Ea makes statement March 2 making paysites ok?

[Tabby]

  Church Lady!

[minionsRmine]

Well, isn't that spashul! *sniff* old memories

[ooglafina]

If Satan were a lawyer wouldn't his pitchfork be a security risk? I'd like to see a security guard try to confiscate it. "I'll hold your briefcase, Mr. Satan, while you go back through the metal detector."

[BlueSoup]

Here's a copy/paste of a post I just made on the BBS:

My petition has indeed been hacked - by who, I don't know.

It would not surprise me IN THE LEAST if TSR had hacked into my petition.  We all know they are fully capable of such a devious and dirty-handed trick, and they are the only ones, besides EA Games, who stand to lose from my petition being printed and mailed.

Under threat of the privacy of all signers being revealed here on the BBS, I've decided to close the petition to new signatures.  The five signers we've gained since the petition was re-opened were already deleted from my view, proving this "hacker" is still actively stalking the petition.  I don't want to compromise anyone's privacy, and most especially not to TSR, since I am well aware of what sort of damage they have no compunction whatsoever about causing.

Thank you to everyone who signed this petition.  As stated previously on the BBS and in various other forums, I will be printing and mailing my letter to Electronic Arts in Redwood City, CA.  I will be adding an addendum to my letter outlining the details of my hacked petition "adventures" and just how many signatures we received.  If you would like to do more, I urge you to do one of two things: 1) write your own letter and mail it to EA Games, or 2) Copy/paste my letter and mail it to EA Games.

Electronic Arts
209 Redwood Shores Parkway
Redwood City, CA  94065

Attn: Nancy Smith

The petition was re-opened to new signatures - I'm not sure how or even WHO reopened it, since I haven't received any email from the petitiononline people - but I closed it again.  I simply don't want to risk the privacy of anyone who signs.  It sucks, but I'll definitely be sure to emphasize this happening in my letter!

[Skoria_Bay]

Thank you Blue Soup. I will be writing my own letter to add to yours. Thank you for the address as well.

[CatOfWar]

Both the G4 and PennyArcade ideas are good, but has anyone volunteered to spearhead the effort?  We can all individually write to G4 and PenyArcade, I plan to, but I'm not sure how much that will accomplish.  Is anyone here a journalist or public relations person?  Does someone have experience putting together a press kit?  I don't.

BlueSoup, I hope you can uncover some incriminating evidence of hacking your petition.  It had 600 or so signatures before it got hacked, right?  To me, that's a lot, but I didn't think 600 would matter to anyone corporate.  Apparently it bothered them enough to hack.  Does that mean our voices matter, even in small numbers, or does it just mean TSR is ultra paranoid and extremely petty?

[BlueSoup]

BlueSoup, I hope you can uncover some incriminating evidence of hacking your petition.  It had 600 or so signatures before it got hacked, right?  To me, that's a lot, but I didn't think 600 would matter to anyone corporate.  Apparently it bothered them enough to hack.  Does that mean our voices matter, even in small numbers, or does it just mean TSR is ultra paranoid and extremely petty?

629.

I have no idea what it means.  The entire thing is tiring.  I don't have the energy to fight like this anymore, for Sims shit.

[Progriff]

I usually just lurk but the more I hear about this crap the more pissed off I get! Giving their previous record and set precedents, I'd say that this definitely means TSR is ultra paranoid and extremely petty!  Its ridiculous that they have nothing better to do....don't they have lives for goodness sake?

[neriana]

Both the G4 and PennyArcade ideas are good, but has anyone volunteered to spearhead the effort?  We can all individually write to G4 and PenyArcade, I plan to, but I'm not sure how much that will accomplish.  Is anyone here a journalist or public relations person?  Does someone have experience putting together a press kit?  I don't.

I know how to write a press release, but I don't have time to spearhead anything. Here's the thing: I don't think G4 would notice, and I bet Penny Arcade gets mail from kooks all the time. I think there would have to be more behind it that just PMBD, though coconut's journal helps.

First, what other gaming websites do y'all visit? Somethingawful would be good, if anyone's a regular there. Kotaku would be great. Also, gaming blogs, like http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/. We could use one big write-up of the history, something like the Duchess of Richmond did about the Harry Potter fanfic community and Ms. Scribe (http://www.journalfen.net/community/bad_penny/1074.html).

The Sims community isn't taken seriously in the wider gaming community, partly because we're mostly women, but also because most of us don't seem to interact a lot with everyone else, or play other games. The idea that EA is evil incarnate is going to get a big yawn, along with, "yeah, and also the earth revolves around the sun. Tell us something new." Plenty of people hate EA. If we can get concrete evidence of that "something new", as it ties into TSR, we could get somewhere.

[missangelica]

Somethingawful would probably jizz all over tsr happily if someone compiled info for them.  They love sick shit like what tsr and thomass has done and continue to do. 

Also, I think they love giving butthurt more than Pes.

[vexed]

Minor point, but I just noticed that Drea's 'clarification' has disappeared from the stickied threads in General Discussion.

It's not been deleted, because I can still follow the direct link to it, but it ain't in the stickied section anymore.  And I just quickly scanned the first few pages of threads in GD and couldn't see it.

Could be important, might not.  Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[rum nate]

They could have felt that everyone who was going to see it has seen it and there is no use keeping it stickied anymore, but I really doubt that. It does seem odd it was let drift down pages already. I mean, it hasn't even been a month yet since it was posted.

[BlueSoup]

It makes me happypants that my thread is back on the front page and their "clarification" isn't.

[Mr Pew]

The very fact that someone went to the trouble to hack the petition with only 600 signatures on it is proof that it's hitting very close to home. One can only imagine the reaction to 30,60, or even 100,000 signatures.
As for the email addresses in the petition, well my email address is there.Ea games don't count, they banned me, so that leaves TSR and I would be only to happy to trade insults with that scum.
If the purpose of the hack is to gain access to my PC. in order to see who i am and how much of their custom content I have, well fuck me all they have to do is ask.
Just what are those idiots gonna do? take me to court.

[justso]

I think the only definite proof is if Thomas does his usual and blabs on his own forum " no we did not hack the petition..... well we did erase some names... but it was only five... honest."  Till then it's a mystery.