I can't resist throwing in my two cents. I think this is a great idea. It was getting rather old just scrolling through pages of bad wallpapers or bad recolors to find something that you thought looked good until you got it in game.

Thanks for the quality adjustment. It was much needed and will be much appreciated.

I like this news - quote " It was getting rather old just scrolling through pages of bad wallpapers or bad recolors to find something " quote.
There are so many acid bright walls recolors here - I just cant look on them without a tears in my eyes.
I hope my threads will be in safety :D

Thank you! This makes hunting for good downloads not SO much of a "hunt" any more! :bandit:

okay, first I was a test subject. I lurked for the longest time. Then I delurked because this is my favorite site and if I want to know the truth and get the latest news, I come here. I can imagine that in order to keep costs to a managable level something has to be done so........it is time to pick and choose what will be uploaded and what will be downloaded. So only the best of the best will be posted eventually? hummm............ I guess this would not be a good place for allowing someone to experiment on me or my game who is not an above average modder? hummmm Maybe my trust factor has slipped a little because I got the download from MTS2, even though I ended up deleting it after seeing it in my game. Okay, I get it. You convinced this test subject.

i think this is awesome. i think with a site like this with so many people and so many uploads, it's necessary. i mean, if everyone who used this site uploaded 1 thing, it'd be hundreds of thousands of uploads. but some people just upload anything and everything and if the site is full of sub-par things (no offense) it's hard to find all the amazing things. i mean, if the site had 50 million crappy submissions and 10 awesome ones, the awesome ones would never be found and people wouldn't wanna come here anymore.

PLUS if people know that this site has higher standards, they'll even try harder on their submissions and end up improving their own talents. there's no downside to this...

Before I voice my dissent, I have to say I genuinely respect all creators and moderators. This is not egg-throwing, this is just feedback.

I see how server space would be an issue, but by deeming things poor quality, you run the risk of hurting some feelings. I have a slow modem, downloads take time, but I would not feel remorseful deleting an object myself if I really found the quality not up to par. No one forces anyone to download anything. If this were a pay site, maybe I would miffed about altered seams, or poor screenshots. This is censorship, and disappointing to new or artistically challenged creators.

The clause most irksome about this motion is how the tags are public. It's like wearing an emblem of shame. Perhaps it would be more compassionate to send a notice to tagged creators for an opportunity to improve submissions before they are pulled, but within a set time frame. I can estimate the tedium of the notes, but they could, in the long run, be worth it.

taladoxa,

I actually pointed out in my very first post that I realise perfectly well people aren't going to be happy. Fact is, this is my site and if I want the quality to be raised then thats my decision to make. We have plenty of tutorials and guidelines which people still don't follow. We reject tens of items each and every day becuase they are bad quality. Most creators suck it up and do start producing good works. You just dont see that becuase it's behind the scenes.

This is all about quality - server space is a secondary issue. I want MTS2 to be the best downloads in the entire community. As you said, this is not a paysite. We do not have infinite resources. We volunteer our time here and for us to privately PM creators, some of whom haven't been on the site for months and some of us simply ignore when we tell them to change stuff (yes, we have tried this before you know), then we need to take more steps.

It's a public tag yes. It's not a new idea though - wikipedia informs people of articles that are not up to scratch, and warns people who are reading it that it may not be up to the par of the rest.

Fact is, this is a big site, the decision has already been made, and I realised perfectly well - as I said in my first post - that this would annoy some of you. I actually can't do anything on this site without annoying somebody, so perhaps when you put yourself in my shoes you'd appreciate that sometimes hard decisions have to be made.

It may or may not be censorship, but since when was this site a country? There are no "rights" here, nor is there something that says we aren't allowed to change things for fear of what the members think. MTS2 has, I think, been one of the only sites in the community who aren't afraid to stand up and say "Okay, this isn't working, lets' change it". We've changed the entire downloads system at least 3 times now, along with a lot of other things on the site. By changing and refining things, the entire site and it's image in the community is improved.

When we changed to the new download browser and core pages, people hated it at first. I got so much abuse over that change that I almost quit, but I didn't. I knew it was the right thing to do, and sure enough people ended up loving the system. Big changes like that have happened a lot in MTS2s history, and they are happening again now with this tagging system.

As you can see from the replies above, it's been far more positive from the members and the downloaders than the negatives. The good creators need change nothing. The only thing that does change is that people get better becuase there are higher quality standards to set.

If you have the bar set so low that anybody can submit anything - which has been the case - then you will get many submissions that simply aren't up to scratch. Sometimes you just have to stick your hand up and say "Wait a second..." and change things. It may not be compassionate or fair to implement this system, but equally why is it fair for the great creators to have thier work buried under a sea of bad screenshots, low quality items and bad descriptions? It's not - and it's the great stuff and the good creators I want to keep.

I realise I've rambled on a bit but I hope that by re-reading this and the first post, you see that it's not quite as simple or as easy as you might think it is.

Regards,
Delphy

i still think it's for the best
also sometimes people dont apreciate how large this site is.
perhaps people need to compare the MASSIVE size of the servers compared to some sites, not just sims sites.

hope that makes sense.

Delphy;

I am a philanthropic to a far degree. It was not my intention to rile you up. All of your points are very valid, my concern was primarily over people's feelings. Keep up the great work. You have my respect.

