Yeah, it was an online one Bluesoup started, and it was even suggested for some people to print a hard copy to mail to EA also.  The hacking of it was several months back, in March to be exact:  http://phorum.mustnotbenamed.com/index.php/topic,2366.msg140167.html#msg140167

Now that it's been mentioned, I also signed that petition and left my sentiments, just for kicks.  Guess that means I'll never do something like that ever again.  

Of course, it's not going to stop me from speaking my mind on how despicable TSR is.

The petition itself was about TSR's actions within the community and how fed up people were that EA condoned their actions by doing nothing.  I'm not sure if it was to EA Legal or not, but it had to be somewhere within the company on that level. 

I am horribly upset by this.  What the hell is my username doing on that list?  I'm not even nearly that big of a threat compared to other people.  (Well, at least I wasn't before I found my name on the list.  Now they'd better be prepared to learn the consequences of crossing the wrong people.  I could care less about my username being everywhere, but I don't play around when my privacy is being threatened so blatantly.)  I will be filing a complaint as well.  This has gone on long enough.

Well, I'm guessing he uploaded those there the same time he uploaded them at Insim, judging from the dates on both sites.  And nope, he was not featured for the sake of the outfits... his object sets and meshes were his main highlights.  That, and the fact he was among Kathy's friends during that time.   

That's sgoobysnack29's old clothing he uploaded to TSR and Insim back in 2006.  He used to be a featured creator at Insim until his retirement from the community early last year, and was mostly known for his object sets and meshes.  I don't know what his stance was concerning paysites since he never really got into community politics that much, but guessing since he hadn't uploaded anything there since June 2008 it might mean something, or it might not.   Not sure what else to say that...

Yes, I am.  I have nothing against the awesome ones made by the free community, and in hindsight should've clarified that in my previous post.  It's just the ones I've seen here that annoy me to the point of posting about it.   Like I said, I'm was a fan, and always will be.  I just don't like how those pictured "attempts" mangle his essence so badly, nor do I see the point of continuing to keep posting more of them when there's already plenty better ones available.  The person making those sims should just let him rest easy now... he deserves that much after how much he has contributed to the world.  


The type that's desperate for T$R kudos?  Really, the world is enough with one of each person.  No need for 10 clones.

Thing is, if he had still been alive, I guarantee you wouldn't have seen so many sims of him.  To quote a friend of mine:  "Flowers are of no use to me if I can't smell them.  I'd much rather have them sent to me while I'm living, not placed at my gravestone after I'm dead."  With saying that, I really don't get why people feel the need to make him now that he's dead if they couldn't do so with just as much dedication while the man was still alive.  It'd be far less annoying to see this stuff if that were the case, and this coming from a fan of his. 

But coming off of that and on to this particular sim:  As much as I try my best to reserve how I talk negatively about custom content, I'd have to say that the MJ sim above is by far the worst sim I've ever seen.  The nose is just way weirder than the one he already had, plus everything else about its appearance is just off.  Just leave him alone for crying out loud! 

Isn't this Manga_Moon the same one who pulled their downloads from MTS2 before/during the Buggybooz hacking incident and started uploading at TSR in the first place?  I know there was a little drama over that here...

If so, good luck on trying to sway them.  I think they've planned on putting all their things there in the first place.

Not only that, the got off track discussing what kind of signature picture they should come up with... which I find funny since earlier they were backbiting some other user for posting random spam in the thread.  I believe that the next time the thread gets deleted and someone decides to repost it, remind people not to go off on tangents that has absolutely nothing to do with the situation at hand.  (Then again, it's the friggin' BBS for crying out loud... that's like asking a rock to grow wings and fly.)  That stuff could've easily been dealt with in another thread or something. 

That's cool.  Thanks, Cat!  

I'm trying my best to keep up with all the threads there, so yeah, SoggyFox, the one dedicated to Cat's post is still there for the time being and 12 make that 14 pages strong and counting.      

Well, crap, I bet they didn't even read anything... but at least we all know there were plenty of people who did. 


Okay then.  I may have some things wrong, and it may not mean much now that the original thread is gone... but if anyone posts it there in any of the new threads, feel free to add to, correct facts, and use however you like.  Just as long as people get it through their heads that the bandwidth argument has long since become an invalid factor for paysite's methods, and not all content creator are in it for the "joy of giving to others". 

---

A little clarification on some things Schweighsr brought up...


A few answers that I can come up with off the top of my head:  They don't absolutely have to set up a site that costs that much, if nothing at all.  There are plenty of other alternatives rather than having to resort to setting up a site and putting items as "pay only" for the sake of bandwidth or server costs.  For instance, they could always upload to sites such as MTS and other well known and reliable sites.  Not only that, but if they don't want to go down the route of relying on another site to host their files,  (or just want to stand out on their own) there are a lot of willing people within the free community who will gladly direct one to sources on how to save themselves from getting wrung in by unreliable hosting companies and paying more for less, or like even the WNF, may possibly have the resources themselves to help host their site.  And all while saving money that could be used for other ventures besides an expensive host.

