This is Wonderful news!! Thank you so much to Delphy and staff for all the hard work you do, and a bigger thanks because you just increased your work load. You'll certainly need the thanks, because I cannot imagine how much work this is going to be.

My biggest pet peeve has always been those beautiful sims, all decked out in pay site or unavailable things. Then you download the sim and its plain Maixs hair, and you realize that there was so much going on in the preview that you didn't realise that the sims itself was nothing special. Now with everything on the sim being free, you really know what you are getting!

Thank you so much for promoting free sites!

Great news. I always knew there was a reason this is my only subscription.

Paysite stuff may look great in screenshots but if you play the game it is not so good.

Yes, yes, very good rule. Personally I'd like to see it expanded so that EVERYTHING needed for the download must be on MTS2. There are several beautiful items on the site that require downloads from websites that no longer exist. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Well, I have offered a number of free creations at MTS2 and I am feeling really sorry that this fight berween pay/non pay sites does not gives me a choise. I love to have choises in my life and this is the way I live for more than half a century. When I create something I just give it away to people that can have it paying or not. This is a choise too. When I sign either here or at TSR or at The Sims Fashion Barn I am very much aware of what I sign. Nobody can manipulates me. This is the reasom I did not delete my items here at MTS2. They BELONG to MTS2 because I have decided so when I uploaded them and it is only MTS2 that can delete them.

I am going on Vacations the day after tomorow till the end of August so I wish you all a Great Summer! Hugs

I can't speak for anybody on here, but I think Delphy made this new rule to promote freesites. This isn't about war or fighting but to simply showcase the free content within the community.

I'm not trying to have a go at you, I just think that you might have misunderstood the message (which can be easy to do if English isn't our first language). It's not a reflection on you, all he's asking is that pay content isn't shown in screenshots or that pay meshes not be included in the downloads.

Btw...great changes, Delphy!

I am so happy to see that pay content is no longer accepted!
I've been so frustrated for quite awhile for having to pay to get quality Sims content, and now I know that I can always rely on MTS2 without breaking the bank. Thank you so much!

awesome! I can't stand having to go to another site to find a mesh for something I want to download, then finding I (essentially) have to pay to use the recolor. It's irritating, and now it's gone. The itching scab has fallen off, and now only a scar is left that will slowly fade away.

I'm not complaining, so please don't mis-understand this as such.

I think that supporting free sites is a great idea, because as I've recently started downloading again (yes I have a problem with downloading even when not playing) I have come across a lot of free sites that are awesome and don't have the member counts that they should have. I think it's an excellent idea, and it does tend to be a bit annoying when looking at a wonderful hair re-color only to find that you will have to pay for the mesh to actually make it appear in your game.

Yes I know there is PMBD that you could get said mesh from, but that isn't the point of this and I see what the staff at MTS is getting at. Even putting the link to that up still promotes you to check out the site that it came from, thus giving a lot of attention to another pay site.

What I disagree with is this though.

They are in fact pictures that have pay content in them. If the actual download it's self features all free content what does it matter what is in the background? If the sim is uploaded with Maxis hair or a free hair than why does it matter if the hair they might wear in a picture is a pay hair?

In away I see what Jessica meant in what she was saying, for those people that upload items and create things to be shared in the community why should it matter if some of the content in the picture isn't free? Doesn't that in a way stiffle the creativity of those people that have pay content? I'm not saying that the rule is a bad one either, but what I'm saying is that making sure there isn't a single peice of pay content in a picture and thus having to re-do and upload based soley on that might well be a turn off to some people. It takes away from the joy of sharing ones work with the rest of the community when they have to worry if their picture has something in it that's pay content or not. It just seems to be more stress on the creators than anything else.

Again this isn't meant to be an arguement or to make truoble or upset anymore, after reading the thread you wanted opinions on the new rules and this is mine.

The rules themselves are excellent the promoting of free content is something that needs to be done because most free sites seem to get over shadowed. In no way am I saying that pay content is any better than free because in a lot of ways it isn't, after all one of my favorite hair creators is Noukie. What I disagree with is the pictures, after all with some of that are like me and have been playing since the Sims 2 was released what if they don't remember it being pay. It's just a lot of work and hassle for something as small as a picture.

