Here, you better take some of it off my hands. 

Geez! I don't know why I posted twice, there. My bad, y'all.

I double posted, FTL.

TSR is still trying to milk MTS2 for subscribers, I see. Tsk.

I thought that was frowned upon!  

You might like this site:

http://happilychildfree.com/rants/

I have to say that most of the people I know personally with children are amazing and considerate. It's the ones who don't monitor their sproggen (which could actually get the little rug rats hurt, or worse) or want special privileges or inflict bad baby / child public behavior on others in, say, restaurants that do not have a plastic ball-filled pit outside (i.e., is not geared towards children).

Poor kids are bored. Teach them to eat properly at a child-focused restaurant until they are old enough not to be bored and whiny and messy. (Having two sets of "polite" dining manners is confusing for a kid, anyway.)

Praise the parents who do their job properly, always.

But burninate with extreme wrath and vigor (!!!) those who do not, for they make good parents look like assholes by association, which isn't really fair.

Maybe we need icons showing butterflies escaping from jars (or something) for each artist who sees the light and breaks free.

Crapcakes. I knew that. That's what I get, trying to type all that in before running out the door to class. My bad.

See? We are even even-handed amongst freesiters! Clearly when one sucks as a human being, we hate them even though, technically, we are on the "same side."

Would "strikethru" it, but that code isn't enabled on here or something.

One more clarification:

The "pirate" thing is just a metaphor. Robin Hood would be more apropos. We buy files that should not be being sold in the first place, according to the EULA all must click "I agree" to when installing the games.

It is more about the booty (pirates have treasure) than "pirating," but the forum owner enjoys a bit of misdirection now and then and seems to be amused that the pirate metaphor causes some to think we are literally pirating files.

All booty files were paid for. And we don't play favourites. We like Numenor, generally speaking, and respect his work, but a payfile is a payfile, and we chose--after heated debate!--not to give people a pass or ignore that they are defying EA's EULA just because they are otherwise nice folks. It's not, for the most part, a campaign motivated by animosity. If a paysiter is disliked, it is because they are jerks, or are boils on the bum of the Simming community, not specifically because they have payfiles.

Note that TSR claims MTS2 is "bad" because they have adult items.
Point A: not anymore.
B: TSR's "non-adult" content frequently crosses the line, in that you hope kids aren't downloading it, and in that their advertising revenues are generated by some skeevy sites.
C: it was already noted above that MTS2 was vilified after TSR ran a raid on the site trying to woo away talented creators, hoping they would be persuaded to sell their work (thus taking AWAY FROM the community at large, as not everyone can afford to buy files or have a credit card to pay with).
D: personal and non-Sims-related info from years and years ago was dug up about MTS2's lead guy and the constant barrage of posts about a grossly exaggerated version of that info, played for maximum outrage, directly led him to get fed up and bail.
E: TSR had to be threated with lawyers to release a creator's content when a creator decided she couldn't be a party to breaking the EULA anymore.

Also already mentioned, but worth underscoring: paysiters shared financial and personal data about customers. Indefensible, really.

DDOS attacks are attempted on PMBD and freesites constantly to run up hosting bills, pressure freesiters to join TSR, to eliminate competition, and so on.

Again, people breaking the law compounded that, because EA are being waffly about enforcing their own legal documents, with further illegal and unethical behavior.

Then, as also noted, there's the rampant copyright theft and infringement: paysites sell items that rip off the IP and branding and logos of Disney, Coke, Pepsi, Winnie the Pooh, Starbucks, Subway, celebrity photographs that are owned by magazines or professional photographers or the celebs themselves, makeup brands (with their barely Photoshopped advertisements included), fashion labels / designs, and more.

Paysiters steal free content and try to sell it, like 2-for-u stealing Enayla / Linda Berkvist's free skins. Pandora stealing MATY's hacks. DLMuslow stealing from, well, everyone. SORRY! I goofed here. DLMuslow is not a paysiter, she is just a thieving wart. Sites trying to sell kathy and Eric's (free and generously provided and supported) Insiminator tool. It never ends.

One pro-paysiter even got caught raiding the booty and used "it was really a DDOS-like attempt" as her excuse for this hypocrisy.  

The "donations for bandwidth" excuse was somewhat fair back when Sims 1 first came out. Now anyone can find free hosting for their creations, and so that excuse is just hot air.

People pay and do not always get anything for the money! Scams abound.

And the best content, IMVHO, has always been from free sites, who are also more open to providing support for their work.

This is the most I can contribute at this time. But I am intrigued by your organization and your ideas, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. SASE enclosed.

Oh, if only. I think I'd get a happy feeling in all my special places if that happened.

BEST. THING. EVER.

I LOL'd.

Glad you got it fixed.

(My Avast! copy likes to loudly update itself when I am in class and have forgotten to set Spifftop's speakers to mute.


BEFORE:

:| :| :| :| :| :|



DURING:

"VIRUS DATABASE HAS BEEN UPDATED!!!ELEVENTY!!"

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :x :shock:



AFTER:

:lol: :oops: :lol:



(Guess which emoticon is mine. *Gah!*)

I am lucky my profs usually think it's funny.)

A day late and a dollar short, I was hoping this story would have a happy ending.

Thank goodness.

What's this about donating with stolen credit cards?! :shock:  Jeez! I hope Kathy and Eric didn't get too inconvenienced by that nonsense. Ugh.

BV, you are fantastic!

That is all.