced and I can assure you that paysites were not around then. People had already started to create objects, but no-one started charging till Mall of the Sims. The outrage it was huge. Then they all realised there was money to be made and they all started going pay.
Omg your right. I remember them, they were free and hosted a bunch of peoples stuff and it was neat 'cause it made it easy to find things, having it under one roof so to speak. Then all of a sudden you couldn't get in without paying. Last time I was there was the day they started charging 'cause it was stupid back then and its stupid now.
I live comfortably and could pay for what I wanted, but I am big on principle. Charging for time you give freely for a hobby is wrong, and it is a hobby, because unless you are getting a paycheck from EA, you don't have any claims on what you derrived from EA's content.
Min