Way to go, Delphy and co. I disagree with paysites because EA disagrees with paysites. Simple as that. I could go into all the other reasons, such as why we should nurture talent, and it's greedy to expect people to pay for something that you could essentially learn to do yourself, blah blah blah, but other people have already covered it.

You're not just "sharing your work" when you publish something on MTS2 though, you're agreeing to follow certain rules. If you're really intent on putting up something a certain way then you're always welcome to start up your own site with your own rules, but there's ALWAYS been rules at MTS2 about what you can or cannot promote and how.

This isn't a democracy, and unless someone is suggesting that MTS2 is suddenly going to lose all of the thousands of visitors it gets I don't see a really compelling argument for the admins to run the site as they see fit - like they always have.

BTW, Thanks for running the site guys. You all do a great job.

Because it gives the message "If you want your model to display your free clothes attractively, use a pay hair on her"

If it's the dress you're advertising, you might as well put the Maxis bald head on your model.

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find the answer.
The recolors/sims etc with pay content uploaded prior to these rules, they will be moved to an archive, right? But after moving them all to this archive, what will happen to these downloads? Will they be deleted forever? Will they be offered to be re-uploaded on another site? Will they be stored on MTS2's servers?

I agree plenty with the new rules, and always thought it was a contradiction that MTS2 would not support paysites (and vice versa, right, TSR?) but would provide free ad space. Sure, it was a "crack in the system" rather than a billboard, but still...

However, deleting forever content that (1)was made before the whole paysite vs freesite debate even came up and (2) doesn't exist anywhere else anymore is a bit harsh, too... maybe the creators of such content should be PM'ed? Maybe send these creations to the Exchange (so that EA will pay for paysites's advertisement rather than us)?

Jessica, either I misunderstood or something someone else wrote stuck in my head as coming from you. I'm sorry about that.

Here's the problem with having pay content even in pictures. I see something that I'd like to download and I don't just check out the picture of the actual item but I also look at all the cool stuff in the screenshot as well. Some of it I recognize, some of it I don't so I start asking questions about where to find the things I don't recognize and if it's from a pay site: BINGO! There's an instant link to a pay site for getting it.

This is the exact reason I took everything out of my game that came from pay sites, even sites that are mainly free but with a few donation sets, because I was afraid I would end up sending someone to get something where they might not know better and pay actual money in exchange for content. For example, if I enter a house in a contest it seems extremely hypocritical if I put a disclaimer at the bottom of the credit list telling people not to actually go to the sites I just showcased because in actuality it's a pay site when I'm trying to get people to quit using pay content.

Can you (speaking figuratively) imagine if everyone who visits MTS2 simply removed every pay file or file that came from a pay site from their game? I mean I've been here at times when there are thousands of people on this site. Imagine if every one of them took a "just say no" to pay content stance, no matter from where it came, or even if they do use it in their game absolutely refuse to show it in a screenshot of any kind, whether it's in a story or a screenshot for downloads or whatever. This could feasibly evolve into a huge, permanent boycott of pay sites by tens of thousands of players (possibly more).

The thing is, when we use files that are from fileshare sites, we're only reinforcing in the pay site creator's mind that what they're doing is acceptable because there's still a demand for their creations. These people see their creations in screenshots which validates it even more.

Anyway, I'm probably getting completely off-topic here (sorry about that because I don't want to bring the debate here) and I need to get my fingers working on something for updating our site shortly. LOL

great idea! it frustrates me greatly when i see five new recolor sets for a bunch of hairs that look great, but i go to download and they're from a paysite! for the majority of us rabid paysite-haters, these uploads are just in the way.

the only thing i don't really like it the rule that we have to pm the creator to ask where they got the hair on the model sim, etc. i always found it helpful to scroll through the comments and find someone else who asked and got an answer already... other than that, its a good movement!

