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albycnyu · 2 years

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Baby, I Swear It's Déjà Vu

TW: bullying, harassment, mentions of suicide attempt(s), racism, LGBTQIA+phobia, sexual harassment, ableism, abuse

Didn’t think I’d be making a post like this, but as the title states, I’m having a case of déjà vu that I wanna share. Before I get into the nitty-gritty of this post, I wanted to give a rundown about what I’ve personally seen within the year I’ve actively been apart of the Sims community (joining servers, following n engaging with other simmers, commenting on posts, etc.).

One of the biggest controversies that recently blew up at the end of July (and moved into August) in the Sims community and caused people to rethink (or double down on) their position on alotta things was EA “changing” their policy about modders paywalling their content; long story short, EA made a statement that CC and mods were no longer allowed to be paywalled and that the only means for creators to be compensated for the work that they’ve done was through donations. This included Early Access, which was clear to many but not to others.

Lemme explain to the best of my ability this Early Access thing and also add where some of the problems came in. Here goes.

NOTE: To skip this entire section, CTRL+F and type "unwashed".

EA’s early access policy stated that mods must be released to the public after two weeks (three weeks max) because while the assets used to create said mods belonged to EA, the company (who could’ve flatout pulled a Disney on everyone) acknowledged that modders deserved a form of compensation for the time and work they put in to contribute in making the Sims franchise (in this case, The Sims 4) a better and pleasant experience for everyone. That being said, EA still about they money and copyright, so they didn’t want mofos to completely profit off they assets which is why the policy was put in place (a policy, mind you, they NEVER bothered overseeing).

Although there were plenty (I’d like to think the majority) of modders who followed the ToS EA made to the letter, others (most of them who create Alpha CC and convert meshes n whatnot from other games) took it upon themselves to do the complete opposite.

From what I’ve seen, some would start out doing Early Access content then began to make Exclusive content for their supporters and one of two things would occur: eventually the majority of their content would become exclusive or Early Access would be used as a loophole to keep their items behind a paywall by claiming in their tiers that items’d be released in 2-3wks but then when you check it’s been months. Even years.

When they do release the content to the public, in order for people to get it, they’d have to go through sites like Adfly (a site which is known for causing viruses but compensates the individual who uses it) The Sims Resource, Simsfinds (formerly known as Simsdom), and Bootsy. Others would even go as far as to tell people who already paid for their content to go through the extra steps to obtain the content PAID for (ie emailing the creator directly to get a DL link)

And recently, making Sims content that’s Blender Only (yes, this is a thing).

I’ve also seen cases in which people would come out of nowhere and join spaces for the sole purpose of advertising paywalled content (early access and exclusives). Some of these advertisements were directed towards minorities (specifically Black n Brown Simmers) who had very little to no representation in the Sims franchise and would seek out content to represent them because if EA ain’t finna do it (and let’s be real, they haven’t) simmers that know how to mod will (and if they didn't know, they were gonna learn how that day).

Between the time EA announced the new paywall policy then changed it to an even vaguer one, specifically the duration in which modders’re allowed to keep their stuff behind a paywall, the Sims community was met with an entire wave of emotions ranging from devastation, confusion, rage, glee, disgust, disappointment, and relief.

There were Creators who-- along with going out of their way to call people who supported EA’s decision “broke” “whiny” and “entitled”— announced that they were done with making content for the Sims (mainly Sims 4) and either mass deleted their content or said they were moving to other platforms such as SecondLife or IMVU (despite rarely if ever showing interest in any of the two before).

They’d even block and/or be flat out disrespectful towards people who didn’t fully agree with them (regardless of whether or not they were a supporter).

Then when EA updated the policy they announced being “back in business”.

Arguments made by both modders and non-modders The Sims (specifically TS4) would’ve been absolutely nothing without mods and CC came about as well which completely disregarded the existence of both PC and console gamers who play The Sims without them.

Creators who followed the rules to the letter but also relied heavily on the income the Early Access policy provided them also voiced their concerns and devastation.

Some even lost their entire ever-loving minds and began to rage at the community itself. (lookin’ at you magic-bot and your r*pe comparison!)

Some Early Access creators announced they’d abide by the new policy (others said they wouldn’t) then when it changed, they immediately put their content back behind a paywall with an updated ToS of their own.

For the ones who were unsure about whether or not Early Access was allowed, there was a mixture of some releasing their stuff and others not doing it, while also expressing concern that if Early Access was no longer a thing, they’d be severely impacted.

There were modders who even went as far as to create FAKE legal documents that magically disappeared the minute EA said, “Oh Early Access is fine, but it’s gotta be released within a reasonable amount of time.”

On top of faking legal documents, they made this weird loophole by creating a Blender Only File that can be converted into a Sims .package file… even tho the Blender Only File still belongs to the EA bc it was made to work specifically for the Sims… yeahhhh

But there was also a huge wave of relief from modders who found themselves treating their hobby as a job and felt pressured to constantly put out content due to having a Patreon too. Even MoonChildLovestheNight falls into this category; despite literally comparing being put on a list to the Holocaust in her rage induced rant (which she denies), she let everyone know in more ways than one that something she chose to do became something she felt like she had to do (and that’s … really sad).

In short, alotta people were showing their entire unwashed bootyholes and it became very apparent that a particular group of modders— who very well may’ve started off making content for the Sims out of genuine love for the franchise itself and desire to make a broken game (yes TS4 is fkn broken) better experience for everyone (especially BIPOC)— saw the community as their cashcow much like EA itself (granted EA is 1000x worse). And while they didn’t wanna be treated like a business because that would require them to acknowledge the fact their supporters are also their customers who have every right to critique and inquire about products modders make (as well as call them out on their severe lack of professionalism), they certainly made money and paywalled their items like one. (You gotta be one of the most off the chains unethical greedy SoBs to paywall LGBTQIA+ content on PRIDE MONTH! And youse tellin’ me not to treat youse like a business?! REALLY?!)