I really wish people would stop abusing the meaning of the First Ammendment in the US Constitution. Free speech and lack of censorship only means that (in theory, anyway) the US government cannot imprison you or confiscate your property or kill you for speaking out against the government. It does not mean that people have to like you, cannot tell you to shut the hell up if you sound like a dick, or cannot disagree with you vocally. Restaurants still have the right to refuse service, malls can ask you to leave the premises, and website OWNERS can still remove content they deem inappropriate or not conducive to the operation of their site. Put your flags away.

Good luck mts2 I think this is a good move, I know some people will be angry, but I know that if my few uploads are tagged I won't mind - it's for the good of the community, and if I can always improve. This is a step in the right direction IMO. While most of the things that I download here are of great quality, there is the occasional download that does live up to its promises, and I look forward to a day where I can be 100% confident that I am getting a quality download. Good luck to everyone

I'm not a "great and talented" creator like alot of people here, but I create some uploads every once in a while. From my standpoint, this is GOOD. It gives thos of us who aren't good enough a chance to improve that we wouldn't have had before. I really don't see how people could be too offended by this. We are all beginners at some point, and it is the willingness to improve and make a better product that separates those that are good and those who are not.

If it comes to our attention that an object hasn't been tagged, though it should be, should we make a note to one of the moderators/admin through a PM or such? Or just have a cookie and sit back like good children to allow them to do their work? I was just thinking that it must be time consuming sorting through the older files, and might be a little helpful for them to get a heads up if one is spotted...

This is a good idea but I am seeing more of there and not many of them are deleted in a week. What is the responce time to review them and delete them?

Delphy said it will be two weeks to delete them.

I can see this to be a great idea this will make it better in most respects. And has prompted me to clean up and delete most of my own uploads for being rather soso after my latest creation of what I thought was a good lot was rejected. And in some respect was hurt as spent quite awhile making it and thought it had met the guidelines seems I was wrong.

But that is the way it is and I respect the decision it will be a lot harder for shoddy work to get on here.

And I do understand as bandwidth is expensive and glad to see that this has happened to hopefully see some better work on here.

I have been looking for a way to say how much I love this site. I have seen a lot of Sims 2 sites and really wasn't impressed but when I was downloading from TSR I ran across a link to MTS2 and was completely impressed with everything. I play The Sims for fun. I wanted to learn to make the objects and clothing but really am not artistic on a pc. I have to say reading that MTS2 is so big on quality sure make me feel better about downloading from this site. I think this is great and wish other sites cared that much...Just wanted to say a big THANKS to all of MTS2 and The Creators....You are Awesome..:wave:

I just like Yaobaka would like to help admins and moderators find stuff that should be tagged or doesn't follow rules.
I've always wanted to be able to return the favour, since i'm not that great at making tons of highest quality content.
Recently I've seen quite a lot of things that don't mention EP requirmnet or houses in the starter section which cost over 70000. That's nonsense and I'd like to be able to warn other people!

Thank you for your offers to help- however many uploads were made before the guidelines were instituted- only we know which uploads those are- and we can not remove older uploads for breaking rules that did not exist back then.
We have an amazing team, and the offer of help is truly appreciated but we have it covered

Ah, but beautifullass, Delphy's in Ireland, so no 1st Ammendment!
Now I've removed all the possibility of a BANG! factor for the first line of what I really want to say...

FINALLY! I appreciate the efforts of all creators on here, but when I'm looking for item x I do get annoyed at having to sift through pages of items a-y, z, a2-y2, z2, a3-y3... !
I know it's nearly impossible to get it right the first time, after my endevours playing with the BCONs in custom majors, I should do. But it annoys me when things are obviously either flawed or below the standards of what's expected here at MTS2. Webspace and bandwidth are expensive, why should they be wasted on things very few people are actually going to want to download?

I wonder if it would be possible for an automatic pm to be sent to the creator of an item when it is tagged? Otherwise we will have a lot of people (possibly including me at some point) complaining because they would have improved/updated their item, if only they knew it were tagged.

Now I'm off to check if any of my items are tagged, and hunt through the "careers" section of my downloads folder to find the heap of crud that overwrote the Business career in my game... (#?*$!!!)

Oh yes, and I like the avatar LyricLee. Very... er... what's the word... :D

What I was essentially saying is how ridiculous it is to claim first ammendment rights to post crappy stuff on a privately owned site. But you're right there as well! No such a thing in Eireann!! (That's my birth place as well.) Delphy, shall we refer to you thusly as Fuhrer or Czar?

just a quick question. sorry I guess this is in the wrong place. but when doing an upload, I have done the rar file ok but does it take long to upload the photos. it seems to take forever and ever. I have my photos in photobucket site.

cheers

Well, I was about to upload a sim, which was made using bodyshop and maxis skins. I'm no skinner, and I have yet to find any sims2 tutorials that are truely a 'from scratch' approach. However, seems my sim, despite my spending bloody hours getting it to look like the person intended, is not wanted here.

Tagging might improve quality, but a lot of fun will be lost on the way.
I always thought thats why we played sims2, coz it was fun.

Thanks for all the downloads over the last 12 months, including the slightly crappy but inspirational ones.

I neither like nor dislike this rule.

I like it because then I know that I am downloading high quality stuff off of MTS2.

I dislike it becuase most of my downloads have been removed and also because normally after I upload something here, I delete it off my computer to save space. Now that most of my downloads have been removed, I cannot retrieve them, so I now I cannot upload my old recolors to another site.

I agree with rehab's second paragraph.

Hello my Download Has Been Tagged What do i DO?

Nice going. I download most of my stuff here at mts2 and it's good to know that you actully care what is on your site is being rated.You really do an excellent job. Thank you so very much.