Site owners beware, TSR are attacking other Sims related websites and are using any means necessary to force rival sites off the web.
It is already well known that TSR have eliminated the paysite competition by buying out rival sites and/or their staff. Sites have been bought out and closed down, owners have been offered ca$h to close or asked to sign contacts stating they will close down their sites permanently in return for a shiny FA badge and a set regular wage. This policy has worked nicely for squashing PAY competition, but what about FREE competition? Some ‘Freesite’ owners feel too strongly about EA’s EULA to sell their soul to the devil.
TSR have resorted to dirtier tactics to deal with this issue, They are sending TOU violations to hosts, some of these reports are even fabricated ( as was the case with GOS ) Hosting companies do not have the time or the knowledge to look into the legalities of such claims, and those that do quickly comply when threatened with imaginary legal action, which TSR could not possibly take due to the fact that they are the real pirates! On occasions where such complaints and threats are ignored, the site in question gets hacked, as was the recent case of Awesims. When their host ignored the unfounded claims of piracy the site was hacked and replaced with a porn site. I am also advised that the owner’s worksite and emails were hacked. Black garden has admitted to a few members of the FA team that she KNOWS that Tom himself hacked Awesims, however rather than being disgusted, she is quite blasé about the whole thing. Others are not so happy and it remains to be seen whether or not they have an ounce of guilt or humanity left in them or if they will just shrug it off in favor of a healthy PayPal balance.
Living Sims, a rival magazine site, was also hacked, Tom had plans to buy out Living Sims and close down their magazine, The start of these plans was to offer to pay them to make the TSR Simspiration magazine and then offer them ‘a little extra’ to close their site. The owner flatly refused, so TSR ( somewhat badly ) copied their ideas. A short while later their site was hacked. I have just found out that the name ‘Trance’ was used. It is a little known fact that Tom has had dummy accounts at TSR in the names thomastrance and Thomas_trance, he also used that name on an online game and has used it for Skype. None of this is widely known and was a long time ago.
Sunsetsims has also recently gone after Tom complained to Wordpress. If anyone can offer them secure hosting I would be grateful.
Reflexsims, GOS, Natural Sims, Simssecret, All4sims, Basicforsims, Simsartists, Gaysimsclub.. These are just a small sample of sites just off the top of my head that have been hit one way or another by TSR, there have been many others in the past and many more to come no doubt, and I am sure many more I do not know about. ( He admitted a couple of years ago that he hacked the rival pay site Exnem, but I have yet to find someone who cares )
One of TSR’s most memorable hacks was when the community started an online petition which was due to be handed in to EA, they managed to collect 614 signatures before it was hacked and the 614 names and emails were leaked out by TSR who branded the signers ‘pirates’
http://tsr.mustbedestroyed.org/?p=855
http://tsr.mustbedestroyed.org/?p=858
http://tsr.mustbedestroyed.org/?p=911
I can reveal the next target on the Tom-ass hit list is quite a useful site called http://community.livejournal.com/tsrforfree/ He is quite angry about this particular site and complaints have or are about to be sent, so the owners had better make a back up and look into alternative hosting. He is also stalking GOS again so beware.
In fact TSR will not stop until they are the only Sims site left. As a community you need to come together and most importantly DO NOT GIVE UP – STAND UP FOR YOURSELVES.
- Back up your sites regularly, if you are hacked – Restore.
- If you are taken down because of a TOS report – Find another host.
- If you know of a good host – Share this information with others who may need it.
- Do not be bought or blackmailed into closing your site.
- Ignore legal threats, you are doing nothing illegal by hosing a Sim site that complies with EA’s EULA, EA own all rights to the Sims, they say you can host it, so you can host it! Do not let a group of bloodsucking parasites tell you otherwise.
- Do not feel forced, threatened or blackmailed into displaying links to TSR or the workshop tool. The tool was created by the community for the community and is therefore owned by the community. TSR are very fond of threatening legal action to anyone who does not link to them simply because they used this tool. They have no legal stance on this whatsoever, and they know it. I have yet to meet one person who has been sued by TSR for anything, and yet they have issued many threats to just about everyone. ( myself included ) You may feel your site will not get hacked if you do not comply with his demands for links, Awesims complied and still got hacked.
- By Linking to TSR you are sending more innocent people their way to give up their money, give up their passwords to TSR’s unencrypted database for Toms easy pickings, and give up their personal details to them to share on the web. Do not put others at risk.
- If you are hacked or your site has been damaged through false claims made to your host you may decide to sue, I will give you his home address. I am sure your lawyer will make good use of it.
- Do not give up, too many sites have given up already, this progress makes him more determined to achieve his end goal. Do you really want TSR to be the only Sims site? If you once had a site/forum but were driven away, why not stand your ground and make a comeback? They only win if you let them.
10. Make sure you let new simmers know the dangers of TSR, or the vicious circle will never end.
TSR have ruined the Sims community, it is time to take it back.
Back in the days of the Sims 2, there were plenty of other Sims sites, the competition was killing TSR. Towards the end things were so bad they were considering closing. Subscriptions were at an all time low and FA’s were often given pay cuts prompting them to lose interest with the site. Not long before that Tom had bought a new luxury mansion for a 2nd home, but the tide turned quickly with more people than ever not renewing subscriptions, instead they were opting for free sites that were safer and with better quality downloads. Tom was ready to move on to another game, but Steve wanted to at least wait for the release of the Sims 3. He knew this would bring new subscribers – new players who had no idea of TSR’s reputation. He was right, that coupled with Toms renewed efforts to kill the competition and bury opposition, sites and forums started going down quicker than Atwa, and TSR got away with the murder of the Sims community.
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If you have made any nice shiny mirrored floors for your site, you had better watch out, Tom sees YOU as competition. Seriously, how can he accuse anyone of shamelessly copying a floor?
4 words: Petty. Bitter. Little. Man ( The last word is open for question )
Free gift or trojan horse? The choice is yours.
Update 1: I have just been informed via shoutbox that Adelevk has been hit.
Update 2 - from comments: “Coolsims (popular hairsite that is 100% free) has been hacked in 2010, and the people that hosted that site have been hacked too. They solved it themselves and were not impressed enough to mention it publically. But it happened.”