So now that I got that part out of the way, here’re my thoughts about EA’s policy on paywalls and the situation as a whole. As a concept, I’m for it and, prior to shit hitting the fan, I’ve had no problem with the idea of showing financial support to modders that I like (ie SavageSims, Ebonix, etc.). This might be a TMI, but I’ve given modders $210 in the two years I’ve been playing/creating stories on TS4 and for me, that’s not alot compared to what I’ve could’ve spent had I constantly remained subscribed to these modders. However, the execution— correction, the severe LACK in execution— of the paywall policy is the reason why the Sims community is in such of state of disarray now. I’ve stated multiple times that people should be compensated for the amount of time and work they put into creating what is basically fanwork. I’ve also said that where EA could’ve pulled a Disney (or even a Nintendo) and flat out said, “Yeah, no.” they took upon themselves to acknowledge modders in the community and allowed modders to paywall their content provided they release it to the public after a certain amount of time (2-3 weeks). The problem comes in with the fact that many modders decided to break these rules (while simultaneously requesting theirs not to be broken) and created their own marketplace and EA just... let it happened.

And because EA did absolutely NOTHING to oversee that modders were adhering to their paywall policy (opting to just focus on releasing broken packs after broken packs), a lot of ish that should’ve never happened happened. Yes, I’m basically copy-pasting an old tweet of mine that has a few repeat but I feel these things must be stressed because I don’t think people understand how wild this is (and it’s in no particular order):

Modders claiming to have made items from scratch when it’s been shown that at best the items were bought and converted from 3d asset sites or at worst stolen from creators who don't even make Sims content (ie SecondLife).

Modders saying join their Patreon to get item(s) 2-3wks in advance and the item(s) remain locked behind a paywall.

Modders who take other modders’ items to make a build or recolor and lock it behind a paywall (even when told NOT to).

Modders who go out of their way to make alt accounts and basically scam simmers outta even more money.

Modders releasing their items for "free" then when you click to DL it leads you to Adfly or some other site that's capable of fkn your PC up.

Modders being straight up disrespectful when questioned about why they didn't release an item they claimed would be released after a certain date.

Modders who went out of their way to put trackers in their items and would either dox and/or harass people and make viruses to break your game; then tell their Patrons to EMAIL them to get the items they locked behind their Patreon. Even though Patrons already PAID to unlock the content (why the extra step, my guy???)

Do I even need to mention modders who’d leave for MONTHS at a time (or in Curbs case, they’ve been inactive for years) and still have the unmitigated gall to charge their Patrons? Or how some price their shit waaaaaay too high (and/or make almost six figures) and their stuff is low quality? Cuz guess what? That happens!

The list goes on, yall.

And again, EA didn’t do anything about it. They put all of the responsibility of reporting/documenting ToS violations, harassment and bullying, exploitation, etc. onto regular people (you n lil ol me) some whom decided, “If EA not gonna do it, I will.” to be the voice for anti-paywalls due to how problematic paywalling has become. However, even when this ish was repeatedly brought to their attention, EA kept going about their day leaving the ever mounting issues completely unresolved and the weight of this burden on those constantly reminding folks that, “HEY! Your fave is problematic!” until something happened in HQ which led to EA making their vague updated paywall policy. I dunno what happened, but it’s been theorized that it was either a doxxing situation that EA opted to ignore then caught heat for or that EA decided to cause the community to verbally tussle with one another to get heat off of them for once again releasing a broken pack (from what I’ve heard this broken pack was worst than Wedding Stories). Or yanno… Cowbuild charging FIVE FKN DOLLARS on Ko-Fi for a bed she didn’t even fkn make.

Either way, for the briefest amount of time, EA’s paywall policy caused a disruption which showed quite a number of modders’ true colors. People also started to educate themselves on the matter since what they was once thought to be a black and white issue was clearly not the case. (Oh yeah, love, there’s LAYERS). For a moment, it seemed like everything was going in the right direction, especially for Anti-Paywallers because as more and more people became aware of how increasingly audacious paywalls has become, people’s stances about paywalls changed as a whole. Even Early Access was now getting side-eyes which is crazy cuz literally everybody (even Anti-Paywallers) supported that. Finally, after all these years, people’re listening and these permapaywallers would finally be held accountable for their actions! And I betcha they were all thinkin, “It only took my ass getting doxxed, harassed, receiving death threats, attempting suicide— oh wait… no? It wasn’t that? It was yall seeing yalls faves act a whole fool cuz they bags were at risk of getting fckd up by EA? Oh okay.”

But then a few hiccups of some sort occurred in the Anti-Permapaywall community. Alotta allegations, alotta fighting, alotta screenshots, alotta shade, and alotta links.

And you wanna know what’s fascinating to me about this whole situation? I’ve seen this before. In a totally different community: The MLM v. Anti-MLM community.

For those who don’t know what an MLM (aka Multi Level Marketing, aka Pyramid Scheme) is I’ll tell you: It’s a SCAM! It’s A SHAM! IT’S A CULT! IT’S ALL LIES!! IT’S THE BAD. FKN. PLACE!!!

But, wait? Aren’t I comparing apples to oranges here? MLMs’re far more problematic than what’s happening in the Sims community. They manipulate people outta they money, the top 1% of MLMs abuse their downline, and said downline believes the bullswanky that their “mentors” tell them. So how can I possibly compare that community to this one? Because of the actions and reactions that I’ve seen. Lemme count the ways starting with the “Boss Babes”, the Modders who paywall content, and the companies that allow this ish to happen. And when I say modders, I’m not talking about all of them, I’m talking about the ones that fkd it up for other modders and continue to do so.

Okay so boom:

MLM companies make policies prohibiting their reps from making false statements about products and their compensation plans. Much like EA, these companies never oversee their policies and all their reps to spread false statements as means to recruit and sell products anyway.

It’s only when these companies receive notices from people capable of investigating and potentially shutting ish down did they actually start to do ish like give out warnings and fire reps.

I’m not gonna repeat EA’s policy being broken by perma-paywalling modders, so I’ll move on from that.

MLM reps claim that they own their own businesses when it in fact, they’re independent contractors working for an MLM, they’re also said MLMs’ customers because the reps’re are constantly buying and stocking ish.

Said it before, but I’ll say it again, modders in the Sims community don’t want to be treated like a business, but they operate their Patreon like one and much like how MLMs treat their reps and the reps treat their downline, modders treat their supporters like customers.

