Wicked Sims takes a stand

[alia]

One cannot accept the EULA and accept the Paysites at the same time. One must decide – http://www.tarox4sims2.de linked to PMBD, after the EULA is PMBD legally and only the EULA is obligatory.

 :wink:  Roxelane

Yay! One more reason to love Tarox!

[Duckie]

Kudos to Tarox!! Another one joins the fight!  

[Quinctia]

My comment didn't diss wicked sims. It expressed disappointment that a great free site wouldn't be listed.

This may be an awesome thing--the breaking point--where you realize exactly why your policies are wrong and try to think about how to rectify that.

I'm going to say something now, and I don't quite believe in handling things this way myself in every case, but it's the truth.

Artists' rights.  When it comes to derivative works, you may not have all the rights you'd want to have.  EA says share freely...the Exchange and ways that Bodyshop uploading has changed has proven this point.  Your right of control in this case stops at the wish of the company that owns the game you're producing content for.  While it may be polite to follow creators' TOS, you aren't bound to it if it's in violation of EA's.

If I personally supported going along with every artists' little whim of taking toys and sequestering them or taking them all the way home and locking them up, and I ran FFSS (that acronym, by the way, will refuse to parse to me any other way than "for fuck's sake sake"), I would present filesharing sites under the caveat of:  "I personally disagree with the sites' redistribution practices, however, as they are free, support free sites, and are not in violoation of EA's EULA, I am going to link them here, separately."

Since I think people who want absolute control over things people end up USING and SHARING no matter what are kinda asshats, I wouldn't actually do it that way.  But if I were in your position, it's the only compromise.

Otherwise you're going to slight good sites, and that's a really shitty move that renders your site pretty damn useless in the scheme of things.

[Paden]

If I personally supported going along with every artists' little whim of taking toys and sequestering them or taking them all the way home and locking them up, and I ran FFSS (that acronym, by the way, will refuse to parse to me any other way than "for fuck's sake sake")

I have another meaning for it, and maybe that is what you meant to type, anyhow: FFSS = For Fuck's Sake SHARE!
My mind just goes a little bit odd now and then...

[fionaskye]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but FFSS's policy states something to the effect of "no links to or mentioning file-share-friendly sites or you can't be a member of our club", correct?  

Hmmm...  

It seems to me that perhaps FFSS wants to have their cake and eat it, too.  I mean, it seems like they want to play both sides against the middle and "be friends" with the paysite owners as well as with the freesite owners.  And that's just crap.  I say shit or get off the pot.  This is definitely one of those issues where you can't stay in the middle and kiss the asses of people on both sides.  When those lawsuits and the cease and desist orders come down, where are you going to fall?

[lemmiwinks]

Wicked Sims is having a hosting problem.

http://wickedsims2.com/pleasehelp.shtml

/end derailment derailment

[missangelica]

When I first heard about FFFSS I thought it was a good idea.. then I delved into the actual rules and it became clear to me that it's just an elitist group where same-minded sheeple congregate.  Don't think like them?  You don't even EXIST to them.

And why does talk of FFFSS derail other people's threads?  Why can't we make a thread about it and talk about it there?

[Duckie]

Wicked Sims is having a hosting problem.

http://wickedsims2.com/pleasehelp.shtml

/end derailment derailment

Thanks for that "heads-up" Lemmiwinks.

[Aquamarine]

When I first heard about FFFSS I thought it was a good idea.. then I delved into the actual rules and it became clear to me that it's just an elitist group where same-minded sheeple congregate.

Agreed, and I think that's the general consensus around here, hence why there's no thread about them.

That site may not be a big deal to me or to allot of other people, but obviously it is important to some people and they are people who are FOR freesites. They may be self-important and in ways they may actually be hindering the anti-paysite movement, but their feet are at least pointed in the right direction.  

Oh, it's most definitely self-important and is indeed hindering the movement because they're playing language games. For starters, the emphasis on "we are FOR freesites" makes me look askance at the whole deal. I've yet to hear of anyone taking an anti-freesite position, so explicitly stating your support for freesites as if it means something is a lot like party politics and a bunch of hot air.

[MoonDragon]

double posted

[MoonDragon]

Wicked Sims is having a hosting problem.

http://wickedsims2.com/pleasehelp.shtml

/end derailment derailment

I'm posting it here to simplify things:

Hosting Problems -- Please Read Entire Page

Explanation of the problem:

Well I mentioned this a little bit on the forum, but I'm not sure many read it and things are getting worse. My host has now given us our 2nd warning that we are hitting our cpu usage limits -- 2nd warning in less than a week. Contacting customer support, I was told we are always hovering at around 20% and their limit is 25%. If it happens again, they will be sending me an email telling me I have 7 days to upgrade or close the account.

Funny how we haven't come anywhere near the other limits they've imposed on us, yet we are always dangerously close to this one? I asked them for logs or a report to show me this supposed high-usage and the log they sent me only showed about 10 errors. They explained to me that it's because of too many database queries, which makes sense I guess except the first time, the warning came when I was the only one on the forum lol, but the 2nd warning I totally understand since we have gotten alot of visitors on the forum at once lately.

I changed settings in the forum, I disabled searching, I've optimized all the tables, I've turned the forum completely off for hours at a time, I have done everything I can think of but apparently it's not helping.

Either we are seriously using up alot of cpu resources like they say we are, or they are trying to scam me out of money. I'm not sure which it is, but knowing webhosting companies, it's probably the latter.

Either way, it is not just my site that is going to be punished for this, but the others I am providing hosting to. So I am trying to figure out which to do: remove WS and the WS forum and put it onto a separate account, or move us all onto a Virtual Private Server by upgrading my current account. At this point I am not sure which to do. I mean, what if I move the forum onto another account (or change WS so its no longer forum-based) and they still claim we're eating up resources on the current account?

