TSR Sharing your infomation!

[calalily]

You can froth and foam all you want, I wanted to have all of the facts before I went diving into something. I've jumped in before without knowing everything there was to know and gotten my ass ripped for it.

So don't come in and pat yourself on the fucking back for not throwing me under the bus.  You waited to see how you could be on the winning side.

I guess under the same premise, I can't share this bag of Halloween reese's peanut butter cups. I can't haz Reese's banning me from sharing dis candy!

That would be thieving - plus, you better put your crap in a ziplock too - can't have anyone have even a tiny bit.  

[Sherry]

I think it's more like those tiny tubes of toothpaste you get from the dentist, that say 'not for resale' on them.  It's like TSR collected a bunch of them, and then resold them. 

[SoggyFox]

I hope my friends don't mind me quoting them in this thread, but they both said awesome things [ its a much less active forum than here, it takes longer for responses ]

First quote

I'm a Sims 2 player and there is more free stuff out there than pay stuff. I don't believe in those paysites anyway. I'm more than happy with the great stuff out on the free sites.

Second quote

I always figured, when going through paysites (and I have used TSR), that I'm really just paying to help support bandwidth, hosting and an organization of files that many sites might not have and not that I was necessarily paying for the content itself. It seems a pretty crappy practice to publicly announce "pirates" full contact info.

It'll make me think twice before returning to some paysites when The Sims 3 hits shelves.

So, the word is getting out there to more and more people - even with this bloody thunderstorm

[Missbonbon]

Good. We need to make sure as many people know about this as humanly possible.

And it's always been in Thomass's style that whenever someone questions TSR, their methods, or the devil himself to delete any comments that aren't "Thomass I want your bod!" He is a chicken shit coward. Hell that's probably why he would send fucking trolls over here instead of coming over for himself. He knows he would get ripped a new one, and he knows that no matter how much "fluffy" made-up shit they have it would go down in flames.

Hell I think that this should be posted on any if not all sims 2 fansites that believe that TSR is dirty. We need to get this out as much as possible. The more uneducated get educated the more they are likely to make the best choice for them.

And I love how they say "supposedly loyal" member. Everyday I'm beginning to think they are more and more like a cult.

[coralleane]

Everyday I'm beginning to think they are more and more like a cult.

I'm sure this has *probably* come up before, but:

-The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law. -Certainly among some of them.

-Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished. - Dissenting threads/comments deleted, lies told to cover things up and try to smooth things over.

-Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s). - Probably not, unless we count exposure to certain creators' idea of textures. 

‪-The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth). - As far as I'm *aware* Thomas isn't dictating marriage partners quite yet...

‪-The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity). - Yes, as evidenced by some of the self-righteous comments posted and the attitude towards filesharers.   

‪-The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society. - Duh.

‪-The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations). - EULA?  Wassat?  PayPal guidelines?  Sod 'em!

-The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities). - Trojans, spyware, PayPal info sharing.. leaving retired/departed FA stuff up still as pay and not releasing it unless hounded to, for some. 

‪-The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt iin order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion. - Yes, as I think aikea mentioned earlier in the thread, as have other ex-FA's?

-Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group. - Maybe?

-The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members. - Yes. 

-The group is preoccupied with making money. - Hell yes.

-Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities. - Quantity, not quality.

-Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members. - No links to MTS2, etc.

-The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group. - Yes, sort of, from what I can recall of Aikea and Geldyh's comments.   

... I know cults are a serious thing IRL, but it is interesting to go through and tick them off.  Obviously the order of magnitude is less than a real cult, but the basic parallels are there.. you can probably think of other examples since I don't follow everything very closely.  This specific checklist was yanked from here; there are other versions around on the internet that you can find easily enough.  It was just one of the first to come up on a Google search.  My laziness, let me show you it. 

[neriana]

Very interesting, coralleane. TSR is definitely cultish.

[Zazazu]

Oh now people agree with me...

[calalily]

http://coconut-tsr.livejournal.com/2008/10/09/

Coconut is preparing for today's screenies right now.

And because an edit is no good if you miss it, I'm sorry you were missed first time round.