This’ll probably be deemed a snide remark but I don’t really care: in addition to this, modders claim that the items they create are 100% theirs when the truth is that it belongs to EA because without the assets EA provides (big and small) modders’ ish wouldn’t work in the Sims.

Both MLM reps and modders’re mad disrespectful towards their consumers/downline/supporters. In the Reps cases, they would curse, belittle, degrade, and even gaslight their downline. If you’re not making money the way you were told you’d be, it’s because you “didn’t work hard enough”, “you were lazy”, “you’re not doing enough to promote your business”, etc. Etc. Etc. It’s not the fact you’re in an MLM where the majority of people lose all their money— oh no, can’t be that whatsoever— it’s all your fault.

As it pertains to modders, if you even breathe out a question about their content (specifically a release date), you’ll be met with hostility and immediately be silenced.

Case in point, alotta modders who create Alpha CC and/or convert content from other games believe that EA’s policy doesn’t apply to them or the way they operate their shop (I dunno why that’s just something a few of ‘em say), so they’re very quick to shut down any and ALL inquiries about when something’ll be released. If it’ll EVER be released.

If You’re Anti-MLM, You’re a Jealous Hater and a Misogynist:

Due to the majority of MLM reps being women (and/or femmes) if someone’s apart of the Anti-MLM group, they’re against the empowerment of women and’re jealous of the Boss Babes.

It’s not the gaslighting.

It’s not the lies.

It’s not the female MLMers abusing their downline.

It’s not the fact MLMers keep sayin’ ish like, “If you can spend money on this and that, you can totally invest in your own business.”

Not the fact that the majority of MLMers lose their money.

Totally not the fact that MLMs’re a predatory cult and MLMers prey on the most vulnerable people to recruit and manipulate (majority of said MLMers being women).

Oh no, it’s none of that. It’s you, Dear Anti-MLMer. You hate seeing people succeed. You hate your 9-5 and’re seething at these women being successful.

Maybe YOU yourself were in an MLM and never made any money because you didn’t “work hard enough” and now you’re a bitter individual with waaaay too much time on their hands, screaming into the virtual void to not be “scammed”. And you’re jealous. Angry. Bitter. And Broke.

If You’re Anti-Permapaywall, You’re an Entitled Hater who Doesn’t Respect Artists:

Why’re you mad over pixels, sis (or bro)?

No one forced you to buy my ish. Yall chose to support me. Not the other way around.

Without me and modders like me, TS4 would’ve been DoA.

You don’t know all the time and effort I, the Modder, put into my craft so for you to complain about paywalls and Exclusive Content means you’re entitled.

It’s not the fact that People constantly break ToS.

Not the fact people constantly create loopholes and alt accounts to drain and/or scam more money outta unsuspecting simmers.

Not the fact that Modders charge RIDICULOUS amount of money on ish they claimed to have made from scratch but converted from a 3d site and/or stolen from elsewhere. *Bonus Point if they already charged ya for that ish in their previous Patreon tiers.*

Not the fact that modders put trackers and viruses in their items.

Not the fact that people have been doxxed by Modders.

Not the fact that people have been stalked n harassed on and offline by Modders (and they fans).

Not the fact that people outside of the Sims community have had to deal with modders stealing their work.

Not the fact that an individuals make 10x more than actual EA employees but still want MORE of people’s money cuz Greed.

Nah, it’s definitely none of that. It’s 100% you.

You mean to tell me that you can spent money on NetFlix, Amazon, Spotify subscriptions etc., but can’t afford to spend “$2-$5” on content made from scratch?

You just want everything I make for free? That’s Broke Bitch Behavior.

Then we have the Anti-MLM and Anti-Permapaywall communities.

Much like the Anti-MLM movement, the Anti-Permapaywall movement came about when people started voicing their concerns about not only the amount modders in the Sims community charged for their content, but the lack of transparency on modders’ parts about when (if ever) they’d release items they’ve had locked behind a paywall for a very long time.

I personally don’t know when modders like Cowbuild, Pixelvibes, Bergdorf, and Busra-tr (just to name a few) began their create a doxxing list crusade of some sort, but information about that (and more) can be read here and here.

While the Anti-MLM movement began to increase so did the number of people (alot of them being former MLM reps of all ranks) sharing their stories about what it was like being apart of an MLM. The Anti-Permapaywall movement imho is slowly growing and gaining more traction not only due to what happened these past few weeks, but also because it’s still a new-ish thing alotta people aren’t privy to. To be frank, you really have to look for the Anti-Permapaywall content at times.

From what I’ve seen, the goal of this particular movement is to

spread awareness of modders who’re milking people out they money (like EA does) and actively go out of their way to silence people through intimidation

basically demand that EA creates a stricter, blunter paywall policy and see to it that it’s followed so that permapaywalls (and the folks who make ‘em) come to an official end so that modders who actually follow EA’s ToS to the letter can be rewarded for their hard work (either through donations, Early Access and general support).

Both Anti communities literally do the same thing (albeit different subjects) in terms of seeking to make the world a better place. And, as I’ve stated before, a huge shift recently occurred in people’s attitudes towards paywalls so, there’s really only one way a movement can go like this can go: up.

However, as I’ve also stated, hiccups occur in which a community with a common goal begin to fight amongst each other and majority of the time, it’s due to the actions of people within the community and the sudden inability to understand the concept of what accountability is.

It’s here I’d like to tell yall the story of Mallory, formerly known as idontwantnohuns (I don’t want no huns).

Mallory entered the Anti-MLM community, I wanna say almost a year ago. Her Anti-MLM content consisted of skits, a variety of characters (one being a hilarious elderly woman, the other being a “Boss Babe”, and more), songs, and when it was serious (ie racism, ableism, homophobia, abuse, etc.) she’d get serious.

Due to all of this, her platform grew pretty quickly. I mean… how could it not? She was rather unique. She was met with alotta support from the Anti-MLM community, especially those who contributed in spearheading the movement.

Because I wasn’t always in the mood to get my fill on Anti-MLM content and wasn’t on social media as much— come to think of it, I may’ve went on a small break at the time— I didn’t see everything, but when I returned I noticed that alotta cryptic shit was going around about how “everyone oughta go their separate ways”, “the Anti-MLM community isn’t a place for drama”, so on and so forth.