To add on, to save even more money they could even upload their content to file-sharing sources such as Mediafire, Box.net, 4shared, and other sites of the like.  Even having a LJ page dedicated to Sims downloads has become a popular alternative to paying for web hosting.

In short, there's just no excuse these days to set up a pay site if you already have the resources and people there in front of you to help you out of resorting to that option.   


Not only that, but you do know their FA's get paid a certain amount of money also, right?  There's a certain uploads and times downloaded quota they have to fill in order to get that money though, so you end up see a lot of stuff like what DOT decided to do with the oh-so-fabulous not-so pattern-like "pattern". 


As it's been said many times, there's a big difference in the way MTS and what sites with "donation" content do.  MTS, for one, knows when to tell people they have enough money to settle the costs they need to cover whenever theirs a donation drive of sorts.  Not only that, it's free choice to donate without having the "worm on the hook" to lure you in to doing so.  All the content is still available to you whether you do so or not... no strings attached. 

"Donation"/Pay sites (i.e. Peggyzone, Rosesims, TSR, and others like them) are the opposite.  They tempt people to buy their shinies... and once said content is received and people start to realize it wasn't what they expected, there's no way they could get their money back.  Hence the back-lash and sharing of said content... when people feel ripped off, don't get any sort of satisfactory help for their troubles, and eventually get tired of dealing with the same old crap each time, you end up with sites like PMBD popping up.   :-)  Sites like that actually save people from having to go through the same ordeals they did in the earlier days of the community.

Is it right?  It really depends on which side you're looking from, but from the way I see it, most people would not want to deal with shelling money for stuff when they could get so much better from free sources... and not talking about the "stolen" stuff, either.   :wink:


*points to the response two quotes above* You're right in a way... many don't, but there are some who do, and only for the sake of getting more money in their pocket.  If that wasn't the case, they could've left the position they were in at any time the chose and decided to find a better route for sharing their "goodwill".  Content created for the sake of expecting something more than "thanks" in return just isn't worth as much in my opinion.  A lot of the best content you can get doesn't even require a cent spent on it.   

I actually wanted to reply to that post so badly.  Even took the time to "quote" it and responded to each points, only to be reminded and utterly disappointed in the fact that I don't have the required credentials to actually post there.   I'm just that slow today, but I'm saving that text file just for the heck of it.

Cat, adding on to what everyone else said, but I seriously applaud you on such spectacular rebuttal to Hydra's logic.  I'm eager to see what happens from this point on... hopefully we won't be let down too badly, though it's obvious that the thread has "potential impending doom" written all over it.   

Probably stating the obvious that Maxoid/SimGuru Hydra is a complete moron, but anyways...

It really makes me angry every time I see nonsense posts like that.  If anything the first two and last of the sites linked are more offensive than the sites not linked to.

Rose:  Breaking ToU for free tools/History of sharing people's Paypal info (correct me if I'm wrong on this)/etc.

Peggy:  Modding Tool Thief/Breaking ToU for free tools/etc.

TSR:  The name alone is offensive.  Considering they still have thieves like Shakeshaft aboard, have shared people's personal info amongst their FA's, the sudden re-appearance of their stalking hacker still screwing over many people that even dare to try and speak out against them, and get away almost scott-free when the situations are seemingly forgotten by the majority... the fact of them being mentioned fills a lot of people with resentment.

At least the good part is Parsimonious has some spotlight there for a site that has always been 100% free... but the fact that if it wasn't for the unlinked sites like MTS, Simlogical, and MATY, just about all of those linked wouldn't even be in the spotlight.  Of course, asking anyone from EA to admit that is like asking a brick wall to move out of the way.  It's just not going to happen.  That's the main part that frustrates the heck out of me, when people don't get credit after all the hard work put into helping the rest of the community out, and Hydra, Drea, and the rest of EA are too stubborn and stupid to realize that.

You're not the only one anymore... the same thing has just happened to another user's Photobucket account, too.  I'm not sure if it's really an all out targeted hacking on Photobucket or just a cover-up to your situation (since it's not quite known if this person also has a TSR account with similar passwords or not), but either way it's sickening that someone is doing this crap. 

I'm sorry to hear about your problems, Shan0w.  It's definitely a dirty trick which even affected those who checked out your updates linked on other sites.  I was pretty miffed that this cretin that hacked you actually replaced all the pictures in your account with goatsee/porn crap. (I was one of the unfortunate ones who caught a glimpse at what happened to your InSim updates thread)  And now I'm seeing that they got to your site, also, which was really getting somewhere with all the hard work put into it.  How low can these people get?  But then again, it's reeking TSR "handiwork" once more... I shouldn't be surprised, and should be expecting more stupidity to come.   The whole thing about your password being the same there as your site and the IPs that coconut mentioned just reaffirms the fact that they're up to no good yet again, and they shouldn't get away with it like they did in the past.

But I'm glad you were able to get the site back up.  Hope things continue to work out better for you.