#permapaywallssuck

PART 2 HERE!

Posts summarizing the whole Anti-Permapaywall Argument:  HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE Murfeelee’s Rants (tm) about Paywalls: [Really worth reading!] HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE , HERE Posts talking about the cost of Permapaywalls and the effect it has on people:  HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE Posts talking about the risks of using Adf*y and other link shortners:  HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE

Post about copyright/EA’s TOU specifically: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE Posts about the behavior/content of Permapaywall creators (and some of their supporters)

QUALITY ISSUES/CONTENT ISSUES:

INSANELY HIGH POLY COUNTS/BAD QUALITY HARRASSMENT/QUALITY ISSUES

RELEASING BROKEN CONTENT TEXTURE ISSUES YET AGAIN? SL CREATOR SELLS/PAYWALLS LOW QUALITY CONTENT FOR THE SIMS 4 CREATOR CALLS OUT OTHER CREATORS FOR UNFINISHED/LOW QUALITY WORK, GETS ANNOYING ASKS IN RESPONSE --> One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six

HARRASSMENT, BULLYING, DOXXING, AND MORE:

BULLYING ANOTHER CREATOR OUT OF THE COMMUNITY ---> ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR

RUDE MESSAGE TO PATREON WHO ONLY SUBBED A MONTH

THREATENING TO DOXX

PUBLIC SEMI-DOXXING OF A PATREON DOXXING/STEALING MESHES

PRO-PAYWALL ACCOUNT DOXXES SOMEONE SHE GETS IN ARGUMENT WITH 

PRO-PAYWALL TROLLS THREATEN TO DOXX, CALL SOMEONE “SPINELESS” 

POC SIMMER/COMMENTER BULLIED OUT OF COMMUNITY DUE TO DOXXING THREATS FOR SPEAKING AGAINST PAYWALLS

UNDERAGE PAYWALL CREATOR PAYS PEOPLE TO DOXX OTHERS, ACTS CLASSIST AS FRICK, THROWS TANTRUM WHEN CALLED OUT, THEN ACTS LIKE A CREEP TO MAKE IT BETTER

MULTIPLE PRO-PAYALL SOCK PUPPET ACCOUNTS HARRASS ME FOR MY OPINIONS ON PAYWALLS 

PRO-PAYWALL SOCK PUPPET ACCOUNTS DOXX ME, SEND MY PICTURE TO MANY PEOPLE, SIGN MY WORK EMAIL UP FOR PORN ACCOUNTS ---> ONE, TWO

PRO PAYWALL SOCK PUPPET ACCOUNTS EMAIL MY WORK TO TRY TO GET ME FIRED PAYWALL CREATOR GETS MAD THAT I CALLED HIM OUT, SENDS HIS FOLLOWERS TO HARASS ME PRO-PAYWALL SOCK PUPPET CALLS ME FAT, INSULTS ME ---> ONE, TWO, THREE PAYWALLER/PAYWALL SUPPORTER THREATENS PIRATES, SAYS THEY'LL INSTALL "TRACKING SOFTWARE" IN CC FILES

EXACTLY. I often make the comparison that it’s akin to making clothes for a barbie. It’s useless without the doll. 

So let’s break this down with a flowchart, shall we? 

Okay, let’s get one thing straight here. I am not against people making money. By no means.

But I am against people making money by infringing the creative rights of others and taking advantage of a community they are a part of.

Even IF the argument about EA’s rights did not apply, there are still tons of examples of the permapaywall creators abusing the trust put in them by the community. Examples of stolen meshes from other sites, horribly high (even gamebreaking) poly counts, and lackluster quality, not to mention examples of some of them harassing, calling out, and even doxxing other people.

Also allow me to remind you that critical words do not equal hatred. Criticism comes from a place of “I want you to do better for yourself and others.” Hatred says “I dislike who you are and you cannot get better.”

Hatred would involve using personal insults about someone’s appearance or actions, or where they come from or other personal details.