I’ve also noticed Mallory beginning to talk about how the Anti-MLM community was as catty and bad as the MLM community and not only had she lost followers, a number of Anti-MLMers distanced themselves from her.

So, lil ol me, bein’ outta the loop and wanting to know wtf happened decided to a lil digging, and here’s what I managed to gather to the best of my ability:

According to some Anti-MLMers, Mallory went from being a woman contributing to the conversation of MLMs topics to wanting to be first in starting the conversations.

An example of this would be the incident in which a former MONAT rep was sharing her story about getting bullied out of the company by her upline. I’ll get discuss this more in a minute.

Some found it a lil annoying how Mallory would always seem to focus on one topic when the majority have moved on from it. I’m not sure which topics— I’d like to think it was something like the MONAT convention or somethin’ and not the times when she called out racist bigots— but it was something that made some folks go, “Let it go, sis.”

There were allegations of Mallory bullying and harassing individuals as well as using an MLM tactic known as love-bombing.

I’m not too familiar with the term but from what I heard, it’s a method in which an individual gives somebody (who might be vulnerable) attention and affection as means to influence them into doing something.

Allegedly, Mallory love-bombed the former MONAT rep into doing an interview with her. According to the former rep, she said that Mallory would shower her with praise, telling her how brave she was in speaking up against MONAT and their practices, giving her compliments here and there, and other stuff that I don’t recall. The former rep also discussed how an incident occurred in which a friend of hers allegedly said something transphobic on a podcast and Mallory repeatedly contacted her about it to the point she (the rep) felt she was being harassed.

Other Anti-MLMers began to share their stories about Mallory’s behavior towards them which they deemed being toxic and practically harassment. And then at some point, people (Mallory included) started sharing DMs and voicechats about private conversations.

Of course this was met with people saying, “Why couldn’t yall handle this private?”, “What does this have to do with the Anti-MLM movement?”, “Why the drama?” Details. Details.

To be honest, there’ve many cases in which Anti-MLMers have engaged in harmful behavior towards other Anti-MLMers. But I guess none of that matters to some folks because the common goal is end MLMs— everything else is drama.

During this time, Mallory was relatively quiet and mainly focused on putting out Anti-MLM content; whenever she was asked to respond to said allegations, her responses were usually, “I apologize and I’m reflecting on my actions and if I’ve wronged you please let me know. My DMs’re always opened.” However when people (who were from marginalized communities) did come to her about things the harmful things she’s done, she’d reply with a thank you and, perhaps my favorite, “I’ve received your messaged.” (whatever the fuck that means).

Small Note: I received a message just like that one before. I told a white Anti-MLM that using Tupac’s love song to Black Women as a Roe v Wade anthem to all women was extremely inappropriate; I didn’t request for her to remove the video just told her next time to pick a different song. Her response? “I received your message. Thank you.” Then she deleted my comment and blocked me when I got into an argument with a white woman who accused me of being a “segregating gatekeeper”. (That was truly a fun experience).

While I don’t know what went on through Mallory’s head at the time, it appeared to me that she figured if she ignored it, it’d go away. But it didn’t. Instead it increased, especially when she talked about how MLMs needed to be held accountable for their actions.

Because these allegations mounted and she was being faced with more criticism, she finally had no choice but to address the allegations.

She denied all of it and said, “Look at all the allegations and ask yourselves if you really think that’s who I am? If you do, I can’t argue it but I’m not that kind of person. I’m reflective in my actions and I do my best to make things right. I pride myself in helping people and that’s all I wanna do.”

She also mentioned her ADHD and whenever something happens to somebody or community she cares about, she spirals and wants to resolve the issue otherwise she can’t rest; as a result the situation with the former MLM rep occurred where she repeatedly sent voice messages asking to have a conversation. But she wouldn’t necessarily call that harassment, but she apologized if the former rep (and anybody else) felt harassed by her.

I didn’t know where to put this, so I’ll put this here too. At one point in time, I can’t recall, she doxxed a former friend’s number while sharing messages between them, due to not scratching out the woman’s number completely. But by the time she came back to correct that mistake, the damage was done. Did she do it on purpose because she was angry? I truly do not know, but it definitely wasn’t a good look for her.

Another incident occurred in which Mallory announced her departure from the Anti-MLM community on Instagram and moved her entire platform over to YouTube. In her farewell message she talked about being bullied and betrayed by people she trusted. While she would continue the fight in helping bring down MLMs, she couldn’t see herself being associated with the toxic Anti-MLM community on Instagram anymore. Then she dipped.

Now let me tell you the story of Sunny, aka Mack3030. Just need to repeat that this is only from my point of view.

Sunny started off reblogging posts from other bloggers about their frustration with paywalled content being low quality and locked behind even more paywalls. Then she herself began to make posts of her own about this topic. In addition to this, she took part in exposing permapaywallers and their shitty practices.

She made a directory that contained quite a number of paywall modders and their problematic behaviors (mild and extreme) which is very helpful considering it saves the hassle of having to look everything up yourself (the available links’re right there).

She also made a list of modders who followed EA’s ToS to support and where to get permapaywalled content for free. Cuz let’s be real, if these permapaywallers’re happily breaking the rules (cuz suck it EA), why should simmers care about abiding by their rules? Equal playin’ field imho.

At some point in time, Sunny ended up becoming another one of Cowbuild’s victims and she proceeded to get doxxed and harassed. Because of this, Sunny’s mission to end scummy permapaywalled content became very personal. It’s one thing to steal and convert items then overcharge unsuspecting people, but to try and intimidate people into silence over pixels (many of which you didn’t even make)?! You really got people fucked up.

Sunny’s blog started to gain more traction and with the way shit blew up on Twitter, I’d reckon quite a number of people (myself included) shared her directory so that people can be informed.

It was during this time, a memory of allegations I saw in passing about Sunny potentially being a racist was circulating, so I decided to do some digging on good ol Tumblr.

According to a variety of what seems to be throwaway accounts, Sunny went by the username SolarPirate on DollHouseMafia. In a no longer private conversation, SolarPirate engaged in a political conversation in which she said revealed she had voted for Trump twice, but after the terroristic attack on the Capitol January 6th, 2021, she expressed deep regret in her voting decisions.