And to deelink, sherrie, Missbonbon, Redikolous, BlackDwarf, EbonyRye and Ry - fair enough. We're good.

[littlemisspirate]

I <3 coconut.  Oh, to be a fly on the wall in FA forums right now...they must be going crazy.

Btw, coconut's latest updates talk about netseeker2, who posted her story a while back here.  It's a teal deer, but when I skimmed back through it I remember finding it very plausible.

[Henbane]

I can't believe I'm sitting here, with tea and rum, updating a page over and over, but I am enjoying it muchly.

I never, ever post anywhere, unless it's a contest on another forum (which I've since given up) ... or whenever I call LyricLee out for a duel at sunrise. It's a hobby. My hatred of her goes back quite a way. I've been a member here a long time, from the first, I think. So, hi. I am one of few words, I simply lurk and chortle.

They (in coconut's page) are currently speaking about DrP.  Surely I'm not the only one to remember that, just about this time, he began putting a statement in his upload posts that he did not do the models?

I certainly remember his first car uploads; sims walked through the backend of them, causing all sorts of errors; pretty to look at, unable to play. I know he left TSR for his own site, so please don't howl at me, but I don't believe Netseeker is speaking wrongly. TSR FA-ss kissers are sugar coating, as we all know they are wont to do.

Just for the record, my name is on that TSR list. I am not pleased. I'm currently in ongoing conversation with PayPal; I have someone else in contact with EA (don't hold your breath on *that* one, though. What complete assholes they are!). PayPal, at least, looks just a tad bit promising at this point. If we can strip TSR of that avenue, they lose a hella lot.

Edited to add: Okay, I lost respect for DrP. He's a dipshit like the rest of them.

[calalily]

Thank you for finding that littlemisspirate - I was about to go look for it myself.

Just for the record, my name is on that TSR list. I am not pleased. I'm currently in ongoing conversation with PayPal; I have someone else in contact with EA (don't hold your breath on *that* one, though. What complete assholes they are!). PayPal, at least, looks just a tad bit promising at this point. If we can strip TSR of that avenue, they lose a hella lot.

I'm sorry you were on that list.  They were damn wrong for doing that.  Hope that PayPal gets them. 

[littlemisspirate]

My pleasure, Hecubus.  I read more carefully and now I'm playing with the idea of seeing if I can find some of the 3D models FAs are importing - and, more importantly, check out their ToAs.   

Just for the record, my name is on that TSR list. I am not pleased. I'm currently in ongoing conversation with PayPal; I have someone else in contact with EA (don't hold your breath on *that* one, though. What complete assholes they are!). PayPal, at least, looks just a tad bit promising at this point. If we can strip TSR of that avenue, they lose a hella lot.

My sympathies, Henbane.  I know you have a messy, uphill battle still ahead, but you've got my thanks for taking this fight to Paypal and calling those bastards out.

[Henbane]

Thanks, guys. You've no idea. I eventually began a spreadsheet tree of whom to which I've spoken, their names (if they deigned to give them), their supervisor's names, all phone numbers and what each has said.

It would be exhausting if it wasn't so damn freakin' fun.

[Sherry]

I dunno, I think if you take away all the "we're sharing your private informations" crap, I personally think they are all kinda boring.   It's like no one has a personality there, everyone's so eager to agree with the last poster, and kiss everyone else ass, it's completely redundant and predictable.   Even their inner TSR 'drama' is making me yawn.  

Further, I don't know how Coconut can stand to do captions for Atwa's posts, I can barely finish skimming them without wanting to bash my brain in.  

[Witchboy]

I dunno, I think if you take away all the "we're sharing your private informations" crap, I personally think they are all kinda boring.   It's like no one has a personality there, everyone's so eager to agree with the last poster, and kiss everyone else ass, it's completely redundant and predictable.   Even their inner TSR 'drama' is making me yawn.  

Further, I don't know how Coconut can stand to do captions for Atwa's posts, I can barely finish skimming them without wanting to bash my brain in.  

It's very much like the town of Stepford over there at TSR isnt it? ThomASS & Steve are the head of the mens association & all the FA's were killed off when promoted to FA status & replaced with bot look-a-likes LOL