Well, crap, I bet they didn't even read anything... but at least we all know there were plenty of people who did.
Light Angel - Why not post here what you wanted to post, and someone can repost it at the Sim3 forum for you? They can say it is from you, following the discussion, but you do not have an account.
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...
Basically, she's encouraging paysites to keep charging for content.
And it says not to in the EULA!
Sites that offer pay content for free are actually following the EULA, by redistributing pay content as it should be, free.
Everyone complains about pay sites, and I don't understand why. Okay, if they were charging the same prices that EA does, I'd understand. But most paysites are just covering their server costs. No one is getting rich making CC for TS3 [except EA]. Why should the creator have to spend time making cool stuff and then
pay to share it with other people? I'm sure that if most people put themselves in the creator's shoes they would be less inclined to complain about pay-sites.
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.
I don't include TSR because they have no ethics and do pay their site administrators.
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".
Are fans equally upset about donation sites? MTS is a donation site [and I donate because I download so much stuff from there], and other sites require a donation for their best items [which is like selling them] in order to pay for the free stuff they give away. Is it okay to steal stuff from there and repost it?
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:
Custom Content Creators do not make money making stuff for TS3. They do it for themselves and then GENEROUSLY allow the community to enjoy what they've made. They don't have to share their stuff - and if I got as much grief as they do from the community, I'd stop sharing and keep all my creations for myself.
*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.
PMBD
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