In addition to this, there were allegations of SolarPirate engaging in bullying and harassing multiple Black members into leaving the DHM. which was operated by Pescado, whom’s been shown to have made quite a number of racist remarks about Asians.

(Update: I made a mistake about Pescado's involvement with DHM. Here's the info I copy-pasted:

Pescado **DID NOT RUN DHM**. I was a part of the Dollhouse Mafia mod team for a time as 13Ravens.

Pescado was never involved in it. The only relation he had to any of that was, or so I heard, sort of helping in hosting links and shit on his domain Paysitesmustbedestroyed (which was the OG years before downwithpatreon), also similar to TS4Rebels.

Sorry about that. I know this lengthy post is based solely from my POV, but I still wanna make sure I give yall as much accurate information as possible, so please lemme know if there're any mistakes and I'll fix and/or link the correct info in a timely fashion. Thanks!)

There was also a time where Sunny on her Mack3030 account laughed at an anti-Black comment made about Harrie, a Black Woman. In response to the allegations, Sunny confirmed being SolarPirate and the fact she voted for Trump, however she denied being a racist and alleged that alotta the screenshots circulating about her were doctored by the permapaywallers themselves to discredit her and the entire Anti-Permapaywall movement as a whole.

(I also wanna add she made several attempts to defend herself against the racist allegations (along with her voting decision at the time) and as a result, people who used to be friends and/or cordial with her cut ties with Sunny as well as voiced their disgust and disappointment in her. Yeah even Bucky-- who's no longer in the community (iirc)-- and that speaks volumes.)

There were also comments here and there about the relevance in who Sunny voted for. Talking about it was distracting from actual problems in the community, the permapaywalling doxxing thieving scumbags. This was unnecessary drama and people just needed to go their separate ways. (y’know… ain’t it funny how politics just neeeeever seem to have a place anywhere even when it’s present everywhere (even in things that serve as forms of escapism)? Very interesting).

After much back and forth, along with several deleted posts, Sunny eventually issued a public apology which can be read here. To sum it up, she apologized for her political affiliations and those hurt by her decision to for Trump and other harmful actions she's caused and she’d do better. However, it's important to note that it was heavily implied that this conversation about her was a “distraction” from the Anti-Permapaywall movement. Based on the comment section, it’s also important to add that Sunny had edited her apology at one point because of this. And this happened in April. Three (soon to be four) months ago.

Okay, so Sunny owned up to the fact she a not shit person and wants to do better, right? We love somebody actively calling for accountability holding herself accountable! Well… uhm... no. It didn’t end there. In fact, the topic of Sunny being a racist (among other things) returned. Along with that, the same “What does that have to do with anything?”, “Unnecessary drama” arguments returned as well.

Since this post is already rather long, and I don’t wanna make the mistake of repeating myself, I’m gonna pick up the pace here and link a few posts by people who’ve documented their interactions and experiences with Sunny (from there I highly recommend going through their Mack3030 tag to get the full picture). That being said, I’m going to summarize to the of my ability the rest of this interesting lil saga.

On Tumblr, Sunny proceeded to get called out for not holding herself accountable for her actions (and lack thereof) and people voiced their concerns that Sunny was trying to make the Anti-Paywall movement all about herself due to being the target of harassment, bullying and doxxing. Even when someone else was targeted by a paywaller n friends, it appeared as though she'd make those situations about her too. In addition to making things all about her, there were allegations that alotta her attention was focused on non-white paywallers. (Very sus if y'ask me.)

A few also expressed annoyance at how paywalls seemed to be the ONLY thing Sunny talked about nowadays. Sunny admitted this and said it was a result of her ADHD.

In addition to this, she was associated with an individual by the name of texasthegreatdestroyer (TGD), who was allegedly bullying and harassing gyaru, a disabled transindividual of color and Yoonie, who's biracial (as seen in their links and posts). There were even allegations made that Sunny and TGD were the same people (which they both vehemently deny).

Yoonie and Sunny had a private conversation with one another and at some point, Yoonie requested that Sunny denounce TGD’s actions and holding them accountable for their actions. Given that Sunny is all about accountability, this should’ve been something done immediately, especially given the fact gyaru is a trans minority and Sunny is all about supporting the LGBTQIA+ community.

Sunny didn’t do this right away, opting instead to continue posting and reblogging Anti-Permapaywall content rather than addressing a problem within the Anti-Paywall community. About a week or so later, Sunny made a post showing that she blocked TGD and didn’t condone their behavior, but also added that if anybody else had problems with TGD to go to them and not her.

However, somehow someway, TGD was able to find out about said conversations about them and still continued their abusive behavior towards gyaru and Yoonie. They even found out about the recent conversation between gyaru and Sunny and made remarks about that. This meant one of two things: Sunny was still in contact with TGD and pretended to block them or TGD is Sunny’s alt account. (Now, I would've said that it was possible TGD found out about this stuff well after the fact, however, based on what I read, TGD was already aware and talking about information from these convos loooong before they were ever posted for everyone to see)

It's also interesting to note that TGD was able to reblog (and respond) to Sunny’s final post and I was curious to see if it was possible for a blocked account to do that. So I blocked my alt-account and with my alt-account, I looked up this account. I did this give or take a few times because sometimes technology won’t let me be great (and I’m rarely active on Tumblr so I’m not familiar with the new features). Couldn’t find the unwashed bootyhole tweet I posted. In fact, I couldn’t find my account at all. Just a lil somethin’ to think about.

The situation on Tumblr moved over to Twitter and whenever Sunny was met with criticism and questions over there, she’d either ignore it and/or block the people questioning her (most of 'em from what I've seen being Black n Brown Simmers).

Not only did Sunny express her frustration at being allegedly bullied and attacked for her past behaviors that she already addressed and was striving to do (and be) better, Sunny vague tweeted about Yoonie (who iirc doesn't have a Twitter) being a manipulative clout chaser, which led to Yoonie releasing the conversation between them basically asking, “Bitch where?”

People went to those associated with Sunny and requested that they address the situation as well because silence is compliance, babe, and we can’t have that regardless of having a common goal.

