I'd like to toss in my two cents from my personal perspective of the SA forum.  I was always afraid of posting in there as it was more or less suggested that we were to leave you guys on your own, that it was your forum and we weren't to start any topics in there whatsoever.  I do remember there was a 'help' type section, but you're right, it was hardly ever used.  I think another part of the lack of FA-shared information is that they maybe just didn't even have the information to share in the first place.  I'll expand on this later.


This hits the nail on the head.  Now that I've been 'on the outside' for a while, I'm not at all surprised by the utter stagnation that's very apparent among many of the FAs.  You're not exactly encouraged to go out into the larger community, so you end up having a very limited pool of information to work with, much of which is still several years behind.

Now, personally, I never felt much in the way of competition with other FAs, but I think that's because I felt like such a niche creator on there.  However, having said that, Gelydh has told me that she personally did feel as though she was overshadowed by other clothing creators who would come out with sets more often.  I can easily see how the FAs whose focus was objects or lots would get into a sort of 'competition' frame of mind.  I even remember there was a push to get more FAs writing tutorials, and reassurences were given that it wouldn't be like 'we were giving away our secrets,' so it's not just competition among FAs, but goes back to the 'TSR-vs-The World' mentality.  (I didn't do many tutorials because I'm lazy and am terrible at it.) 


There was another thread where three sets a month were chosen and posted 'publicly' in the FA forum as part of another set of bonuses ('first place' was $100, can't remember what the other two were, possibly $50 each?).  Those were in addition to the other monthly bonuses that were handed out, and it was an 'open' thread so people could respond.  That was the only time it was really clear what you were getting a bonus for, as the other random bonuses were still done as you saw in the thread coconut posted.

Coconut has updated his/her LiveJournal with the screencap of my second and final comment to the thread (which I mentioned previously), as well as TSR's internal reaction to the happenings of the last couple of days.

Calalily, I'm not sure how you've gotten the impression that I don't take full responsibility for things I've said/posted in the past in any thread, but that's just not the case.  I've said it over and over again that I do, with and without explanation.  I can't help but feel there's some sort of gigantic misunderstanding happening here.  

Just so everyone knows, coconut has contacted me and said that I do indeed have a second and final post in the thread.  S/he's even sent me a screencap of said comment, which is post #396, from late January of this year.  I'm not sure if s/he would rather I allow him/her to post the comment at the appropriate time or I'd just post it outright, but I stand by my (many times now stated) taking responsibility for things I've posted.

I feel that what they were doing was cheering 'file sharers' being caught with TSR's 'watermark,' and their subsequent banning from TSR.  It's no different than cheering a kill mark on here.  Please understand, once again, I'm in no way defending TSR; as I've said before, the sharing of names was a completely malicious and stupid thing to do.  This is just how I see these (rather silly) replies to the topic.  If you see the replies another way, do please explain.


No, I didn't say it wasn't a big deal.  I never said it wasn't a big deal, nor did I ever 'discount it as "so last year".'  What I meant was the thread in question is a year old, so I'm sorry I didn't instantly think of it and instantly remember I'd posted in it.  I'm also sorry if I've been misunderstood.


Then you're much better at escaping brainwashing than I am, and therefore a better person.  I'm not sure I understand what you mean by 'time to sit back and think about it.'  I also don't understand how I'm skating away from any of this.  I fully admitted to knowing about the thread, and never once tried to say otherwise.  What I've said is that I didn't think of it as a list of real names and contact information, but more of a list of user names that were caught with their tracking whateverthefuckitwas on the files.  Obviously the list has more than just user names on it, but my brain didn't register beyond that.  If you think this is me being dishonest with myself, I'm afraid you're mistaken.

Calalily, I'm honestly confused by your anger towards me at this point.  I never personally shared anyone's information with anyone else anywhere, nor would it ever occur to me to do so.  Am I correct in understanding that it was my inaction at the time?  If so, at this point the most I can do is apologize for that.


There very well may be, but I honestly cannot remember.  I know in my time as an FA I had some rather not-nice opinions about PMBD, and probably vocalized them from time to time.  I said before that I take full responsibilty for the things I've said in the past.  If it comes up that I posted in that thread again, coconut is more than welcome to post the screencaps. 

SamanthaS, thank you for finding and quoting my initial reaction to the thread.  Saves me having to dig it up.   

Sherry, you summed it up quite well (and thank you), but I just want to make it clear that I honestly forgot having ever posted in that thread.  I knew coconut had screencaps of the thread, so why would I lie if I remembered the post?  (Not being bitchy, btw, just trying to make a point.)  I'm actually mortified that I did post in there, but I still wouldn't have lied about it if I remembered I'd done it.  If coconut has more posts from me in that thread, I would expect them to be posted as well.