cereja-chan, the archived uploads will be permanently deleted after a few weeks.
And to your suggestion - many of the creators of pay recolours/pay required sims etc on MTS2 no longer visit here nor support their creations, some may have PMs switched off, some will simply ignore any PMs... there are many, many such uploads here and I can assure you the staff do not have time to go through every single one, and PM the creator. For this same reason sending such uploads to somewhere else would be impossible - after all, we're not going to steal uploads from our own site and put them on the Exchange... and there is no reason to do so anyway. Who said this was about paying for paysite advertisement?
Also, I'm not sure what the purpose of PMing these creators would be... it's rather difficult to "fix" a pay recolour so it doesn't require a pay mesh

I'm 100% behind this rule. It has been a source of near constant frustration to see something that I'd love to have in my game, only to find that I have to get a sub to another site to get the meshes. Bravo, MTS2 staff & thank you in advance for making my downloading experience here that much more pleasant.

The staff of MTS2 has put a lot of time and effort into this site. They clearly have the downloaders and uploaders in mind. Both for the whole simming community and for the individual person.

This site was originally created to provide free content, and they just want to keep it that way. If you don't mind paying a few dollars for your sim stuff. There are many places where you can find it, but not here.

Thank you for all the hard work, and truely making this site the best out there.

Thank you Eternal Darkness...My thoughts exactly (although maybe it didn't come out like that?)!! It is tougher on the creators..I upload to a few different places and having to redo screenshots or whatever just to make sure no pay content is pictured seems just too time consuming and silly to me! So I totally agree whole-heartedly with what you have said!

Sorry you think this is 'silly', but it is now the rule and it is not going to change for you or anybody else. This change benefits the community as a whole. And, while it may be a bit of an inconvenience for a few people, the benefits to the community as a whole are definately worth it.

I may not be a creator...but I am staff and do my fair share of work on this site giving countless hours to help make this site run and giving help when needed (mostly behind the scenes). And I agreed with the rest of the staff in implementing this rule. We have almost a million registered members...most of which are not creators. Can those people not voice their opinions, or just the creators who use pay content? By the way, I have every right to speak my mind, just the same as any other registered member.

Oh, and flaming a moderator is probably not a good idea

Last edited by Canoodle : 25th Jul 2007 at 12:53 AM.

guess what after reading everybodys replys to my message and knowing that im not hated here im going to revamp my site for all free content and simply ask for a dontaion for larger thing like houses and other buildings that are very time consuming

Can I ask a moderator how long 'is a couple of weeks', I just need some clarification on the timeframe..

The reason being as I am neck deep in studies right now and it would take a lot of time to change the preview images on all my uploads. I went and 'pixelated' the heads of a few of the sims modeling the outfits today as that seemed the quickest way to tackle this.

Is this sort of 'fix' to the images sufficient. I would rather do that to all my images than try and sort out my 'hair' folder to pay/free files, as it takes quite a while to upload everything all over again and even worse to go back into the game and create new images. I suppose I could just totally cut off their heads too, but that might look odd. LOL


OT: LPotter, hope it all works out well for you and you keep enjoy sharing in the free community.

ooga booga, if you actually have a reasonable point to make about the content of the new rules, then do so, if not, then you have nothing to post about.

lpotter1, excellent! Our policy isn't that paysite owners are evil, nor that paysites are evil... and I can say for myself, as well as the staff, that it's a great pleasure to see you go free

roxxy, a couple of weeks will most likely be 2-3, depending on how long it takes for things to be moved etc. But we're certainly happy to make allowances for people who don't have the time/resources/etc to fix stuff now, but will do soon. In such cases, a thread in Creator Issues would probably be best, so as to avoid wandering off topic here

EDIT: My sincerest apologies, I'm being stupid - there's no need to worry, as only uploads which require pay items, not uploads with pay stuff in screenshots, will be removed. Of course the above still applies to anyone who, for example, is planning to repackage a sim sans pay content.

Last edited by whiterider : 25th Jul 2007 at 02:08 AM.

Awesome!.. if I am reading this correctly then I don't have to worry about altering any more of my uploads as I have not recoloured any items that need to be paid for to have access to. Thanks.