During this time, quite a few things happened on both Twitter and Tumblr. Unfortunately, I can’t remember all of the orders in which it happened, but I'll do my best to sum up everything I saw. An unknown pervert made a Tumblr account called MacksDirtySecret (or something like that). The account contained Sunny’s simself having sex with the Sims townie, Bob Pancakes. They also went outta they way to add Sunny's Mack3030 tag in these posts; although the account’s existence was extremely brief and it’s looong gone now (I hope so, because I don’t see it on my block list anymore) the damage was done.

Lemme digress for a minute because I saw this and practically howled with laughter because I was perplexed. In one of Sunny’s recent posts about the sexual harassment, someone added these screenshots (it looks like it came from either LiveJournal or DreamWidth but I really don’t know) and when I saw the last comment, all I could say was, “What?” Did this guy compare some creep sexually harassing Sunny via her simself to Simbelene making fanfic of Marvel Characters and posting it to OnlyFans?!

One’s completely harmless and the other’s fkn disturbing. Yeah it’s in quotes and heavily implied to be sarcastic, but c’mon dude. Don’t bring somebody into a conversation that got nothing to do with Sunny. I don’t know Simbelene’s relationship with Sunny; all I’ve seen them do is reblog each other. I wouldn't constitute that as a friendship. (but go off I guess...)

Sunny continued to make anti-paywall content and ignore criticisms against her, choosing to reblog those who supported her (and sorta kinda maybe definitely shaded people for not speaking up like she supposedly was) instead.

On August 21st, Sunny made what appeared to be her final post (with some questionable screenshots) on both Twitter and Tumblr about what she was working behind the scenes while being harassed and bullied. Then she dipped.

Didja see it? Yall saw it right? The similarities in both stories? Quite fascinating don’t you think?

Here’re some things that fascinated me the most:

Mallory and Sunny allowed allegations against them to fester by constantly avoiding the issues and/or ignoring it until they couldn’t anymore.

When when it blew up in their faces they found themselves being questioned and criticized at every angle and couldn’t handle the pressure anymore which led to them removing themselves from certain platforms altogether. While I absolutely believe (especially in Sunny’s case) harassment and bullying contributed in both women leaving their respective platform(s), I also believe that they couldn’t handle being called out for their actions.

In wanting to basically do the right thing, they hurt people in the process, majority of these people being-- you guessed it-- BIPOC. (I also feel that more often than not both Mallory and Sunny used their autism as a shield to avoid accountability.)

In Mallory’s case, she didn’t respect the boundaries of the WoC she interacted with because she wanted to resolve issues on her time and legit harassed them. Sunny, on the other hand, contributed in silencing of BIPOC people by blocking them and constantly saying things like, “Can we stop focusing on me and my faults and focus on more important issues, like scummy permapaywallers in the Sims community?”

And contrary to what Sunny (and even Mallory) may believe, if you as white person contribute in silencing, tone-policing, and violating the boundaries of BIPOC, that’s racist.

[CUE THE RANT]

Do I think Sunny did the damn thing when it came to the permapaywall situation? Yes. She just happened to get more attention because of it, which isn’t a big deal to me because, as far as I know, everyone just wants to spread awareness and put an end to this particular mess that’s been plaguing the Sims community for years. I just don’t appreciate people acting like Sunny was the ONLY one talking about this ish and doing all the work when "nobody else would". (Just take a look at the links she's provided in her own directory and you'll see that she weren't made by her)

Do I also think Sunny’s a racist who failed miserably at convincing alotta people she’s been doing her best to change her ways? Short Answer: Yes. Mid Answer: Yes! Long Answer: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssss!!!

And it’s absolutely a relevant topic to discuss because, much like permapaywallers, it's about character. Just like I wanna know who a modder is before deciding whether or not to give my money and/or support to ‘em, I wanna know who people in the Sims community are before I make the conscious decision to associate myself with them.

If they’re an insensitive greedy SoB, I wanna know.

If they’re toxic AF, I wanna know.

If they’re a cultural-appropriating bigot, I wanna know.

If they’re a racist, homophobic, transphobic ableist bastard. I. WANNA. KNOW.

And that ish does NOT solely apply to modders.

Sunny spent a lot of her time demanding the Sims community hold shitty people accountable for their actions and made it her mission for that ish to happened to the point of she became extremely aggressive and rather unpleasant. But when it came time for her to do the same thing, crickets. Crickets! Add a few cicadas and grasshoppers in there too if you want. It’s totally fine if she constantly reminds everyone about Anto being apart of the doxxing squad (even though he apologized for it), but don’t bring up the fact she voted for Trump twice. Don’t remind everyone that she tried to defend and minimize that shit on more than one occasion which resulted in her losing friendships. Don’t talk about how she laughed at racist jokes and remarks. Don’t talk about how she's associated with other problematic and racist people and rarely if ever addresses that ish. Don't talk about the allegations of her taking a page outta scummy paywallers' handbook (ie sharing private conversations w/o consent, allegedly making alt-accounts, etc.) Don’t talk about any of that, because issa "distraction" from "real issues", she’s "changed" for the better and apologized for all of it THREE. MONTHS. AGO. So just drop it, okay?

(and please look at the timestamps that show the time between when she tried to once again defend (and minimize) her political affiliations on a deleted reblogged post she made and the time she posted her apology. I wanna clarify that the timestamp is when somebody responded to Sunny's post, not when Sunny made the post cuz again, she deleted it).

Is it possible that some screenshots may’ve been doctored up by trolls to discredit her? Oh yeah, most definitely. I won’t deny that. But is it more probable than not that Sunny's a racist and (to be a lil blunt here) a fuck up? Yes. That doesn't mean she's beyond redemption. That doesn't mean she's incapable of changing. It just means she can't go around saying she's changed because saying it ain’t enough. This isn't some minute situation in which somebody says your least favorite food is their fave and you agree to disagree on that ish. This is about Sunny participating in putting the lives of BIPOC (especially those whom're disabled, apart of the LGBTQIA+ community, etc. cuz Intersectionality exists, sis) at risk-- (and it must be stressed) not once but twice and continues to cause harm through various actions and inactions-- and wanting to get over (as well as minimize) it because she already "apologized" and "addressed" the situation. But I (a Black Woman) am supposed to take into account that Sunny's mad, and frustrated, and tired that people keep talking about how she's a racist and continues to be problematic???? Newsflash, your road to redemption doesn't end when you want it to. It doesn't end with some apology that can be easily edited and move on from. It begins with you putting in the work to change and accepting the fact you're not owed forgiveness from those you hurt nor are you owed a second chance.

