The real cost...results might suprise you

[SparklePlenty]

1. I recommend you read the FAQ which is sticky-ed at the top of each section. Necromancy is bad.

2. You can get a good website with a very reasonable amount of bandwidth for less than $200 U.S. a year. That answer your question?

[Tempest Limmerfer]

Yeah, what sparkle said.

And $0 is what should be expected to defray the costs of running a site. Besides legal issues, it is a hobby that we share. I expect $0 from other people to support my hobby.

[liegenschonheit]

I have a site that has a moderate amount of traffic and hosts a fairly active forum. I have a hosting package that gives me 100G of disk space and 1000G of transfer a month on shared hosting for $6.99 a month. A high traffic site with a very active forum may need a dedicated server package, but for most sims sites, that kind of deal is adequate. So why would you need to charge $5 for a donation pack, unless it was to make money?

Some sites have hosting packages that are a bit more expensive, but anything much higher for that kind of space and transfer is just bad shopping on their part. I don't expect people to pay for my hobby either, though I do accept donations to help defray the cost. On a given month, I usually only have to pay a couple dollars out of pocket, and some months not at all.

[Harlock]

Reason is price range, if one site changes $5 then all sites will go to that range.

Never mind the fact paysites prices were first set when hosting was more expensive, TS and TS2 files are small compared to other games (take Oblivion, if you download a texture replacer you are looking at downloading something around or over 100 MB) and costs for Sims Sites are likely going down because you are getting more storage and more bandwidth without changes to your hosting package deal.

[vikitty]

For me, ATS has the best value. It's the only place I subscribe to (before I learned of the paysite controvery) and you only have to donate like 5euros and you get lifetime membership. Which is nice because while 98% of the sets she releases are free, there are always a few extra cool items for donaters. Plus you can download the entire update in one zip, which is veeeeery nice.

Of course, now she's complaining that the donations are too low, and refuses to update until January unless 50% of her bandwidth bill is paid...  :roll:

[SparklePlenty]

For me, ATS has the best value. It's the only place I subscribe to (before I learned of the paysite controvery) and you only have to donate like 5euros and you get lifetime membership. Which is nice because while 98% of the sets she releases are free, there are always a few extra cool items for donaters. Plus you can download the entire update in one zip, which is veeeeery nice.

Of course, now she's complaining that the donations are too low, and refuses to update until January unless 50% of her bandwidth bill is paid...  :roll:

You don't get it do you? Extra cool items for donators is PAY. We hate PAY. It is never acceptable to sell content. NOTHING is nice about ATS or any of the others. They are PAY. And anyone who says, "Oh, paysites are evil, except this one where I like to buy stuff..." is an ass.

[Tempest Limmerfer]

Again, what Sparkle says.

Sparkle speaks for me (when she yells "more rum")

If you pay for "special items" then it's a designer saying.."this is free...but what I actually worked hard on...ummm...pay me for my hobby time"

And "life-time" membership (on many sites) is a few months...sometimes longer, but there is no guarentee.

[redisenchanted]

Well, I'm not an anti-paysite fundamentalist, so I do see Sandy from ATS as different. I paid $5 two years ago and I can download everything forever. Even if you paid back in Sims 1 days, it's still true.

I understand why her stuff is in the booty, since she does run a paysite, but she's nothing like Nofrena or Peggy.

[Druid]

Well, I'm not an anti-paysite fundamentalist, so I do see Sandy from ATS as different. I paid $5 two years ago and I can download everything forever. Even if you paid back in Sims 1 days, it's still true.

I understand why her stuff is in the booty, since she does run a paysite, but she's nothing like Nofrena or Peggy.

I agree, i did the same thing. I've donated twice, once like 5 years ago. I also understand why her items are in the booty, but she is at least a nice person to deal with. Once, i complimented her stuff (because i know creators get a lot of crap mail, so i like to send nice comments once in a while), and she gave me a gift in thanks. When i finally could donate, i wanted to. *shrug* Now you can all rip me to shreds for daring to make an exception in my own mind for one person. :roll:

[liegenschonheit]

OMG! How darez you??? They is all EBIL!!

I've always made a distinction between different site owners and what I consider the levels of evil. For example, ATS and Holy Simoly are less evil than TSR or Peggy. Yes, they still sell stuff, but ATS asks for a one time donation, and Holy Simoly may arguably have a pretty hefty bandwidth bill since they do have quite a bit of lovely free things. Charging for a donation set is still wrong, in my opinion, but for the price they were charging, the quanity and quality of the items in each pack has been substantially higher than most other sites.

Then there are sites that offer quite a few free things, and then put a small percentage of their stuff up for pay. Ebil? Yes, but again, I think less evil than a site that holds the majority of their content hostage, or only puts crappy shit up for free. Lastly,there are sites that are clearly only in it for the money. TSR, Peggy, etc. I consider these the worst offenders. In context of the booty, I suppose these distinctions mean very little, since everything pay ends up there.

[liegenschonheit]

accidental double post. My bad.

[vikitty]

Well, I'm not an anti-paysite fundamentalist, so I do see Sandy from ATS as different. I paid $5 two years ago and I can download everything forever. Even if you paid back in Sims 1 days, it's still true.

I understand why her stuff is in the booty, since she does run a paysite, but she's nothing like Nofrena or Peggy.

Exactly. I think that if I had to pay for something when I was younger and more naive, ATS was technically the smartest choice since it's a lifetime membership for the cost of like, one set at another paysite.

[vikitty]

Again, what Sparkle says.

Sparkle speaks for me (when she yells "more rum")

If you pay for "special items" then it's a designer saying.."this is free...but what I actually worked hard on...ummm...pay me for my hobby time"

And "life-time" membership (on many sites) is a few months...sometimes longer, but there is no guarentee.

Again, I did this before I knew about the paysite thing. Since it's a lifetime membership, I can't go and cancel it, nor would I want to, because it's only 3$ and I get it forever. Like liegen said, this goes back as far as her Sims1 site (which is also very HQ considering it's TS1!) which was like three years ago.

I agree that there is a difference between someplace like Peggy and a place like ATS. Peggy charges ridiculously high fees for stuff that is ugly, gappy, and crappily animated. At a place like ATS, you can download 25 pieces out of a great, highly-detailed, often multi-recolored set that's 28 pieces for free. If you want three additional items for that set, as well as ALL of the extras on the site and the ability to download entire sets in one zip (which is very useful because she has so many fucking recolors of every object that you'd be clicking and unzipping 80times for one bedroom set) for 3$ and you only have to pay once for everything...

The three pieces are still pay, but considering you get everything else along with it, I don't feel like such a huge sucker paying the 3$ than I would for paying double for a shitty Rose hair.

[SparklePlenty]

Since you all have lifetime memberships over there, I sincerely hope you are putting all their pay files on the booty.

[Tempest Limmerfer]

I am big time anti-pay. Period.
That said, I do think some PEOPLE who run the sites are okay. Maybe they are slow to get it, or don't get the reasons...or whatever....and others are greedy and fill their sites with craptastic stuff. Some designers are very nice people and others are crazy/bitchy/evil/all of the above and more.

That goes for free sites as well. Some are cool and others can be real ass-pains.

So if everything is equal.....I still am against paysites....I don't hate the people (except for a list I have of those who should be shoved into a veggie steamer)