Titan, I said I saw the thread as a list of banned users from their tracking... thing.  I'm not seeing how my post in any way contradicts that...?

Other than that, I don't know how many times I'm expected to say that I don't condone the sharing of personal information, or whatever else it is I'm expected to say.  I understand that this is a big deal, but I have to admit I'm getting a bit tired of instant suspicion cast upon me for something that happened last year.  I'm not there anymore, I have no plans to ever go back, I hate everything TSR stands for, what the fuck more do you want?  It's very easy to say you'd have done things differently had you been in the situation, but when you're caught up in the propaganda machine that is TSR, things are different.  Black = white and white = black, the rest of the community is your enemy and we're the only ones you can count on, so on and so forth.  (And for the record, I almost hate writing this as I know this discontent will be rejoiced over on TSR.)

Edited because part of my post got eaten...

No, they haven't.   

*lurk mode reactivated*

Thanks, Rata_Chen and tahkisis.   

And Nouk, if I lived even moderately closer I'd make you that computer for sure.  Sadly, there's a whole bunch of land and water in the way.  If I'm ever in the neighborhood, you've got a deal.   

Er... that's ok.  I think we'll both stay Unclean in that case.  

Your point being...?

I take full responsibility for anything I may have said in the past; there's no point in denying that I fervantly hated everything that PMBD stood for when I was an FA.  TSR has a very strong 'us vs. them' mentality, on top of the piles of rumors that have been spread about me in the past on this site and others.  Of course I said things like I did in those posts.  Furthermore, it just shows that I was thinking about leaving for quite some time.

I still happen to think my work is worth paying for, however, I won't ever be charging for it again.

*turns around four times, says the alphabet backwards and jumps a hopscotch with eyes closed, nose plugged with french fries and feet tied together*

Good now?   

First off, yes, the thread is for real.  I remember seeing it 'live' back in the day.

Why didn't I mention it?  Honestly, I completely forgot about it until today.  It hadn't been updated since summer of 2007, so it completely slipped my mind.  The other posts aren't until after we'd left, and obviously therefore no longer had access to the thread.

Again and as always, thanks for the support everyone.  I think what bothers me most about it is how long they waited before moving us to that list, as if we wouldn't notice.  While my message was a bit growly (well, for me, at any rate), I didn't think Gelydh's was in the least; certainly not anything to ban a user over.   

kenmtl, don't worry; I'm not wasting as much energy being angry as it may seem.  Mostly I'm amused as hell, mixed with a bit of 'slimy bastards!'  After all, none of this is surprising in the least.  Furthermore, it's not the advertising of our site that concerns me, it the whole 'distortion of reality' thing. 

Nouk, we'll never ever become a paysite, but can you bring Choppy the Chainsaw over to play anyway?

In case anyone out there had any lingering fears that Gelydh and I may one day trip and fall back onto TSR, you can rest easy.  Last week, we went and got ourselves banned.

Turns out we'd been dragged out of obscurity and tossed on the 'Retired Artists' list while we weren't looking.  This really pissed me off, so I went and changed my profile information and made a new blog entry.  Gelydh did the same, though chose her own words.  Here's what we both wrote:





What amused me more than it should have was that my info showed up nice and noticeable at the very top of the retired artists list. 

A few days later, Gelydh went to login to her account only to find her password had been changed.  No warnings, no nothing.  Both our profile information had been deleted, as well as our blog entries, yet we're still on their 'Retired Artists' list.  Quite frankly, I'm literally angry with rage at this point.  I feel like I'm being paraded around as a name to draw people into the site, while giving people the impression that I've stopped creating.  Obviously this is hardly the case.

Anyway, just thought I'd update on our situation.

OMG *joins*

Plus, they threw me on the retired list against my bitchy wishes... I will NOT fade into obscurity, bitches.

hahahahahaha!!! 

We're always making new stuff, it's just that right now my focus has shifted back toward my writing.  I do have some works in progress, plus about eleventy billion more ideas after that.  In the mean time, Gelydh is knocking shit over.

But yes.... Many many thanks for the compliments.  While we do this for the utter joy it brings us, knowing that that other people use and enjoy our creations and insanity makes it all the better.   

Tomato mentioning Per reminded me of an email I got from Thomas back when Anita was originally 'fired.'

(Bolding is mine.)

I wondered at the time, and still do now, what exactly it was they were 'going through' during the time when I was bringing forth complaints about Anita's behavior.  Based on other things I've heard, it makes me wonder even more about what Anita has over these guys.