Just like she put in the work to bring attention to the paywall issues, she's gotta put in the work and show that she's taking the proper steps to change and not only does she gotta do that, she gotta put her hurt feelings aside in order to do it; it doesn’t matter how exhausting and frustrating it is to constantly have your character called into question -- especially when it's been shown multiple times that you not only come from a place where you have multiple layers of privilege, you confessed to using that privilege to further the oppression of people who're already oppressed. And need I remind everybody she apologized for this ish three months ago (soon to be four) but was still doing and getting called out for problematic ish she did after making that apology up until she left??? This isn't a walk in the park. It's NOT an easy task. She really gotta own that shit and do better, but she hasn't; that's why she's received alotta backlash and she ain't like it, that's one of the main reasons why she left.

If, for whatever reason, some of yall still don't see how and why Sunny's voting record and other actions're relevant to this "pixel drama", then so be it. Do you, boo.

In conclusion to this very long ass post (haha I feel like I’m writing a term paper again), in both the Anti-MLM and Anti-Paywall communities, I believe Sunny and Mallory’re like broken clocks: right twice a day. They did good work, but they’ve harmed people and were wrong and ended up discrediting themselves to the point they felt the need to leave when met with alotta backlash. Mallory’s still doing her thing on YouTube, and Sunny’s probably moved on to something else or is actually taking a break. Will she come back? Dunno. Don’t care. But her leaving isn't this giant blow and mega loss to the Anti-Paywall movement some people out here're tryna make it out to be and again, I don’t like (nor do I appreciate) seeing that kind of narrative being pushed out like that. It’s very inconsiderate to the people who contributed just as much (hell maybe even more) to this whole anti-permapaywall thing as Sunny has and erases them and their hard work.

Thanks for takin' time to read this in its entirety. Or if y'skimmed it, that's fine too. Still appreciate it. I'mma head out now.

See ya next time.

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celaenacc · 2 years

Text

My Stance on Perma-paywalls, Early Access, and EA’s “nEw PoLiCy”

I really debated even posting about this or not, but I’m seeing so much hate and vitriol in this community targeted against creators that have played by the rules for years and have treated their followers/the community with respect, that I feel I need to say “Please stop the hate”. This post feels super long, but I hope that it helps clarify the situation and my stances thoroughly and effectively.

TL;DR: There’s no new policy and early access is not retired. Your “evidence” isn’t actually evidence of what you’re claiming. Stop treating early access creators like greedy criminals for no other reason than they’re still practicing early access.

Now that I’ve clarified that I am not addressing a “new policy” or an “updated policy”, let’s move to the hate some of you are harboring for early access creators in the community. Did you feel the same way about early access in relation to the EULA and community one week ago as you do now? If the answer is yes, then this conversation doesn’t apply to you. Since we’ve established the EULA/ToS for The Sims 4 has not been changed/updated, it should be obvious where I am taking this conversation. If you felt one week ago that simgurudrake’s allowance for early access was valid, then you still should today, as nothing has changed with the EULA. If you feel that an official sim guru (at the time) could not make that allowance, then that also has not changed. I’m not here to argue on whether or not early access is allowed, because the existing EULA would have it be a “no” and the simgurudrake comment (as well as an “EA App Team” member agreeing to its validity) would have it be a “yes”. I’m instead here to argue that whatever your early access stance was a week ago, that’s what it should be now. The only real change is that EA now has an actionable method of reporting EULA-violating creators and they might follow through on reports - that’s the only change and it’s not a policy change, it’s an enforcement change, which is different.

Edit: 350pm EDT : EA Help has updated the article to reflect early access still being allowed. So to all of the people who thought I was illiterate or stupid or whatever, turns out my stance was right. Please let this post die down now.

First off, to everyone claiming that EA “updated their policy on custom content”: They haven’t. This EA Help article that has everyone either celebrating, trying to figure out how to adjust, or outright going on a tantrum (specifically referring to a post I saw earlier saying stuff like “F*ck all of you” and “I’ll still love you when you all hate me” or whatever)- yeah, it’s not an update to their policies. It is a paraphrasing of the Sims 4 EULA; they used laymen’s terms to help those that can’t understand the terminology of the EULA to understand their already existing policies towards monetization of custom content/mods/”user generated content”. Some of us (including myself) asked them to do this via a petition we signed, which stated “To EA/Maxis, you have the time to release a paragraph-long statement explaining how the EULA relates to permanently paywalling UGC and the resulting doxing and harassment that follows players redistributing UGC that these creators have no legal rights to be committing crimes over. Use specific wording that cannot be manipulated, protect your players, and get yourself some easy positive publicity.“ EA did exactly this via the EA Help article. An End User License Agreement is not updated via a help forum article meant to help you “Learn about The Sims policy towards Mods” (their words); it simply serves as a rephrasing of the EULA to help users understand that permaaywalling cc has always been against the Sims 4 EULA. Please stop calling this a new policy, or an update to the TOS- it has not changed and saying it has makes the permapaywallers of the community feel like they previously had the right to practice permapaywalling, which has never been the case.

As far as my stance on early access, I like to go off not only the aforementioned allowance, but also the fact that the EA Game Changers/Creator Network program has had and still has early access creators in it as of today (August 2nd 2022). If we’re going off what EA does or doesn’t allow as the “right” thing for our community, you need to accept the fact that EA says early access is provisionally valid. If EA comes out and tells their creator network to stop early access, then that will be an actual change and I will agree with you at that point that creators should stop early access. Until then, stop shitting all over respectful creators simply because they continue early access if a week ago you agreed with early access.