Criticism involves saying “I honestly do not approve of the actions you are choosing right now, and hope you change.”

I find it funny that we live in a time right now where any criticism that is not positive equals = you hate me personally. This is not a very healthy outlook on things, frankly anon. Considering that receiving criticism and feedback is an integral part of every job, not being able to handle that would certainly lead to quite a number of people unhappy in their positions, assuming their supervisors could handle their inability to take feedback.

As to your “just let things be” comments. As a member of this community, I have a right to speak to matters that bother me. Sure, I could let things be. But I don’t like how this practice treats people, particularly people who are already underserved and represented by the sims 4 base game. (Does anyone else notice how many paywalls there are for content that is aimed at BIPOC? Or is that just me?)

Anyway anon, I hope this has given you food for thought. And if you still disagree, I understand. The block button’s always an option if you find my opinions too radical. :)

Okay, so in the words of Rhett and Link...

First, I want to clarify something that I think should be said before we get into the meat of this topic.  My personal opinion (which the public is free to disagree with) is that builders in the sims 4 are awesome, but do not have to put in the same amount of monetary stakes, time commitments to learning programs, and testing as those who create CC clothing/furnishings. Because of this, charging for builds (I believe) is a really strange practice,. 

All a builder has to do to get started building is to have the sims 4 base game. That’s it. There’s not a process of learning how to mesh, figuring out new programs, buying programs, buying textures/resources, etc. Is it somewhat time-intensive? Yes. But it is not as INTENSE or hard to learn as it is to make CC as you are not required to buy an expensive program to build in the sims 4 and share it.  If a builder wants to share a build and people want to donate, awesome. But I (personally) don’t see the point of opening up a Patreon JUST for the purpose of sharing builds in the sims 4. I find it odd in practice. Particularly when there are many builders sharing their work 100% for free on the gallery, even with CC in them. I just don’t see the need for it, and don’t really understand the “demand” for builds, but that’s just me and my playstyle.

It’s okay if you disagree with my take on that, but I feel that it does color some of what I’m about to say, so you need to know that going in.  As for your question, I honestly feel really disgusted with the practice of locking builds, and the included CC for it, behind paid paywalls. You can see a post (HERE) that shows how one particular creator had her FREE CC locked behind the PAID paywall of another creator.  Why do I not like it? Because most of the time NOTHING in the build is owned or created by the builder themselves. It’s just items from the sims 4 + expansion packs, and custom content they got from others (often for free!), arranged in a house.  You are literally paying people to collect a bunch of CC + items from the sims 4, and arrange it for you. And the crux of the matter is, that for SOME builders, they use so many creators, they do not have the time, nor the decency to message those creators. Those creators never get a message saying “Hey, I used some of your content in this build that’s going up on my patreon. Is it okay if I make money off of it?” They find out that their CC is locked behind someone’s paywall because someone ELSE alerts them. They don’t even do something half-way decent and just leave that creator’s CC out of the folder and LINK to the blog of the creator to download. They just throw it in with the rest of the content on their patreon. 

So, let’s start with one really great example. A creator known as “Her Majesty Builds”. Which you already mentioned in your ask.  First, she uses a TOOOOON of CC in her builds that is from other creators and locks it in her paywall folders. HERE is a post about that, with a giant list of creators. Among them are both PAYWALL creators, and NON-PAYWALL/EARLY ACCESS creators that she stole content from and locked behind her paywall. 

There’s a really great archive blog HERE that details the utter craziness of this “creator”.  One of the absolutely nuts things that she does can be found in her info on her patreon.

So basically, if she SUSPECTS at all, that you could REMOTELY be sharing her builds, you’ll be blocked with no chance of a refund. Regardless of your ACTUAL innocence or not. 

The link being sent directly to you is a bit sus, particularly as her post seems to imply that you have to DIRECTLY MESSAGE her each time for the link. That’s a lot of effort for the price you pay for her builds.