I have looked around and googled for hours and it seems like a Virtual Private Server would be good for us at this point since I don't think we need a dedicated server. The problem I am having is I don't know which option to choose, and I don't have the money to make any changes (and not because I spend it frivolously on vacations/porn/electronics/etc, it's just because my only income is Disability and I don't have a large amount of spare cash sitting in my bank account lol)

The last donation drive we did paid for a year's worth of hosting but it seems that after less than 6 months, we're in the same boat again. My host has agreed to refund the "balance" if we purchase a VPS from them (upgrade) but not until after we upgrade--which does me no good now lol

So why are you telling us this?
Well for one, I don't want to just put up a donation button and tell you "we need money, give now", I want you guys to make an informed decision about whether to help us out or not. And I'm sure alot of you WS regulars are wondering why the forum keeps getting turned off and when things are going to get better.

If you have advice or an opinion on what you think I should do, please use the contact form or email me at [edited]

For those of you who are tech-minded, this is what I'm being told to upgrade to: http://www.hostican.com/hosting/cpanel-vps.php I asked about a million questions about it and I think the live help guy was getting annoyed with me lol

6 months of the VPS-Rage will cost $300 (setup is free) and I don't want to pay a year in advance again because I'm guessing if we outgrow the VPS I will be leaving this host and I doubt they'd refund the excess if I leave lol

As I said before, I've looked around but the cheaper deals tend to not have alot of webspace/bandwidth and since we have 17 sites, we need alot and I would like it to be managed since I am not knowledgeable enough to have an unmanaged one. If you know of a better deal for a managed VPS please let me know so I can check it out.

Donation Drive?

Obviously I will need to run a donation drive. For how much, I don't know yet. I don't want to start a donation drive until I know the target amount I need to reach.

For those of you who are thinking about helping out money-wise: you won't just be helping Wicked Sims, you will also be helping the following websites:

Adored Reality
Dour Sim
eXpresSims
GLAMstuf
LaPink (IcedMango)
MySimSite
Nostalgic Sims
Oohlala Sims
Pernille's Pages
Poison Pink Lemons
Provocative Pixie
SherrieSim
Sims2Crave
SIMply Vogue
Sims2Graveyard
WS Daily Free Finds

So please take some time and think about it. I should be making a decision and posting up the donation drive and our plans soon.

Something to Look Forward to

For those of you who are WS regulars, we are going to be making some big changes to the forum structure to make it easier for you guys to find what you're looking for. This includes shortening the forum (no more scrolling through the mainpage), organizing the downloads by category (sims, houses, etc), and revamping all the stickies and info threads so they are easier to locate and read.

Now I know some of us like the idea of featured creators having their own sections; we will be making it so that the creators are still featured, and that you can still find your favorite creators' creations.

I would give more details about that, but I don't want this page to go on forever and I sort of want it to be a surprise lol

I would really appreciate any help you can offer since I have been sitting here stressing out about it for the last few days and still don't seem to have a solution.

Any questions, comments, or advice regarding this page, please use the contact form since the forum will probably be turned off most of the time.

Oh, it's most definitely self-important and is indeed hindering the movement because they're playing language games. For starters, the emphasis on "we are FOR freesites" makes me look askance at the whole deal. I've yet to hear of anyone taking an anti-freesite position, so explicitly stating your support for freesites as if it means something is a lot like party politics and a bunch of hot air.

LOL  I hadn't looked at it like that.  That's true.  Since they want to "be in bed" with both sides, maybe I should stop looking at them as being potential allies.

[wicked_one]

glad you posted it here moondragon, but you might want to edit out the email addy and line breaks
i think its a bit weird that inge hasnt started a ffss thread here but insists on derailing other threads here to mention it lol probably realizes no one would read that thread and is in desperate need for visitors  :roll:

[MoonDragon]

glad you posted it here moondragon, but you might want to edit out the email addy and line breaks
i think its a bit weird that inge hasnt started a ffss thread here but insists on derailing other threads here to mention it lol probably realizes no one would read that thread and is in desperate need for visitors  :roll:

Oh, sorry about that.  Thanks for pointing that out.  I was trying to be helpful and hold a convo with my bf at the same time.

Inge probably just thinks her site and its policies are important enough to BE mentioned constantly.  I mean, it would only be natural for the leader of the site police club to think she is obligated to do that ... kinda like the way Christianity teaches Christians to "spread the good news" which they often take to mean that they are obligated to bring up salvation/hellfire when the chance arises.  It may be annoying but they THINK they are doing the right thing, ya know?

[Doursim]

Since they want to "be in bed" with both sides, maybe I should stop looking at them as being potential allies.

To be fair, I don't think that the FFSS has ever tried to please paysites.  Rather, they choose to alienate legitimate freesites, and call it collateral damage in their war against [paysites].

[MoonDragon]

Since they want to "be in bed" with both sides, maybe I should stop looking at them as being potential allies.

To be fair, I don't think that the FFSS has ever tried to please paysites.  Rather, they choose to alienate legitimate freesites, and call it collateral damage in their war against [paysites].

What I meant by "in bed" with paysites was that they have a history of punishing sites which link to PMBD or share payfiles with their free content.  They may not be making a verbal statement in favor of paysites, but their actions/policies speak loudly enough as they support the "rights" paysite owners claim to have.  At the same time, they try to give the impression that they think paysites are wrong by stressing freesites and rating sites which use no paymeshes higher than the ones that do.

It is just a bunch of wishy-washy nonsense really.