The huge TSR & EA debate continues to blow up to epic proportions I really, really don’t want to post about this, but I do feel that the information needs to be out there regarding the current dealings of TSR (The Sims Resource) and EA.* I’ll continue to update this thread as time goes on, hopefully I won’t make too much of a mess when updating). Anger against TSR has been around for awhile - in fact, there is a whole website titled TSR Must Be Destroyed in which many articles can be found showing details of various TSR members obtaining personal information (login accounts, Paypal) from other members if they happen to disobey TSR rules.* I cannot really comment on all of their past actions, you’ll have to read them yourself and gather your own opinion.* However, a new situation regarding The Sims Resource has surfaced, and this time I’m trying to follow the news… The Details: I’ll let Delphy from MTS2 explain it as his words are better than mine anyday. To sum it up, a member known as buggybooz had their account hacked in which all of their files from MTS2 were deleted.* Luckily, Delphy had a backup and restored them.* When he investigated the IP address, it turned out to be Thomas, one of the co-founders of TSR. In a recent update, TSR has stated that it was caused by security breach in which they had 3 months ago and it left many accounts vulnerable.* It’s your choice to believe it, but if that was the case, why didn’t they tell their members about this security breach in the first place? Why People are mad: Many people are already angry at TSR for a number of reasons… That they leak out private information of their members That they go against EA’s own EULA in which they are a paysite.* Not only that, but the Maxoids break their own EULA by allowing them to continue The “buddy-buddy” relationship between EA and TSR The Maxiod’s Actions: In my opinion, I believe it is the Sims Community Manager who is suppose to be civil and try to keep peace in The Sims Community.* However, this is not the case…especially with MaxoidHydra.* Many fans are trying to get the word out on The Sims 2 BBS about TSR’s actions, but the threads do not stay up for long.* They are quickly deleted by the Maxoids.* In fact, there were so many threads, that Hydra had to step in with the following message: It would seem some of our community members don’t have anything better to do today other than post off topic threads and hijack old discussions that happened earlier in the month. We’ve spent the whole morning trying to keep the boards clean. Please do not post Off Topic threads or hijack existing threads. Continuing to do this will result in a temp ban. Eesh. I hate playing the Bad Cop. Forgive me Hydra, but the last time I checked, TSR stands for The SIMS Resource.* Discussing the website isn’t deemed ‘off-topic’, and shouldn’t involve deleting threads.* No rules were broken…fans are trying to keep it clean and civil.* I mean, if you were going to delete the threads, wouldn’t you have to delete ANY thread which links or talks about fansite, good or bad news?* No, of course not.* I see threads there all the time guiding Simmers to various fan sites of the community.* Leaving those up and just taking down the TSR threads….just feels hypocritical.* Fans have a right to know what TSR is doing. It seems that instead of trying to help solve this problem, the Maxoids are making it worse.* An easy solution would have been, “We’re currently looking into this situation.* We appreciate your concerns and will take your thoughts into consideration while we speak with TSR about the issue.* In the meantime, please refrain from discussing until we can come up with a conclusion.”* I don’t understand what is so difficult about posting a note similar to that.* The worst thing about it is that they get paid!* I do this stuff for free, and it only took one minute of my time to type out, and it would of settled things down!* It’s not that hard to speak to the community, guys! The Deleted Threads: Just thought I would stick this up here, it’s a majority of the threads that were deleted (coming as soon as I get PDF’s)
All I can say is if Thomas did this then he's a imbecile for thinking they didn't have some way of tracking his IP address. And if Shakeshaft did what they say she did then I'm shocked because I didn't think she would stoop that low. I use to subscribe to them a long time ago but since my interest in Sims 2 has waned I haven't for a couple of years now.
Without more information, I'm not going to take a particular side whether TSR is fine or not, etc. It's right now too many frayed nerves, bottled up feelings, and bitterness from the last 8 or so years all spilling out. In any case, with the information on hand... I am rather disturbed at the fact people are quick to judge when some information are not adding up. For example, the IP address 70.85.179.186.... a reverse trace of that shows it belongs to a server over at ThePlanet in Texas. A quick google search shows this server has been involved in spamming users before. Some internal investigation from my end shows that IP block is registered to someone in China IP-Network:70.85.179.184/29 IP-Network-Block:70.85.179.184 - 70.85.179.191 Organization-Name:SHEN CHUAN Organization-City:Nanjing Organization-State:AS Organization-Zip:211101 Organization-Country:CHN So now we got a problem here. It's clear this server was utilized somehow, but it sounds like this server was merely used as the gateway to conduct the attacks. So potential theories: Someone accessed the server directly inside ThePlanet's data center OR someone utilized the server from an outside location to tunnel into that server and from there redirect outwards. Plus not to mention that entire IP block (70.85.179.184 - 70.85.179.191) is owned by a person or company...well, it raises a whole bunch of questions. Not to point fingers or anything, but I think we've all possibly pointed fingers a bit too quickly without reviewing the initial evidence presented. On the other hand, I'd like to raise questions about security at TSR. What was the nature of the security breech? What was taken? Were passwords somehow revealed and compromised?? The only method I could think of right now is someone slipped in code which captured people's passwords OR their user database stores passwords in plaintext.
Well you know how the paysites must be destroyed community is TSR farts and they all start yelling somebody murdered the Pope or something. They go on and on about how they want their TOU upheld at whatever site they create for but yet do they uphold the TOU's the artists over at TSR have? Nobody says that they have to subscribe to TSR to get all the content they have there. But yet it isn't a problem for them to go the damn Booty and steal their work there and then say oh it's poor quality anyways!