“But Celaena, we asked EA Help via chat for confirmation and they said early access isn’t allowed!” ~ Asking EA Help via chat is like asking the McDonald's cashier what McD's corporate policy is on trademark infringement of the golden arches. I’ve heard they spoke with EA Help chat supervisors: asking for a chat supervisor to rule on early access is like asking your local McD's shift manager about the corporate policies on trademark infringement. They don't have the qualification to state that it is or isn't allowed, and quite honestly, they probably would have said the same thing a month ago as they are now because they aren’t decision-makers at EA. Without giving specific details as to my personal purchases, I’m going to use the fact that Amazon chat once refused to refund me for a purchase they never even shipped and I emailed corporate with screenshots of what a chat rep stated was policy; CEO Jassy ‘s assistant made sure I got my refund and told me chat was wrong. EA Help chat reps =/= EA decision-makers. EA Help chat reps =/= confirmation that cancels out a sim guru’s statements or EA’s creator network existing practices. Once more for those who may not yet understand: Chat representatives or even chat supervisors are not qualified to confirm something as against policy when EA literally has a program that provides early access incentives to creators who practice cc early access; if EA does not want or allow early access on cc, EA will make their creator network not use early access on cc.

“But Celaena, the EA Help article says cc has to be free for all users.” ~ Absolutely correct, but it doesn’t specify when, nor does the legally enforceable EULA, just as always. Perma-paywalling = direct violation. If you’ve never heard of “Contra proferentem”, it’s essentially the legal premise of "interpretation against the draftsman" when there is ambiguity in a contract (such as an EULA). Meaning, legally speaking (and I’m not a lawyer or law expert, so for legal purposes, this is in no way advice and you should look into the relevant legality yourself before you make decisions), early access creators could very well not face any legal repercussions if EA was to pursue them, which again is unlikely because the creator network supports early access creators. Early access does not require money as the only way to use a mod/cc because you can wait 2-3 weeks at which point it becomes free for all users, as required by the EULA and the EA Help article paraphrasing said EULA.

“But Celaena, you’ve always seemed against greed and paywalling in the community.” ~ Also correct. I’m against permapaywalling as it is against the EULA, the community's best interests, and is overall fuel for classist assholes to belittle those that can’t or choose not to pay for pixel clothing from every creator that makes at least a quarter-decent piece of cc or mod. I’m against early access that is purposefully longer than 3 weeks as a habit (frequency of like once or twice over the span of years is understandable when it was completely accidental/unplanned because maybe they genuinely forgot to schedule public release once or something serious came up). I do not see early access as “paywalling” because you have the choice of waiting instead of paying, therefore you could just as soon call it “waitwalling” instead of “paywalling”. If you can’t wait 2-3 weeks, then you might be the greedy one in the situation- and the reason I say might is for exceptions like pride cc being locked till the end of June or early July, or a game saving fix that’ll be patched/not needed anyway by the time it becomes a public mod. As a friend of mine likes to say, “it’s not black and white”. But as for the greys I choose? They’re closer to the side of early access than not.

“Celaena, there are early access creators acting absolutely horrible and throwing tantrums over this; they don’t deserve to make money off the community.” ~ Completely 100% agree with you there. That type of behavior should be seen as unacceptable here and they do not deserve money if that’s how they act. I want to specify here that this is not referring to great, respectful creators who have been explaining unfair treatment against them and asking for it to stop while remaining mature over it. This is referring to posts (and I’m not going to link it because if you haven’t seen it, you don’t need to) that are just like “Fuck you, fuck EA, you’re all going to hate me but I’ll still love you anyway, screw you,” etc. If you’re that creator, listen, I understand the hate that was coming down on you over continuing early access, but that response was a) clearly going to get you more bad rep and hate sent your way (to other readers, don’t send them hate, just move on from the situation please), and b) not at all the way to show you love your followers despite using those words somewhere in there. I’ve never heard of you before the last 12 hours, but I really hope you can find a better situation for you than this community you seem to hold rage towards; seriously, I do wish you well, it is not sarcasm. That being said, I want to see creators that react this way leave our community, but not by being harassed out, please just ignore these creators till they feel staying isn’t worth it rather than tagging or messaging them with a bunch of hate and attention. If any early access creator needs a tone reader before posting, just ask me or anyone else in the community, I’m sure there’s a lot of us who won’t mind helping you say the right thing the way you mean it. If you don’t care about what you say to the community and have the mindset of “can’t make money off you, don’t care what you think”, please get the fuck out and have a nice day. To the creators who do care about the community and are just struggling with what to do in this situation, please stay and wonderful day, you deserve the opportunity for people to choose to support you financially since you see them as people rather than dollar signs.

“Celaena, you’re just going off because you want early access money.” ~ If I get this as a response, I will genuinely laugh IRL because I’ve not only been on an accidental hiatus for like almost a year, but I also stopped even trying to practice early access back in like 2020 because it just wasn’t suiting my habits/self-discipline. When and if I create for the game again, it’ll be immediately free upon release, so I have no personal benefit from some of you chilling the fuck out about early access right now.

Put the pitchforks down and take a deep breath everybody. Do you want this community to move forward on a foundation of hate and vitriol? Or do you want it to be a place of understanding and actually coming together as a community to solve problems?

Letters to Creators

To the creators who a) are remaining respectful and community-oriented this week and b) are also continuing early access until EA publicly tells you using the words “early access”, I want you to know that I still appreciate you being here and I hope this situation gets easier for you going forward. If you don’t have the energy to write this much about why you’re not sure about the early access provision, feel free to link this post as an explanation.

To the creators who are a) are remaining respectful and community-oriented this week and b) are discontinuing early access to be safe, I want you to know that I also appreciate you for being here and that I hope followers continue to pledge to you without early access. If you decide to go back to early access after reading this post, feel free to link it as the reason why rather than having to summarize this ridiculously long post.

To the creators who are a) are remaining respectful and community-oriented this week and b) have already removed your paywalls, thank you for taking the policy clarification in stride and adapting with grace. You are also appreciated for being here.

To the creators who are not remaining respectful and community-oriented, please change that or leave. This isn’t the space for you. If you don’t like that, block me because I will not be arguing with you.

#EA policy clarification not update #please put down the pitchforks #ts4 permapaywall discussion #ts4 paywall discussion #ts4 early access discussion

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